In , Vesalius entered the medical department at the University of Paris , in Paris, France, which later was incorporated into Paris Descartes University. While in Paris, Vesalius studied Galenic medicine, the widely accepted techniques of the time. Galen of Pergamon was a second-century Greek physician who wrote many texts on the observations he had made in his dissections of animals, primarily primates, dogs, and pigs.
For over years physicians employed Galen 's texts, which contained inaccuracies, for treatment. For example, many medieval physicians utilized bloodletting to treat numerous conditions, a practice that was based on Galen 's incorrect depiction of the cardiovascular system.
In the sixteenth century medical students, including those at the University of Paris , studied Galenic texts and Galenic medicine. According to Saunders, the University of Paris was a conservative school that did not emphasize learning anatomy through dissection. Consequently, Vesalius likely observed only three to four human dissections during his time there.
Vesalius later criticized how infrequently the university taught students anatomy through human dissection, how dissections lasted less than three days, and how the dissections did not allow for thorough investigation of intestines and muscles. Nevertheless, Vesalius assisted with dissections at the University of Paris. In during the second human anatomy demonstration he observed, his teacher request that he and his peers assist in the dissection. The following year he conducted his third human anatomical dissection nearly single-handedly.
In addition to learning anatomy through the university, Vesalius also frequented a cemetery where the bones of the dead had been removed from the corpses. According to Saunders, Vesalius studied the bones until he was able to identify them blindfolded by touch.
In , war broke out between France and Spain, and Vesalius left Paris before he could graduate. At Padua, Vesalius performed several human anatomical dissections and analyzed at least two skeletons over the course of one year. On 5 December , Vesalius graduated with a medical degree cum ultima diminution , Latin for with highest distinction. Vesalius accepted the position. Within the first year of his professorship, Vesalius undertook his own personal dissections and employed his students as assistants.
By the end of , he had assembled a collection of anatomical information on which to base his drawings of the internal human anatomy. Vesalius made detailed, composite illustrations of human anatomical structures, including the skeletal system, blood circulation system, organ systems, muscular systems, nervous system, and reproductive system. Calcar transferred at least some of Vesalius's drawings into woodblock prints. When creating a wood block, artists carve the surface of a wooden block to remove the undesired spaces, leaving only the parts to be printed level with the surface.
Vesalius sent the woodblocks of his anatomical drawings to printer Johannes Oporinus in Basel, Switzerland, to mass reproduce the images.
The following year, Vesalius used his woodblocks to illustrate his book De humani corporis fabrica libri septem "On the fabric of the human body in seven books". In this masterwork, men and women now stood stripped of skin left. Skeletons right leaned lazily against columns in the rolling Italian countryside. Fabrica launched a new tradition in anatomy in Europe, in which anatomists trusted only their own observations and explored the body like a new continent.
In the process, they gradually began to recognize humans as being one species among many, with a few unique traits but many others shared in common with other animals.
Some years after Vesalius first shook off the blind obedience to Galen, Darwin used that vast stock of anatomical knowledge to build his theory of evolution.
Pre Subscribe to our newsletter. Email Facebook Twitter. The History of Evolutionary Thought. Left, Vesalius dissects a female cadaver in his anatomy lab. Right, Vesalius found that the human breastbone has three segments, not seven as Galen claimed.
Vesalius studied medicine in Paris but was forced to leave before completing his degree when the Holy Roman Empire declared war on France. He then studied at the University of Louvain, and then moved to Padua to study for his doctorate.
Upon completion in he was immediately offered the chair of surgery and anatomy. Surgery and anatomy were then considered of little importance in comparison to the other branches of medicine. However, Vesalius believed that surgery had to be grounded in anatomy. Unusually, he always performed dissections himself and produced anatomical charts of the blood and nervous systems as a reference aid for his students, which were widely copied.
In the same year Vesalius wrote a pamphlet on blood letting, a popular treatment for a variety of illnesses. There was debate about where in the body the blood should be taken from. Vesalius' pamphlet was supported by his knowledge of the blood system and he showed clearly how anatomical dissection could be used to test speculation, and underlined the importance of understanding the structure of the body in medicine.
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