In the rebellion against the authority of the ancients, Vesalius had a predecessor whose name, deservedly famous, may be recorded here. PARACELSUS (born in 1493 at Maria-Einsiedeln, Switzerland), on being nominated, in 1527, Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Basle, inaugurated his lectures by burning in the presence of his audience, who were stunned by such temerity, the writings of Galen and Avicenna, just as Luther, seven years before, had burnt in the public square of Wittenberg the papal bulls and decretals. The sixteenth century, in its exuberance of intellectual life, was undoubtedly one of the grandest centuries in history; human thought in that glorious epoch shattered its chains, and declared its freedom both in matters of science and of religion. Paracelsus, a man of powerful genius, but not well balanced in mind, of corrupt morals, and of an unlimited pride, had, notwithstanding these undeniable defects, the merit of beginning a healthy reform in the science and practice of medicine, by substituting the study of nature for the authority of the ancients and by giving a great importance to chemistry, both for the explanation of organic phenomena and for the cure of disease. It is to be lamented that this man of genius did not contribute in any way to the progress of dentistry. His works have no importance for us. As a matter of mere curiosity we only record here that Paracelsus considered the too precocious development of the teeth as a great anomaly, and regarded as monsters those children who were born with teeth.[286] [Illustration: Paracelcus.] [Illustration: Gian Filippo Ingrassia.] [Illustration: Gabriel Fallopius.] GIAN FILIPPO INGRASSIA (1510 to 1580), a distinguished Sicilian anatomist, was one of the first who spoke of the dental germ. He says that the existence of the tooth properly so called is preceded by that of a soft dental substance enclosed in the bone, and which he considers almost as a secretion of the latter. MATTEO REALDO COLOMBO, of Cremona, a pupil of Vesalius and his successor in the professorship of Anatomy at Padua, added but little, as regards the teeth, to what his master has taught. He combated the erroneous idea that the teeth were formed in the alveoli shortly before their eruption. Having dissected the jaws of many fetuses, and having always observed in them the existence of teeth, he could affirm with every certainty that the teeth begin to be formed in intra-uterine life. Like Vesalius, Realdo Colombo believed that the permanent teeth were developed from the roots of the milk teeth; and, therefore, he advised the utmost caution in extracting these, since, if the whole root were removed, the tooth would not grow again.[287]