Anatomical Discoveries Research Articles

Realdo Colombo in the fifth centenary of his birth.

The date of birth of Realdo Colombo is still uncertain. However, 1516 is conventionally credited as the year where he was born in Cremona. Colombo’s life can be divided into three periods, according to the cities where he worked: Padua, Pisa and Rome. A talented anatomist, in Padua Colombo became assistant of Andreas Vesalius in 1541. In 1545 he moved to Pisa at the behest of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. Finally, he was invited in Rome by Pope Paul III and became the physician of many important patients, including Michelangelo Buonarroti. He also performed the autopsy on the body of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In his unique masterpiece, De re anatomica, consisting of 15 books, Colombo reported original observations. He hoped to have a text illustrated by Michelangelo that would have competed with the fabrica of Vesalius, but that purpose did not realize. Indeed, the unique engraving of the volume, published posthumously in 1559, is the frontispiece. The most important anatomical discovery attributed to Colombo is the original description of the pulmonary circulation, based on hundreds of dissections and vivisections. The Galen’s long-standing doctrine of the blood circulation from the right ventricle to the left ventricle through invisible pores of the interventricular septum was definitively rejected. Although two other figures had already described the pulmonary circulation – the thirteenth century Arabic physician Ibn al-Nafis, in the Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna’s Canon, and the Spanish philosopher Michael Servetus, in the theological book Christianismi restitutio – Colombo seems to have arrived at his conclusions independently. He also understood the function of the cardiac valves. Colombo’s book had a profound effect on William Harvey, when he prepared his lectures on anatomy for the College of Physicians of London, and was determinant for the publication of his description of the blood circulation in De motu cordis (1628). Other anatomical observations are attributed to Colombo. He corrected previous misconceptions, demonstrating that the right kidney is lower than the left, and showing that the lens is in the anterior chamber of the eye. He recognized anatomical variants, such as the presence of palmaris longus muscle, and described congenital malformations, such as the horseshoe kidney. He also seems to have coined the term “placenta” and claimed to have been the first to describe the clitoris and its function.

Herophilos, the great anatomist of antiquity

Herophilos (ca. 330 to ca. 260 B.C.) was a Greek physician and precursor in learning and teaching of human anatomy through systematic anatomical dissections who made extraordinary anatomical discoveries. He developed the theory of using the pulse as a form of diagnosis and introduced the use of experimental method to medicine. Keywords: dissection; Herophilos, human anatomy

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY EXPERIMENTA, MAGISTERIAL FORMULAE AND THE 'ANIMAL ALKAHEST': NEW DOCUMENTS FOUND IN ROYAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES.

In this paper we present three newly rediscovered documents from the Royal Society archives that, together with the four described in our previous publications, constitute a set on a cognate theme. The documents were written by, or addressed to, members of the early Royal Society, and their subject is several magisterial formulae, including J. B. van Helmont's alkahest and Ludus. In addition to the interest in those formulae as medicines for various grave illnesses, our analysis showed that some seventeenth-century scholars sought to explain operations of the animal body by invoking similar but natural substances, while attempting to assimilate the latest anatomical discoveries into a novel framework. The complete set of documents sheds some new light on the interests of seventeenth-century networks of scholars concerned with experimenta.

The Uppsala anatomist Ivar Sandström and the parathyroid gland

The discovery of the parathyroid gland by the Uppsala anatomist Ivar Sandström (Figure 1) is often called the last anatomical discovery. That remarkable discovery was made in 1877 at the Anatomical Department in Uppsala. At that time Sandström was a young medical student, who had worked as an assistant at the department since 1873. His discovery was published in Upsala Läkareförenings Förhandlingar, in 1880 (1). His publication was in Swedish, and the paper was entitled ‘On a New Gland in Man and Several Animals’. The article comprised 30 pages, and in the introduction Sandström writes:
 Almost three years ago I found on the thyroid gland of a dog a small organ, hardly as big as a hemp seed, which was enclosed in the same connective tissue as the thyroid, but could be distinguished therefrom by the light colour

The history of greatest anatomical discoveries

21st century medicine is an empirical and best developing study in each of its fields. Based on the experience and discoveries conducted by researchers throughout its rich history, contemporary medicine relies on pure facts. Hippocrates was the father of human anatomy and medical backgrounds. He described the body fluids, the heart and some other internal organs. One of the most prominent researchers in the field of anatomy was also a Roman physician – Galen. He described the heart anatomy and the cardiovascular system in details. However, the biggest contribution to the heart examination was done by a medical specialist from London – William Harvey. It was him, who discovered the pumping work of the organ, not the sucking one, as it was previously believed. Simultaneously, the examinations on anatomy and physiology of reproductive organs were carried out, which can be found in the Egyptian papyrus from Kahun and the Ebers papyrus. Not only Hippocrates was engaged in the studies, but the greatest ancient obstetrician Soranus of Ephezus, as well. Further anatomical discoveries included the description of the role of oviducts (Fallopian tubes) by Gabrielle Falloppio, the ovarian follicle by Graaf and the bone structure of the pelvis, which was considered to be the most essential during labour (William Smellie, Gustaw Michaelis, Theodor Litzmann).

The anatomist Andreas Vesalius at 500 years old

December 31, 2014 marked 500 years since the birth of Andreas Vesalius. Praised by contemporaries and lauded by generations since as the most important anatomist in western history, he fundamentally reshaped the discipline, made numerous anatomical discoveries, and most importantly, advanced the trajectory of modern medicine by rejecting textual dependence in favor of personal observation. This article, commemorating Andreas Vesalius and his accomplishments on the 500th anniversary of his birth, will first provide a brief biography of the man. It then discusses his role as the “Father of Anatomy” and his influence in transforming the study of the human body. Finally, it highlights Vesalius’ specific contributions to vascular anatomy and physiology.

Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England by Jennifer Evans (review)

Reviewed by: Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England by Jennifer Evans Jane Bitomsky Evans, Jennifer, Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England (Royal Historical Society Studies in History), Woodbridge, Boydell, 2014; hardback; pp. 225; 3 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £50.00; ISBN 9780861933242. Oysters, artichokes, and new-laid eggs: provokers of venery or medicaments for infertility? Jennifer Evans explores the role of aphrodisiacs in early modern England. According to early modern medical and popular understandings, various consumables could both stimulate lust and enhance the generative body. Evans’s study focuses on how the consumption of aphrodisiacs was considered one of the viable treatments for infertility, with others including soft beds and hot baths, from 1550 to 1780. Through the analysis of printed and manuscript sources, the author argues that, though restricted within the sphere of marriage, early modern England had both a knowledge of what constituted ‘provoker[s] of lust’, and a belief that such foods and other substances affected the body’s reproductive processes. Early modern knowledge of the sexual body and generation was disseminated through a diverse range of literary genres, from erotic literature to household recipe collections. The author asserts that an understanding of how views on sexual and reproductive bodies were inextricably intertwined is essential to historicising aphrodisiacs. In a statement alluding to Galen’s two-seed theory of sex and humoral theory, early modern theologian, Isbrand van Diemerbroeck, observed that ‘there is in the Seed of all Creatures, that which renders the Seed fruitful, and is called Heat’ (pp. 56–57). Without an initial sexual desire ‘heating’ the body and thereby stimulating the sexual organs, it was believed that conception would be unsuccessful. While the use of aphrodisiacs did not neatly conform to either Galen’s two-seed or Aristotle’s one-seed theory of reproduction, the practice did highlight the continuity of humoral theory in early modern England. Medical writers in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries believed that a failure to conceive could be largely attributed to a loss of heat, a deprivation of seed, or a loss of sexual pleasure. Evans asserts that aphrodisiacs constituted a clearly delineated category of medications in the early modern period, with one of their key functions being to ameliorate the suspected causes of infertility. Irrespective of whether the cause of infertility was believed to be natural or magical, the ingestion of natural substances, such as aphrodisiacs, was consistently proffered as an effective treatment. Indeed, scepticism as to the reality of witchcraft in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries led to medical writers identifying other causes of infertility, such as anaphrodisiacs, rather than enchanted objects or ligature spells. Curiously, the author also draws a link between aphrodisiacs and emmenagogues, indicating that aphrodisiacs were believed to play a role in improving fertility even outside of the act of sexual intercourse. [End Page 293] Aphrodisiacs were grouped into four main types: hot foods and heating herbs (e.g., rocket, mustard, pepper); nourishing foods and seed provokers (e.g., parsnips, crab, quail); windy meats and flatulent foods (e.g., beans, peas, pine nuts); and sympathetic stimulation and the doctrine of signatures (e.g., satyrion, carrots, acorns). The author observes that many of the grouped aphrodisiacs were thought to have multiple properties, and could fall into more than one of the above classes. It should be noted that windy meats were a contested category, and ultimately discarded upon the late seventeenth-century medical finding that the male erection was driven by a series of blood vessels, as opposed to wind. Ideas about aphrodisiacs in the early modern period were ubiquitous and dynamic. Anatomical discoveries led to shifts in which substances were considered effective. An initial belief in the ability of aphrodisiacs to also prevent miscarriage had faded by the eighteenth century. The author attributes this particular shift to an emerging sense of food and medicine as distinct entities. Similarly, while aphrodisiacs were initially considered to have universal application, by the eighteenth century, they were increasingly becoming gendered. Evans offers an engaging and thorough analysis of the changing role of aphrodisiacs in early modern England. This text presents an integrated view of early modern sexual health practices...

CAUSING DOUBTS: DIODORUS CRONUS AND HEROPHILUS OF CHALCEDON ON CAUSALITY

The physician Herophilus of Chalcedon, who lived and worked in Alexandria in the early third centuryb.c., is best known and justly celebrated for his numerous and ground-breaking anatomical discoveries and advances in such areas as pulse theory. His systematic investigations into the human body led to some of the highest achievements of Hellenistic science, among which the best known is probably his discovery and detailed description of the nervous system and its functions. Yet certain aspects of his thought have seemed difficult to harmonize with the aims and methods of his medical research. One such is his attitude to causality. According to Galen, Herophilus had accepted the existence of causes merely on a hypothetical basis, and indeed had made the striking claim that ‘by nature it is not discoverable whether causes do or do not exist’. Galen associates these views directly with a number of arguments designed to prove that there are no such things as causes, but we are otherwise left with little in the way of context, and different interpretations have unsurprisingly suggested themselves.

The debate over eponyms.

Traditionally, important clinical or anatomic discoveries were labeled with the discoverer's name, to serve as both a means to recognize and reward the discoverer's contribution to the field but also because scientific names were often harder to remember and more difficult to communicate. Eponyms have been pervasive throughout anatomy and medicine over the last few centuries. Recently, some experts have argued that eponyms harbor significant limitations and have become antiquated. For instance, some eponyms fail to convey the characteristic findings associated with the disease or structure for which they are associated and eponyms are often times variable based on country and journal and in the grammatical form that is used. In fact, some individuals are going so far as to call for the removal of eponyms from published medical literature and medical textbooks going forward. In this article, we explore the arguments for and against the continued use of eponyms within medical education and practice, so that readers may understand both sides of the debate.

Development of anatomophysiologic knowledge regarding the cardiovascular system: from Egyptians to Harvey.

Our knowledge regarding the anatomophysiology of the cardiovascular system (CVS) has progressed since the fourth millennium BC. In Egypt (3500 BC), it was believed that a set of channels are interconnected to the heart, transporting air, urine, air, blood, and the soul. One thousand years later, the heart was established as the center of the CVS by the Hippocratic Corpus in the medical school of Kos, and some of the CVS anatomical characteristics were defined. The CVS was known to transport blood via the right ventricle through veins and the pneuma via the left ventricle through arteries. Two hundred years later, in Alexandria, following the development of human anatomical dissection, Herophilus discovered that arteries were 6 times thicker than veins, and Erasistratus described the semilunar valves, emphasizing that arteries were filled with blood when ventricles were empty. Further, 200 years later, Galen demonstrated that arteries contained blood and not air. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Greco-Roman medical knowledge about the CVS was preserved in Persia, and later in Islam where, Ibn Nafis inaccurately described pulmonary circulation. The resurgence of dissection of the human body in Europe in the 14th century was associated with the revival of the knowledge pertaining to the CVS. The main findings were the description of pulmonary circulation by Servetus, the anatomical discoveries of Vesalius, the demonstration of pulmonary circulation by Colombo, and the discovery of valves in veins by Fabricius. Following these developments, Harvey described blood circulation.

Dissection: A Fate worse than Death?

The teaching of Anatomy in medical schools has significantly declined, and doubts have been raised over whether or not doctors of today are fully equipped with anatomical knowledge required to practice safely. The history of anatomy teaching has changed enormously over centuries, and donating your body to medical science after death is very different today, compared with the body snatching and exhumations of the 18th and 19th centuries. With stories of public outcry, theft and outright murder, the history of anatomical education is a fascinating one. History has made an abundance of significant anatomical discoveries, is it not fundamental that medical students today are aware of the great lengths that our peers went to in order to obtain such pioneering discoveries?

154 EARLY EXPERIENCE OF CT ANGIOGRAPHY TO CHARACTERISE SEPTAL VASCULAR ANATOMY PRIOR TO ALCOHOL SEPTAL ABLATION (ASA) IN HYPERTROPHIC OBSTRUCTIVE CARDIOMYOPATHY

Introduction ASA is an established treatment for patients with HOCM. ASA is ineffective in some: an inaccurate location of the iatrogenic infarct and inability to identify a vessel are reported as contributing factors. We report a new technique to characterise septal vascular anatomy with CT. Methods Patients undergo CT angiography prior to ASA. Systolic 2D images are used to study the SAM-septal contact point and optimum target area of myocardium. Diastolic images are used to identify vascular supply and characterise the course and origin of these vessels. The target septal(s) are labelled and a 3D CT angiogram is constructed. This defines the optimum angiographic projections to identify and wire the vessel(s), removing foreshortening or overlap. The projection is noted and used as the 9working view9 at ASA. All major epicardial arteries are surveyed to identify any other vessels tracking towards the septum. This may identify additional potential target vessels, and serves to exclude septal vessels with an inappropriate distribution. Results 2D images show the septal vessel in the target myocardium(1A,1B). 3D images (1C) predict and mirror those created during the ASA(1D) Thirteen patients have undergone CT angiography and progressed to ASA, 6 procedures have altered due to information taken from CT. Epicardial source artery: 3 of 13 (23%) patients have been identified to have target septal arteries from the circumflex artery, 1/13 (7%) from the diagonal artery. Two of these 4 patients had previously been stated to have no appropriate artery by invasive angiography. In our retrospective cohort (91 patients,125 procedures) 92% target vessels came from LAD, 2% Cx, 2% diagonal, 3% LMS. Septal bifurcations: A new finding of bifurcation within a septal artery supplying both RV and LV septum has been described in 2 patients. The RV branch has low pressures as it drains into the RV cavity via Thebesian veins; the LV branch enters dense, hypertrophied myocardium. Contrast injection into the proximal artery localised to RV cavity due to lower pressures and lower resistance to flow. Sub-selective contrast injection into LV branch localised to target myocardium. Injection into just the proximal artery (as in traditional practice) would lead to dismissing this artery as inappropriate. Historically 5–8% of patients have no identifiable vessel by traditional methods. Other anatomical discoveries: 5–10 mm of the proximal portion of septal arteries travels in epicardial fat before entering myocardium. Inflation of a balloon across this boundary will have differential resistance and cause 9melon-pipping9 back into the parent artery. Septal arcades can be seen on CT and occluded to prevent escape of alcohol. Conclusions CT angiography provides valuable information in planning ASA. This approach has the potential to describe previously unidentifiable septal artery targets and refine the localisation of the infarct zone in ASA to improve long-term efficacy.

John Hunter (1728–93) and the earliest description of bicuspid aortic valves

John Hunter (1728–93) is considered one of the great luminaries of anatomy and surgery. He remains famous for being the first individual to describe a vast range of pathologies, treatments and anatomical discoveries. He is also acknowledged for his contribution to adult cardiology, including the first description of cardiac ventricular aneurysms in 1757. Further to these acclaims, we for the first time identify John Hunter's earliest description of bicuspid aortic valves.

Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres. XVI e -XVII e siècle (review)

Reviewed by: Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres. XVIe-XVIIe siècle Sophie Turner (bio) Charlotte Bouteille-Meister, Kjerstin Aukrust, eds. Corps sanglants, souffrants et macabres. XVIe-XVIIe siècle. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2010. This interesting collection of conference proceedings that focuses on the depiction of the suffering body in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe holds for its unifying premise the importance of interdisciplinary research. As it moves between the many different examples or states of the body in pain, in suffering or in death, the importance of the need to "cerner le sens" of these representations in their "société donnée" (9), in their specific contexts, is paramount. The first part of this collection considers the changing representations of the suffering body in the light of new anatomical discoveries, taking among its examples the portrayals of martyrs and cabinets of curiosities, to demonstrate the conflicts arising between, on the one hand, a demand to capture the aesthetic beauty of the body in pain and, on the other, vraisemblance, as depictions of the body were becoming more mechanical. A desire from authority, but also from the artists (visual and theatrical) themselves, to increasingly control these changing representations, highlights the delicate issues at stake in maintaining a balance between pedagogical efficacy and artistic expression, and shows how a failure to do so could achieve quite the opposite and the possibility of scandal. The second part, which gathers essays under the heading the "corps de l'âme," seeks to analyze, first, through poetical depictions of suffering, the ties between the body and soul in the works of d'Aubigné, Drayton and Malherbe. Interesting issues are raised about how macabre depictions of the destruction of the individual body, through love or war, reflect a wider destruction of the [End Page 945] collective, for example, in those countries effected by the Wars of Religion. Studies on the nature of penitential poetry follow, bringing into question the different forms of the suffering body in the imitation of Christ and the emergence at the beginning of the seventeenth century of a focus on the ordinariness of the suffering body as opposed to the spectacular. The third part looks in detail at how boundaries of suffering during this period were established, demonstrating how the staging of suffering, judicial or theatrical, had to work alongside social expectations: a suitable representation of suffering, that was still of utility, had to be found in between the bearable and the excessive. Contrasted examples are given of the French justice system, which utilized the suffering body through a process of dehumanization, "l'exercice de la cruanté" (177), and of the freedom found in theatrical representations, including the performance of histoires tragiques that hoped to reform the spectator. These studies all seem to point to the commonplace representation of violence on stage at the beginning of the seventeenth century, therefore not only on the Elizabethan stage, but also through the popularity of Shakespearean tragedy in Germany and Spanish hagiographical theater. The essays concluding this volume are united by questions concerning the religious and political goals of utilizing the suffering body. The emotional power of the body, tied to royal ideology, is seen through Hardy's staging of royal corpses, and as the body takes center stage in propaganda publications, demonstrated through the utilization of the Guise brothers' corpses and the assassination of Henri III, we see how the body becomes the "cadavre politique" (14). The interdependent relationship between the victim and the executioner is then examined in an analysis of the Jesuits' desire for martyrdom, before looking at how the body is religiously manipulated in an attack against Catholic missionaries, through depictions of cannibalism and the subversion of barbaric and civilized norms in the engravings of Théodore de Bry. Finally, the volume pertinently closes with a study of the reception of the suffering body over time, of Caron's Les Massacres du Triumvirat, revealing the extent of the different constructions of meaning possible. What becomes clear at the end of this collection is that the various individual contexts that form the backdrop to these very specific studies, whether religious (the Wars of Religion), medical (the new anatomical...

Conduction barriers and pathways of the sinoatrial pacemaker complex: their role in normal rhythm and atrial arrhythmias

Since Keith and Flack's anatomical discovery of the sinoatrial node (SAN), the primary pacemaker of the heart, the question of how such a small SAN structure can pace the entire heart has remained for a large part unanswered. Recent advances in optical mapping technology have made it possible to unambiguously resolve the origin of excitation and conduction within the animal and human SAN. The combination of high-resolution optical mapping and histological structural analysis reveals that the canine and human SANs are functionally insulated from the surrounding atrial myocardium, except for several critical conduction pathways. Indeed, the SAN as a leading pacemaker requires anatomical (fibrosis, fat, and blood vessels) and/or functional barriers (paucity of connexins) to protect it from the hyperpolarizing influence of the surrounding atrium. The presence of conduction barriers and pathways may help explain how a small cluster of pacemaker cells in the SAN pacemaker complex manages to depolarize different, widely distributed areas of the right atria as evidenced functionally by exit points and breakthroughs. The autonomic nervous system and humoral factors can further regulate conduction through these pathways, affecting pacemaker automaticity and ultimately heart rate. Moreover, the conduction barriers and multiple pathways can form substrates for reentrant activity and thus lead to atrial flutter and fibrillation. This review aims to provide new insight into the function of the SAN pacemaker complex and the interaction between the atrial pacemakers and the surrounding atrial myocardium not only in animal models but also human hearts.

Andrew Cunningham, The Anatomist Anatomis’d: An Experimental Discipline in Enlightenment Europe, The History of Medicine in Context (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), pp. + xxiv + 442, £65.00, hardback, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6338-6.

Andrew Cunningham, The Anatomist Anatomis’d: An Experimental Discipline in Enlightenment Europe, The History of Medicine in Context (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), pp. + xxiv + 442, £65.00, hardback, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6338-6. - Volume 55 Issue 4

A note from history: Landmarks in history of cancer, part 2

Events that took place in medicine during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries signaled the end of the Dark Ages. The Renaissance movement, spreading from Italy across Europe, ended the religious and public prohibitions that had prevented progress in medicine. Pioneer physicians and surgeons who gave their attention to discoveries in anatomy, physiology, and chemistry established the foundations for tumor pathology, surgical oncology, and medical oncology. This review is a summary of their accomplishments.

Caryophyllales: a key group for understanding wood anatomy character states and their evolution

Definitions of character states in woods are softer than generally assumed, and more complex for workers to interpret. Only by a constant effort to transcend the limitations of glossaries can a more than partial understanding of wood anatomy and its evolution be achieved. The need for such an effort is most evident in a major group with sufficient wood diversity to demonstrate numerous problems in wood anatomical features. Caryophyllales s.l., with approximately 12 000 species, are such a group. Paradoxically, Caryophyllales offer many more interpretive problems than other ‘typically woody’ eudicot clades of comparable size: a wider range of wood structural patterns is represented in the order. An account of character expression diversity is presented for major wood characters of Caryophyllales. These characters include successive cambia (more extensively represented in Caryophyllales than elsewhere in angiosperms); vessel element perforation plates (non-bordered and bordered, with and without constrictions); lateral wall pitting of vessels (notably pseudoscalariform patterns); vesturing and sculpturing on vessel walls; grouping of vessels; nature of tracheids and fibre-tracheids, storying in libriform fibres, types of axial parenchyma, ray anatomy and shifts in ray ontogeny; juvenilism in rays; raylessness; occurrence of idioblasts; occurrence of a new cell type (ancistrocladan cells); correlations of raylessness with scattered bundle occurrence and other anatomical discoveries newly described and/or understood through the use of scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. This study goes beyond summarizing or reportage and attempts interpretations in terms of shifts in degrees of juvenilism, diversification in habit, ecological occupancy strategies (with special attention to succulence) and phylogenetic change. Phylogenetic change in wood anatomy is held to be best interpreted when accompanied by an understanding of wood ontogeny, species ecology, species habit and taxonomic context. Wood anatomy of Caryophyllales demonstrates problems inherent in binary character definitions, mapping of morphological characters onto DNA-based trees and attempts to analyse wood structure without taking into account ecological and habital features. The difficulties of bridging wood anatomy with physiology and ecology are briefly reviewed. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 164, 342–393.

The birth of endocrine pathology

The structure that would later be called the parathyroid gland was first observed around 1850, the second half of the nineteenth century in which so many new discoveries in anatomy and histology were made [1]. The first description of “a small compact yellow glandular body” [3] was followed 30 years later by the notion that removal of this structure might be responsible for acute tetany occurring after thyroidectomy. This was the period during which detailed anatomical and histological observations led to increased understanding of bodily functions in health and disease, including that of the parathyroids [2]. The pathologist Jacob Erdheim (1874–1937) built on these new discoveries in elucidating through clinical observations as well as experimental studies how parathyroids play a role in calcium metabolism and how their dysfunction leads to serious bone pathology. The story illustrates that scientific discovery is not a linear process: Erdheims understanding of parathyroid function was hampered through his misinterpretation of some of his observations.

Elaine Hobby (ed.), The birth of mankind: otherwise named, The woman’s book, Literary and Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity, Farnham and Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2009, pp. xxxix, 310, £55.00 (hardback 978-0-7546-3818-6).

Elaine Hobby’s critical edition of the earliest English translation of The birth of mankind, written (at least ostensibly) by Eucharius Rosslin, is a most welcome addition to several other recent volumes on childbirth and gynaecology that have appeared in this series. The phenomenal success of the volume, from the publication of the original German (1513) and its Latin translation, to the versions in many other European vernaculars, including English, alone justifies Hobby’s undertaking; in addition, she brings impeccable scholarship and some fresh insights to her task. In a relatively short but incisive introduction, she recognizes that her volume will be used by both specialist and general readers—just as Rosslin’s sixteenth-century English translators sought to appeal not only to the midwives for whom Rosslin originally wrote, but also to lay readers (of both sexes) with a broader interest in the subject of reproduction and sexuality. Thus, on the one hand, she engages with detailed critical debates (reassessing debts to Vesalian anatomy in the 1545 edition, and arguing strongly that Richard Jonas, the original translator, was probably the same Jonas who was Highmaster of St Paul’s school), and, on the other, she does not neglect to provide a clear overview of Renaissance understandings of reproductive physiology and humoral medicine. Since there is already a very good modern English translation of Rosslin’s German text (by Wendy Arons), readers may ask why we need Hobby’s edition of the early English version. The answer is that from the viewpoint of historians of both medicine and of the book, The birth of mankind is particularly rich and complex. The first translation (1540) was undertaken by a layman, who added to Rosslin’s text a final section, drawn (without acknowledgement) from the Hippocratic corpus, and treating the conception of mankind. This version was revised in 1545 by a physician, Thomas Raynalde, who also added a new first part, setting out in English the very recent anatomical discoveries of Vesalius, as well as reproducing the latter’s anatomical illustrations. Given that the work remained in print until 1654, going through many editions, Hobby faced a difficult choice as to the base text. She settled on the 1560 version for the reason that it underwent relatively little further change, and thus represents the version which circulated most widely for nearly a century. The decision reflects her wish to make her edition as accessible as possible to less specialist readers. Accordingly, only major differences from one edition to another are signalled in the footnotes, which—apart from useful indications of flagrant mistranslations, unacknowledged borrowings from classical sources or key historical references—are largely given over to translating less familiar sixteenth-century usage into modern English. In addition, the reader is provided with a generous medical glossary at the end of the volume. The illustrations, probably a key to the work’s early success, are reproduced satisfactorily, with the exception of the reversed images on p. 88. Specialist readers have to turn to the appendices (of which there are no fewer than fourteen) to track down both portions of text which had been excised by 1560 and tables of changes introduced between one edition and another. Hobby has painstakingly collated some fifteen different editions, but leaves it to others, should they wish, to draw their own conclusions as to the significance of the numerous small changes. Hobby’s (and/or Ashgate’s) decision to organize the volume primarily so that the general reader can peruse it comfortably and conveniently may occasionally frustrate those of who work closely in this field, but on balance I think it is justified, for this is a work which made a major contribution to the circulation of knowledge about sexuality and reproductive medicine from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, and thus deserves as wide a readership as possible. And it is important to stress that Hobby has certainly not compromised the quality of her scholarly research. This volume has surely set the agenda—and a very high standard—for a pan-European study of the reception of Rosslin’s Rose Garden.