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Andreas Vesalius dared to say Galen was wrong

60 second histories

This video covers:  An explanation as to why Vesalius questioned Galen's accuracy and what he discovered when he was dissecting a human jaw.

Do you know that all through my years of studying medicine I was told Galen’s teachings are correct but I have discovered through my own dissections that he was not. Take for instance his description of the human lower jaw bone; Galen insists that it is made up of two separate bones but I have dissected many human jaws and I can tell you that the lower jaw consists of one piece of bone, animals have jaws made up of two bones and this may be where Galen made his mistake. Other doctors find it difficult to accept that Galen was wrong and many have criticised me but another example is Galen’s idea about the human heart. He believed that blood moves from one side of the heart to the other through holes in the septum in the middle of the heart but I have found this is not to be true, you see, I have studied the septum in a human heart and there are no holes in it and it is also very thick so no blood can pass through.
Eras: 
Medicine & Health
Tudor
Topics: 
Key people
Medicine & health
Character: 
Andreas Vesalius
Key words: 
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