and medicine. Of his attainments in jurisprudence I know nothing; of his anatomical and physiological knowledge I will say more anon, merely premising that it was truly marvelous and in advance of the times; in theology, according to the opinion of Calvin and others, he was a heretic, since he entertained antitrinitarian notions. He had written two books, the respective titles of which are, "De Trinitatis Erroribus" (1531) and "De Christianismi Restitutio" (1533), which latter he had the frankness to send to Calvin for corrections and suggestions. Calvin denounced it promptly to Cardinal Touron as heretical, whereupon the cardinal laughed heartily at one heretic accusing another. It has been said, and it is to be feared with too much truth, that John Calvin was stirred not so much with holy zeal or fanaticism as by hate, as he had received a letter from this medico-legal theologian, now tied to the stake, awaiting the horrid tortures, and death, by slow fires about to be kindled at his feet, which letter animadverted, perhaps not very sweetly, upon the errors and absurdities of Calvin's "Institutes." This letter, be it understood, was in reply to a violent one which Calvin had written to this poor victim concerning his opinions. Time will not allow me to tell the whole story of how Calvin vindictively threatened him, and drew up thirty-eight articles of accusation against him, and how the poor, unfortunate man fled and disguised himself, and was subsequently arrested and tried by a grave council of sixty, who, after deliberating three full days on his heresy and the degree of punishment to be inflicted, fixed upon a heavy fine, and death by slow, torturing fires; and that all his manuscripts and copies of his works were to be burned with him and to furnish a part of the fuel with which to execute this fiendish sentence. Yet so it came to pass that this unfortunate scholar expiated his crime of heterodoxy in this tragical manner, and so effectually was the order for the burning of his works carried out, that only a single copy of one of his books is now believed to be in existence, and that is not a little scorched by fire.
You may wonder who this poor victim was, and why he is introduced here in a sketch of the history of the discovery of the circulation of the blood.
It was Michael Servetus, whose Spanish name was Miguel Servede, born in the year 1509, at Villanneva, in Aragon near Saragossa, in Spain. He was educated, as before hinted, in three professions, in jurisprudence and theology in the University of Toulouse, in medicine at Paris. He practised as a physician, and wrote at least one medical treatise. He also wrote, most unfortunately, two theological books, one an abstruse metaphysical work, already alluded to, "The Restitution of Christianity," which, though it ended in his ruin, contained words and ideas which have immortalized his name. Of this wonderful book a copy exists in the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris, of which M. Flourens, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, proudly says,
