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History of Anatomy. Early Greeks. Greeks explained illness in terms of the 4 body humors (fluids). Thought the humors were governed by air, water, fire, and earth Healthy person had all four humors in balance. . Bloodletting was a way of getting rid of excess humors.
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Early Greeks Greeks explained illness in terms of the 4 body humors (fluids). • Thought the humors were governed by air, water, fire, and earth • Healthy person had all four humors in balance.
Physicians had to know the proper prayers and charms wherewith to approach "Apollo the Healer," who would tell them what kind of herb poultice to put on a wound.
Many “doctors” practiced by trial and error. If they made a lot of errors, people quit going to them. Socles, a physician, treated a hunchback by piling three solid stones, each four feet square, on his spine. He was crushed and died, but he became straighter.
Hippocrates (460 to 379 BC) • Early Greek physician • Believed that illness had a physical cause • Rejected superstitions • Based medical treatments on observations
Role of Religion • Many religions influenced the study of the body. • Against church doctrine to dissect a human.
Claudius Galen (120 to 200) • Roman physician, “team doctor” for the gladiators. • Kept them alive so they could fight again.
Did not dissect humans, but did extensive work on pigs and monkeys. • His mistake was to assume that humans and animals were identical internally. • His writings were taken as “law” for hundred of years.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 to 1519) Artists in Renaissance period interested in human form, so studied anatomy. Da Vinci made hundreds of anatomically correct drawings. He dissected bodies in secret.
Andreas Vesalius (1514 to 1564) Barber surgeon (combination barber, dentist, doctor). Got special permission from the Pope to dissect criminals. First scientist to understand human anatomy. Wrote the first accurate book on human anatomy – Fabrica.
Shortage of cadavers • In England and Scotland, medical schools began to open. • No one donated bodies to science – churchgoers believed in literal rising from grave, so dissection spoiled chances of resurrection. • Became a tradition to rely on executed prisoners, even up to 18th and 19th centuries.
Serious Crimes • The added punishment of being dissected after death was considered another deterrent from crime. • Ex. – Steal a pig: you were hung • Kill a person: you were hung and dissected • Anatomists were often associated withexecutioners.
Because they needed body parts, anatomists at medical school bought odd things. • A man could sell the leg of his son if it had to be amputated
William Harvey (English) Circa 1590 • “Father of Anatomy”; studied circulatory system • Harvey dissected his own freshly dead family members (his father and sister) before burial.
Grave Robbing • Some medical students raided grave yards; some professors did also. • In certain Scottish schools in 1700s, you could trade a corpse for your tuition.
Resurrectionists • By 1828 in London, body snatchers (or resurrectionists) provided the medical schools with corpses. • Not a crime; a dead body could not be owned or stolen. • (Anatomy studies were only conducted from October to May to avoid stench of decomposition.)
Wealthy people chose to be buried in iron cages, some covered in concrete. Also churches built “dead houses” which were locked and guarded.
William Burke and William HareCirca 1828 • 2 resurrectionists • Hare owned a boarding house; he occasionally killed a border who was late on rent. (Killed 15 of them) • Did it by pressing pillow to man’s face while Burke lay his body weight on top of victim. Became known as “Burking.” • Bones made into skeletons for medical school. Skin used to make wallets.
Anatomy Act of 1832 – bodies of poor who were not claimed for burial could be used by anatomists. • Operated under this same concept until recently. • Donations are on the rise.
