Anatomy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anatomy (from the Greek anatemn "I cut up, cut open" from ana "on, upon", and temn "I cut") is the study of the body plan of animals. In some of its facets, anatomy is closely related to embryology, comparative anatomy and comparative embryology,[1] through common roots in evolution. Human anatomy is important in medicine.

The discipline of anatomy is subdivided into gross (or macroscopic) anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy is the study of structures that can, when suitably presented or dissected, be seen by unaided vision with the naked eye. Microscopic anatomy is the study of structures on a microscopic scale, including histology (the study of tissues) and cytology (the study of cells).

The history of anatomy is characterized by a continual development in understanding of the functions of the organs and structures of the human body. Methods have also improved dramatically, advancing from examination of animals through dissection of cadavers (dead human bodies) to 20th century techniques including X-ray, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging.

Anatomy is the scientific study of the structure of living things including their systems, organs, and tissues. It includes the appearance and position of the various parts, the materials from which they are composed, their locations and their relationships with other parts. Anatomy is quite distinct from physiology and biochemistry, which deal with the functions of those parts. For example, an anatomist is concerned with the shape, size, position, structure, blood supply and enervation of an organ such as the liver, while a physiologist is interested in the production of bile and the role of the liver in nutrition and regulating body functions.[2]

The discipline of anatomy can be subdivided into a number of branches including gross or macroscopic anatomy and microscopic anatomy.[3]Gross anatomy is the study of structures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. It can be studied using both invasive and non-invasive methods with the goal of obtaining information about the structure and organization of organs and systems. Methods used include dissection, in which the body is surgically opened and its organs studied, and endoscopy, in which a video camera-equipped instrument is inserted through a small incision in the body wall and used to explore the internal organs and other structures. Angiography is a proceeding in which blood vessels are visualized after being injected with an opaque dye, X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging being used for this purpose.[1]Microscopic anatomy is the study of structures on a microscopic scale, including histology (the study of tissues), and embryology (the study of the human organism in its immature condition).[1]

The term "anatomy" is commonly taken to refer to human anatomy. However, substantially the same structures and tissues are found throughout the animal kingdom and the term also includes the anatomy of other animals. The structure and tissues of plants are of a dissimilar nature and they are studied in plant anatomy.[2]

In 1600 BCE, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Ancient Egyptian medical text, described the heart, its vessels, liver, spleen, kidneys, hypothalamus, uterus and bladder, and showed the blood vessels diverging from the heart. The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) features a "treatise on the heart", with vessels carrying all the body's fluids to or from every member of the body.[4]

The anatomy of the muscles and skeleton is described in the Hippocratic Corpus, an Ancient Greek medical work written by unknown authors.[5]Aristotle described vertebrate anatomy based on animal dissection. Praxagoras identified the difference between arteries and veins. Also in the 4th century BCE, Herophilos and Erasistratus produced more accurate anatomical descriptions based on vivisection of criminals in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic dynasty.[6][7]

In the 2nd century Galen, a Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher, wrote the final and highly influential anatomy treatise of ancient times.[8] He compiled existing knowledge and studied organs through vivisection of animals.[9] Galen's drawings, based mostly on dog anatomy, became effectively the only anatomical textbook for the next thousand years.[10] His work was known to Renaissance doctors only through Islamic Golden Age medicine until it was translated from the Greek some time in the 15th century.[10]

Between 1275 and 1326, the anatomists Mondino de Luzzi, Alessandro Achillini and Antonio Benivieni at Bologna carried out the first systematic human dissections since ancient times.[11][12][13] Mondino's Anatomy of 1316 was the first textbook in the mediaeval rediscovery of human anatomy. It describes the body in the order followed in Mondino's dissections, starting with the abdomen, then the thorax, then the head and limbs. It was the standard anatomy textbook for the next century.[10]

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Anatomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia