He Who Neglects Anatomy Will Wrong and Kill His Patients

Nearly a millennium ago, Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī (c. 936–1013), known in the Latin West as Albucasis, emphasized the essential relationship between anatomical knowledge and safe surgical practice. His Kitāb al-Taṣrīf, a 30-part medical encyclopedia, culminated in a treatise devoted to surgery that became one of the most influential surgical works of the medieval period (Albucasis 1973). The surgical treatise included descriptions and illustrations of numerous operative instruments and procedures and, following transmission into the Latin medical tradition, exerted considerable influence on European surgery (Albucasis 1973). Of particular relevance to anatomists, Albucasis insisted that surgeons possess detailed anatomical knowledge before undertaking operative procedures. In the surgical portion of al-Taṣrīf, he emphasized the importance of understanding the anatomy and relationships of structures encountered during surgery and warned of the potentially fatal consequences of operating without such knowledge (Albucasis 1973). This principle has subsequently been distilled into the memorable admonition, “He who neglects anatomy will wrong and kill his patients.” (Meyer et al. 1998) Although this exact English wording has been published in the medical literature and attributed to “Albucasis (Altasrif),” (Meyer et al. 1998) it is best regarded as a modern rendering of the more extensive warning contained in al-Taṣrīf, rather than as a verbatim English translation of Albucasis's original words (Albucasis 1973).