Vesalius the Anatomist  I cannot begin a sketch of the life of
this great man better than by trying to describe a scene so
picturesque, so tragic in the eyes of those who are wont to
mourn over human follies, so comic in the eyes of those who
prefer to laugh over them, that the reader will not be likely to
forget either it or the actors in it.  It is a darkened chamber
in the College of Alcala, in the year 1562, where lies, probably
in a huge four-post bed, shrouded in stifling hangings, the
heir-apparent of the greatest empire in the then world, Don
Carlos, only son of Philip II., and heir-apparent of Spain, the
Netherlands, and all the Indies. A short sickly boy of sixteen,
with a bull head, a crooked shoulder, a short leg, and a brutal
temper, he will not be missed by the world if he should die. His
profligate career seems to have brought its own punishment. To
the scandal of his father, who tolerated no one's vices save his
own, as well as to the scandal of the university authorities of
Alcala, he has bee