Harvey Cushing’s enthusiasm for medical history arose from his contact with William Osler while he was a resident and young attending in Baltimore. Early in 1914, Cushing remembered that Andreas Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy, was born in Belgium on the last day of 1514, and proposed an international 400 ^th anniversary celebration to be held that December in the university town of Louvain, where Vesalius had studied. In August, however, Germany invaded Belgium, which had the misfortune of being in the way of the easiest route to attack the French, and burned much of the town of Louvain, including the library and most of the university. A celebration in Louvain being out of the question, Cushing and two other speakers got together on December 8, 1914 in Boston for a substitute quatercentenary. One doubts there was a large audience. But Cushing did not forget Vesalius. Cushing’s last work, published posthumously in 1943 (in the 400 ^th year following the publication of Vesalius’ famous Fabrica ), was a bio-bibliography of Vesalius.

Submitted by Steven A. Newman, MD from the Cogan Ophthalmic History Society.