As early as 3000 B.C. – Ancient Egyptians
• medical/anatomy papyrus scrolls
• medical knowledge important in Egyptian society
• familiar with internal human anatomy due to mummifications
(remove internal organs)
@490 B.C. – Alcmaeon (Italy) and & Empedocles (Sicily) -description of dissected animals
@430 B.C. – Hippocrates II (Father of Medicine) –
• studied human skeletons
• observed living humans (both healthy and hurt/ill) without
dissection
• wrong about many things, but moved discipline from study
of animals alone, also added physiology
• cadaver dissection forbidden in Greek religion
@ 350 B.C. -- Aristole
• comparative anatomy (different species)
• animal embryology
• some advances, but inaccuracies persisted for centuries
because of his status
3rd Century B.C. – Alexandria Medical School
• 1st documented human dissection
• nomenclature development
• some physiology progress
@150 A.D. – Galen (Asia Minor)
• 130 medical papers, most conclusions based on animal
dissection
• Became authoritative source of often incorrect information
for @1500 years; stopped progress in discipline of A&P
Middle Ages – Muslim scholars
• More detailed descriptions of pulmonary and cardiovascular
systems
• Apply scientific method to study of physiology
Middle Ages in the West
• Little progress in west due to Galen’s influence, religion
(emphasis on spiritual, not physical, world; also dissections
prohibited)
15th and 16th centuries – Renaissance
• Artists, esp. Leonardo da Vinci, study anatomy with
dissections to improve their art
• Printing allowed wide distribution of drawings
• Scientific method applied – esp. Vesalius (founder of modern
anatomy)
• Galen finally proved wrong
1628 -- William Harvey
• publishes book that argues blood circulates along specific
route
• based on multiple animal dissections
• can’t explain why because oxygen not yet discovered
1661 – Marcello Malpighi
• discovers capillaries, final discovery in describing major
structures of human body
1674-83 – Leeuwenhoek
• improves microscope to 300X
• many discoveries in microscopic anatomy, including red
blood cell
1800s
• discovery body made up cells
1800s-present -- rapid progress in physiology research
• 1953 – Watson and Crick – DNA
• advances in biochemistry, technology propel discoveries
Citations:
Muslim info –
^ Chairman's Reflections (2004), "Traditional Medicine Among Gulf Arabs, Part II: Blood-letting", Heart Views 5 (2), p.
74-85 [80].
^ Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy
and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)", pp. 224-229, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of
Notre Dame.[1]
post Renaissance -- http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=46&HistoryID=aa05
rest -- http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/ijmorphol/v24n1/art18.pdf
Int. J. Morphol.,
24(1):99-104, 2006.
Lessons from History: Human Anatomy, from the Origin to
the Renaissance
Egyptians : http://egyptian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/ancient_egyptian_medicine
Limits on west in middle ages –
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/9/1180
JAMA. 2002;287:1180-1181.