History of Anatomy and Physiology: the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment
Modern anatomical science, the rebirth of the empirical anatomy that had been unknown in the West since Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), is usually said to have begun in 1543 with the publication of De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). This massive work, systematically arranged and meticulously illustrated, relied upon the results of actual human dissections performed by Vesalius himself, his colleagues, and his students to discover and demonstrate intricate facts. Vesalius dared to oppose Galen (ca. 130-ca. 200), whose authority had been sacred for nearly fourteen centuries. Since good physiological science must be based upon solid anatomical knowledge, modern physiology can also be said to have begun in 1543.
In the wake of Vesalius came a surge of great anatomists, such as Bartolomeo Eustachius (ca. 1510-1574), Gabriele Fallopius (1523-1562), Girolamo Fabrizio (Fabricius ab Aquapendente) (1533-1619), Raymond Vieussens (ca. 1635-1715), and Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777). Also followed a significant number of plagiarists, such as Matteo Colombo (ca. 1510-1559) and William Cowper (1666-1709), many of whom nevertheless advanced the cause of anatomical research.
Until the mid-seventeenth century, the subject-matter of anatomy and physiology consisted only of structures and processes that could be seen with the naked eye, but new anatomical and physiological sciences became possible after Hans (fl. 1595) and Zacharias Janssen (fl. 1610) invented the compound microscope in the 1590s and after Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), Robert Hooke (1635-1703), Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680), and especially Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) improved the earliest practical microscopes. What was first called just anatomy came to be called gross, or macroscopic, anatomy, in contrast to microscopic anatomy, the study of the structure of cells and other microscopic tissues. Physiological anatomy is the study of the function of tissue in relation to its structure. Histology is microscopic physiological anatomy. After George Adams (1750-1795) invented the microtome, superseding the razor, rigorous histological science became possible.
What Vesalius is to anatomy, William Harvey (1578-1657) is to physiology. In 1628, Harvey published Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals), which described the circulation of the blood. De motu cordis and De humani corporis fabrica are two of the most important books in the history of medicine.
Richard Lower (1631-1691) continued Harvey's investigations on the physiology of the heart and was one of the first to transfuse blood. Thomas Willis (1621-1675) explained blood flow to the brain through the cerebral arterial circle, the "circle of Willis." Stephen Hales (1677-1761) measured blood pressure. The microscope yielded better knowledge of the circulatory system. Swammerdam discovered red blood cells and Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) discovered capillaries. William Hewson (1739-1774) wrote a book on blood and another on the lymphatic system.
The brain dissections of Costanzo Varoli (1543-1575) brought knowledge of the pons, optic nerve, and other cranial nerves. Franois Pourfour du Petit (1664-1741) discovered vasomotor nerves and made several other important advances in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. The neurological research of Robert Whytt (1714-1766) included the spinal cord, the neurophysiology of vision, and the reflexes. Alexander Monrosecundus (1733-1817) discovered several important features of neuroanatomy, including the foramen interventriculare, or foramen of Monro, in the brain. Domenico Cotugno (1736-1822) amplified Valsalva's discovery of cerebrospinal fluid, but it remained for François Magendie (1783-1855) to extend this work further. Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) discovered electric charges in nerve impulses. Félix Vicq d'Azyr (1748-1794) excelled in neuroanatomy and comparative anatomy. Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832) contributed several important anatomical, neurological, otological, and ophthalmological breakthroughs, including the first accurate description of coronary nerves. Julien Jean César Legallois (1770-1814) localized respiratory control in the medulla oblongata.
Regnier de Graaf (1641-1673) investigated reproduction physiology. Niels Stensen (Nicolaus Steno) (1638-1686) discovered "female testicles," guessed that they contained eggs, and accordingly called them "ovaries." Steno also contributed to neuroanatomy and identified the heart as a muscle. The experiments of Abraham Trembley (1710-1784) on the fresh water hydra had meaningful consequences for comparative anatomy, cell science, and the theories of tissue regeneration. Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) studied the fertilization process and refuted the theory of spontaneous generation. Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733-1794) rejected preformation theory and laid the groundwork for modern embryology. Samuel Thomas Soemmering (1755-1830) wrote several accurate anatomical and embryological textbooks.
Pathological anatomy, founded by Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771), was developed further by Matthew Baillie (1761-1823). Malpighi's student and Morgagni's teacher, Antonio Valsalva (1666-1723), discovered the aortic sinus and named the outer, middle, and inner ear. Leopold Auenbrugger (1722-1809) invented the diagnostic technique of percussing the chest. His work was promoted and popularized by Baron Jean Nicolas Corvisart (1755-1821), Napoleon's doctor.
Michel Servetus (1511-1553) described pulmonary circulation. Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) inaugurated the modern study of metabolism. Francis Glisson (1597-1677) wrote the first detailed account of the liver. Thomas Wharton (1614-1673) distinguished various glands from other organs. John Mayow (1643-1679) analyzed respiration and observed mitral stenosis. Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) studied digestion and isolated urea from urine. Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700-1770) observed and described osmosis. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), Jan Ingenhousz (1739-1799), and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) investigated the respiratory physiology of oxygen.
René Descartes (1596-1650) formulated a thoroughly mechanistic physiological theory and discovered the stimulus/reflex response. Giovanni Alfonso Borelli's (1608-1679) investigations of the musculoskeletal system, the heart, and the nerves supported Descartes's iatromechanism. On the other hand, the iatrochemism of Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius (1614-1672) claimed that physiological processes were essentially chemical. Jean Baptiste von Helmont (1577-1644) and Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) propounded the theory of animism, the idea that the soul is responsible for physiological changes.
Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813) founded the first scientific journal of physiology, Archive für die Physiologie, in 1795. He investigated tissue metabolism, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and the medical philosophy of vitalism, which posited a "life-force" behind biochemical processes. Among the proponents of vitalism was Théophile de Bordeu (1722-1776), who correctly guessed that some organs secrete substances into the blood to affect other parts of the body. This internal secretion hypothesis later gave rise to scientific studies of endocrinology and hormonology. Another prominent vitalist, Xavier Bichat (1771-1802), pioneered histology, excelled at using anatomy to further both physiology and pathology, and brought fine detail to descriptive anatomy.
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