ANATOMY. - From the Greek ἀνατομή = dissection, it is the science that through dissection studies the intimate structure of living beings.
In our Western culture, the first reports of anatomical research, carried out for the specific purpose of studying the internal structure of the animal organism, are handed down to us concerning Alcmaeon of Croton, considered the first founder of biological experimentation (6th century B.C.).
Before this era, some wish to connect possible anatomical knowledge with the practices necessary for the embalming of corpses among the ancient Egyptians and also with those inherent in the sacrifice of animals to the gods. But, while for the former it must be remembered that the caste assigned to embalming was considered extremely impure and therefore excluded from common society, and its knowledge remained confined within an unbreakable circle, for the latter, that same knowledge did not go beyond what even butchers could have possessed at any time. In confirmation of this, the reports concerning anatomy, to be found in the most ancient documents, are exceedingly naive and unfounded, with the exception of those connected with the external inspection of the living body. With Alcmaeon, of whose writings only fragments remain, we begin to have some precise reference to anatomical knowledge, albeit rudimentary and not always correctly interpreted. Anatomy acquired notable development in the Alexandrian school (3rd century B.C.), and precisely with Herophilus and Erasistratus, to whom we owe discoveries that even today prove true and some of which still bear the name of the discoverer (Torcular of Herophilus).
In this period the anatomical observations, which in Alcmaeon it is doubtful referred to man, are certainly human. There exists, indeed, the tradition, from Roman times onward, that vivisections were also performed on the bodies of criminals condemned to death. Subsequently, the study of anatomy declined, and it had a later revival in Galen, a very acute, profound and ingenious observer, but unfortunately forced to carry out observations only on animals; hence the entire doctrinal system of that great scholar turned out to be largely erroneous, because the anatomy of brute beasts had been arbitrarily applied to man.
(progr. B. Degenhart)
After Galen, this science declined again. Once any dissecting practice was abandoned, when the schools of Salerno, Montpellier, etc. arose again, there remained only a simple reading of the anatomical texts written by Galen and by Avicenna. In Salerno, however, anatomy flourished again thanks to Frederick II, who imposed its study. But it was still always a theoretical study.
In Bologna, a university devoted to the Church, in 1315 Mondino de' Liuzzi introduced the great novelty of the lesson carried out with the autopsy of the corpse. This was a first beginning of the rebirth of anatomical studies, which reached their greatest flowering in the Renaissance, with the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and even more with the demolition of the old Galenic doctrine by Andrea Vesalius, who began the construction of the new anatomy. Our anatomists excelled in these reconstructions: Gabriele Falloppio, Realdo Colombo, Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente, Bartolomeo Eustachi, Arcangelo Piccolomini, Giulio Casserio, etc.
In the 17th century a new field of investigation opened up to study, thanks to M. Malpighi: microscopic anatomy, which progressed simultaneously with the technical progress of the microscope. Illustrious names honor anatomy in the various centuries (G. Riva, A. Pacchioni, T. Bartholin, R. Bellini, F. Warton, F. Glisson, A. M. Valsalva, G. B. Morgagni, P. Mascagni, A. Scarpa, etc.). The beginning of the study of topographical anatomy is owed to Malacarne of Saluzzo. In the 19th century the most followed direction was that of microscopic anatomy, with studies on the cell, which led to the knowledge of important facts that are directly connected with embryology, genetics and all the experimental applications of these new sciences.
Many historians raise the accusation against the Church of hindering anatomical practice. Indeed, mention is made of a bull of Boniface VIII by which autopsies would have been prohibited; but in reality this bull merely forbids burial more Teutonum, in which corpses were cut to pieces, boiled and stripped of flesh, in order to carry the bones back to their homeland when they had died in a foreign land.
On the contrary, the Church largely favored this flourishing of studies, perhaps more than many secular States, by granting the corpses of executed criminals (Sixtus IV, Clement VII, Pius V, etc.); by it anatomical knowledge was regarded as knowledge of the "opificium Dei"; hence even in the writings of the Doctors there sometimes appear more or less extensive notions of anatomy. It should be remembered, in this connection, the work of St. Isidore of Seville, entitled Etymologiorum libri, which contains a small treatise on anatomy. Also worthy of mention is the fact that in the writings of Nemesius, bishop of Emesa, people even wanted to find the first traces of the discovery of the blood circulation. - See Pl. XCV.
