Textbook of Head and Neck Anatomy 4th edition pdf free download

Anatomy has always fascinated humans, not only because of our interest in childbirth but also because of the importance of understanding anatomy in wound healing and caring for the sick. Humanity’s interest in anatomy is ancient because it has been learned from archaeological evidence that even brain surgery was performed with considerable success as early as 7000 BC. C. in Europe, 3000 a. C. in Africa, and 2000 a. C. in pre-Inca civilizations. Although anatomical representations and the study of anatomy have been observed in almost all cultures, Western medicine has its origins in the philosophers of the golden age of Greece and Arab physicians, who studied, instructed, and wrote on anatomy and tried to relate it to its function. and disease. They also named observed structures, and their students expanded this knowledge by discovering and naming other structures. Students of anatomy during the Middle Ages, even up to the 18th century, used Greek and Latin, the lingua franca of scholars. Therefore, most of the structures named during those centuries of discoveries were named in those languages, a practice that continued into modern times.

The first written treatise on anatomical studies was written by the Greek physician Alcmaeon approximately 2,500 years ago. He discovered and dissected the optic nerves, tracing them to the optic chiasm, and deduced their role in binocular vision. He also discovered and described the auditory tube, suggested that the brain is responsible for intelligence, and studied the ramifications of blood vessels.

Around the same time, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras also suggested that the brain was the center of intelligence. He believed that an individual’s physical and emotional well-being was related to the ratio of the four humors: phlegm, yellow bile, black bile, and blood.

These four humors were related to the four elements: water, fire, earth, and air, respectively, whose properties were wet, dry, cold, and hot. A healthy individual would possess an adequate combination of these fluids, while a disproportionate proportion would be responsible for a diseased state of the body and / or mind. This belief in humor became a basic tenet of Hippocratic medicine. Unfortunately, Aristotle’s writings gave credence to this line of thought; therefore, it persisted well into the Middle Ages. Aristotle, however, made important contributions to the study of anatomy by correctly describing many organs and structures of the human body. He may also have been the first anatomist to illustrate his descriptions with pictures.