UNDERSTANDING THE LANGUAGE OF MEDICINE

Why is Latin also Used in Medical Language?

To have the answer to this question you should know about an outstanding anatomist named VESALIUS, because he wrote in Latin the first text of systematized Human Anatomy based on actual study by dissection of the human body. His work was so innovative and brilliantly instructive that ever since Latin has become intimately associated with anatomy.

Who was Vesalius and how could he produce a work of such great importance? Vesalius, (born 1533 in Brussels, Belgium), studied first philosophy in Belgium, then anatomy in Paris, and completed his study of Medicine in Padua, Italy. Upon graduation he was appointed lecturer of Anatomy and Surgery at the university there.

He became known as a stimulating and provocative teacher, challenging his students to test the traditional concepts of anatomy against actual observations obtained from studies of the human body. This was a new approach, because previously anatomical concepts were mostly based on assumptions, derived from experiments with animals or dissections of animals.

His greatest accomplishment was a magnificent work of anatomical instruction titled "DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA" meaning, "The Fabric (or Structure) of the Human Body." Vesalius's work was so outstanding, because it represented the first scientific attempt to correct many existing errors regarding human anatomy. At the same time it also established a system to standardize both form and meaning of anatomical terms. Written in Latin, it was widely read and discussed, and it made a tremendous impact on the anatomical thinking of contemporary scholars and students alike.

What made it possible for Vesalius - he was only 25 when he engaged in the work of "the Fabrica" - to produce this uniquely innovative work of anatomical science? In addition to years of study under some of the greatest anatomists of the times, the following developments and circumstances accounted for his success:

1. At this time, dissection of the human body after death was no longer forbidden by law. Although post mortem (post = after, mort- = death) examinations were still resisted by family members of the deceased, unclaimed corpses of criminals or of unknown transients became available to Vesalius for the purpose of anatomical dissection.

2. The art of printing had just been invented and Vesalius could get his book set in print by a prominent Swiss printer.

3. Vesalius had among his students not only those interested in the practice of medicine, but also students of arts, sculptors and painters, whom he could engage to illustrate his work.

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