W. Bruce Fye Center For the History of Medicine: The Autopsy: In Pursuit of Pathology

Govert Bidloo
Anatomia hvmani corporis, centum & quinque tabvlis, per artificiosiss
1972, Facsimile of 1685 copy

Govert Bidoo (1649-1713), a Dutch physician, anatomist, poet, and playwright, was a professor of anatomy and medicine at the University of Leiden and served as personal physician to William III of England. 

His best-known work, Anatomia Hvmani Corporis, was published in 1685. Two notable scientific mentions described in the book include the first described case of a lipomyelomeningocele, or a fatty mass which he describes as a tumor, as well as illustrations of the ridge structure of fingers. 

The 107 copperplate engravings by Dutch Golden Age painter and pupil of Rembrandt, Gérard de Lairesse, are the most notable legacy of the book.

Garrison-Morton notes “Lairesse displayed his figures with everyday realism and sensuality, contrasting the raw dissected parts of the body with the full, soft surfaces of undissected flesh surrounding them… thus [bringing] the qualities of Dutch still-life painting into anatomical illustration, and gave a new, darker expression to the significance of dissection.”

Matteo Realdo Colombo
De re anatomica libri
1559

Matteo Realdo Colombo (1515-1559) was an Italian professor of anatomy and a surgeon. He was a colleague and friend of Andreas Vesalius, with Vesalius crediting Colombo with numerous discoveries in his revolutionary book De Fabrica. They later became rivals after Colombo noted several errors in Vesalius’s book while teaching. 

This is a first edition of Colombo’s only book, though he did not live to the final printing. The woodcut title page is the only illustration in the text and is inspired by Vesalius’s Fabrica as well as The Heart of the Miser, a bas-relief by Donatello.

In a chapter titled “Those Things Rarely Found in Anatomy”, Colombo shares a collection of curiosities he encountered during his career, including when he performed an autopsy on Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He was not present to consider a cause of death, but rather a routine procedure prior to embalming. 

These pages show the section discussed, beginning with the last paragraph on page 266 and continuing on to page 267. 

Translation: 

“Often with my own hands I extracted innumerable stones of various colors discovered in the kidneys, lungs, liver and portal vein, as you, Jacopo Boni, have seen with your own eyes, in the venerable Ignatius, general of the Society of Jesus. I also saw little stones in the ureters, bladder, colon, hemorrhoidal veins and in the umbilicus. Also, in the gall bladder, although the gall had escaped. I found little stones of various colors and shapes; and in some, a great many I saw an abscess, but what good is it to talk of abscesses…”

Giorgio Baglivi
De praxi medica ad priscam observandi rationem revocanda
1703

Duro Armeno (1668-1707) was born in Croatia and later renamed Giorgio Baglivi by his adoptive father, Pietro Angelo Baglivi, a well-known physician in Lecce, Italy. 

After receiving his degree, Baglivi worked in several hospitals across Italy before moving to Bologna to become a pupil of Marcello Malpighi. In this role, he performed physiological experiments, animal dissection, and numerous autopsies. Baglivi followed Malpighi to Rome, and they collaborated until Malpighi’s death in 1694. Baglivi performed an autopsy on Malpighi (in accordance with Malpighi’s wishes) and thoroughly described his cause of death by cerebral apoplexy. 

An English translation is available via Google Books.

Rudolf Virchow
Description and explanation of the method of performing post-mortem examinations in the dead house of the Berlin Charité Hospital: with especial reference to medico-legal practice
Translated from the second German edition by T.P. Smith
1880
 

Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) has been called the Father of Modern Pathology. Born in what was Prussia, now Poland, Virchow had a variety of interests and held many roles including physician, anthropologist, pathologist, medical historian, social reformer, writer, and politician.

Virchow introduced the concept that cellular changes are the foundation for understanding disease in pathology and autopsy. He suggested physiologic pathology, the study of the operation of the body in the study of disease, should be the future of anatomical study.

A prolific writer, Virchow has over 20 entries in Garrison-Morton, a bibliographic reference detailing the most significant books in the history of health sciences. The first German edition from 1876 is included on the list as a landmark title regarding the technique of dissection. 

In this book, Virchow features his comprehensive process for autopsy dissection. This involves examining organs in situ and relative to one another, then removing them for further study and dissection. He also endeavored to keep related components together for use in presentations. He designed this technique to detect abnormalities in organs. While he was unique in his effort to dissect organs one by one, this has now become the standard method.   

Rudolf Virchow
Description and explanation of the method of performing post-mortem examinations in the dead house of the Berlin Charité Hospital: with especial reference to medico-legal practice
Translated from the second German edition by T.P. Smith
1880

Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Jorge Francisco Tello y Muñoz
Manual técnico de anatomía patológica (autopsia--histología patológica--bacteriologia)
1918

Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) is best known for receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi in 1906 for their work on the structure of the nervous system. He was also a pathologist, histologist, and prolific artist. His father, Justo Ramón Casasús, was a professor of dissection and helped his sons study anatomy.

In the introduction of this text, Ramón y Cajal notes the first edition was written as a manual for students but given the advancements with microscopes, a new book detailing technical rules was needed to assist with a more precise diagnosis of disease and identification of infectious bacteria. He collaborated with Dr. Tello, Head of the Department of Autopsies at the Cajal Institute and Director of the Section of Epidemics of the National Institute of Hygiene.