Twelve years later he brought out a second edition of his great book. He has again examined the pits on the septum. This time he says 'Although sometimes these pits are conspicuous, yet none, so far as the senses can perceive, passes from right to left ventricle . . . But the septum of the heart is as thick, dense, and compact as the rest of the heart. This attitude to Galen makes it evident that we are on the eve of a scientific revolution.
Men are no longer satisfied with the traditions of the ancients.
In this Vesalius was not alone. He was but the first of a whole line of Paduan anatomists that leads on continuously to the great biological awakening of the seventeenth century.