Anatomy makes a great Branch of that Division of Medicine called Physiology. See MEDICINE, and PHYSIOLOGY.
It is sometimes divided, with regard to its End, into Speculative and Practical; a Division of very little use and moment.—It is also divided, with regard to its Subject, into Human and Comparative.
Human, which is absolutely and properly denominated Anatomy, is that employed on the human Body; called also Anthropology.
See ANTHROPOLOGY.
Comparative Anatomy, is that which considers Brutes, and other Animals, and even Vegetables; chiefly with a View to illustrate the human Structure. See COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.
The Subject of Anatomy, viz. the Body, is variously divided into Parts, Organical, and Inorganical; Similar, and Dissimilar; Spermatic, etc. See PART.—See also SIMILAR, ORGANICAL, etc.
Its more obvious Division, is into Solids and Fluids, or Containing and Contained Parts. See SOLID, and FLUID.
Under the Solids come the Bones, Muscles, Nerves, Arteries, Veins, Cartilages, Ligaments, Membranes, etc.—Under the Fluids, come Chyle, Blood, Milk, Fat, Lymph, etc.-see each under its proper Article, BONE, MUSCLE, NERVE, ARTERY, VEIN, CARTILAGE, MEMBRANE, etc.
See also CHYLE, BLOOD, MILK, FAT, etc.
The ancient Writers of Anatomy, Hippocrates, Democritus, Aristotle, Galen, and others, looked upon this as the most important Part of Physic, and that, without which the Uses of the Parts of a human Fabric, and consequently the Causes of Diseases incident thereto, could no way be discovered.
And yet this Art, useful as it is, was entirely discontinued for several Ages; till in the XVIth Century it began to flourish afresh—The Dissection of a human Body was looked upon as Sacrilege before that time; and we have seen a Consultation which the Emperor Charles V.
appointed to be held by the Divines of Salamanca, in order to be satisfied, whether or no it were lawful, in point of Conscience, to dissect a dead Carcass. We may add, that to this Day the use of Anatomy and Skeletons is forbidden in Muscovy; the first as inhuman, the latter as subservient to Witchcraft: And Olearius assures us, that one Quirin, a German Surgeon, being found with a Skeleton, hardly escaped with his life; and the Skeleton, after being solemnly dragged about the Streets, was burnt. Boyle's Usefulness of Philosophy.
Vesalius, a Flemish Physician, who died in 1564, was the first who set Anatomy on any tolerable footing. He was seconded by Carpus, Sylvius, Fernelius, Fallopius, Eustachius, Fabricius, Pareus, Bauhinus, Hoffmann, Riolanus, etc.
These were succeeded by others, to whom some of the finest Discoveries in Anatomy are owing.
Asellius, in the Year 1622, discovered the Lacteal Veins; and in 1628, the immortal Harvey published his admirable Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood. See LACTEALS, and CIRCULATION.
Pecquet discovered the Reservoir of the Chyle, and the Thoracic Duct, in 1651.
See RECEPTACULUM CHYLI, and THORACIC DUCT.
Rudbeck, a Swede, and Bartholin, a Dane, found out the Lymphatic Vessels, in 1650, and 1651. See LYMPHATICS.
Wharton, in 1655, discovered the lower Salival Ducts; and Steno the upper Salival Ducts, those of the Palate, the Nostrils, and Eyes, in 1662. See SALIVARY. Whartungus, in 1642, discovered the Pancreatic Ducts. See PANCREATIC.
Wits, who came after him, published an Anatomy of the Brain, and Nerves, in a manner much more exact than had been done before him; yet he had omitted some considerable Things, which were afterwards observed by Vieussens. See NERVE. In effect, Glisson treated particularly of the Liver; Wharton of the Glands; Havers of the Bones; Graaf of the Pancreatick Juice, and the Parts of Generation; Lower of the Motion of the Heart; Swammerdam, of Respiration; Peyer, of the Glands of the Intestines; Browne, of the Muscles; Drelincourt, of the Conception of the Ova in Women, the Placenta, and the Membranes of the Foetus. See LIVER, GLAND, BONE, GENERATION, RESPIRATION, INTESTINES, etc. Malpighi, who died in 1694, is one of those to whom Anatomy owes the most: He made a great Number of Discoveries in the Lungs, Brain, Liver, Spleen, Glands, and Lymphatics, by help of the Microscope, etc. Nor must it be omitted that Ruysch, still living, has let great Light into many of the finer and more intricate Parts of the human Frame, particularly the Glands; by means of his Injections. See MICROSCOPE, and INJECTION. Mauget, and Le Clerc, two Physicians of Geneva, have given us a Bibliotheca Anatomica; containing all the new Discoveries that have been made in this Art. The best Systems of the Art, as it now stands, are those of Verheyen, Drake, Keill, etc. Anatomy of Plants. See PLANT.—See also ROOT, BRANCH, BARK, PITH, WOOD, LEAF, FLOWER, SEED, etc.—See also VEGETATION, etc. The Word comes from the Greek ἀνατομή, Dissection, or Cutting; from ἀνατέμνω, to dissect.