gnificent field for
investigation that was provided there. This favorable state of affairs
as regards research in anatomy had existed for more than a century
before his time. It continued to be true for at least two centuries
after his time. As a matter of fact, Italy was to the rest of the
world of the fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the
home of post-graduate opportunities in all sciences as well as in
medicine.

These are not idle words, but are fully substantiated by the lives of
the men who stand at the head of our modern medicine. More than a
decade before Vesalius was born, Linacre, the distinguished English
physician and founder of the Royal College of Physicians, went to
Italy to complete his medical studies and incidentally also to round
out his education in the midst of the new learning which was so
thoroughly cultivated there. When Linacre was leaving Italy, with true
classic spirit {94} he set up a little altar on the top of the Alps
whence he could get his last view of the Italian plains, and greeted
the charming country that he was leaving so reluctantly with the
beautiful name of Alma Mater Studiorum. To him, after his return to
England, English-speaking medical men owe the establishment of the
institution which above all others has helped to uplift the dignity of
the medical profession and make the practice of the healing art
something more than a mere trade--the Royal College of Physicians.

One of Vesalius's most distinguished fellow students at Padua was Dr.
John Caius, who was later to become the worthy president of the Royal
College of Physicians of England and the author of certain important
medical works. Dr. Caius was the first to introduce the practice of
public dissections into England. Caius and Vesalius were roommates,
though at the time Vesalius was an instructor at the University, and
the inspiration of his originality seems to have had a great effect
upon young Caius. They were nearly of the same age, though Vesalius
was a precocious genius, and Caius's greatness only showed itself in
maturity. Caius was studying in Italy partly because the religious
disturbances in England had made it uncomfortable for him to remain in
his native country, for he was a firm adherent of the old Church and
he hoped they would pass over, but mainly because he coveted the
opportunities afforded by that country. Later in life, out of the
revenues of his position as Royal Physician to Queen M