Tag: Spring 2015
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Medicine in ancient Nineveh
Hussain A. Al-SardarEssex, United Kingdom Introduction Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, currently in the southern part of Iraq. Many civilizations developed and vanished in this very fertile part of the world. The first civilization was that of the Sumerians, who invented the cuneiform tablets for writing, by using a stylus to…
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Fabricius Hildanus – father of German surgery
In sixteenth century Europe poor people seeking treatment for their ailments would often first consult a wise woman or, strange to say, even the local hangman.1 The next step up the therapeutic ladder might have been a barber-surgeon, who limited himself Figaro-like to shaving, cutting hair, trimming beards, lancing boils, and blood-letting. Other barber-surgeons extended…
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The revolution of Andreas Vesalius
Fabio ZampieriAlberto ZanattaPadua, Italy Born in Brussels in 1514, Andreas Vesalius studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in Leuven, and medicine in Paris. Arriving in Padua, at that time “the most famous gymnasium in the world,” he graduated in medicine in 1537 and was professor of anatomy from 1538 to 1543.1 In Padua, Vesalius would have…