The art of medicine: Deep in the heart of Shakespeare

While such influential 16th-century professors of anatomy as John Caius and Realdo Columbo hoped that their incisions would eventually penetrate to the Soul, likely within the heart, they found instead only successive layers of surface, each layer, however, revealing the genius of the Creator of All...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Lancet (British edition) Vol. 373; no. 9663; p. 538
Main Author Slights, William W E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Elsevier Limited 14.02.2009
Subjects
Corruption
Diet
Poetry
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Soul
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Summary:While such influential 16th-century professors of anatomy as John Caius and Realdo Columbo hoped that their incisions would eventually penetrate to the Soul, likely within the heart, they found instead only successive layers of surface, each layer, however, revealing the genius of the Creator of All Things, the Opifex rerum. Shakespeare seems to have embraced the medical consensus of his day that the proper function of the heart is determined by a precarious balance of internal systems (dietary intake and evacuation as well as emotional turmoil) and external factors (pollutants, battle wounds, and the like).
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X