Discovery history of pulmonary circulation

Until Ibn al-Nafis, the standard explanation of heart anatomy and function was from Galen who believed that blood move from the right ventricle to the left through a series of pores or passageways between the two sides.

In the thirteenth century, Ibn Nafis was practicing physician who studied medicine in Damascus. He was attached to the Mansuri Hospital in Cairo.

In his commentary on Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, Ibn al-Nafis clearly describes the pulmonary circulation, although there is still reference to blood mixing with air to become ‘purified’.

Ibn al-Nafis clarified all that when he studied the heart lung blood circulation, observed through many surgeries and possibly disection. I

Ibn al-Nafis’ description of the lesser circulation was brought to light in 1924, by Muhyi ad-din at-Tatawi, who found it while examining some Arabic manuscripts in Berlin and presented it before the medical faculty of Freiburg as part of his doctoral thesis.

It wasn’t until 1553, that a clear description of pulmonary circulation was published in the West, in Christianismi Restitutio, written by Michael Servetus (1511-53), a polymath physician and Humanist.
Discovery history of pulmonary circulation