Herophilos

Herophilos was a Greek physician of the Hellenistic age, born in Chalcedon and active for most of his life in Alexandria, who is regarded as one of the earliest anatomists. He is remembered as the first scientist to carry out systematic dissection of human cadavers, an innovation made possible in the Ptolemaic city, and he is often called the father of anatomy. His findings were set down in more than nine works, all of which are now lost, so his reputation rests on later authors who quoted or criticised him. One such author, the early Christian writer Tertullian, claimed that Herophilos vivisected at least six hundred prisoners, an account that many historians have disputed. The Atlas records him as a physician of antiquity whose method of opening the body to observe it shaped the course of anatomical knowledge that followed.