Herophilus

The late 4th and early 3rd century BCE Greek physician and human anatomist, Herophilus (335-280 BCE), lived during a brief period in the history of ancient Greece when the authorities of the city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great in ~332 BCE) permitted dissection (and possibly vivisection) of the human body, a practice banned since the time Hippocrates of Cos earlier had introduced the principles of natural causes of disease as opposed to his forebears’ supernaturally based medicine. In part because of Herophilus’s pioneering work in studying human anatomy through dissection, and in part because of the extent and significance of his discoveries, many scholars have accorded him the accolade, “Father of Anatomy”. Renaissance scholars call him the "Vesalius of antiquity", after the "The Father of Modern Anatomy, Andreas Vesalius. Von Staden considered Herophilus the ….first and greatest Alexandrian representative of scientific medicine.