GA&E 1

HISTORY OF ANATOMY

Dr Mohamad Aris Mohd Moklas (PhD)

Department of Human Anatomy
FPSK UPM
aris@medic.upm.edu.my
03 89472783
TIMELINE EVENTS
a) Egyptian mummification
b) Classic & Medieval
c) th
18 century
d) 19th century
e) th
20 century
a) Egyptian Anatomy

1. Mummification
- around 3150 BC
- preparation of the body
- magic rituals
- burial goods
b) Classic & Medieval

1. Plato (428 - 347 BC)

- Classical Greek philosopher
- 3 parts of human mind: rational,
will, appetites
- Body & soul are two different
entities
b) Classic & Medieval
2. Alcmaeon of Croton (450 - 510 BC)
- Father of Greek medicine
- pioneer and advocate of anatomical
dissection
- Discovered the differences between vein &
arteries
- Eustachian tubes
- Connection between brain & sensing organs
(eye & ear)
- Brain is the centre of intelligence
(contradicted with mainstream theory: heart is the
centre of intelligence!)
 b) Classic & Medieval

3. Hippocrates (460 - 377 BC)

- Father of medicine, Greek
physician
- systematic study of clinical
medicine
- Hippocratic Oath: doctors
swearing to practice medicine
ethically
Eg: Reduction of a dislocated shoulder with
a Hippocratic device
 b) Classic & Medieval

4. Herophilus (335 - 280 BC)

- father of scientific anatomy
- the first scientist to systematically perform
scientific dissections of human cadavers
- founder of the great medical school of Alexandria
 b) Classic & Medieval

5. Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)

- Classical Greek philosopher
- Comparative anatomy
- Teacher of Alexander the Great
 b) Classic & Medieval
6. Erasistratus (300 - 260 BC)
- Classical Greek philosopher
- Greek anatomist
- description of the valves of the heart
- concluded that the heart was not the center of
sensations, but instead it functioned as a pump
 b) Classic & Medieval
6. Erasistratus (300 - 260 BC)
- among the first to distinguish between veins &
arteries
- differentiated between the function of the sensory
& motor nerves
- first in-depth descriptions of the cerebrum &
cerebellum
 b) Classic & Medieval
7. Claudius Galen (129 - 199 BC)
- Roman physician and philosopher
- Arteries carry blood instead of air
- Brain controls motion & voice
- His theories dominated & influenced Western
medical science
 b) Classic & Medieval
8. Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā' (980
- 1037)
- Commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or
Avicenna (Latin name)
- Father of modern medicine
- foremost physician and philosopher of
his time
- polymath of Persian: an astronomer,
chemist, geologist, Hafiz, Islamic
psychologist, Islamic scholar, Islamic
theologian, logician, paleontologist,
mathematician, Maktab teacher,
physicist, poet, and scientist.
 b) Classic & Medieval
8. Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā'
(980 - 1037)
- His most famous works are
- The Book of Healing,
- The Canon of Medicine
- a standard medical text at many
medieval universities
- provides a complete system of medicine
according to the principles of Galen and
Hippocrates.
b) Classic & Medieval
9. Ahmad ibn Farrukh (Ahmad-i Farrokh)

- 12th century Persian physician

- author of a Persian medicine encyclopaedia
titled Kifayah
 b) Classic & Medieval
10. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519)
- painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist,
mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist,
geologist, cartographer, botanist & writer
 b) Classic & Medieval
10. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519)
- Anatomical drawing
- master of topographic anatomy, drawing many
studies of muscles, tendons & other visible
anatomical features.
A page from Leonardo's journal showing Anatomical study of the arm
his study of a foetus in the womb
 b) Classic & Medieval
11. Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564)
- founder of modern human
anatomy
- most influential books on human
anatomy, De humani corporis
fabrica (On the Workings of the
Human Body)
- dissection of human bodies
Base of the Brain,
showing optic chiasma,
cerebellum, olfactory
bulbs

Vesalius's Fabrica contained many intricately detailed

drawings of human dissections
 b) Classic & Medieval
12. William Harvey (1578 - 1657)
- English physician
- describe correctly and in exact detail the
systemic circulation
- properties of blood being pumped around the
body by the heart
 b) Classic & Medieval
13. William Harvey (1578 - 1657)
- Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et
Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical
Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and
Blood in Animals)

Image of veins from Harvey's Exercitatio Anatomica

de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
 b) Classic & Medieval
14. Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694)
- Italian physician
- pioneering the use of microscope in biology
- 1st scientist to observe the capillaries
 b) Classic & Medieval
15. Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek
(1632 - 1723)
- Dutch tradesman and scientist
- commonly known as “the Father of Microbiology”
- first to record microscopic observations of muscle
fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in
capillaries
Replica of microscope by Van Leeuwenhoe
 b) Classic & Medieval
16. Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703)
- English physicist
- commonly known as “the Father of Microscopy”
- the first person to use the word “cell”
c) 18th century
1) William Cowper (1702)
 discovered white blood cells and
demonstrated existence of capillaries
in mesentery of cats and dogs.
c) 18th century
2) Raymond Vieussens (1705)
 French anatomist

 accurate description of the left ventricle,

as well as several blood vessels of the
heart.
c) 18th century
3) Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn (1745)
 published
a book on a dissertation on the villi
and glands of the small intestines.
c) 18th century
4) John Frederick Meckel (1748)
described Casserian ganglion, first pair of
nerves and facial nerves generally, and the
spheno-palatine ganglion.
c) 18th century
5) John Hunter
1754 - 1786:
- traced branches of olfactory nerve and course of nasopalatine
nerve
- described the gubernaculum testis
- wrote important works on teeth (he coined the terms cuspids,
bicuspids, molars, and incisors) in “Natural History of the
Human Teeth”
- first performed operation for popliteal aneurysm
- described the adductor canal (Hunter’s canal)
c) 18th century
6) Domenico Cotugno (1761)
 Identified:
 aqueduct of inner ear (“the canal of
Cotunnius”),
 columns in osseous spiral lamina of cochlea
(“Cotunnius’columns”)
 naso-palatine nerve
c) 18th century
7) Andrew Bonn (1763)
 gavea very distinct view arrangement of the
internal membranes of cavities, named serous and
fibro-serous, and manner of their distribution
c) 18th century
8)William Hewson (1774)
 lymph vessels in animals and explaining their
function
 distinguished the lymphatics into two orders,
superficial and deep (both in extremities and in
internal organs)
c) 18th century
9)Matthew Baillie (1793)
published The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the
Most Important Parts of the Human Body
the first systematic study of pathology
c) 18th century
10) Antonio Scarpa (1794)
 described distribution of eighth pair and
splanchnic nerves and structure of ganglions
and plexuses
d) 19th century
Famous Anatomist:

 Claude Bernard
 Henry Gray
 Camillo Golgi
 Ivan Pavlov
d) 19th century
1) Claude Bernard (1813–1878)
Contributed the idea that living things are in a stable
internal state, called homeostasis by Walter Cannon.
d) 19th century
2) Henry Gray (1827–1861)
Contributed in publishing Anatomy of the Human Body,
Descriptive and Surgical in 1858.
Gray's Anatomy
d) 19th century
3) Camillo Golgi (1843 – 1926)
Shared the 1906 Nobel Prize with Santiago Ramon y
Cajal for their work on the structure of the nervous
system.

Drawing by Camillo Golgi of a

hippocampus stained with the silver
nitrate method.
d) 19th century
4) Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936)
Most known for his work on reflex reactions and won the
1904 Nobel Prize for his study of the digestive glands.
The concept for which Pavlov is famous is the
"conditioned reflex"
"Pavlov's dog"
The 19th century saw anatomists
largely finalized and
systematized the descriptive
human anatomy of the previous
century.
 HISTORY OF ANATOMY
20TH CENTURY

 During the past centuries, scientists have

found out almost everything about the gross
structure (macroscopic).

 In the 20th century, there were more

researches on microscopic structures such as
DNA and mRNA starting from 1951.
 HISTORY OF ANATOMY
20TH CENTURY

1)Frank H. Netter (1906 - 1991)

Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy

 HISTORY OF ANATOMY
20TH CENTURY

2)Gunther Von Hagens (1946 - )

 Polish scientist
 A new method of preservation (1977)
 It is called plastination
Prof. Gunther Von Hagen
 Plastination
 Plastination is a process which tissue fluid
in our body is replaced by reactive plastics
 It can preserve natural anatomical
specimens in a durable, realistic manner
 Specimens can be used for research
purposes and education
Body Worlds Exhibitions
Downward Goal Keeper
Rearing Horse With Rider
Ring Man
Out of My Skin
The Smoker
The Swordsman
The Beauty
The Thinker Chess Player
The Beauty Plastic Man
Muscle Man with His Skeleton The Basket Ball Player
Head Neck Embryo
Kidney and Urinary Tract Central Nervous System
The Swimmer
 Conclusion
 All the findings throughout the 20th century have
major contributions in medical field
 With the invention of plastination, anatomical
specimens can be preserved
 Natural specimens are valuable compared to
pictures and artificial anatomical models