On Anatomical Procedures

Anatomical text written by the Greek physician and anatomist Claudius Galen in the 2nd century AD and considered his most important work on anatomy. It contained descriptions of his work on pigs, monkeys, and dogs. He stated that detailed dissection was essential to knowledge of anatomy, and expressed regret that he had been unable to dissect human corpses, forbidden at the time. Preserved in Arabic by scholars of the Middle East after the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476, it was translated into Latin in 1531 by Johannes Guinter, a professor of medicine at the University of Paris, and became a standard medical text until Galen's theories were disproved by Andreas Vesalius and others in the late 16th century.