Andreas Vesalius Research Paper

Alan Soderberg Dexter Gore English 1021 8 March 2024 Rough Draft In the early 2000’s and even now, human cadavers are seen as useless, and disgusting to most people, and the same can be said about donating one’s body to science. Some may not see the purpose and the many advancements that cadavers have had in science, medical research, forensics, etc. In Mary Roach’s book “Stiff” Roach argues the fact that people should donate their bodies to science to further develop research and technology in, but not limited to fields she has spoken on, such as forensics. She constantly conveys human cadavers as the key to advancing research; however, the overarching problem of human cadavers is the scarcity, and lack thereof.

Consequently, there was no real understanding of the human body and how it functioned. At this period in time, such remedies as using leeches for blood-lettings were common practice in Europe(McGovern, 75).

samples. Permission for doctors to use anyone’s cells or body tissue at that time was

In my human anatomy teaching laboratories, the animal dissection experience generally emphasizes the isolation and

The painting of Prof. Felix Walter (Figure 1) made with watercolour on paper on stretcher by Charles Fraser Comfort stands out as an intriguing piece of artwork because of the visual choices C. F. Comfort has produced. I was able to appreciate this work as I had the privilege of attending the Nuit Blanche exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg on the first of October, 2016 where Prof. Felix Walter was in display at. I found this particular artistry stood out because of its placement in dominance from the other paintings, the use of contrasting styles using the same medium and the bold textures that divulge the prominence of the subject. The artist, C. F. Comfort is worth being aware of because of his exceptional work such as this painting. The composition fashioned by the art gallery should also be duly noted as it took part in making this particular piece stand out.

Vesalius, however, knew that in order to learn about the human body, human dissections on corpses or cadavers had to be made. He composed charts of the blood and nervous systems as part of the curriculum for his students in Anatomy. He also wrote a pamphlet on bloodletting, which was a common form of treatment for several diseases at that time. In 1539, he was finally able to make human dissections. Vesalius stood against the belief of men and women having different number of ribs, according to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, which claims men, had one less rib than

I reviewed Sharon Mullin’s paper titled “The Saga of The Iris Giant’s Bone.” Sharon presented the detailed information and historical perspectives on this topic as well as medical practices involving ethical issues.

When we visited the Mutter Museum, I was mesmerized by the amount of fascinating artifacts, collection of specimens, models, as well as the extensive variety of medical instruments. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is replete with some of the preeminent artifacts and sets of anatomical specimens in America. As a student, I was deeply intrigued by nearly everything. I was astounded by the amount of richness and diversity that makes up the history and culture of medicine. Out of all the exhibits in the Mutter Museum, I was strongly inclined and intrigued by the exhibit of the plaster cast and conjoined liver of the “Siamese twins” Chang and Eng. These two Thai conjoined twins were born in 1811. They came to the United States in 1829 to tour and perform. Chang and Eng eventually married sisters and bought adjacent farms near the lands of North Carolina during the early 1840’s. This exhibit along with countless number of expositions of the malformations of human beings ignited a very strong interest for the subject of teratology. And it was at that moment, as I stared into the unbelievable anatomy of these incredible creatures, that I made the decision of pursuing the subject of teratology for this particular research essay.

In 1543 Andreas Vesalius published his extensive book De humani corporis fabrica. Vesalius constructed his schematic drawings to depict the elements of the human anatomy. The images Vesalius produced were magnificent in detail and accuracy. He used a nude figure as his subject in which he conveyed his somatic depiction of the human structure.

Looking at the extraordinary medical procedures that have become routine today, one rarely stops to CONTEMPLATE the backgrounds or research that went into creating our rich medical knowledge, but not a single one of these few could ever imagine the dark background behind much of our understanding of iatrics. It would often be assumed to be a result of tests on animals, dissections of cadavers, or through observational study. On the contrary, much of it comes as a result of twisted, malicious, and inhumane experimentation on live human beings, with a complete disregard for human life. To these doctors, the victims weren’t human; they were much less than that. Seeing as they personally designed these experiments and desired to learn more

The general consensus among scientists was that when the blood traveled through your body it was one way and used up. Galen agreed and developed the theory to new extremes he stated that there must be different types of blood and blood vessels, two separate pathways for two separate types of blood that ran one way, that was regenerated in their corresponding organs of origin. Galen was so ahead of his time he theorized that there was venous blood which was very dark that originated in the liver and arterial blood which was very bright must come from the heart. He did not know at the time that alveolar exchange and therefore oxygenation was responsible for the visual differences. He also, by frequent vivisection and dissection, distinguished some seven pairs of previously unknown cranial nerves and demonstrated that the the brain was responsible for controlling the voice by tying off the recurrent laryngeal nerve in a living ape leaving it unable to make any

For the past two-hundred years, dissection of the human cadaver has been the gold standard for teaching aspiring medical professionals the networking and layout of the human body. Surprisingly, cadaver usage has had a rather curious history.

In the 16th century, Vesalius decided that he would state his opinion on Galen and his own research in his book titled On the Fabric of the Human Body . However, his opinion was not quite what you would expect from someone in and before that time period, his opinion was negative toward Galen’s thoughts and writings . Vesalius did a lot of his own research in order to produce this book and to teach people what he thought about Galen’s work and compared it to the experiments he had done . This paper will look at Vesalius’ comments on Galen, why he felt like he needed to get his opinion out there and how his opinion changed the way everyone else thought.

When the study of human anatomy first began doctors knew very little about the human body and the functions of internal organs. This all started to change when a philosopher named Aristotle, began performing dissection in a systematic way, from this he started to believe that the soul is what gives life to the human body. 1 In the ancient world, the word ‘organ’ was known to come from the Greek word tool, which led Aristotle to believe that there was some sort of relationship between the body and soul. 1 When Aristotle discovered this, he started to believe all bodies required different souls; this is when he first began performing dissections to have a better understanding of all the different souls. 1 Once Aristotle had discovered this about

Webster’s Dictionary defines a vivisection as, animal experimentation especially if considered to cause distress to the subject. Since 450 BC animals have been used in scientific research. Greek philosopher Alcmaeon performed the first vivisection in 450 BC. Other Greek scientists, including Aristotle and Erasistratus, also used vivisection, or live animals in their experiments. Years later Roman scientist Claudius Galen became known as the Father of Vivisection. Galen’s work on various animals assisted him in his study of muscles and nerves. In the seventeenth century, vivisection was also used by English doctor William Harvey to determine how blood is circulated through the body.