Development of Anatomy

Anatomy according to Vesalius (1543) should rightly be regarded as the firm foundation of the whole art of medicine and its essential preliminary. It should also be realise that anatomy introduce the student to a large portion of the medical terminology. Anatomy is the branch of biological science which deals with the form and structure of organisms. It is, therefore, in close correlation with physiology which treats of the functions of the body.

Etymologically the word ‘anatomy’ signifies the cutting apart or this association of parts of the body. In the early year phases of its development anatomy was necessarily a purely descriptive science based on such observations as were possible with the unaided and simple dissecting instrument scaple, foreceps and the like. At that time therefore the term adequately expressed the nature of the subject. But as the scope of the science expanded and the body of anatomical knowledge grew, subdivisions became necessary and new terms where introduced to designate special fields and methods of work. With the introduction of the microscope and its accessories it became possible to study the finer details of structure  minute organisms hitherto unknown, and this field of inquiry rapidly developed into the science of micro scope anatomy or histology as conventionally distinguished from microscope or gross anatomy. In this same way the study of the changes which organisms undergo during there development soon attained sufficient importances to  be regard on practical ground as a separate branch known as Embryology.This term is usually limited in its applications to the earliar phases of development during which the tissuses and organs are form. The term ontogeny is used to designate the entire development of the  individual. The ancestral history or phylogeny of the species is constituted by the evolutionary changes which it has undergone, as disclosed by the geological record.

Posted in: Anatomy and Histology