Jacobus Sylvius. Portrait of Jacobus Sylvius (1478-1555), French anatomist and physician. Born Jacques Dubois, Sylvius became a popular teacher of ana

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Jacobus Sylvius. Portrait of Jacobus Sylvius (1478-1555), French anatomist and physician. Born Jacques Dubois, Sylvius became a popular teacher of anatomy in Paris and had Vesalius as a pupil. Sylvius vigorously defended the prevailing medical theories of Galen when Vesalius began to correct them. He claimed that Vesalius' 'pestilential breath poisons Europe'. He also argued that portions of Galen's work were not wrong but that the human body had degenerated since the Roman writer's time. Sylvius did useful work on the classification, identification and nomenclature of muscles . He coined such terms as 'cystic', 'gastric', 'popliteal' and 'mesentery'.

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Photo credit: © Science Photo Library / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: anatomist, coiner, corporis, cystic, de, fabrica, galen, gastric, humani, jacobus, phrase, portraits, supporter, surname, sylvius, teacher/opponent, vesalius