Greek anatomist herophilus: the father of anatomy

PubMed Central

Bay, Noel Si-Yang

2010-01-01

One of the most stirring controversies in the history of Anatomy is that Herophilus, an ancient Greek anatomist and his younger contemporary, Erasistratus, were accused of performing vivisections of living humans. However, this does not detract from the fact that Herophilus has made phenomenal anatomical observations of the human body which have contributed significantly towards the understanding of the brain, eye, liver, reproductive organs and nervous system. It is notable that he was the first person to perform systematic dissection of the human body and is widely acknowledged as the Father of Anatomy. He has been hailed as one of the greatest anatomists that ever lived, rivaled only by Andreas Vesalius who is regarded as the founder of modern human anatomy. PMID:21267401

Protein vivisection reveals elusive intermediates in folding

PubMed Central

Zheng, Zhongzhou; Sosnick, Tobin R.

2010-01-01

Although most folding intermediates escape detection, their characterization is crucial to the elucidation of folding mechanisms. Here we outline a powerful strategy to populate partially unfolded intermediates: A buried aliphatic residue is substituted with a charged residue (e.g., Leu→Glu−) to destabilize and unfold a specific region of the protein. We apply this strategy to Ubiquitin, reversibly trapping a folding intermediate in which the β5 strand is unfolded. The intermediate refolds to a native-like structure upon charge neutralization under mildly acidic conditions. Characterization of the trapped intermediate using NMR and hydrogen exchange methods identifies a second folding intermediate and reveals the order and free energies of the two major folding events on the native side of the rate-limiting step. This general strategy may be combined with other methods and have broad applications in the study of protein folding and other reactions that require trapping of high energy states. PMID:20144618

Bram Stoker's brother, the brain surgeon.

PubMed

Stiles, Anne

2013-01-01

This essay examines the life and work of Sir William Thornley Stoker, 1st Baronet (1845-1912), the eldest brother of Bram Stoker (1847-1912), the author of Dracula (1897). Sir William or "Thornley," as he was commonly known, was one of Ireland's leading physicians. He performed some of the first brain surgeries in Ireland using Sir David Ferrier's maps of the cerebral cortex. From 1879 into the twentieth century, Thornley served as inspector for Ireland under the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act. In this role, Thornley was responsible for granting licenses to researchers who performed experiments on live animals. Due to his reservations about animal experimentation, Thornley eventually became an advocate for the antivivisection cause, testifying at the second Royal Commission on Vivisection (1906-1912). Thornley also influenced Irish literature, albeit indirectly. Bram Stoker's composition notes for Dracula show that he consulted his older brother about the medical scenes in his novel. Thornley's knowledge of cerebral localization and his animal rights advocacy both surface in Dracula. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neuroanatomy of herophilus.

PubMed

Pearce, J M S

2013-01-01

Herophilus (ca. 330 to ca. 260 BC) was one of Hellenistic -Alexandria's renowned scholars, a leading physician, often named the 'Father of Anatomy'. From cadaveric dissections and possibly vivisection Herophilus considered the ventricles to be the seat of the soul, intelligence and mental functions. Herophilus introduced the term rete mirabile found in ungulates but not in man, as opposed to Galen, who erroneously believed it a vital human network. A founder of the principles of observations in science, and an exponent of measurements in medicine, his accurate dissections resulted in original anatomical discoveries. He distinguished nerves that produce voluntary motion from blood vessels, and motor from sensory nerves; the nerves of the spinal cord were directly linked to the brain. He identified at least seven pairs of cranial nerves. Herophilus demonstrated the meninges, and ventricles, regarding the fourth as most important. His name is perpetuated by his accounts of the calamus scriptorius and the confluence of venous sinuses the torcular Herophili. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Design of a telemetry system based on wireless power transmission for physiological parameter monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Zhiwei; Yan, Guozheng; Zhu, Bingquan

2015-04-01

An implanted telemetry system for experimental animals with or without anaesthesia can be used to continuously monitor physiological parameters. This system is significant not only in the study of organisms but also in the evaluation of drug efficacy, artificial organs, and auxiliary devices. The system is composed of a miniature electronic capsule, a wireless power transmission module, a data-recording device, and a processing module. An electrocardiograph, a temperature sensor, and a pressure sensor are integrated in the miniature electronic capsule, in which the signals are transmitted in vitro by wireless communication after filtering, amplification, and A/D sampling. To overcome the power shortage of batteries, a wireless power transmission module based on electromagnetic induction was designed. The transmitting coil of a rectangular-section solenoid and a 3D receiving coil are proposed according to stability and safety constraints. Experiments show that at least 150 mW of power could pick up on the load in a volume of Φ10.5 mm × 11 mm, with a transmission efficiency of 2.56%. Vivisection experiments verified the feasibility of the integrated radio-telemetry system.

Protecting human subjects in research.

PubMed

Orticio, Lily P

2009-01-01

The quest for advancing scientific knowledge through human experimentations using vulnerable groups is traced back to ancient history, when Herophilus performed vivisections on prisoners. The violation of the rights of human subjects through the 20th century led to the formulation of the Nuremberg Code in 1947 and the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964. In the United States, the most infamous was the Tuskegee public health study that resulted in the enactment of the National Research Act that authorized the creation of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects in Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1974. In spite of existing federal regulations, the system of protecting human subjects is still flawed. Transparency of conflict ofinterest, clarity, and strict adherence to institutional guidelines are critical in safeguarding the rights and safety of human subjects and the integrity of research. Education on ethics and emerging complex ethical issues, global awareness, and governmental cooperation and sanctions are important steps in addressing the inadequacies in protecting the most vulnerable populations in experimentations worldwide. Investigators must always remember that the primary safeguards of protecting human life rest in their hands.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jia, Zhiwei, E-mail: jiayege@hotmail.com; Yan, Guozheng; Zhu, Bingquan

An implanted telemetry system for experimental animals with or without anaesthesia can be used to continuously monitor physiological parameters. This system is significant not only in the study of organisms but also in the evaluation of drug efficacy, artificial organs, and auxiliary devices. The system is composed of a miniature electronic capsule, a wireless power transmission module, a data-recording device, and a processing module. An electrocardiograph, a temperature sensor, and a pressure sensor are integrated in the miniature electronic capsule, in which the signals are transmitted in vitro by wireless communication after filtering, amplification, and A/D sampling. To overcome themore » power shortage of batteries, a wireless power transmission module based on electromagnetic induction was designed. The transmitting coil of a rectangular-section solenoid and a 3D receiving coil are proposed according to stability and safety constraints. Experiments show that at least 150 mW of power could pick up on the load in a volume of Φ10.5 mm × 11 mm, with a transmission efficiency of 2.56%. Vivisection experiments verified the feasibility of the integrated radio-telemetry system.« less

Defining a discovery: priority and methodological controversy in early nineteenth-century anatomy

PubMed Central

Berkowitz, Carin

2014-01-01

In the early nineteenth century, Charles Bell and François Magendie engaged in a decades-long priority dispute over the discovery of the roots of motor and sensory nerves. The constantly recalibrated arguments of its participants illuminate changes in the life sciences during that period. When Bell first wrote about the nerves in 1811, surgeon-anatomists ran small schools out of their homes, natural theology was in vogue, exchanges between British and French medical practitioners were limited by the Napoleonic Wars, and British practitioners typically rejected experimental physiology and vivisection. By the end of Magendie's career, medical science was produced in the laboratory, taught through artfully produced performances of the sort at which Magendie excelled, and disseminated through journals. It is not entirely clear which historical character, Bell or Magendie, ‘won’ the dispute, nor that they even had clear and consistent positions in it, but what is clear is that one style of science had won out over the other, and over the course of the dispute, pedagogy lost pride of place in medical science. PMID:27494015

Supporting the underdog: feminism, animal rights and citizenship in the work of Alice Morgan Wright and Edith Goode.

PubMed

Birke, L

2000-01-01

In this article, the author examines the overlap between feminism and animal causes, particularly through the lives of two women, the sculptor, Alice Morgan Wright (1881-1975), and her friend, Edith Goode (1882-1970). Feminism and animal causes had connections in the late nineteenth century, particularly in campaigns to abolish vivisection. Wright and Goode held to these politics throughout their lives, and were "precursors of a generation yet to come" who would argue the connections - as many ecofeminists do today. Both women were involved in suffrage campaigns, and continued to be involved in women's organisations such as the National Woman's Party. They were, however, opposed to all injustice, including human mistreatment of animals. Feminism was, to Wright and Goode, part of a wider set of problems; animal cruelty reflected a greater barbarism leading to mistreatment of humans. Accordingly, they actively campaigned for legislation to protect animals and the environment, and lobbied the fledgling United Nations to include such measures. That challenge to the United Nations represented a unique attempt to bring animals into citizenship' a move being made again today, through initiatives such as the Great Ape Project.

The United States cover-up of Japanese wartime medical atrocities: complicity committed in the national interest and two proposals for contemporary action.

PubMed

Nie, Jing-Bao

2006-01-01

To monopolize the scientific data gained by Japanese physicians and researchers from vivisections and other barbarous experiments performed on living humans in biological warfare programs such as Unit 731, immediately after the war the United States (US) government secretly granted those involved immunity from war crimes prosecution, withdrew vital information from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and publicly denounced otherwise irrefutable evidence from other sources such as the Russian Khabarovsk trial. Acting in "the national interest" and for the security of the US, authorities in the US tramped justice and morality, and engaged in what the English common law tradition clearly defines as "complicity after the fact." To repair this historical injustice, the US government should issue an official apology and offer appropriate compensation for having covered up Japanese medical war crimes for six decades. To help prevent similar acts of aiding principal offender(s) in the future, international declarations or codes of human rights and medical ethics should include a clause banning any kind of complicity in any unethical medicine-whether before or after the fact-by any state or group for whatever reasons.

Executions and scientific anatomy.

PubMed

Dolezal, Antonín; Jelen, Karel; Stajnrtova, Olga

2015-12-01

The very word "anatomy" tells us about this branch's connection with dissection. Studies of anatomy have taken place for approximately 2.300 years already. Anatomy's birthplace lies in Greece and Egypt. Knowledge in this specific field of science was necessary during surgical procedures in ophthalmology and obstetrics. Embalming took place without public disapproval just like autopsies and manipulation with relics. Thus, anatomical dissection became part of later forensic sciences. Anatomical studies on humans themselves, which needed to be compared with the knowledge gained through studying procedures performed on animals, elicited public disapprobation and prohibition. When faced with a shortage of cadavers, anatomists resorted to obtaining bodies of the executed and suicide victims - since torture, public display of the mutilated body, (including anatomical autopsy), were perceived as an intensification of the death penalty. Decapitation and hanging were the main execution methods meted out for death sentences. Anatomists preferred intact bodies for dissection; hence, convicts could thus avoid torture. This paper lists examples of how this process was resolved. It concerns the manners of killing, vivisection on people in the antiquity and middle-ages, experiments before the execution and after, vivifying from seeming death, experiments with galvanizing electricity on fresh cadavers, evaluating of sensibility after guillotine execution, and making perfect anatomical preparations and publications during Nazism from fresh bodies of the executed.

[The establishment and meaning of the three-dimensional finite element model of pelvic floor levator ani muscle in an old healthy woman].

PubMed

Chen, Wei; Wn, Lijun; Yan, Zhihan; Wang, Jusong; Fu, Yalan; Chen, Xiongfei; Liu, Kun; Wu, Zhipeng

2011-10-01

This paper is to establish a three-dimensional finite element model (3D-FEM) of pelvic floor levator ani muscles in an old healthy women. We acquired the image data of the pelvic bones and pelvic floor muscles from CT and MRI scanning in a non-pregnant old healthy female volunteers. The 3-D reconstruction and mesh optimization of the whole pelvic bones and muscles with application of image processing software Mimics12.0 and Geomagic9.0 were obtained. Then we built the 3D-FEM of the musculoskeletal system of the pelvic bones and levator ani muscles with Ansys11.0 software. We obtained an accurate 3D-FEM of pelvic bones and levator ani muscles in the older healthy woman. The results showed that it was reliable to build 3D-FEM with CT and MRI scanning data and this model could vividly reflect the huge space anatomy of the real pelvic floor levator ani muscles. It avoids the defects to gain the model from the body of anatomical specimens in the past. The image data of model are closer to vivisection, and the model is more conducive to the latter finite element analysis.

Ontological forms of religious meaning and the conflict between science and religion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hathcoat, John D.; Habashi, Janette

2013-06-01

Epistemological constructions are central considerations in vivisecting an expressed conflict between science and religion. It is argued that the conflict thesis is only meaningful when examined from a specific socio-historical perspective. The dialectical relation between science and religion should therefore be considered at both a macro and micro level. At the macro level broad changes in the meaning of science and religion occur; whereas at the micro level individuals immersed within particular expressions of these concepts socially construct, re-construct, and appropriate meaning. Specific attention is given to expressions of meaning surrounding sacred texts in this dialectical relation. Two ontological forms of meaning are examined through a qualitative content analysis of 16 interviews with individuals from various religious affiliation and academic attainment. A monistic ontology constructs textual meaning as facts that have the qualities of being both self-evident and certain. Potential tension arises with scientific discourse given empirical evidence may either confirm or conflict with scriptural interpretation. The pluralistic ontology constructs textual meaning with multiple categories, which in turn have the qualities of being mediated by human consciousness and uncertain. The science-religion dichotomy appears to be less susceptible to conflict given the uncertainty embedded in this construction of scriptural meaning. This paper implies that truth as correspondence may not necessitate the conflict thesis.

The discovery of the body: human dissection and its cultural contexts in ancient Greece.

PubMed Central

von Staden, H.

1992-01-01

In the first half of the third century B.C, two Greeks, Herophilus of Chalcedon and his younger contemporary Erasistratus of Ceos, became the first and last ancient scientists to perform systematic dissections of human cadavers. In all probability, they also conducted vivisections of condemned criminals. Their anatomical and physiological discoveries were extraordinary. The uniqueness of these events presents an intriguing historical puzzle. Animals had been dissected by Aristotle in the preceding century (and partly dissected by other Greeks in earlier centuries), and, later, Galen (second century A.D.) and others again systematically dissected numerous animals. But no ancient scientists ever seem to have resumed systematic human dissection. This paper explores, first, the cultural factors--including traditional Greek attitudes to the corpse and to the skin, also as manifested in Greek sacred laws--that may have prevented systematic human dissection during almost all of Greek antiquity, from the Pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. to distinguished Greek physicians of the later Roman Empire. Second, the exceptional constellation of cultural, political, and social circumstances in early Alexandria that might have emboldened Herophilus to overcome the pressures of cultural traditions and to initiate systematic human dissection, is analyzed. Finally, the paper explores possible reasons for the mysteriously abrupt disappearance of systematic human dissection from Greek science after the death of Erasistratus and Herophilus. PMID:1285450

Dog fight: Darwin as animal advocate in the antivivisection controversy of 1875.

PubMed

Feller, David Allan

2009-12-01

The traditional characterization of Charles Darwin as a strong advocate of physiological experimentation on animals was posited in Richard French's Antivivisection and medical science in Victorian England (1975), where French portrayed him as a soldier in Thomas Huxley's efforts to preserve anatomical experimentation on animals unfettered by government regulation. That interpretation relied too much on, inter alia, Huxley's own description of the legislative battles of 1875, and shared many historians' propensity to foster a legacy of Darwin as a leader among a new wave of scientists, even where personal interests might indicate a conflicting story. Animal rights issues concerned more than mere science for Darwin, however, and where debates over other scientific issues failed to inspire Darwin to become publicly active, he readily joined the battle over vivisection, helping to draft legislation which, in many ways, was more protective of animal rights than even the bills proposed by his friend and anti-vivisectionist, Frances Power Cobbe. Darwin may not have officially joined Cobbe's side in the fight, but personal correspondence of the period between 1870 and 1875 reveals a man whose first interest was to protect animals from inhumane treatment, and second to protect the reputations of those men and physiologists who were his friends, and who he believed incapable of inhumane acts. On this latter point he and Cobbe never did reach agreement, but they certainly agreed on the humane treatment of animals, and the need to proscribe various forms of animal experimentation.

Sensitive and rapid detection of endogenous hydrogen sulfide distributing in different mouse viscera via a two-photon fluorescent probe.

PubMed

Chen, Qian; Yang, Jinfeng; Li, Yinhui; Zheng, Jing; Yang, Ronghua

2015-10-08

Development of efficient methods for detection of endogenous H2S in living cells and tissues is of considerable significance for better understanding the biological and pathological functions of H2S. Two-photon (TP) fluorescent probes are favorable as powerful molecular tools for studying physiological process due to its non-invasiveness, high spatiotemporal resolution and deep-tissues imaging. Up to date, several TP probes for intracellular H2S imaging have been designed, but real-time imaging of endogenous H2S-related biological processes in tissues is hampered due to low sensitivity, long response time and interference from other biothiols. To address this issue, we herein report a novel two-photon fluorescent probe (TPP-H2S) for highly sensitive and fast monitoring and imaging H2S levels in living cells and tissues. In the presence of H2S, it exhibits obviously improved sensitivity (LOD: 0.12 μM) and fast response time (about 2 min) compared with the reported two-photon H2S probes. With two-photon excitation, TPP-H2S displays high signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity even no interference in cell growth media. As further application, TPP-H2S is applied for fast imaging of H2S in living cells and different fresh tissues by two-photon confocal microscope. Most importantly we first measured the endogenous H2S level in different viscera by vivisection and found that the distribution of endogenous H2S mostly in brain, liver and lung. The excellent sensing properties of TPP-H2S make it a practically useful tool for further studying biological roles of H2S. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard's departure from the Medical College of Virginia: incompatible science or incompatible social views in pre-Civil War southern United States.

PubMed

Watson, Joseph C; Ho, Stephen V

2011-01-01

Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard was one of the most colorful characters in modern physiology. His scientific methods of self-experimentation and animal vivisection led to many great observations, including the eponymous syndrome of hemisection of the spinal cord. Despite his renown, he stayed but one year in his first major academic post. Details of his sojourn at the Medical College of Virginia (now part of Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond were divined from perusal of archival material, letters, and from the available literature. His notoriety in the field of physiology landed him a post at the Medical College of Virginia in 1854 as the chair of physiology. During a brief time here, he was able to publish his landmark monograph of 1855 on the pathways of the spinal cord "Experimental and Clinical Researches on the Physiology and Pathology of the Spinal Cord." He had a near-death experience while experimenting on himself to determine the function of the skin. It was rumored that his English was poor, his lectures unintelligible, and his scientific methods disturbing to the neighbors and that for those reasons he was asked to vacate his post. Personal communications and other accounts indicate a different view: his mixed-blood heritage and his views on slavery were unpopular in the pre-Civil War southern United States. These disparate viewpoints lend an insight into the life and career of this pioneer in modern medicine and experimental design and to the clash of science and social views. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[The experiments conducted by Japanese on human guinea pigs, and the use of biological weapons during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945)].

PubMed

Sabbatani, Sergio

2014-09-01

Starting from the end of the nineteenth century, and during the first four decades of the past century, Japan showed considerable military expansion, on the back of a pan-Asiatic and imperialistic ideology, comparable only to those expressed by Wilhelmian and Nazi Germany. This growth led to Japan playing an extremely important role in the Asia-Pacific continent, which unavoidably brought the country onto a collision course with the British Empire and the United States of America. The Japanese general Shiro Ishii, who had undoubted organisational abilities but also a propensity for crimes against mankind, starting from the end of the 1920s and during the subsequent decade, under the suggestion of a military physician, developed a research programme to obtain biological weapons, since he was aware of the lack of raw materials, technology and scientific background in nuclear weapons. This project was taken forward despite Japan's ratification of the Geneva protocol, undersigned by 70 nations, which posed strict limits to the use of both biological and chemical weapons. In actual fact, the protocol allowed these weapons for defensive purposes, and permitted their experimental development. The research programme, developed with the support of the high command of the Japanese army and certainly known by the Emperor (Tenno) Hirohito, had its operative basis from the year 1932 in the satellite state of Manchukuo, but later and paralleling the increased, aggressive behaviour towards China and the English and American colonies during World War II, spread towards other Asian provinces occupied by the Japanese armies, with other operative units. In these dedicated bases, which were true concentration camps, numerous experiments were carried out on human guinea pigs, frequently concluding with vivisection. Among others, experiments of freezing, thirst, hunger, loss of blood, wounding with firearms, and bone fractures, were performed, as well as the inoculation of microorganisms (including Yersinia pestis, Vibrio cholerae, Richettsia typhi, and Salmonella typhi), and spores of Bacillus anthracis. With regard to infectious diseases, the objective was to establish the most effective models for the use of biological weapons, taking into consideration the features of territories and populations to be placed under attack. It has been estimated that over 100,000 people suffered in such experiments, and according to the authors who studied these facts on the basis of original documentation, approximately 540,000 subjects lost their lives in China and Korea due to epidemics caused by the Japanese between 1937 and 1945.

[The significance of animals in biomedical research].

PubMed

Pawlik, W W

1998-01-01

The mission of medicine is maintenance of health, elimination of suffering and prolongation of life. These aims can be achieved by medicine based on experimental determination, because only then it becomes a real science. The nature of human mind has led the man since the beginning of humanity on the earth to the cognition of his environment and himself. Being intellectually superior than other living creatures, the man got power over them. In his endless efforts to expand knowledge about living organisms, including his own, he started to use animals. The man has used animals for cognitive purposes for ages and is still doing it, however his motivation has changed and is still changing. Cognition of functions of living organisms on the basis of observation solely, without any interference into the living body gave a lot of important information, yet, generally, this method was of little use for the development of science. Only the use of animals could give information about this what was earlier unknown and impossible. The long-lasting evolution of experimental studies of living functions of higher organisms resulted in achieving a perfect level in biomedical studies. Vivisection, as it was understood years ago, has become history. For a chronic experiment, an animal is surgically prepared according to the researcher's intention. The surgery and the postoperative period follow the principles used in human surgery. After the convalesce period, the animal is used for further experiments. On such prepared animals, the investigations in experimental cardiology, neurophysiology, gastroenterology and other medical disciplines are performed. The animal prepared for longlasting experiments do not suffer from pain during both the experiments and intervals between them. Another important achievement in chronic experiments is considerable reduction of the number of animals used in experimental medicine. Undoubtedly, the greatest achievements in medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries were possible due to the use of animals. There is a strong relationship between a rapid progress in experiments on animals and evident progress in clinical medicine. In the second half of the 20th century the man left the globe for the first time and reached another planet. Tis unusual event in the history of humanity was possible due to space medicine based on biomedical experiments with the use of animals. Also, the man's ability to reach the depths of oceans cost the lives of many experimental animals. Despite advances that have already been made, we are still in the early stages of understanding the complex workings of the body. This makes the replacement of animal experiments a slow process. At the same time, our increasing knowledge is opening up whole new areas of medical research which in turn give rise to a need for further animal use. While it may be difficult to envisage total replacement, the proposition of work that can be done without animals is increasing all the time. Many efforts are being made to find alternatives to animal experiments, to increase the usefulness of those that already exist, and to refine animal research methods. But at present days biomedicine, with its experiments on animals, reveals the laws of nature which the clinical and his patient can use to improve the life quality, prolong the life span and eliminate suffering. We all want to lead a healthy and enjoyable life. Most of us want the benefits of modern medical research-benefits that we would not have without the contribution of animal research. Yet, the health and well being of animals is important too. Clearly, those involved in this research have a moral and legal obligation to ensure that laboratory animals are well housed and cared for, any distress is kept to a minimum and that as few animals as possible are used. In the end, the question of whether animals should be used in medicines research is one everyone must answer for themselves, but the decision is more c