Throughout ancient Greek history, great strides were taken in the medical, biological, and anatomical fields. Physicians experimented to reach new conclusions and further their general understanding of the human body. One way that physicians did so was through human dissection. This field has an interesting history, however it was practiced sparingly in ancient Greece. Animal dissection was common throughout the time period although, there were many cultural, religious, and moral taboos against human dissection. This influenced many physicians not to use human dissection to investigate the body because they were wary of the possible consequences their practice could have. Due to these restrictions, after its inception, human dissection was …show more content…
Alcmaeon was a Greek physician from Croton who was alive around 300 B.C.E. He is often thought to be an important figure in the development of the biological sciences in ancient Greece, and is sometimes credited with being the father of dissection and anatomy. G.E.R. Lloyd re-analyzes and refutes this claim in his article, “Alcmaeon and the Early History of Human Dissection.” By evaluating the extent of Alcmaeon’s work as described in Chalcidius’ “Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus” and Theophrastus’ “De Sensu,” Lloyd comes to the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that Alcmaeon practiced human dissection, and therefore, he should not be described as the founder of this field. In the first text, there is a reference to human dissection and a detailed description of the internal structures of the eye, which could only have been discovered through human dissection (Lloyd). Previously, these accounts were attributed to Alcmaeon, however, by reassessing the evidence, Lloyd proves that this should be credited to Herophilus. Furthermore, Almaeon’s main conclusion was that the senses are connected to the brain. This was an important anatomical realization, although this could have been discovered without the use of human dissection. Alcmaeon most likely discovered this using a probe, and never utilized human