Introduction to

Anatomy
History of Anatomy
Lectured by BIEN ELI NILLOS, MD
The Human Body

“The body never lies.”

~Martha Graham
 Human Anatomy
The word ‘anatomy’ derives from the Greek ana
(up) and tome (a cutting) — hence ‘dissection’ —
and it can be defined as the science of the
structure of a body learned by dissection.
Birth of Biology
Alcmaeon - first
scientist known to
have practised
dissection in his
researches, was said to
be the first to identify
Eustachian tubes
 Alcmaeon also was the first to dwell on the
internal causes of illnesses. It was he who first
suggested that health was a state of
equilibrium between opposing humors and that
illnesses were because of problems in
environment, nutrition and lifestyle
 Human vivisection

 Herophilus and Erasistratus - two surgeons in

Alexandria, made the first scientific studies designed to
discover the workings of human anatomy
 Herophilus
 development of the theory of the diagnostic
value of the pulse
 the pulse is not an innate faculty of the
arteries, but one they derive from the heart,
and distinguishing the pulse not merely
quantitatively, but also qualitatively from
palpitations, tremors and spasms, which are
muscular in origin.
 Erasistratus
 described the brain more accurately than
Herophilos. He distinguished the cerebrum
from the cerebellum, and he determined that
the brain was the originating point for all
nerves.
 was the first to dispel the notion that nerves
are hollow and filled with pneuma (air); but
are solid, consisting of marrow of the spinal
kind.
 Galen
 appointed chief physician to the gladiators in
Pergamum, in AD 158
 His account of medical anatomy was based on
monkeys as human dissection was not permitted in
his time
 developed many nerve ligation experiments that
supported the theory, which is still believed today,
that the brain controls all the motions of the muscles
by means of the cranial and
peripheral nervous systems
Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching including venesection, then unknown in
Rome. This was sharply criticised by Erasistrateans, who predicted dire
outcomes, believing that it was not blood but Pneuma that flowed in the veins.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian polymath, scientist,
mathematician, engineer,
inventor, anatomist, painter,
sculptor, architect, botanist,
musician and writer.
Leonardo has often been
described as the archetype of
the renaissance man, a man
whose unquenchable
curiosity was equaled only
by his powers of invention
 In about 1489 Leonardo da Vinci began a
series of anatomical drawings. For accuracy of
observation they are far in advance of anything
previously attempted. Over the next twenty-
five years he dissected about thirty human
corpses, many of them at a mortuary in Rome -
until in 1515 the Pope, Leo X, ordered him to
stop.
 His drawings, amounting to some 750, include
studies of bone structures, muscles, internal
organs, the brain and even the position of the
fetus in the womb. His studies of the heart
suggest that he was on the verge of
discovering the concept of the
circulation of the blood.
Andreas Vesalius
anatomist, physician, and author
of one of the most influential
books on human anatomy, De
humani corporis fabrica (On the
Structure of the Human Body).

Vesalius is often referred to as

the founder of modern human
anatomy.
 In 1540 Vesalius gave a public demonstration of the
inaccuracies of Galen's anatomical theories, which
were still the orthodoxy of the medical profession.
Galen did many of his experiments on apes. Vesalius
now has on display - for comparison - the skeletons
of a human being and of an ape.
Vesalius was able to show that in many cases Galen's
observations were indeed correct for the ape, but bear
little relation to the man. Clearly what is needed is a
new account of human anatomy
 Harvey and Blood
 Harvey is able to prove that the body contains only a
single supply of blood; and that the heart is a muscle
pumping it round a circuit.
 Wrote a book consisting of just fifty-two tightly
argued pages. Its text is in Latin. Its title is
Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in
animalibus ('The
( Anatomical Function of the
Movement of the Heart and the Blood in Animals').
 two missing ingredients:
 His theory implies that there
must be a network of tiny
blood vessels bringing the
blood from the arterial
system to the venous system
and completing the circuit.
But his dissections are not
adequate to demonstrate this.
It is not till four years after
his death that Marcello
Malpighi observes the
capillaries.
 is unable to explain
why the heart should
circulate the blood.
That explanation
will have to await
the discovery of
oxygen.
Marcello Malpighi
 becomes the first
scientist to observe
the capillaries, the
tiny blood vessels in
which blood
circulates through
flesh .
Dr. Nicolae Tulp's career as a doctor and politician made him a man
of influence. He drove a small carriage to visit all the patients. Thanks
to his connections on the city council, in 1628 Tulp was appointed
Praelector Anatomiae at the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons.
Modern Times
Why Study Anatomy?