Editing Autopsy (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Dissection#History|l1=History of dissection}}
[[File:3492769920 f48c41bdc8 bDissection19.jpg|thumb|Dissection, 19th century US]]

Around 3000 BCE, [[ancient Egypt]]ians were one of the first civilizations to practice the removal and examination of the internal organs of humans in the religious practice of [[Mummy|mummification]].<ref name="Rothenberg" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/medicine.html|title=Medicine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309103323/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/medicine.html|archive-date=9 March 2011}}</ref>

Autopsies that opened the body to determine the cause of death were attested at least in the early third millennium BCE, although they were opposed in many ancient societies where it was believed that the outward disfigurement of dead persons prevented them from entering the [[afterlife]]<ref name="Schafer 43">{{cite book|last=Schafer|first=Elizabeth D.|title=Forensic Science|url=https://archive.org/details/forensicscience00emba|url-access=limited|chapter=Ancient science and forensics|editor=Ayn Embar-seddon, Allan D. Pass|publisher=Salem Press|year=2008|page=[https://archive.org/details/forensicscience00emba/page/n62 43]|isbn=978-1-58765-423-7}}</ref> (as with the Egyptians, who removed the organs through tiny slits in the body).<ref name="Rothenberg" /> Notable Greek autopsists were  [[Erasistratus]] and [[Herophilos|Herophilus of Chalcedon]], who lived in 3rd century BCE [[Alexandria]], but in general, autopsies were rare in ancient Greece.<ref name="Schafer 43" /> In 44 BCE, [[Julius Caesar]] was the subject of an official autopsy after [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|his murder]] by rival senators, the physician's report noting that the second stab wound Caesar received was the fatal one.<ref name="Schafer 43" /> Julius Caesar had been stabbed a total of 23 times.<ref name="autogenerated2003">[[Clifton D. Bryant|Bryant, Clifton]]. Handbook of Death and Dying. California: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003. Print. {{ISBN|0-7619-2514-7}}</ref> By around 150 BCE, [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] legal practice had established clear parameters for autopsies.<ref name="Rothenberg" /> The greatest ancient anatomist was [[Galen]] (CE 129– {{circa|216}}), whose findings would not be challenged until the [[Renaissance]] over a thousand years later.<ref name="news.discovery">{{cite news|last1=Pappas|first1=Stephanie|title=Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science|url=https://www.livescience.com/27624-mummy-head-middle-ages-anatomy.html |work=Live Science |date=5 March 2013 |access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref>
[[Image:Enrique Simonet - La autopsia 1890.jpg|thumb|''Autopsy'' (1890) by [[Enrique Simonet]]]]

[[Ibn Tufail]] has elaborated on autopsy in his treatise called ''Hayy ibn Yaqzan'' and [[Nadia Maftouni]], discussing the subject in an extensive article, believes him to be among the early supporters of autopsy and [[vivisection]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maftouni |first1=Nadia |title=Concept of sciart in the Andalusian Ibn Tufail |journal=Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica |date=3 April 2019 |volume=75 |issue=283 S.Esp |pages=543–551 |doi=10.14422/pen.v75.i283.y2019.031 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The dissection of human remains for medical or scientific reasons continued to be practiced irregularly after the Romans, for instance by the Arab physicians [[Ibn Zuhr|Avenzoar]] and [[Ibn al-Nafis]]. In Europe they were done with enough regularity to become skilled, as early as 1200, and successful efforts to preserve the body, by filling the veins with wax and metals.<ref name="news.discovery" /> Until the 20th century,<ref name="news.discovery" /> it was thought that the modern autopsy process derived from the [[Anatomy|anatomist]]s of the [[Renaissance]]. [[Giovanni Battista Morgagni]] (1682–1771), celebrated as the father of [[anatomical pathology]],<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/392171/Giovanni-Battista-MorgagniGiovanni Battista Morgagni], Britannica Online Encyclopedia</ref> wrote the first exhaustive work on pathology, ''De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis'' (The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy, 1769).<ref name="Rothenberg" />

In 1543, [[Andreas Vesalius]] conducted a public dissection of the body of a former criminal. He asserted and articulated the bones, this became the world's oldest surviving anatomical preparation. It is still displayed at the Anatomical Museum at the University of Basel.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Fabric of the human body|url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/history13/Readings/vesalius.htm|publisher=Stanford University |access-date=6 February 2017}}</ref>

In the mid-1800s, [[Carl von Rokitansky]] and colleagues at the [[Medical University of Vienna|Second Vienna Medical School]] began to undertake dissections as a means to improve diagnostic medicine.<ref name="autogenerated2003" />

The 19th-century medical researcher [[Rudolf Virchow]], in response to a lack of standardization of autopsy procedures, established and published specific autopsy protocols (one such protocol still bears his name). He also developed the concept of pathological processes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Küskü |first=Elif Aslan |date=2022-01-01 |title=Examination of Scientific Revolution Medicine on the Human Body / Bilimsel Devrim Tıbbını İnsan Bedeni Üzerinden İncelemek |url=https://www.academia.edu/87500649 |journal=The Legends Journal of European History Studies}}</ref>

During the turn of the 20th century, the [[Scotland Yard]] created the Office of the Forensic Pathologist, a medical examiner trained in medicine, charged with investigating the cause of all unnatural deaths, including accidents, homicides, suicides, etc.