Human Dissection
Dissection greatly advanced direct observation of the human body, which increased the knowledge of human anatomy, therefore, taking surgery to the next step.
Direct observation of the human body lead physicians to go against many of the ideas of the traditional medical philosophers, such as Galen. As people began to go against the strict laws of the Catholic Church, and started observing human bodies, they were able to disprove the works of ancient physicians. One Renaissance figure was essential to this huge step in medicine. This person was Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius saw Galen's work as a big lie. He was also angry at the greek thinker because of hits support of learning about medicine through books, and not through first hand experience. Vesalius, however was thought the exact opposite. He knew that the only way that medicine would become something real, people had to step back and take on a whole new way of looking at this science. He was the one who started directly observing humans through dissection. This showed his defiance of the church, and his essentiality towards the revolution of science, and, more specifically, medicine.
Galen dissected pigs and monkeys and related their anatomy to that of humans. Because of this, he drew lots of false information about human anatomy. One part of human anatomy that the greek philosopher had wrong, was the his hypothesis about the human jaw bone. Because Galen only dissected animals with similar anatomy as humans, he came to a conclusion that the jawbone was made up of three different parts, just like the pig that he was observing. Vesalius was the one to disprove this false theory.
Records and diagrams about the human body, which were written and drawn by scientists and other people who directly observed the human body, helped those who were not able to dissect to learn about anatomy of humans. This helped spread the idea of medicine, dissection, and surgery throughout the Renaissance world.
|
|