Vesalius, Andreas
Vesalius, Andreas (1514-1564), Belgian anatomist and physician, whose dissections of the human body and description of his findings helped to correct misconceptions prevailing since ancient times and to lay the foundations of the modern science of anatomy . Vesalius was born in Brussels. The son of a celebrated apothecary, he attended the University of Leuven and later the University of Paris, where he studied from 1533 to 1536. At the University of Paris he studied medicine and showed a special interest in anatomy. Through further study at the University of Padua in 1537, Vesalius obtained his medical degree and an appointment as a lecturer on surgery. During his continuing research, Vesalius showed that the anatomical teachings from antiquity of the Greco-Roman physician Galen , then revered in medical schools, were based on dissections of animals, even though they were intended to provide a guide to the structure of the human body. Vesalius went on to write an elaborate anatomi