History of anatomy

18th century[edit]

Until the middle of the 18th century, there was a quota of ten cadavers for each the Royal College of Physicians and the Company of Barber Surgeons, the only two groups permitted to perform dissections. During the first half of the 18th century, William Cheselden challenged the Company of Barber Surgeon's exclusive rights on dissections. He was the first to hold regular anatomy lectures and demonstrations. He also wrote The Anatomy of the Humane Body, a student handbook of anatomy.^[58] In 1752, the rapid growth of medical schools in England and the pressing demand for cadavers led to the passage of the Murder Act. This allowed medical schools in England to legally dissect bodies of executed murderers for anatomical education and research and also aimed to prevent murder. To further increase the supply of cadavers, the government increased the number of crimes in which hanging was a punishment. Although the number of cadavers increased, it was still not enough to meet the demand of anatomical and medical training.^[59]


Since few bodies were voluntarily donated for dissection, criminals that were hanged for murder were dissected. However, there was a shortage of bodies that could not accommodate the high demand of bodies.^[60] To cope with shortages of cadavers and the rise in medical students during the 17th and 18th centuries, body-snatching and even anatomy murder were practiced to obtain cadavers.^[61] 'Body snatching' was the act of sneaking into a graveyard, digging up a corpse and using it for study. Men known as 'resurrectionists' emerged as outside parties, who would steal corpses for a living and sell the bodies to anatomy schools. The leading London anatomist John Hunter paid for a regular supply of corpses for his anatomy school.^[62] During the 17th and 18th centuries, the perception of dissections had evolved into a form of capital punishment. Dissections were considered a dishonor. The corpse was mutilated and not suitable for a funeral. By the end of the 18th century, many European countries had passed legislation similar to the Murder Act in England to meet the demand of fresh cadavers and to reduce crime. Countries allowed institutions to use unclaimed bodies of paupers, prison inmates, and people in psychiatric and charitable hospitals for dissection.^[59] Unfortunately, the lack of bodies available for dissection and the controversial air that surrounded anatomy in the late 17th century and early 18th century caused a halt in progress that is evident by the lack of updates made to anatomical texts of the time between editions. Additionally, most of the investigations into anatomy were aimed at developing the knowledge of physiology and surgery. Naturally this meant that a close examination of the more detailed aspects of anatomy that could advance anatomical knowledge was not a priority.^[63]


Paris medicine was notorious for its influence on medical thought and its contributions to medical knowledge. The new hospital medicine in France during the late 18th century was brought about in part by the Law of 1794 which made physicians and surgeons equals in the world of medical care. The law came as a response to the increase demand for medical professionals capable of caring for the increase in injuries and diseases brought about by French Revolution. The law also supplemented schools with bodies for anatomical lessons. Ultimately this created the opportunity for the field of medicine to grow in the direction of "localism of pathological anatomy, the development of appropriate diagnostic techniques, and the numerical approach to disease and therapeutics."^[64]


The British Parliament passed the Anatomy Act 1832, which finally provided for an adequate and legitimate supply of corpses by allowing legal dissection of executed murderers. The view of anatomist at the time, however, became similar to that of an executioner. Having one's body dissected was seen as a punishment worse than death, "if you stole a pig, you were hung. If you killed a man, you were hung and then dissected." Demand grew so great that some anatomists resorted to dissecting their own family members as well as robbing bodies from their graves.^[65]


Many Europeans interested in the study of anatomy traveled to Italy, then the centre of anatomy. Only in Italy could certain important research methods be used, such as dissections on women. Realdo Colombo (also known as Realdus Columbus) and Gabriele Falloppio were pupils of Vesalius. Columbus, as Vesalius's immediate successor in Padua, and afterwards professor at Rome, distinguished himself by describing the shape and cavities of the heart, the structure of the pulmonary artery and aorta and their valves, and tracing the course of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart.^[66]


The rise in anatomy lead to various discoveries and findings. In 1628, English physician William Harvey observed circulating blood through dissections of his father's and sister's bodies. He published De moto cordis et sanguinis, a treatise in which he explained his theory.^[59] In Tuscany and Florence, Marcello Malpighi founded microscopic anatomy, and Nils Steensen studied the anatomy of lymph nodes and salivary glands. By the end of the 17th century, Gaetano Zumbo developed anatomical wax modeling techniques.^[67] Antonio Valsalva, a student of Malpighi and a professor of anatomy at University of Bologna, was one of the greatest anatomists of the time. He is known by many as the founder of anatomy and physiology of the ear.^[68] In the 18th century, Giovanni Batista Morgagni related pre-mortem symptoms with post-mortem pathological findings using pathological anatomy in his book De Sedibus.^[69] This led to the rise of morbid anatomy in France and Europe. The rise of morbid anatomy was one of the contributing factors to the shift in power between doctors and physicians, giving power to the physicians over patients.^[70] With the invention of the Stethoscope in 1816, R.T.H. Laennec was able to help bridge the gap between a symptomatic approach to medicine and disease, to one based on anatomy and physiology. His disease and treatments were based on "pathological anatomy" and because this approach to disease was rooted in anatomy instead of symptoms, the process of evaluation and treatment were also forced to evolve.^[71] From the late 18th century to the early 19th century, the work of professionals such as Morgagni, Scott Matthew Baillie, and Xavier Bichat served to demonstrate exactly how the detailed anatomical inspection of organs could lead to a more empirical means of understanding disease and health that would combine medical theory with medical practice. This "pathological anatomy" paved the way for "clinical pathology that applied the knowledge of opening up corpses and quantifying illnesses to treatments."^[72] Along with the popularity of anatomy and dissection came an increasing interest in the preservation of dissected specimens. In the 17th century, many of the anatomical specimens were dried and stored in cabinets. In the Netherlands, there were attempts to replicate Egyptian mummies by preserving soft tissue. This became known as Balsaming. In the 1660s the Dutch were also attempting to preserve organs by injecting wax to keep the organ's shape. Dyes and mercury were added to the wax to better differentiate and see various anatomical structures for academic and research anatomy. By the late 18th century, Thomas Pole published The Anatomic Instructor, which detailed how to dry and preserve specimens and soft tissue.^[73]