Dissection and Anatomy (1 gen 440 anni a. C. – 1 gen 1700 anni)

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Hippocrates’ ideas that disease was no longer a supernatural force, but rather a natural one, allowed him to initiate a shift in holistic healing that focused on more concrete solutions, using observation and reasoning. Humorists observed their patients and dictated which humor was unbalanced, considering their temperament and what season it was. To this end, the only parts of the patient’s anatomy that humorists focused on were the regions that contained blood, black bile, phlegm, and yellow bile. Later, while Alexandrian libraries held the works of Hippocrates, physicians were allowed to dissect bodies of living criminals to study their organs—rendering Alexandrian medicine very different from Hippocratic. Galen (2nd century AD) combined elements of Alexandrian and Hippocratic medicine. He stressed the importance of observation and the unique experiences of each physician, which closely aligned to the empiricist elements of Hippocratic medicine. However, Galen’s method was very pathological, while Hippocrates was solution focused. Galen’s comprehensive system of health and disease explanations derived from both the dissection of animals and humans aligned to Alexandrian anatomical exploration. Galen preached that one should be prepared to take advantage of a recently killed soldier’s body for anatomical analysis. Galen was well-known for his vivisectional dissections of animals’ hearts, so that he could understand not only structure but also function. Though his conclusions about intraventricular pores ultimately proved incorrect, his work remained uncontested throughout the Middle Ages.
Canon medicine emerged in communities of Jewish physicians who were not allowed in medical universities and who were in close contact with the Arabic world. Canon medicine was marked by a shift in the role that physicians played. There was a greater focus in philosophy than in actual methodology. Galen’s work continued to be taught to students, but physicians sought to be regarded as philosophers before healers. This trend was to change with the Humanist movement in the Renaissance. Humanists revived Classical medicine while rejecting the Medieval practices. Between Galen and the 16th century, dissection was primarily employed for legal purposes, like determining cause of death. However, Mondino de Luzzi’s guides of human dissection (14th century) were read aloud in public halls at the same time as the emergence of the printing press, which allowed for widespread dissemination of these new anatomical findings and descriptions. As multitudes of anatomical texts were published and works of art depicting the human body (de Vinci) emerged, the surgeon became separated from the medical lecturer. The Humanists’ denounced Arabic scholars and replaced Mondino with Galen. Vesalius was superior in his anatomical findings and published Humani Corporis Fabrica, marking the Scientific Revolution. Vesalius respectfully disagreed with some of Galen’s work, but most importantly contradicted the disconnection of the hand and mind that drove dissection. Vesalius preached that the anatomist must do the dissection themselves! Foreigners and criminals were often subject to public dissection. Similar to Vesalius, William Harvey investigated the anatomy of the healthy. To this end, as basic sciences progressed during the Scientific Revolution, physicians employed reductionist practices like iatrophysics and iatrochemistry when encountering a sick patient. Sydenham, however, believed reliance on the basic sciences was not helpful for medical practices. Further, he welcomed the uncertainty disease posed, and he maintained that the anatomist is ineffective and that they may know more but not in a way that would contribute to healing. Sydenham preaches that the body’s disease is its own entity.

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