Two Hundred Years of Surgery

The first attempts at medicine were prompted by the natural instinct for survival and desire to help fellow human beings. But how did mankind emerge from an era of superstition and blind experimentation to usher in the age of surgery? In this episode, we answer that question by looking at what was probably the earliest C-section from 1,500 years ago, the Sanctuary of Asclepius where Galen practiced medicine, and Andreas Vesalius’ master work On the Fabric of the Human Body.