40 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



According to Dawson ('53), true medical science owes its start 

 to the single fact that the pre-Christian Egyptians dared to open 

 the body of man, for the first time. 



The spiritual and political climate in pre-Alexandrian Greece 

 was not conducive to the development of human dissection; it 

 was actually banned because of the existing laws, customs and 

 prejudices. Prompt burial was required for the dead and they had 

 to be left in peace; generals of the army, for example, were given 

 the death penalty for failure to either bury or cremate soldiers 

 slain on the battlefield. With the medical teachings of the time, 

 there was perhaps little need of a knowledge of specific structure; 

 mere crude, stylized, anatomical figures sufficed (Anson, '56). 



Anatomy was in a crude state before the time of Aristotle 

 (384-322 B.C.), who was unquestionably the first real comparative 

 anatomist of any stature. It was he who said that the "inward 

 parts of man are known least of all" (Osier, '22). Bailey ('11) 

 states that anatomy was a mixture of symbolism, conjecture and 

 philosophy, which collectively was too uncertain to use as a foun- 

 dation to build on. It was an examination of open wounds, in- 

 juries and disintegration of exposed, vinburied bodies which dis- 

 closed some of the integral parts of the human body. Some mam- 

 malian anatomy was also learned from sacrifice of different ani- 

 mals. 



Some of the factors militating against performing human 

 dissection were the following: The Greeks were taken with the 

 study of philosophy and were blinded by its brilliance; it be- 

 came authoritative and was used to explain all things (Browning, 

 1894; Camac, '31; Jonas, '22). Another which may have been of 

 significance in retarding studies, were the priests of Asklepios, 

 followers of the Greek mythological god of medicine; they prac- 

 ticed a secret and hereditary art in this field. They wrote no texts 

 and all medical information was kept within their cult, being 

 passed on secretly from generation to generation. The priests were 

 revered both for their divine and health-giving powers. One of 

 the first to question the methods of this group was Hippocrates 

 (Coleman, '50; Cumston, '26). Galen judged one of the last of 

 these priests, Praxagoras (c. 300 B.C.), to have been a very poor 

 anatomist. 



