Andreas Vesalius, The Reformer Of Anatomy

Andreas Vesalius, The Reformer Of Anatomy

Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) is considered as the father of modern anatomy. He was born in Brussels to a family of physicians. He studied anatomy and medicine for 3 years at the University of Paris. He became a Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the age of 23 years at the University of Padua in Italy.

• He performed human dissections and initiated the use of live models to determine the surface landmarks for internal structures. His masterpiece anatomical treatise De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) written in seven volumes at the age of 28 years revolutionized the teaching of anatomy and remained an authoritative text for two centuries.

• The various body systems and individual organs were beautifully illustrated and described in the fabrica. In his book, he boldly challenged hundreds of Galen’s erroneous concepts that were taught as facts. Bitter controversies ensued between
• Vesalius and Galenic anatomists. Vesalius became so incensed by the relentless attacks that he destroyed much of his unpublished work and stopped doing dissections. However, by freeing anatomy from many of Galen’s errors, Vesalius laid the foundation on which many subsequent advances in medicine and surgery could take place.

He started the era of the anatomical basis of surgery. Another credit of Vesalius is that, unlike other anatomists of his time (Sylvius, Fallopius, Eustachius, etc.), he chose not to have his name attached to the parts of the body that he described. He remained a bachelor and a teacher of anatomy throughout his life. Vesalius was the greatest anatomist of his time and is now regarded as the Father of Modern Anatomy. He is also called the ‘reformer of anatomy’.