WHY DID VESALIUS NOT DISCOVER THE FALLOPIAN TUBES?

The Pre-Vesalian Knowkdge of the Fallopian Tubes THE first description of the uterine tubes that has come down to us from early medical literature originates from Herophilus (about 300 B.C.), who referred to them as 'semen-conveying ducts' (Gk. mepqawrxol nkeot), situated laterally to each of the ovaries. According to Herophilus, however, the tubes opened into the bladder, i.e. into the lower end of it." The term 'semen-conveying duct' or ductus deferens, denoting the organ that is named 'uterine tube' in modern nomenclature, was derived from the concept of analogy between male and female generative organs, which was initiated probably by Herophilus upon his discovery of the ovaries (prior to that of the tubes). The ovaries, consequently, were called the 'female testes'. It was this view which determined Herophilus to locate the termination of his female ductus deferentes in the neck of the bladder! This doctrine, which exercised a dominating influence upon the anatomical and physiological concepts of the female generative organs until the sixteenth century, led in turn to the classical theory of the mutual existence of semen in both sexes. This 'semen' was supposed to be prepared in the vasa seminaria of the female-just as in the male; however, in contrast to the male semen, it was discharged monthly (Gk. xatjracuzto; Hippocrates, Aristotle) as menstrual flow, after having undergone incomplete digestion (Gk. ii4c, L. coctio).* The conviction that the tubes terminated in the neck of the bladder was upheld also by Soranus in the second century A.D.2 According to Galen (A.D. I30-20o), the 'semen-conveying ducts' ended in the horns ofthe uterus,' an observation which was, in fact, derived from animal anatomy. The uterine tubes ofdomestic animals (in the case ofGalen, ruminants and dogs) do, indeed, lead into uterine angles, since these animals are equipped with a horned uterus (uterus bicornis).8 The best anatomical accounts of the tubes originate from Arabic authors, Hali Abas and Avicenna. They observed an enlarged as well as an isthmic part, together with an ampulla of the uterine tube with an oarlike component at the end that was absent in the male.4 During the following five centuries the concept ofthe 'semen-conveying ducts' was based primarily on Galenic texts, and no original contributions were made.