Vesalius
(History of Medicine ... 6)
Andreas Vesalius was the founder of human Anatomy. He was born in Brussels in 1514; his father, grandfather and great grandfather had been physicians. His original name was Andreas van Wesel, Vesalius in a Latin translation of his name.
He started his medical studies in Louvin, then moved to Paris, where he became interested in Anatomy. Later he moved to Leuven and then to Italy, obtaining his Doctor’s Degree in Padua.
On graduation he was immediately became Professor of Surgery and Anatomy at the University of Padua; he also lectured at Bologna and Pisa. He was the first Anatomy teacher to perform dissections for his students; before him the teachers read Galen’s classical texts while a barber-surgeon dissected an animal.
In 1539 a Paduan judge became interested in Vesalius' work, and made bodies of executed criminals available for dissection. It must be noted that Galen's research had been based upon animal anatomy, since dissection was prohibited in ancient Rome.
As he began to publish his observations he was severely criticized for questioning Galen’s texts, but the criticisms did not stop him. He proved that both Galen and Aristotle were wrong when he demonstrated, for instance, that the heart had four chambers, the liver two lobes, and that the blood vessels originated from the heart and not from the liver. For us, otolaryngologists, it is important to know that he described and named the malleus and the incus.
In 1543, Vesalius published his seven-volume book called De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a classical Anatomy book, made even more extraordinary by the fantastic drawings by Jan Stephen van Calcar, a student of Titian, and his collaborators. The illustration that you see is a portrait of Vesalius that appeared in his Anatomy book.
He started his medical studies in Louvin, then moved to Paris, where he became interested in Anatomy. Later he moved to Leuven and then to Italy, obtaining his Doctor’s Degree in Padua.
On graduation he was immediately became Professor of Surgery and Anatomy at the University of Padua; he also lectured at Bologna and Pisa. He was the first Anatomy teacher to perform dissections for his students; before him the teachers read Galen’s classical texts while a barber-surgeon dissected an animal.
In 1539 a Paduan judge became interested in Vesalius' work, and made bodies of executed criminals available for dissection. It must be noted that Galen's research had been based upon animal anatomy, since dissection was prohibited in ancient Rome.
As he began to publish his observations he was severely criticized for questioning Galen’s texts, but the criticisms did not stop him. He proved that both Galen and Aristotle were wrong when he demonstrated, for instance, that the heart had four chambers, the liver two lobes, and that the blood vessels originated from the heart and not from the liver. For us, otolaryngologists, it is important to know that he described and named the malleus and the incus.
In 1543, Vesalius published his seven-volume book called De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a classical Anatomy book, made even more extraordinary by the fantastic drawings by Jan Stephen van Calcar, a student of Titian, and his collaborators. The illustration that you see is a portrait of Vesalius that appeared in his Anatomy book.
Portrait of Vesalius, from De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Wikimedia commons)
He was intensely attacked by the physicians of his time, for daring to contradict Galen. One of his enemies even published an article that claimed that the human body had changed since Galen’s time. He was also attacked for continuing to practice dissections, for which he was accused of behaving like a barber.
A revised edition of De Humani Corporis Fabrica was published in 1555.
In 1564 Vesalius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When he reached Jerusalem, he received a message from Venice inviting him to again accept the professorship at Padua, vacant because of the death of his friend and pupil Gabriel Fallopius. But when he attempted to return his ship was wrecked in the island of Zakynthos, where he died in the same year, when he was 49 years old.
Comments
Post a Comment