From the anatomical teaching dissection to tuition at the bedside—A historical appraisal

Abstract

At all times anatomists endeavored to procure scientific foundations for medicine. The anatomist dissected corpses in order to serve the living. The knowledge of anatomy is a prerequisite for the understanding of physiological and pathophysiological processes. In the “Hippocratic corpus” there is no clear reference to the performance of human autopsies. Anatomy was taught on a human corpse for the first time in Alexandria around 300 B.C. For more than 1300 years anatomy and medicine then stood under the influence of Galen of Pergamon (131–201 A.D.). The Italian Mondino dei Luzzi (1275–1326) was the first to introduce systematic anatomy lessons with a regular inclusion of teaching dissections in the teaching curriculum in Bologna. Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) from Belgium founded the scientifically based human anatomy during the modern era and corrected many errors in the traditional views on anatomy of Galen. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Dutch universities, particularly the University of Leiden, were the leaders with respect to the clinical and practical student training.