Thomas Willis, Cerebri Anatome 1664

1. Thomas Willis, Cerebri Anatome 1664

2. Gutenberg printing press, mid-15th c.

3. Trained physician, c. 1500 The claim of the graduate physician to cure rested on his understanding of his patient’s individual constitution and how it might be changed. Familiarity with the patient, taking the pulse, examining urine and other excreta, and interpreting the patient’s story (often told at a distance in a letter…or by a relative) would lead the doctor to an individual diagnosis and therapy [including a drug prescription]. The more precise the advice, the greater the apparent expertise of the doctor. --Nutton in W. Medical Tradition

4. Healers in 16th c. Europe • surgeons doubled as barbers (and tooth-pullers) cut for bladder stones set bones performed hernias • apothecaries offered range of medical services • wise-women, astrologers, empirics all oral traditions No consistent division of medical labor university physicians prescribed drug mixtures and used astronomy to determine disease types

5. 16th c. anatomy theaterUniversity of Padua

6. Andreas Vesalius • studied at Paris medical faculty • hired by University of Padua as professor of anatomy • willing to disprove Galen by performing human dissections Fabric of the Human Body (1543) 300 woodcut illustrations aimed to reunite all of medicine under physician’s power

9. Leonardo da Vinci Proportions of Man c. 1490

10. Classicism in Vesalius

11. Vesalius conducting human dissection

13. Vesalius illustration of female reproductive system