The First Necropsies in Vienna
During a lecture recently delivered at the Historisches Seminar of the University of Vienna it was recalled that the first necropsy on a human body performed in accordance with scientific principles, within the area of German countries, occurred in Vienna in 1404. From Lower Italy, where every five years one necropsy on a human body was permitted by law, the art of anatomy spread through Upper Italy into Germany. Galeazzo de Sophia, a physician of Padua, brought this art to Vienna, where, on Feb. 12, 1404, in the presence of "doctors and scholars" of the medical faculty and of "surgeons and apothecaries," he performed a necropsy. The second dissection took place in 1418, and lasted from February 21 to February 28. After completion of the dissection, the bishop held a solemn mass for the soul of the deceased. In 1435, the students of medicine demanded