Note 646 — Chapter IV · GALEN
Reading edition
Augustine testifies in two passages of his De anima et eius origine (Migne PL 44, 475-548), that vivisection of human beings was practiced as late as his time, the early fifth century: IV, 3, “Medici tamen qui appellantur anatomici per membra per venas per nervos per ossa per medullas per interiora vitalia etiam vivos homines quamdiu inter manus rimantium vivere potuerunt dissiciendo scrutati sunt ut naturam corporis nossent”; and IV, 6 (Migne, PL 44, 528-9).