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Andreas Vesalius Steals a Body

60 second histories

This video covers:  How when first exploring medicine, Andreas Vesalius stole the body of a hanged criminal so that he could study anatomy.

I am Andreas Vesalius and I want to tell you about my favourite subject, me. I was born in Brussels in fifteen fourteen, my father was a doctor and I was always interested in what he did. You may have heard a story about me once steeling the body of a criminal that hung from the gallows, this is true but I was only a young lad at the time. You see I wanted to learn about anatomy. It wasn’t easy you know, the body was hanging above me and it was bigger than me. I know that I would be spotted as I carried him through the city gate so I did it a limb at a time. First I jumped up and pulled a leg off and took it home then I went back and pulled off the other leg. I continued back and fore until I had all the bits piled up on the kitchen table where they began to stink so I spent all night cleaning the bones so that in the end I had a complete skeleton to study.
Eras: 
Medicine & Health
Tudor
Topics: 
Key people
Medicine & health
Character: 
Andreas Vesalius
Key words: 
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