All 30 names you should remember from the History of Biology course with background information. These are the 30 names the lecturer told you to remember and also came up in the exam.
History of biology - names to remember
Module 1: Why and How
1. Aristotle
- Most history of biology books start with Aristotle.
- He was one of the first of the Greek empire that categorised species.
- He studied embryos through eggs.
- He did some animal dissections. Human dissections were according to the Greeks not
acceptable.
- Classified around 500 species
- Picked up stories of fishers, farmers and hunters.
- Tried to get to know the essence of organisms as explanation to its functions.
- Aristotle also developed a guiding principle for taxonomy: determine the essential attribute
of a class of individuals and the number of variations on that attribute; divide the class into
that number of subclasses. Do the same for each subgroup. Difficulties arise from the fact
that you are supposed to determine in advance.
- Hectocotylus is the reproductive organ of a male octopus and is described by Aristotle.
- People flirted with Aristotle.
- Philosopher, biologist and naturalist.
- Many things Aristotle did were only continued about 2000 years later.
- Places before the Greek Aristotle where ‘biology’ could have started, for example China’s
herbs and medicines. Pascal’s triangle, hand calculators, etc where also discovered way
earlier in China than in Europe (Greeks). Or Egypt where they cut up people way before they
did in Europe by mummification.
- Revived in the 19th century.
- Particular western perspective of history.
- Using the word biologist for Aristotle is an anachronism chronological inconsistency the
word biology was only discovered in the 19 th century.
- Taught in a Lyceum.
2. Hypatia
- One of the first occasions to mention a woman in history.
- Scientist-philosopher in Alexandria (city in the old Egypt).
- Studied mathematics and astronomy, we know that from secondary sources, while none of
her texts are preserved.
- Was accused of witchcraft and was lynched by a Christian mob.
- We know only a few sentences from her.
- Representations of Hypatia: 19th century as a tragic, erotic witch and in the 21 st century as a
emancipated freethinker and defender of freedom against intolerance.
3. Galen (Galenus)
- Described blood vessels transporting light and dark blood to the organs.
- Blood vessels: dark, veiny blood ‘’from the liver’’. Light and arterial blood ‘’from the heart’’
and the nervous system.
- Theory kept as authority until Vesalius corrected him.
- Was a doctor/philosopher.
- He was educated in the Asclepius temple in Pergamon in Alexandria.
- Was first a doctor for gladiators in Pergamon. Pergamum (were Galen was born) saw itself as
a cultural rival of Alexandria, and the Ptolemies tried to arrest the intellectual growth in
Pergamum. When Galen’s father Nikon died, he left Pergamum to study in Alexandria, but a
couple of years later he returned and became a physician.
, - Like Plato and Aristotle, Galen believed that a form of divine intelligence had created the
universe and living beings. For Galen, the body was the instrument of the soul and proof of
the existence and the wisdom of God.
- Later became a doctor of the emperors and also a medic of the army.
- He had a problem: dissection into humans was unacceptable for religious reasons.
- The only way for him to study anatomy was to quickly peek inside the gladiators whenever
they were wounded ‘’a wound is like a window into the body’’.
- Did sections on monkeys and pigs. Galen understood that most practioners needed
anatomical knowledge, and he was sure that his findings in animals could be applied to
humans.
- His method of ‘’bleeding’’ had influence until the 19 th century.
- Followed the Greek theory of the four humours (phlegm, yellow bile, blood and black bile)
whenever you were ill, there was something wrong with the balance of these four humours
theory only abandoned in the 18th/19th century.
- After the fall of the Roman empire his work was preserved and expanded on in the
Byzantine Empire, centered around Damascus (Syria).
4. Leonardo Da Vinci
- Important in the Renaissance rediscovery of the Greek traditions.
- Studied anatomy in great detail and made pictures of it. He was apprenticed to Andra del
Verrocchio (the foremost art teacher in Florence) when he was 14. Verrocchio insisted that
all his pupils learned anatomy.
- Tried in great secrecy to collect bodies in order to study them it was still not allowed to
cut into people got himself into frequent trouble.
- Although he realized the heart was actually a very powerful muscle, he generally accepted
Galen’s views on movement and distribution of the blood.
- After he died, lots of his stuff was destroyed.
- Thought some of this Greek stuff is a little bit weird.
- Stereotypical homo universalis people that are good in everything they do. Da Vinci
thought about the movement of the earth, the nature of sound and light, the use of rings to
determine the age of trees, and the nature of fossil shells. Studies of the superficial anatomy
of the human body led to an exploration of anatomy and physiological experiments.
5. Paracelsus
- An alchemist.
- A Swiss doctor and botanist and was into certain poisons for toxicology some of the
founding fathers.
- Found out the dose of something is wat makes it a poison (even water is a poison).
- Studied things his own way, for example discovered elements like zinc.
- Burned books of Galen in public, because he thought his theories were rubbish.
- Paracelsus ridiculed pharmacists and physicians and took away their business by
undercutting their prices and curing their disillusioned patients.
- Paracelsus claimed that through natural magic and alchemy human beings would one day be
able to make gold, cure disease and create life. For the Paracelsians, natural magic was the
key to understanding nature and her laws.
- Paracelsian alchemy provided new chemical analogies for physiological functions.
- Paracelsus also argued that that specific remedies should be designed for specific diseases in
accordance with specific causes, while orthodox physicians and pharmacists preferred
expensive remedies that included exotic materials. He also believed that violent diseases
required violent remedies.
6. (Andreas) Vesalius
- Described the myocardial chambers & veins in further detail.
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