 Early Greek physician  Believed that illness had a physical cause  Rejected superstitions  Based medical treatments on observations

 Many religions influenced the study of the body.  Against church doctrine to dissect a human.

 Roman physician, “team doctor” for the gladiators.  Kept them alive so they could fight again.

 Galen did not dissect humans, but did extensive work on pigs and monkeys.  His mistake was to assume that humans and animals were identical internally. **His writings were taken as “law” for hundred of years.

Artists in Renaissance period interested in human form, so studied anatomy. Da Vinci made hundreds of anatomically correct drawings. He dissected bodies in secret.

The navel is naturally placed in the centre of the human body, and, if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre, a circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it within a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Barber surgeon (combination barber, dentist, doctor). Got special permission from the Pope to dissect criminals. First scientist to understand human anatomy. Wrote the first accurate book on human anatomy – Fabrica.

 In England and Scotland, medical schools began to open.  No one donated bodies to science – churchgoers believed in literal rising from grave, so dissection spoiled chances of resurrection.  Became a tradition to rely on executed prisoners, even up to 18th and 19th centuries.

 The added punishment of being dissected after death was considered another deterrent from crime.  Ex. – Steal a pig: you were hung  Kill a person: you were hung and dissected  Anatomists were often associated with executioners.

 Because they needed body parts, anatomists at medical school bought odd things.  A man could sell the leg of his son if it had to be amputated

 Studied circulatory system  Harvey dissected his own freshly dead family members (his father and sister) before burial.

 Some medical students raided grave yards; some professors did also.  In certain Scottish schools in 1700s, you could trade a corpse for your tuition.

 By 1828 in London, body snatchers (or resurrectionists) provided the medical schools with corpses.  Not a crime; a dead body could not be owned or stolen.  Wealthy people chose to be buried in iron cages, some covered in concrete. Also churches built “dead houses” which were locked and guarded.

 2 resurrectionists  Hare owned a boarding house; he occasionally killed a border who was late on rent. (Killed 15 of them)  Did it by pressing pillow to man’s face while Burke lay his body weight on top of victim. Became known as “Burking.”  Bones made into skeletons for medical school. Skin used to make wallets.

 Anatomy Act of 1832 – (UK) bodies of poor who were not claimed for burial could be used by anatomists.  Operated under this same concept until recently.  Donations are on the rise.