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Vesalius' Great Work | ||
In 1543 Andreas Vesalius published On the Fabric of the Human Body in an attempt to illustrate his anatomical findings. The book was critical of the work of the Greek anatomist Galen. Vesalius showed that many of Galen's ideas were derived from animal, rather than human, dissection. Though his medical discoveries were significant, the methods Vesalius used were more important. They led to a better medical understanding of the structure of the body. Others had criticised Galen before, but Vesalius was the first to do so in a systematic way. Vesalius also emphasised the importance of anatomists personally carrying out dissections. This was so that they could study anatomy for themselves rather than uncritically accepting other people's ideas, which had happened in the past with doctors' unthinking acceptance of Galen's theories. This method of practice, based on observation and experiment instead of theory, is called empiricism. It would become the cornerstone not just of scientific experiment but of all forms of knowledge in the next 100 years. Vesalius is considered to be one of the first to practice this idea. Use the information on this page to answer the following questions:
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On the Fabric of the Human Body corrected many of the ideas which doctors had believed since the time of Galen. This illustration shows the blood vessels coming from the heart and not from the liver, as Galen believed.
Vesalius proved that the lower jaw was only one bone, not two, which Galen had assumed from dissecting dogs. Here he rests a human skull on that of a dog to show where his and Galen's information came from.
Vesalius dissected bodies by following a logical method and in so doing was able to back up his arguments using indisputable evidence.
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