History of Anatomy

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History of Anatomy Physiology
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What a piece of work is a man, how noble in
reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and
moving, how express and admirable in action, how
like an angel in apprehension, how like a god!
the beauty of the world the paragon of
animals (Hamlet 2.2.315-319)William
Shakespeare
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• AP history
• parallels that of medicine

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Grecian period

• AP widely accepted as a science.
• Esteemed physical athletic competition
• Expressed the beauty of the
  body in their art.

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Hippocrates (460-337 BC)

• Father of Medicine
• Established principles
• of medical practice
• 1st to attribute diseases to natural
  causes rather than the displeasure of the gods
• Used application and reason (theory and
  observation)

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• Recognized 4 body humors
• (idea persisted for 200 years)
• Sanguine liver
• Choler-(yellow)/bile/gallbladder
• Phlegm lungs
• Melancholic (black bile) spleen
• A healthy person had a balance of the four humors
  due to a healthy diet and an optimal environment

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• Believed disease was due to an imbalance of the
  humors
• Used humoral theory as a diagnostic tool (in
  conjunction with clinical observation of
  symptoms)
• The art (method) of medical practice is
  attributed to him
• Did no dissections

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• Hippocratic oath
• given to graduating medical students
• legacy he established through thoughtful,
  rational, ethical, moral and compassionate
  patient care.

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Aristotle (384-332 BC)

• Pupil of Plato
• made careful observations and classifications of
  many living things
• (including humans)
• Laid the foundation for the
  field of comparative anatomy in
  an effort to learn more about human
  systems

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• Wrote first known account of embryology (and
  pangenesis) that described development of chicken
  heart.
• Helped refute idea of preformation
• (sperm and egg contained miniature adults that
  grow during development)

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• Erroneously believed that heart was seat of
  intelligence
• function of the brain bathed in fluid, was to
  cool blood pumped from the heart (contrary to
  Plato who thought brain was seat of feeling and
  thought).

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• First true anatomist
• First to distinguish tendons from nerves
• First to trace arterial blood pathways

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Erasistratus (300 B.C.) father of
physiology(Alexandrian School in Egypt)

• Authored book on causes of diseases
• included observations of
  and relationships
  between the heart
  vessels, brain, and
  cranial nerves

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• noted the toxic effects of snake venom on various
  organs
• described changes in the liver resulting from
  various diseases
• Although many of his writings were scientific,
  some not Ex he believed cranial nerves carried
  animal spirits and muscles contracted because of
  distention by spirits.

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• Both Erasistatus and Herophilus were greatly
  criticized for vivisection. Herophilus (known
  as a butcher of men)
  dissected as many
  as 600 living
  persons, many for
  public
  demonstrations.

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• Herophilus first to document studies in
  neuroscience (cerebrum,
  cerebellum, sensory
  vs. motor nerves,
  cerebral
  ventricles,
  brain as a thinking
  organ)

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• Erasistratus
• credited with the pneumatic theory describing
  heart as a pump.
• Organs were served by arteries, veins and nerves

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Roman Era

• Stifled scientific advancements
• set the stage for the Dark Ages (Middle Ages)
• Interest shifted from theoretical to practical
• Few dissections were done other than autopsies

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• Medicine was not preventative by treatment
  mostly soldiers wounded in battle.

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• Church played a big part in practice of medicine.
  Ex If a pregnant woman died, she could not be
  buried until the fetus was removed and baptized.

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• Claudius Galen (130-201 A.D.)
• Best physician since Hippocrates
• Did only 2 or 3 human dissections due to legal
  limitations
• limited in knowledge by
  animal dissections

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• Very much an experimentalist
• Ex
• proved a pig heart continued to beat even though
  the nerve innervating it was cut
• pig could no longer squeal if the vocal cord
  nerve was cut

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• Published over 130 medical articles which served
  as gospel medicine for 1500 years.
• Correctly identified that arteries carried blood
  (not air as previously believed)

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• Helped to make connections between anatomical
  design and physiological function (structure
  implies function) ex. Diaphragm and its
  relationship to breathing.
• Encouraged ongoing treatment and follow up of
  patients in order to discern efficacy of
  treatment
• Erroneously thought liver, heart and brain
  injected animal spirits into veins to be
  transported throughout body

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• Middle Ages
• 476 A.D. the fall of the Roman Empire
• Lasted 1000 years
• Dissections were completely outlawed, punishable
  by burning at the stake
• Mysterious deaths were examined by inspection and
  palpation
• A few autopsies were done during the plague in
  order to determine the cause of this dreadful
  disease

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• Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna) wrote over 400
  Arabic books in medicine, philosophy, and math.
• Texts were leading authority until 6th century
• Establishment of universities and specialized
  colleges within aided in field of anatomy
• See http//www.mf.uni-lj.si/acta-apa/acta-apa-00-
  2/moroni-history.html
• for info on Alessandro Achillini and
• the University of Bologna

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Renaissance 14-16 century

• Characterized by a rebirth of science
• Helped by development of moveable type and
  publication of many more books
• Obtaining cadavers became a problem with the
  explosion of scientific inquiry
• Medical students regularly practiced grave
  robbing until an official decree permitted the
  bodies of executed criminals to be used as
  specimens

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• Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) father of modern
  anatomy
• Wrote the definitive anatomy book De Humani
  Corporis Fabrica which wasbeautifully
  illustrated and accurately described the
  various body systems and
  organs

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• book boldly challenged many of Galens
• was bitterly confronted by so many Galen
  anatomists (his former teacher Sylvious included)
  that he destroyed much of his later unpublished
  work and ceased his dissections

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• 17th 18th Century
• William Harvey (1578-1657) father of modern
  physiology
• Wrote On the Movement of the
  Heart and Blood in Animals which proved the
  continuous circulation of
  blood within
  vessels
• Had many of the same
  problems as Vesalius
  for many of the same
  reasons

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• Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
• A lens grinder who not only developed the
  microscope but also techniques for tissue
  examination, describing blood cells,
• spermatozoa, and the
• striped appearance of skeletal muscle.
• The microscope helped
• develop the etiology
• of diseases and aided in
• the discovery of the cure
  for some of them.

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• 19th-20th Century
• Formation of the cell theory and its implications
  for a clearer understanding of the structure and
  functioning of the body

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• Johannes Muller (1801-1858)
• Noted for applying the sciences of physics,
  chemistry, and psychology to the study of the
  human body and thus moved
  AP into a comparative science

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• With the development of new technology, research
  became more specialized, detailed, and complex,
• this forced the development of new disciplines
  and specialties
• Ex histology, cytology, embryology, neurology,
  gastroenterology, cardiovascular, kinesiology,
  reproductive physiology, endocrinology

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• Henry Gray b. 1827
• English anatomist and physiologist
• Admitted as a Fellow
  to the Royal Society at
  33 years of age (very young!)
• Published the definitive Grays Anatomy in 1858

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and the rest, as they say, is history