How Islam changed medicine: Al-Nafis, Servetus, and Colombo

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.120-c

BMJ 2006;332:120-121 (14 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.120-c

Letter

How Islam changed medicine

Al-Nafis, Servetus, and Colombo

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—Majeed comments that Al-Nafis described the pulmonarycirculation more than 300 years before William Harvey.¹ Harveyalways gets the credit in the West, but I would like to remindreaders that Michael Servetus was the first Western writer todescribe the pulmonary circulation, in Christianismi Restitutioin 1552, finally printed a year before he was burnt at the stakein Geneva.² Lomas points this out in his article in the sameissue of the BMJ.³

Colombo (1516-59) can also lay claim to having made the discovery,in De re anatomica (completed in 1559). It would seem that allthree men made the same discovery independently, and for differentreasons. Al-Nafis realised the interventricular septum was toothick to allow blood to pass across. Colombo noticed the largeblood flow of the pulmonary vein. Servetus realised the importanceof the size of the pulmonary artery. Al-Nafis was first, butnone . . . [Full text of this article]

Giles N Cattermole, specialist registrar, emergency medicine

University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff CF14 4XW cattermole@doctors.org.uk