1999/01/01 by William Drakeford, Marc E. De Broe, Dirk L. De Weerdt +4 · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adult literacy #Autopsy #Classics #Developmental psychology #Education Systems and Policy #History #History of Medicine Studies #Internal medicine #Juvenile #Kidney #Literacy #Medical History and Innovations #Medicine #Parental Involvement in Education #Pathology #Pedagogy #Physiology #Psychology #Reading and Literacy Development
paper · pdf · doi:10.1159/000013462
openalex publication_date 1999/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Andreas Vesalius and Jan Baptist Van Helmont are the two major personalities who contributed substantially and in a different way to the early development of renal anatomy/physiology of the 16th/17th century in the Southern Low Countries. The importance of A. Vesalius' publication 'de humani corporis fabrica libri septem' cannot be overestimated. The kidney was an intriguing organ to Vesalius, the function of which he could not fully grasp. J.B. Van Helmont was the first to demonstrate the importance of the measurement of the specific gravity of the urine and relating it to physiological and pathophysiological conditions. He made accurate clinical observations supported by autopsy examinations concerning the role of the kidney in the generation of dropsy.