Timeline of Biology and Organic Chemistry - Before 1600

Before 1600

• c. 520 BC — Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve.
• c. 450 BC — Sushruta wrote the Sushruta Samhita, describing over 120 surgical instruments and 300 surgical procedures, classifying human surgery into eight categories, and introducing cosmetic and plastic surgery.
• c. 450 BC — Xenophanes examined fossils and speculated on the evolution of life.
• c. 350 BC — Aristotle attempted a comprehensive classification of animals. His written works include Historion Animalium, a general biology of animals, De Partibus Animalium, a comparative anatomy and physiology of animals, and De Generatione Animalium, on developmental biology.
• c. 300 BC — Theophrastos (or Theophrastus) began the systematic study of botany.
• c. 300 BC — Herophilos dissected the human body.
• c. 100 BC — Diocles wrote the oldest known anatomy book and was the first to use the term anatomy.
• c. 50-70 AD — Historia Naturalis by Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was published in 37 volumes.
• 130-200 — Claudius Galen wrote numerous treatises on human anatomy.
• c. 800 — Al-Jahiz describes the struggle for existence, introduces the idea of a food chain, and adheres to environmental determinism.
• c. 850 — Al-Dinawari is considered the founder of Arabic botany for his Book of Plants, in which he describes at least 637 plants and discussed plant evolution from its birth to its death, describing the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.
• c. 900 — Rhazes (865-925) distinguishes smallpox from measles, and compiles a casebook of his experiences as a physician, al-Hawi.
• c. 1010 — Avicenna (Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) published The Canon of Medicine (Kitab al-Qanun fi al-tibb), in which he introduces clinical trials and clinical pharmacology, and which remains an authoritative text in European medical education up until the 17th century.
• c. 1150 — Avenzoar adheres to experimental dissection and autopsy, which he carries out to prove that the skin disease scabies is caused by a parasite, a discovery which upsets the theory of humorism; and he also introduces experimental surgery, where animal testing is used to experiment with surgical techniques prior to using them on humans.
• 1200 — Abd-el-latif observes and examines a large number of skeletons during a famine in Egypt and he discovers that Galen was incorrect regarding the formation of the bones of the lower jaw and sacrum.
• c. 1200 — The Andalusian-Arabian biologist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati develops an early scientific method for botany, introducing empirical and experimental techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and separating unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations.
• c. 1225 — Ibn al-Baitar, al-Nabati's student, writes his Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada, a botanical and pharmaceutical encyclopedia describing 1,400 plants, foods, and drugs, 300 of which are his own original discoveries; a later Latin translation of his work is useful to European biologists and pharmacists in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• 1242 — Ibn al-Nafis publishes his Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon, in which he discovers the pulmonary circulation and coronary circulation, which form the basis of the circulatory system.
• 1543 — Andreas Vesalius publishes the anatomy treatise De humani corporis fabrica.