_The Founding of Organizations for the Advancement of Medical Science._--During the seventeenth century there were formed a number of associations which had for their object the promotion of scientific knowledge, and these organizations contributed greatly to stimulate original researches in anatomy and physiology and to secure accuracy in the published results. Perhaps the most important institution of this kind was the French _Académie des sciences_, which was founded in 1666, and which deserves the credit of having taken a very important part in the perfecting of our knowledge of anatomy and physiology. The Royal Society of London, founded in 1645, possesses a splendid record of valuable work accomplished. The following organizations also deserve to be honorably mentioned in this place: the _Accademia dei Lincei_ at Rome, founded in 1603; the _Académie des Curieux de la Nature_, 1652; and the _Accademia del Cimento_, founded at Florence in 1657. New universities were also founded in Germany. During the second half of the seventeenth century there were three French physicians who deserve credit for the excellence of the work which they did in the departments of anatomy and physiology, viz., Vieussens, du Verney and Dionis. Raymond Vieussens (1641–1716), a native of Rovergue, was Professor of Anatomy at the University of Montpellier, in Southern France. Some idea of the extraordinary industry displayed by this anatomist may be gained from the fact that he is credited with having dissected more than five hundred bodies. His more important published works relate to the heart, the nervous system and the structures of the organ of hearing. Pagel speaks of him as being entitled to the name of founder of the pathology of diseases of the heart. Jean Guichard du Verney (1648–1730), who held the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Paris, gained a large part of his fame as an anatomist from the excellence of his investigations into the complicated structures of the internal ear. Pierre Dionis, who died in 1718, was Demonstrator of Anatomy and Surgery at the Jardin du Roi in Paris during the latter part of the seventeenth century and early part of the eighteenth. In 1690 he published a treatise on anatomy which remained the standard book on this subject for a number of years. In course of time it was translated into the Latin, English, German and Chinese languages.