Descubrimiento De Tránsito Pulmonar

The Discovery Of The Pulmonary Circulation - Who Should Get The Credit: Ibn Al-Nafis Or William Harvey
Sharif Kaf AL-GHAZAL, MD*
* Plastic & Reconstructive surgeon, England e-mail:skalghazal@hotmail.com

Summary
In this article, the discovery of the pulmonary circulation is stressed and the works of Ibn al Nefis and William Harvey on this topic are also pointed out and some results areobtained. Key Words: Pulmonary Circulation, History of Medicine, Ibn al-Nefis, William Harvey

Introduction about Ibn Al-Nafis:
Ala-al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali Ibn Abi al-Hazm alQarshi al- Dimashqi (known as Ibn Al-Nafis) was born in 1213 A.D. in Damascus. He was educated at the Medical College Hospital (Bimaristan Al-Noori) founded by Noor al- Din Al-Zanki. Apart from medicine, Ibn al-Nafis learntjurisprudence, literature and theology. He thus became a renowned expert on Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence as well as a reputed physician. In 1236 Ibn Nafis moved to Egypt and worked in Al-Nassri Hospital then in Al-Mansouri Hospital where he became chief of physicians and the sultan's personal physician. When he died in 1288 A.D. he donated his house, library and clinic to the Mansuriya Hospital[1]. The most voluminous of his books is Al-Shamil fi al-Tibb, which was designed to be an encyclopaedia comprising 300 volumes, but it could not be completed due to his death. The manuscript is available at Damascus. His book on ophthalmology is largely an original contribution and is also extant. However, his book that became most famous was Mujaz al-Qanun (The Summary of al-Qanun) and a number ofcommentaries were written on this. His own commentaries include one on Hippocrates' book. He wrote several volumes on Ibn Sina 's Qanun, that are still extant. Likewise he wrote a commentary on Hunayn
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Ibn Ishaq's book. Another famous book embodying his original contribution was on the effects of diet on health entitled Kitab al-Mukhtar fi al-Aghdhiya. His major original contribution ofgreat significance was his discovery of the pulmonary circulation, which was re-discovered by modern science after a lapse of three centuries. He was the first to correctly describe the constitution of the lungs and gave a description of the bronchi and the interaction between the human body's vessels for air and blood. Also, he elaborated the function of the coronary arteries as feeding the cardiacmuscle.

The discovery of the pulmonary circulation:
The discovery of the pulmonary circulation is an interesting and debated subject. It is commonly believed that this discovery had its inception in Europe in the sixteenth century by Servetus, Vesalius, Colombo, then Harvey. However, in view of the discovery of ancient manuscripts, it is proposed that the real credit for the discovery of thepulmonary circulation belongs to an eminent physician of the thirteenth century: Ibn Al-Nafis. In 1924 an Egyptian physician, Dr. Muhyo Al-Deen Altawi, discovered a script, No. 62243, titled "Commentary on the Anatomy of Canon of Avicenna" in the Prussian state library in Berlin while studying the history of Arab Medicine at the medical faculty of the
JISHIM 2002, 2

THE DISCOVERY OF THEPULMONARY CIRCULATION WHO SHOULD GET THE CREDIT: IBN AL-NAFIS OR WILLIAM HARVEY

Sharif Kaf AL-GHAZAL

Albert Ludwigs University in Germany [2] . This script is considered one of the best scientific books, in which Ibn Al-Nafis describes subjects in anatomy, pathology and physiology. This discovery focused on an important scientific fact which up to then had been ignored: the first description of thepulmonary circulation. The theory that was accepted prior to Ibn Al-Nafis was put by Galen in the second century, who said that the blood reaching the right side of the heart went through invisible pores in the septum to the left side of the heart where it mixes with air to create spirit and then is distributed to the body. According to Galen's views, the venous system is quite separate from...