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Introduction
| Early days | Renaissance | Modern
art
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 Galen
and Hippocrates |
Aristotle (c384-322BC)
Aristotle is better known today for his philosophical writings, however
his research focussed on history, biology and zoology. Although all his
published writings are lost, he is considered to be the first anatomist,
drawing a distinction between nerves and tendons, and describing how major
arteries branched out into smaller blood vessels.
Galen (c130-201AD)
A Greek physician who settled in Rome, Galen was the first anatomist
to begin recording a complete picture of what lies beneath the skin. Galen
used his position as doctor to the gladiators to do some of his research,
but since dissection of human bodies was strictly forbidden, most of his
findings were based on dissections of animals.
Galen did not just cut animals open for research purposes; he turned their vivisection into a gruesome style of performance art. Before large crowds, Galen would slice open live beasts in order to display the workings of the body. A favourite routine was to reveal the function of the spinal cord by making a series of incisions along it, showing how a live pig would become progressively more paralysed: first the back legs would stop moving, then the front, and then the pig's squeals would dramatically cease, before the final incision killed it.
Much of Galen's work was deeply flawed: he claimed, for example, to have discovered the anatomical seat of the soul. Nevertheless, his 434-volume treatise on the human body became the accepted view of anatomy and medicine in Europe for the next 1,300 years.
Image: AKG Photo