Andreas VesaliusDied 15 Oct 1564 at age 49 (born 31 Dec 1514). Flemish anatomist who, as a university teacher insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally. His De humani corporis fabrica (On the structure of the human body) of 1543 marked a real departure from the work of the 2nd-century anatomist Galen, and provided detailed and accessible information against which future anatomists could compare their observations. Vesalius was the teacher of Gabriel Fallopius, who was in turn tutor to Hieronymous Fabricius, who then taught William Harvey. This lineage supervised the most dramatic reassessment of the anatomy and function of the human body that had occurred for centuries — and can be said to have started the modern science of medicine. |
