TabulaThe body, as it was written.

A tour · 6 plates

Myths and "firsts"

A tour for sceptics: six plates where the popular story is wrong, contested or less interesting than what really happened. Did ancient China know the circulation of the blood? The claim was being made in Europe by 1685, by Isaac Vossius, and specialist translators do not find it in the text.1 Leonardo explained how the aortic valve closes, and modern imaging agrees with him, but his notes went unpublished for centuries.2 The pulmonary circulation has three European claimants within six years.3 The man usually credited with discovering sperm said himself that a student saw them first.4 Lymphatic vessels around the brain were reported in 2015, and had been described in 1787.5 And a "new organ" announced in 2018 started an argument about what the word means.6 None of this makes the history smaller. It shows how a "first" gets made: by who wrote, who printed, who was read, and who told the story afterwards.

▶ Play this tour Read the long version

  1. Tab. IV: The circulation that wasn't (c. 2nd–1st c. BCE (compilation))
  2. Tab. X: Whirlpools close the valve (c. 1512–13)
  3. Tab. XII: Three Europeans and a suppressed book (1553 · 1556 · 1559)
  4. Tab. XIX: A student saw them first (Aug–Nov 1677)
  5. Tab. XXV: Discovered in 2015, described in 1787 (2015 (and 1787))
  6. Tab. XXVI: A new organ? (2018)

Sources for this introduction

  1. Isaac Vossius, in a book published in London in 1685, was among the first Europeans to claim that the Chinese had known the circulation of the blood; Paul Unschuld translates the relevant passages of the Huangdi Neijing as describing neither blood circulation nor a pumping heart.contestedread via summaries

    Needham's reading has defenders in popular literature; specialist translators largely follow Unschuld.

    • Isaac Vossius, Variarum observationum liber. 1685. primary
    • Jeremy M. Norman (HistoryofMedicine.com), [Entry on Isaak Vossius and the claim that the Chinese knew the circulation]. n.d.. Link · Archive secondary
    • Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. 1985. University of California Press. scholarly
    • Dominik Wujastyk (Indology list), Blood circulation (list post). 1999. Link · Archive secondary

  2. In drawings of about 1512–13, Leonardo proposed that eddies forming in the sinuses behind the aortic valve cusps help close the valve, a mechanism later confirmed by modern studies including MRI; his anatomical notes went unpublished for centuries.

    • Royal Collection Trust, Leonardo da Vinci, The aortic valve c.1512–13 (RCIN 919082). n.d.. Link · Archive scholarly
    • B. Boon, Leonardo da Vinci on atherosclerosis and the function of the sinuses of Valsalva. 2009. Netherlands Heart Journal 17(12):496–499. doi:10.1007/BF03086311. Link · Archive scholarly

  3. Michael Servetus described the pulmonary circulation in a suppressed theological book of 1553; Valverde put it in an anatomy book in 1556, crediting Colombo, whose own book appeared in 1559.

    • Michael Servetus, Christianismi restitutio. 1553. primary
    • Juan Valverde de Hamusco, Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano. 1556. primary
    • Realdo Colombo, De re anatomica libri XV. 1559. primary
    • Jeremy M. Norman (HistoryofInformation.com), Who Discovered the Pulmonary Circulation? Servetus, Valverde or Colombo?. n.d.. Link · Archive secondary
    • Museo Galileo, Florence, Realdo Colombo (biography). n.d.. Link · Archive scholarly

  4. In August 1677 the medical student Johan Ham showed Antonie van Leeuwenhoek moving 'animalcules' in semen; Leeuwenhoek reported them to the Royal Society that November and recorded that Ham had seen them first.

    • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (collected letters). 1939–. Link · Archive primary
    • Royal Society Archive catalogue, Leeuwenhoek letter on spermatozoa, 1677 (EL/L3/7). n.d.. Link · Archive scholarly
    • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Observationes de natis e semine genitali animalculis (Philosophical Transactions 12, no. 142, p. 1040). 1677. primary

  5. Paolo Mascagni described lymphatics in the cerebral dura mater in his 1787 atlas; two independent groups reported meningeal lymphatic vessels again in 2015.

    • Paolo Mascagni, Vasorum lymphaticorum corporis humani historia et ichnographia. 1787. Siena. primary
    • A. Louveau et al., Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels. 2015. Nature 523. primary
    • A. Aspelund et al., A dural lymphatic vascular system that drains brain interstitial fluid and macromolecules. 2015. Journal of Experimental Medicine 212. primary
    • (review, PubMed Central), So You've Made a Novel Discovery: The History of Our Knowledge of Central Nervous System Lymphatics May Change Your Mind. n.d.. Link · Archive scholarly · details pending

  6. In 2018 Benias, Theise and colleagues reported fluid-filled spaces in connective tissue throughout the body; press coverage called it a 'new organ', a label other anatomists disputed.contested

    Supporters see a newly recognised body-wide system; critics see a better view of tissue already known as connective tissue or fascia.

    • P. C. Benias, R. G. Wells, B. Sackey-Aboagye, et al. (N. D. Theise), Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues. 2018. Scientific Reports 8:4947. primary
    • Prodromos Hytiroglou, Ian R. Wanless, The Interstitial Space Takes Shape. 2018. Hepatology 69(4):1830–1832. doi:10.1002/hep.30268. scholarly
    • Washington Square News (NYU), Langone Discovered New Organ in the Human Body. 2018. Link · Archive secondary