Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1933-09-28
Dr. White ouotes with great con.

DR.. White quotes with great con-
fidence the PapaI decree of Boniface
VIII in the year 1900, which for
bade the mutilation of the human
body, and consequently hampered,
as he says, all progress in anatomy
for many centuries. This is lie.
The Bull of Boniface VIII did not
even distantly refer to dissection,
but to burials. The reason for the
hull is well known. During the Cru
sades, numbers of the nobility died
in foreign lands. Their relatives
desired to return their bodies to
their native lands for burial, and
to do this, disemboweled and dis
into pieces, and boiling il so as to
remove the flesh before sending the
bones home to be buried. This very
thing happened to the remains of
Louis TX of France and to Fred
erick Barbarossa. To stop this
abominable savagery, and the fur
ther mangling of the human body,
Boniface issued his decree. This
had absolutely nothing to do with
disseeting bodies for the study of
anatomy in medicine. This bull was
misquoted by the enemies of re-
1igion, just as they distort and twist
everything in their vain effort to as
sail religion. The first dissection
xxyn I, in, Cfn
tistics was performed in the year
1902, two years after the publica-
tion of the bull. Toward the sec
ond decade of the century, Mondino
performed some dissections and
wrote a text book. We have rec
ords of students being hailed into
court for +, body-snatching for ana
tomical purposes. A statue of the
University of Bologna required the
teacher of anatomy to dissect a
body. Ten years before this, public
dissections were made in Vienna.
al this shows that the date of
Bonifaces Bull, far from being the
eclipse of anatomy, actually fixes
the study and development of prac-
tical anatomy, and this contrary to
the commonly accepted belief that
Vesalius was the father of anatomy
Medical students all over Europe
went down to Italy to complete their
post graduate work. A decade be-
fore Vesalius' birth, Linacre the
founder of the Royal College of
Physicians went to Italy. If there
was any place in the world where
the church had much to say about
what should be taught, studied and
practiced in the universities, it GER
tainly was in Italy Still, the men
whose names stand at the head of
medicine, studied in Italy, and this
in the beginning of the 18th cen
tury. Though the date of the gol-
cen age of anatomy follows that of
the so-called reformation period,
there is absolutely no connection
between the two events, as the one
happened in Germany, and the other
in Italy. The golden age of anatomy
which followed the rebellion against
the church in the 18th century, was
nothing more than what was to be
expected in the ordinary course of
events, namely the elimination of
the anatomical interest and work
in the Italian universities during
the preceding centuries This was
not sudden or unlocked for phe-
nomenon. The paradox of it all is,
that although Vesalius is held up as
the Star Of New Freeoom, pro-
duced by the Reformation, ne new
er forsook the Catholic religion. He
was Catholic He loved his faith
and died a deyout Catholic | do
not in any way mean to detract
from Fesalius his due glory. He
was genius-a great discoyerer.
But, he was not a hero. for there
was no necessity for heroism for
dissection had been practiced as
siduously before his time in all the
italian universities and III the Papal
cities, under the very eyes of the
popes.
The same falsehood and misin-
terpretation of Papal DEGREES that
led to the charge that the church
forbid the study of anatomy, is
found in the charge that the church
forbid the study of chemistry. This
had its origin in a decree of Pope
John XXI. We have what we know
today as counterfeiters. In the year
1917 A.. D., Pope John learned that
certain so-called alchemists claimed |
to be able to make gold and silver
cut of baser metals. In order to
prevent this imposition on the peo-
pie, he ordered not Bull, but a |
decree forbidding any "alchemies" |
Oh this kind. The punishment for !
This offense, not to be death, as DIR. |
White and many other authors
claim, but that the people convicted
OF counterfeiting gold and silver
and selling it to other people, should
pay into the public treasury, an
amount equal to the supposed
amount of gold and silver that he
aad made. Anyone with sane
mind, and who wants to be fair.
,an see at once that the decree has 4
1othing at all to say or do with the
study of chemistry or it's pursuit,
One of the very greatest chemists Il
II the 18th century was Albertus
Magnus. He was theologian, q
physician and chemist, also Thomas
Aquinas and Roger Bacon were
'reat chemists, and wrote many
BOOKS on the subject during the