Learning anatomy by dissecting the human body
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Was Sushruta the first to study anatomy by dissecting human bodies, before the Greeks of Alexandria and Vesalius?
Independent discoveriesMedicine & health
Indian claim
The Sushruta Samhita tells surgeons to study a body by placing it in a cage in flowing water for about seven days and then removing the layers one by one with a brush, so that skin, muscle and organs can be seen.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Sushruta's method is a practical answer to the taboo against cutting a dead body, and it insists that a surgeon must see the body for himself.
Commonly credited to
Herophilus and Erasistratus systematically dissected human bodies in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE. Andreas Vesalius founded modern anatomy with his book De humani corporis fabrica in 1543.
Evidence for the other claim
- Herophilus's work in Alexandria is dated fairly securely to around 300–250 BCE, which may be earlier than this passage of the Sushruta Samhita.
- Dissection then stopped in both regions for centuries. Modern anatomy grew from Vesalius's published, illustrated work.
What historians and scientists say
Human dissection for teaching appeared in India and in Hellenistic Alexandria at about the same time, apparently without contact. Sushruta's water-maceration method is unique to India.