Physiology
Systematic
human anatomical dissection was no more a pursuit
of medieval Islamic society than it was of medieval
Christendom. It seems clear from the available
evidence, however, that there were no explicit
legal or religious strictures banning it. Indeed,
many scholars in Islam lauded the study of anatomy,
primarily as a way of demonstrating the design
and wisdom of God, and there are some references
in medical writings to dissection, though to what
extent these reflect actual practice is problematic.
Knowledge
of human anatomy in medieval Islam was firmly
based on the anatomical writings of Galen, who
flourished in the 2nd century AD, and who to a
large extent argued from analogy with animal structures.
Galen's writings were available in the Islamic
world through the translation of Hunayn ibn Ishaq
and his collaborators.
There
were two noteworthy contributions made to the
history of anatomy and physiology by medieval
Islamic writers: One was the result of chance
observation: ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d.
1231/629) was able to improve the description
of the bones of the lower jaw and sacrum following
the discovery of some skeletons during a famine
in Egypt in 1200.
The
second was the description of the movement of
blood through the pulmonary transit by the Syrian
physician Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288/678). Ibn al-Nafis
composed a very popular epitome of the Canon of
Medicine by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) which he called
the Mujiz.
In
addition, however, Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a commentary
on the Canon in which he criticized Ibn Sina for
spreading his discussion of the anatomy over several
different sections of the Canon. Ibn al-Nafis
subsequently prepared a separate commentary on
just the anatomical portions, and it was in this
latter commentary that he explicitly stated that
the blood in the right ventricle of the heart
must reach the left ventricle by way of the lungs
and not through a passage connecting the ventricles,
as Galen had maintained.
This
formulation of the pulmonary circulation, sometimes
called the 'lesser circulation', was made three
centuries before Michael Servetus (d. 1553) and
Realdo Colombo (d. 1559), the first Europeans
to describe the pulmonary circulation.
Because
the discussions of anatomy are scattered throughout
the huge Canon of Medicine by Avicenna (Ibn Sina),
with the anatomy of a particular organ discussed
only in the section concerned with diseases particular
to that organ, these anatomical portions of the
Canon were often copied out and compiled as a
separate treatise. Two manuscripts in the NLM
collection illustrate this interest in the anatomical
portions of the Canon: (MS A 56, MS A 27, item
1). In both copies the margins contain extracts
from the commentary written by Ibn al-Nafis on
the anatomical portions of the Canon; the extracts
are slightly more extensive in MS A 27 than in
MS A 56.
All
the major Arabic and Persian medical encyclopedias
had sections on anatomy, summarizing the Galenic
anatomical concepts. These were occasionally illustrated
with schematic diagrams of the eye or the cranial
sutures or the bones of the upper jaw or, occasionally
the ventricles of the brain.
Ar-Razi
diagrammed many body parts, including the ventricles
or cells of the brain illustrated in Kitab al-Mansuri
fi al-tibb, cranial sutures, the upper jaw and
teeth, and the visual system.
No
anatomical illustrations of the entire body are
known to have been produced in the Islamic world
before those that usually accompany the Persian-language
treatise Tashrih-i badan-i insan (The Anatomy
of the Human Body) by Ibn Ilyas (circa 1390).
What
is Taught: William Harvey, during the
early 17th century, discovered that blood circulates.
He
was the first to correctly describe the function
of the heart, arteries and veins.
Rome's
Galen had presented erroneous ideas regarding
the circulatory system, and Harvey was the first
to determine that blood is pumped throughout the
body via the action of the heart and the venous
valves. Therefore, he is regarded as the founder
of human physiology.
What
Should be Taught: In the 10th century,
Islam's ar-Razi wrote an in-depth treatise on
the venous system, accurately describing the function
of the veins and their valves.
Ibn
an-Nafs and Ibn al-Quff (13th century) provided
full documentation that the blood circulates and
correctly described the physiology of the heart
and the function of its valves 300 years before
Harvey.
William
Harvey was a graduate of Italy's famous Padua
University at a time when the majority of its
curriculum was based upon Ibn Sina's and ar-Razi's
textbooks.
Ar-Razi
10th Century
Ar-Razi
devoted an entire book as a critique of Galen's
anatomy.
The
works of Paracelsus are insignificant compared
to the vast volumes of medical writings and original
findings accomplished by the medical giants of
Islam.
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