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LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-AMBOISE 1519)

The brain

c.1508-9

RCIN 919127

Here Leonardo records an experiment in which he injected molten wax into the ventricles (cavities) of the brain, allowed it to set and then dissected the brain down the middle. This is the first recorded instance in medical science of the injection of a setting medium into a body cavity. The drawing at upper centre shows the brain cut in half down the midline and opened out, with the wax in the ventricles shaded with parallel hatching.

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