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The
Renaissance:
During the Renaissance, the works of Celsus and Galen
were questioned.
Antonio Benivieni (c 1443-1502)
systematically performed autopsies on his patients to investigate the
causes of their symptoms. His autopsy records were published posthumously.
The following is an example from his records:
No 36: A relative by marriage vomited everything, being unable to
retain food or medicine, gradually wasting away to skin and bone and
finally dying. The body was opened in the interest of the public good.
Benivieni found an induration of the stomach reaching to the pylorus
and preventing the passage of food. The patient was probably suffering
from gastric carcinoma (a malignant tumour).
Vesalius (1514-1564), Colombo
(c 1516-1559), Fallopius (1523-1562)
and Eustachius (1524-1574) were
prominent Renaissance anatomists who also made advances in pathology,
largely through the dissection of executed criminals.
The expanding knowledge of pathology was first codified
by Jean Fernel of Amiens (c 1497-1558)
who published textbooks on physiology, pathology and therapeutics which
became the standard throughout Europe.
The first pathology textbook was Fernel’s Pathologiae
Libri (1554) in which he grouped disorders according to the organs and
systems involved.
Although many of his theories of the causes of disease
were fanciful, his systematic approach to pathology and his emphasis on
precise anatomical observations were highly influential.
Jean Fernel
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