The Anatomical Enlightenment

Wide ranging circumstances influenced the revival and unfolding of human anatomy. Human anatomical dissection became the cutting edge of medical investigation and the essence of a doctor’s training. This anatomical revolution brought about a paradigm shift in the traditional thinking about the body together with its relationship to the mind and soul which had so dominated medieval thinking. In this period a gulf evolved in the medical world separating physicians from surgeons and, in some ways, the study of the human body. In more recent times the study and teaching of anatomy by dissection has declined.