Andreas Vesalius

For the lunar impact crater, see Vesalius (crater).

Vesalius
Born	December 31, 1514 Brussels, Belgium
Died	October 15, 1564 Zakynthos, Greece
Known for	De humani corporis fabrica
Scientific career
Fields	Anatomy

Andreas Vesalius was born on December 31 in Brussels, 1514. He died in Zakynthos on October 15, 1564. Vesalius was a famous anatomist and a well known physician who wrote of one of the most influential books on human anatomy called The fabric of the human body. This described the Workings of the Human Body. Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy.

Early life

Vesalius was born in Brussels, then in the Habsburg Netherlands. During this time in history Belgium, was part of the Holy Roman Empire. He came from a family of physicians and both his father and grandfather had served the holy Roman emperor Belgium, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. These achievments by his father and his grandfather inspired vealius to become a doctor and learn more about human anatomy. Therefore whilst vesaluis was still a boy he would steal corspes of criminals from the gallow then dissecting these bodyies whilst he was at home in his kitchen.

Biography

In 1528 Vesalius went to the University of louvain in france studing arts. However for years later his father was appiont as the valet de chambre which inspired Vesalius to pursue his career in medicine at the University of Paris. During his three year in Paris Vesalius studied the theories of Galen under the watchful eye Jean Guinter who was believed to be the best in the field. Whilst being taught by Jean Guinter Vesalius developed an interest in human anatomy and often he would travel to the cemeteries around him to examine bones. During 1536 arguments ocurred between the Holy Roman Empire and France which caused Vesalius to leave Paris. Returning to louvain Vesalius was able to complete his studies under Johannes Winter von Andernach and graduated the following year. After a arugment with his professer Vesalius moved to Padua in italy. At the university of Padua he studied for his doctorate which he got the following year.

After graduation Vesalius was offered the chair of surgery and anatomyat the univeersity of Padua. Also he lecutred at the university of Bologna and the university of Pisa. Before Vesalius was teaching at universities these topic would have been reading from Galen's written work which had been translated into Latin by muslims. This would have been followed by a dissect partical carried out by a surgeon/barber. Up until this time no one had attempted to challenge Galen's ideas however Vesalius continued to carry out dissection as a primary teaching to show his student direct obvseration of the human body. He kept drawings of his work for his students in the form of six large illustrated anatomical tables. When he found that some of these were being widely copied, he published them all in 1538 under the title Tabulae Anatomicae Sex. He followed this in 1539 with an updated version of Galen's anatomical handbook which he maned Institutiones Anatomicae. When this reached Paris one of his former professors published an attack on this version.

In 1538 he also published a letter on bloodletting. This was a popular treatment for almost any illness. But there was some discussion about where to take the blood from. The classical Greek procedure which was written by Galen recommened that the blood should be taken from a site near the location of the illness. However Muslim and medieval writing recommened that small amounts blood should be taken from a distant location. However Vesalius supported Galen's view, and supported his arguments through with the use of anatomical diagrams.A Paduan judge 1n 1539 became interested in Vesalius' work, and made bodies of executed criminals available for dissection. He soon built up a wealth of detailed anatomical diagrams which soon became the first accurate set to be produced. Many of these were produced by artists, and were therefore of much better quality than those produced previously.

Challenging Galen's ideas

In 1541, while in Bologna, Vesalius uncovered the fact that all of Galen's research had been based upon animal anatomy rather than the human; since dissection had been banned in ancient Rome, Galen had dissected Apes instead, and argued that they would be anatomically similar to humans. As a result Galen published a correction of Galen's Opera omnia and began writing his own anatomical text. However until Vesalius pointed this out, this error had gone unnoticed and had long been the basis of studying human anatomy. However, some people still chose to follow Galen and resented Vesalius for calling attention to such horrorifc mistakes.Vesalius went on to stir up more arugment betwen doctor. However this time disproving not just Galen but also Mondino de Liuzzi and even Aristotle; all three had made assumptions about the functions and structure of the heart which were clearly wrong. For instance, Vesalius noted that the heart had four chambers, the liver two lobes, and that the blood vessels originated in the heart, not the liver.

Whereas Galen assumed arteries carried the purest blood to higher organs such as the brain and lungs from the left ventricle of the heart, while veins carried blood to the lesser organs such as the stomach from the right ventricle. In order that this theory could be correct some sort of holes were needed to interconnect the ventricles, and so in the spirit of Galen's time, Galen claimed to have found them, adjusting the facts to suit his theory. So anatomists supported Galen's theory for the next 1400 years which included a big amount of well konwn anatomists claimed to find these holes. This continued until finally Vesalius declared he could not find these holes which Galen saw and discovered. However, while Vesalius dared to admit he could not find these holes, Vesalius decided not to dispute with Galen on his theory on the distribution of blood around the body. Therefore imagined the blood distilled through the unbroken sections between the ventricles of the heart.

Other famous examples of Vesalius disproving Galen in particular was his discovery that the lower jaw was only one bone, not two (which Galen had assumed from animal dissection) and his proof that blood did not pass through the interatrial septum.

In 1543, Vesalius conducted a public dissection of the body of Jakob Karrer von Gebweiler, a notorious felon from the city of Basel, Switzerland. With the cooperation of the surgeon Franz Jeckelmann, he assembled the bones and finally donated the skeleton to the University of Basel. This preparation (“The Basel Skeleton”) is Vesalius’ only well-preserved skeletal preparation today, and is also the world’s oldest anatomical preparation. It is still displayed at the Anatomical Museum of the University of Basel

De Corporis Fabrica

Vesalius's Fabrica contained many intricately detailed drawings of human dissections, often in allegorical poses.

In 1543, Vesalius asked Johannes Oporinus to help publish the seven-volume book all about anatomy which he called On the fabric of the human body. The book that Vesalius created was dedicated to Charles V. A few weeks later he published an abridged edition for students named Andrea Vesalii suorum de humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome, and that book was dedicated it to Philip II of Spain, son of the Emperor.

The work emphasized the priority of dissection and what has come to be called the "anatomical" view of the body and seeing human internal functioning as an essentially corporeal structure filled with organs arranged in three-dimensional space. This was in stark contrast to many of the anatomical models used previously, which had strong Galenic/Aristotelean elements, as well as elements of astrology. Although modern anatomical texts had been published by Mondino de Liuzzi and Jacopo Berengario da Carpi much of their work was clouded by their reverences to Galen and Arabian anatomy.

Besides the first good description of the sphenoid bone, he showed that the bone consisted of three portions and the sacrum of five or six; and described accurately the vestibule in the interior of the temporal bone. He not only verified the observation of Etienne on the valves of the hepatic veins, but he described the vena azygos, and discovered the canal which passes in the fetus between the umbilical vein and the vena cava. He described the omentum, and its connections with the stomach, the spleen and the colon; gave the first correct views of the structure of the pylorus; observed the small size of the caecal appendix in man; gave the first good account of the mediastinum and pleura and the fullest description of the anatomy of the brain yet advanced. He did not understand the inferior recesses; and his account of the nerves is confused by regarding the optic as the first pair, the third as the fifth and the fifth as the seventh.

Though Vesalius' work was not the first such work based on actual autopsy, nor even the first work of this era, the production values, highly-detailed and detailed plates, and the fact that the artists who produced it were clearly present at the dissections themselves made it into an instant classic. Pirated editions were available almost immediately, a fact Vesalius acknowledged would happen in a printer's note. Vesalius was only 30 years old when the first edition of his book was published.

Imperial physician and death

[[Image:1543,AndreasVesalius'Fabrica,BaseOfTheBrain.jpg|thumb|Base of the Brain, showing optic chiasma, cerebellum, olfactory bulb Soon after publication, Vesalius was invited as Imperial physician to the court of Emperor Charles V. He informed the government that he was leaving his post in Padua, which prompted Grand Duke of Tuscany to invite him to move to the expanding university in Pisa, which he turned down. Vesalius took up a position in the court, where he had to deal with the other physicians mocking him as being a barber.

Over the next eleven years Vesalius travelled with the court, treating injuries from battle or tournaments, performing surgeries and diagnosis, and writing private letters addressing specific medical questions. During these years he also wrote Radicis Chynaewhich was a short text on the properties of a medical plant, whose use he defended, as well as defense for his anatomical findings. This elicited a new round of attacks on his work that called for him to be punished by the emperor. In 1551, Charles V commissioned an inquiry into Salamanca to investigate the religious implications of his methods. Vesalius' work was cleared by the board, but the attacks continued. Four years later one of his main detractors published an article that claimed that the human body itself had changed since Galen had studied it.

In 1564 Vesalius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He sailed with the Venetian fleet under James Malatesta via Cyprus. When he reached Jerusalem, he received a message from the Venetian senate requesting him again to accept the Paduan professorship, which had become vacant by the death of his friend and pupil Gabriele Falloppio|Fallopius. After struggling for many days with the adverse winds in the Ionian Sea, he was wrecked on the island of Zakynthos. Here he soon died in such debt that, if a benefactor had not paid for a funeral, his remains would have been thrown to the animals. At the time of his death he was scarcely fifty years of age.