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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