GLIMPSES FROM THE PAST IN ANATOMY – A REVIEW

As far as we know, anatomy is the oldest medical science. Cave paintings of the early Stone Age, about 30,000 years ago, show a simple knowledge of the anatomy of animals, and it is assumed that these cave dwellers applied some of their anatomical knowledge to their own bodies. The civilizations of the Babylonians, as Syrians, Egyptians, Chinese, and Hindus made no serious attempt to learn anatomy because they were interested in the supernatural world, not the natural one, and their cultures placed strong religious restrictions against debasing the body. Any anatomical dissections that were performed on animals were made to "study" organs in an effort to predict the future and to tell fortunes. There is no doubt that medicine of a kind had its roots in prehistoric times, and that in the Neolithic Age, a technical tradition expressed in practical skills by craftsmen developed alongside a spiritual tradition perpetuated by magical and priestly cults. For centuries, except on rare occasions, the practice of the craftsman remained the handmaid of theoretical dogma, it is only within the last 400 years that the conception emerged that the art of medicine and surgery can be reasonably based only on knowledge of the structure of the body. This review focuses on how the study of anatomy in different parts of world has evolved through the centuries. Anatomical knowledge in ancient India was derived principally from animal sacrifice, chance observations of improperly buried human bodies, and examinations of patients made by doctors during treatment. The Vedic philosophies form the basis of the Ayurvedic tradition, which is considered to be one of the oldest known systems of medicine.Two sets of Indian texts form the foundation of Ayurvedic medicine, the Susruta Samhita and the Charaka Samhita.The Susruta Samhita provided important surgical and anatomical information of the understanding of anatomy by Indians in the 6th century BCE. Here we review the anatomical knowledge known to the mankind.