[Vesalius and the anatomy of the female genital tract].

Some of Vesalius' books allow us to clarify his knowledge of the anatomy of the female genital tract. We distinguish chronologically his Tabulae anatomicae sex (1538), the Fabrica (1543), the Letter on Chynaroot (1546), the Fabrica II (1555) and his letter to Falloppio (1564). The whole of these writings gives us an overview of the evolution of the insight concerning this important chapter of human anatomy. Anno 1538, Vesalius is in several matters Galen's pupil. Let us consider his pictures of the tractus genitalis of man and woman, which unmistakably follow the galenic theory of sexual isomorphism, a delusion to which our Brussels anatomist adhered during all his life. On other points he outdid the "Master" from the very beginning, e.g. as to the structure of the uterus. In this matter he followed da Carpi (1470-1550), his immediate predecessor and the man who pictured a woman's womb as "Uterus simplex". But even in this matter, Vesalius could not separate himself completely from the antique scheme: near the fundus uteri he draws two "ears" or cornua wherein he lets the oviducts discharge themselves, mythical structures that will disappear from his pictures, from 1543 on. The epididymis-like structure of the oviducts will nevertheless be maintained. The chapters 15 to 17 of the fifth book of the Fabrica stand centrally because herein it is the first time that these parts are systematically and thoroughly described; moreover, the pictoral aspect means a great renovation. Before Vesalius, no anatomist had ever published such detailed and artistic pictures of the female organs. But knowing that text and illustration were made at the dissection table, we should consider the author's mistakes as more conspicuous. Thus for instance, the oviduct as vas semen efferens, the structure of which he "saw" in line with Galen's propagation theory. For Vesalius the uterine tube has remained the homologue of the complex canals through which the male seed leaves the body. Another example of an erroneous "observation", inspired by the functional theories of his predecessors, is the imagined connection of blood-vessels between the female internal organs and the breasts. The needlessly complicated terminology and Vesalius' describing and paraphrasing anatomical nomenclature are not very favourable to an easy reading of this works. His classification of the parts of the genital tract is confusing, the more as it is not consistent. We already said that Vesalius attributes but one cavity to woman's uterus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)