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study medicine in 1536 and supported himself by lecturing on mathematics, geography and astronomy. In Paris, his teachers included Sylvius and Andermach, who hailed him with Andrea Vesalius as his most able assistant in dissections There he stepped over the line that Christian doctrine had drown between acceptable areas of astrology, and forbidden zone of judicial astrology (left for God-essentially fortune telling). He was threatened with excommunication. As a result of the risk and difficulties of studying medicine in Paris, Servetus left for Montpellier to finish his medical studies and obtained his MD there in1539. After his studies in Medicine, Servetus started medical practice. He became personal physician to Archbishop of Vienna and physician to Governor of Dauphine.

Servetus published yet another religious work Christianismi Restituto (Restoration of Christianity) in 1553. According to him to understand the relationship between God and humanity, and to know the Holy Spirit, one must understand the spirit within the human body. In the passage, Servetus recounts his discovery, that the blood of the pulmonary circulation flows from heart to lungs (rather than air in the lungs flowing in the left ventricle as per Galen’s concept).His discovery was based on the bright red color of blood returning to left ventricle, location, and size of different ventricles, and the fact that pulmonary artery was extremely large indicating that more blood was sent to the lungs than was necessary for their own nourishment. The bright red blood had been

charged with the vital spirit formed by the mixing of air and blood in the lungs. This also suggested that passage of blood through pores in the septum was not the major part by which blood entered the left side of heart. He did not go to consider systemic circulation, apparently satisfied that he correlated physiology with his theological conviction. It is clear that his motive was primarily religious and not medical or scientific.

Servetus’ description and account of lesser circulation was buried somewhere in 700 pages Restitutito- a theological treatise which was not a book on medicine. Thus his achievement was not widely recognised at the time. Moreover most copies of the book were burned shortly after its publication. Only three copies survived but they remained hidden for decades.

Ibn al-Nafis (1210-1288), the Egyptian physician had described pulmonary circulation in the thirteenth Century (*JAPI March-14 issue). It is apparent that Servetus and others were unaware of this as no translation was available. It seems unlikely that Servetus influenced anatomists any more than Ibn-al-Nafis.

Servetus also contributed enormously to medicine with other published works such as Complete Explanation of Syrups and his study on syphilis in his Apology against Leonard Fuchs, among others.

His career remains a fascinating revelation of the dark underside of Renaissance and religious intolerance.

Ambroise Paré (1510-1590)JV Pai-Dhungat*, Falguni Parikh*

Ambroise Pare was a French surgeon, born in Laval Mayenne in 1510. He belonged

to the era in which physicians removed themselves from surgery, considering it to be fit for manual labourers, but not for professional men of intellect. In those days, till seventeenth century, surgery was merely one of the specialisations of barber's profession; the flesh was cut as well as the hair. Indeed Pare was only a barber's apprentice when he came to Paris as a boy.

Pare attached himself to the army as a

Postal stamps released on Ambroise Paré, France-1943, Hungary-1987 and Laval Castle - Paré’s birthplace, France 1962

barber -surgeon, and his fame grew rapidly. He became the first army surgeon and eventually the greatest surgeon of his day in France. He rose to higher posts until he was surgeon to Henry-ll and his three sons, who ruled successively as Francis-ll, Charles-IX and Henry-Ill. There is a story that he turned Protestant and that he was saved during St Bartholomew's Day massacre only because the king needed his services.

Benefitting from the anatomical discoveries of the 16th century (Vesalius, Fallopius,

*Dept. of Medicine, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital,

Mumbai 400 008.

Journal of the association of physicians of india • vol 63 • march, 2015 31

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)JV Pai-Dhungat*, Falguni Parikh*

Vesalius was a Belgian anatomist. His father, Andre Wesal was an apothecary.

His mother was an English Woman. After initial studies, he went to France and studied medicine at Montpellier. Later he went to Padua, where his professor of anatomy was Jacob Sylvius.

For some reason Jacob Sylvius, crossed with him and remained his enemy till the end. Vesalius was professor of anatomy at Padua for some time. Sylvius had condemned his former student as a "madman whose pestilential teachings were poisoning Europe". When he was discredited, even by his other colleagues and students, he left Padua, at the age of 30, never to return again. He accepted an invitation to the Spanish court in 1559, where he became physician at the court of Phillip-ll.

Vesalius was the greatest anatomist of the 16th century and broke away from Galanic tradition using the human body for his textbook. He had to obtain bodies for dissection. This was solved, by body snatching (a practice seen in horror movies today), which led to grave robbing. Known as father

400th death anniversary of Andreas Vesalius. Belgium, 1964

500th birth anniversary of Vesalius. Joint issue by Belgium and Portugal, 2014 Vesalius- Hungary, 1989

of modern anatomy, he published his great work "De Corporis Humani Fabrica" in 1543 at the age of 29 and claimed to have corrected 200 of Galen's errors. Fabrica owes much of its greatness to its illustrator, Jan Stephan Van Calcar, a Flemish painter who was a student of the famous Titian. The drawings are still among the most accurate and natural representation of human anatomy in existence. The anatomy courses taught by Vesalius were well attended. His students were required to make their own dissections, a practice that is standard in medical colleges today. In spite of his great contribution to anatomy, his name is not associated with any important structure in the body.

Eighteen years later, after the death of his old enemy Sylvius, Vesalius was invited back to Padua to take the chair of anatomy. Considering this as his moment of celebration, he decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before returning to Padua. On the return journey, he faced a shipwreck during a violent storm, and died in 1564, on a small island off the Greek coast, where he was buried.

*Dept. of Medicine, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital,

Mumbai 400 008

Eustachius, etc) he applied himself to practical surgery with conspicuous success. He invented many new surgical instruments, reintroduced the use of ligature, used trusses for hernia and improved the method of treating wounds and combating infection. Most surgeons of the time practiced a lot of searing. They disinfected gunshot wounds with boiling oil and stopped bleeding by cauterising the arteries (without anaesthetic). Pare used soothing ointment for gunshot wounds and tied off the arteries to stop bleeding. With infinitesimal fraction of pain, he brought off far more cures. He devised

clever artificial limbs and improved obstetrical methods. It is no wonder that he is considered the father of modern surgery.

He wrote a number of books, including a treatise on gunshot wounds (1545), an essay on podalic version (1550) and a treatise on surgery (1564). He also wrote French summaries of the works of Vesalius.

His most famous apothegm is from the 1585 edition of his work - Je le Pensay & Dieu le guariti - (I dressed him, and God healed him"). It has had various English renditions. Each reflects Pare's credit to divine assistance.