RIETORT OP •NATOMT, The want of records leaves us in the dark, with regard to the origin of this art; yet it is reasonable'to conclude, that, like most other arts, it had no precise begin ning. The nature of the thing would not admit of its lying for a time altogether concealed, and of being suddenly brought to light, either by chance, or genius, or industry.
All the studies and arts which are ne cessary in human life are so interesting and obvious, that man in every situation has always be instinct and common sense turned his thoughts to them and made some progress in the cultivation of them. To talk seriously of the invention of agri culture, architecture, astronomy, naviga tion, mechanics, physic, surgery, or ana tomy, by some particular man, or in one particular country, or at a time subsequent to some prior zra, would be to discover great ignorance of human nature. We might just as well suppose, that, till a cer tain period of time, man was without in stinctive appetites, and without observa tion and reflection, and that in a happy hour he found out the art of supporting life by taking food. All such arts, in a less or more cultivated state, were, from the beginning, and ever will be, found in all parts of the inhabited world.
The first men who lived must soon have acquired sonic notions of the structure of their own bodies, particularly of the ex ternal parts, and of some even of the in ternal, such as bones, joints, and sinews; which are exposed to the examination of the senses in the living body.
This rude knowledge was indeed gra dually improved by the accide nts to which the body is exposed, by the necessities of life, and by the various customs, ceremo nies, and superstitions ofdifferent nations. Thus, the observance of bodies killed by violence, attention to wounded men, and to many diseases, the various ways of put ting criminals to death, the funeral cere monies, and a variety of such things, must have shewn men. every day_ more and more of themselves; especially as curiosi ty and self-love would urge them power fully to observation and reflection.
The brute creation having such an af finity to man, in out‘vard fortn, motions, senses, and ways of life, the generation of the species, and the efFect of death upon the hody, being observed to be so nearly the same in both, the conclusion was not only obvious, but unavoidable that their bodies were formed nearly upon the same model. The opportunities of examining the boclic's of brutes were so easily procu red., indeed so necessarily oceured in the common business of life, that the hunts man in making uge-of his prey, thc priest in sacrificing, the augur in divination, and, above all, the butcher, or those who might out of curiosity attend his opera tions, would have been daily .adding to the little stock of anatomical knowledge. Accordingly we find, in fact, that the South-sea islanders, who have been left to their own observation andreasoning, with out the assistance of letters, have yet a considerable share of rude or wild anato mical and physiological knowledge. When °mai liras in Dr. Hunter's MUSCI1T11, al though he could not explain himself intel ligibly, it appeared plainly that he knew the principal parts of the body, and something likewise of their uses, and 11111 nifested a great cutiosity, or desire, of having the functions of the internal parts of the body explained to him ; particular ly the relative functions of the two sexes, which, with him, seemed to be the most interesting object of the human mind. The poems of Homer likewise shew us that many facts were popularly known in his time; he probablypossesscd the gene ral information on the subject. The fol lowing passages display- a knowledge of some of the internal parts of the body : " Antilochus, asThoon turn'd m round, Transpierc'd his back with a dishonest wound.
The hollow vein- that to the neck ex tends, Along the chine, his eager javli n rends." Iliad, b. 13.