Introduction to Anatomy, 1532 / With English translation and an introductory essay on anatomical studies in Tudor England by C.D. O'Malley and K.F. Russell.

[1]The term mirach means the anterior abdominal wall, but here Edwardes refers to the abdominal wall as venter. Lower venter proper means the abdomen or abdominal cavity together with the pelvis.

[2]There is confusion here for, of course, the skin of the body is most sensitive. The subcutaneous tissues, on the other hand, are relatively insensitive.

[3]He refers to the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle. It joins with its fellow of the opposite side in the mid-line at the linea alba.

[4]External oblique muscles.

[5]Internal oblique muscles.

[6]Transversus abdominis.

[7]Longanon is the medieval Latin term for rectum. In the text which follows it will be noted that Edwardes describes the intestines from below upwards.

[8]The hepatic flexure of the colon.

[9]The caecum was termed the monoculus by medieval anatomists. There is no mention of the appendix; this was first described in 1523 by Berengario da Carpi.

[10]The ileum.

[11]The curved surface.

[12]Galen maintained that the major veins had their origin in the liver.

[13]Multiple lobes to the liver was another teaching of Galen derived from comparative anatomy.

[14]Post-mortem staining of the viscera with bile is very common.

[15]The porta hepatis.

[16]This is a good account of the function of the lymphatic vessels.

[17]The gibbosity of the liver is its curved, upper surface.

[18]The emulgent veins are the renal veins.

[19]This is normal in man but in some animals the right renal vessels arise higher than the left. It will be noted that he speaks from his own experience. It is a pity that he qualifies this statement in the next sentence with a reference to the then current teaching, derived from Galen.

[20]The fallacious idea of the testis filtering off the sperm from the blood brought down to it by the testicular artery lasted a long time. Note too the old fallacy of the left testis producing a female foetus and the right producing a male.

[21]The ureters.

[22]The pleura.

[23]Either Edwardes or the printer was at fault in the form of the Greek script, while the word has more the meaning of diaphragm than of pleura.

[24]Edwardes is obviously aware of the individuality of each pleural sac.

[25]The pericardium.

[26]Note that the heart is the most important organ of the body.

[27]The three-ventricled heart was a myth which remained entrenched in anatomy until Niccolò Massa (1536) and Vesalius. Leonardo da Vinci showed that there were only two ventricles but his drawings were not seen by his contemporaries.

[28]Edwardes is to a degree correct when he says that life remains longest in the auricles. Slow contraction of the auricles can be seen for a short time after contraction of the ventricles has ceased. This passage could suggest that he practised vivisection.

[29]Note the persistence of the old idea that the left ventricle contains air.

[30]The medieval anatomists regarded the right and left atria as part of the corresponding ventricle, hence they stated that the venae cavae opened into the right ventricle. Edwardes’s acceptance of the old theory is interesting for just above this in the text he mentions the auricles as separate chambers.

[31]Galen taught that the nerves were hollow and carried the animal spirit from the brain to the periphery. The vital spirit (air) was carried by the arteries to the brain where, in the rete mirabile it was transformed into the animal spirit.

[32]The ancient idea that there were seven pairs of nerves did not disappear from anatomical teaching until Thomas Willis in 1664 increased the number to nine and Samuel Thomas Soemmerring in 1778 established the modern order of numbering the nerves into twelve pairs. In the account which follows Edwardes does not follow the ancient description of the cranial nerves. According to Galen, and indeed Vesalius, the olfactory nerves were not regarded as separate entities; moreover the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves were part of a single nerve. Edwardes does not describe the trigeminal or facial nerves nor the trochlear or abducent. The trochlear nerve had been described by Alessandro Achillini in 1520. The abducent nerve was to be described later by Eustachius.

[33]Olfactory nerves. That Edwardes regarded them as functional units is worthy of note.

[34]Optic nerves (the ancient first pair).

[35]Oculomotor nerves (the ancient second pair).

[36]A combination of the modern hypoglossal and trigeminal nerves (the seventh and third pairs).

[37]Vagus nerves (part of the sixth pair).

[38]Glossopharyngeal nerves (part of the sixth pair).

[39]Auditory nerves (part of the fifth pair).