What could come up this summer:

This summer Section A of the Medicine Exam is on the ‘Development of Renaissance Anatomy.’

It is the only section that we have an idea as to what will be on.

This revision wall is designed to help you go through aspects of Renaissance Anatomy.

Key Individuals

• Galen (actually, a man called Johannes Guinter)

• Andreas Vesalius

• William Harvey

Joannes Guinter & Galen

• The most important medical text in the latter middle ages was by Mondino de Luzzi (called Anatomy).

• He translated it from an Arabic translation of one of Galen’s less important works called the ‘On the use of the Parts’

• Professors read it whilst dissections took place.

Joannes Guinter & Galen• Joannes Guinter was

Professor of Medicine at Paris

• In 1531 he translated a lost work of Galen called ‘On Anatomical Procedures’.

• This signified a return to the ‘purism’ of Galen as opposed to Mondino de Luzzi’s methods

Galen

Joannes Guinter and Galen

• Why was this work so special?– Galen expressed his wish that he could have

dissected human bodies saying it was needed to have a better understanding of anatomy.

– He said anatomy started with the skeleton and his system of dissection was superior to that of Mondino de Luzzi’s.

– It was adopted throughout Europe, so it could be said that Galen was the first Renaissance anatomist.

Vesalius and his education

• Born into a medical family.

• Father was Apothecary to the German Emperor.

• Studied at Louvain (1528-33)

• Then moved to Paris but left when war broke out.

Vesalius and his education

• Returned to Louvain.

• Stole a skeleton of a dead criminal in order to understand the human body better.

• This was because boiling up bodies to get skeletons was forbidden!

Vesalius and his education

• Fell out with a Professor at Louvain so went to Padua in 1537.

• He was appointed Professor (of Surgery) at Padua.

Tabulae Sex (1538)

• His first published work was six sheets of anatomical drawings.

This was important because Vesalius did his own dissections and by drawing them he could allow others to gain a better understanding of the workings of the body than by words!

Tabulae Sex (1538)

Notice that Vesalius still draws the Liver incorrectly (with 5 lobes and not two!)That is because whilst he is progressing anatomy he cannot go against the word of Galen just yet.

Letters on Venesection (1539)

• Venesection in the art of bleeding patients – going back to the 4 humours.

• Again he supported Galen’s ideas of where to bleed a patient – going against the standard practices of the time.

• He used his skills of anatomy and his illustrations to prove how veins were connected.

Fabric of the Human Body (1543)

• Comprehensive study of the human body from his time at Padua.

• The illustrations were made at a professional artist’s studio and done by a great painter.

• Although it was ground breaking, it did not change the development of anatomy overnight – some still favoured the work of Galen.

Fabric of the Human Body (1543)

• It was so influential because:– It corrected some errors made by Galen.– It offered ideas as to how anatomy could

progress e.g. public dissections.– It made a complete breakdown of the human

body – layer by layer.– The illustrations were integrated into the book

so that they were linked directly to the writings.

Fabric of the Human Body (1543)

• It was so influential because:– Vesalius himself made sure

that the prints of his book were to a high standard.

– Linked to this was the advent of the printing press – unlike in medieval times, now there would be no shortage of copies.

Epitome (1543)

• This was another publication from Vesalius but was basically a shortened version of the Fabric of the Human Body.

• Because of his work, Vesalius worked as doctor to the Holy Roman Emperor.

• He died in 1564.

William Harvey

• William Harvey was born in 1578.

• He studied medicine at Padua and then worked in London as a doctor and then as a lecturer.

• From 1618 he was doctor to King James I and Charles I.

Circulation of the body• Harvey was interested not so much in the

study of the human body but in the circulation of the human body.

• For that, dead bodies held little information to give so he drew comparisons between humans and animals.

• He therefore did experiments on live animals, however their hearts beat so fast he often could not see what was happening!

Circulation of the body

• Harvey therefore used cold blooded animals such as frogs to experiment on.

• His experiments showed that the heart was a pump and that blood was not created by the heart.

Circulation of the body

• Harvey to prove he was right about the circulation of blood devised experiments to show how valves in the body only allowed the blood to flow one way.

• This proved Galen was wrong and bleeding patients was incorrect.

• He announced his theory in 1616 and published ‘On the motion of the heart’ in 1628.