Leonardo Da Vinci: Father of Anatomy

Leonardo da Vinci: Precursor Member of the International
Society for Rotary Blood Pumps?
Jean-Raoul Monties
President, International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps and Laboratory for Surgical Research, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Mediterranee, Marseille, France
A few outstanding minds have marked the history
of mankind. They have been men of extraordinary
genius whose work opened the way for remarkable
progress and whose names have become synonymous with observation, insightfulness, and creativity.
They were the pioneers and visionaries.
The focus of my presentation here today is one of
the supreme examples of the ideal universal genius,
a man of great versatility who was a scholar, an engineer, and a craftsman; a man of insatiable curiosity
who left no stone unturned; a man keenly interested
in our planet who was a geologist, hydrologist, geographer, and map-maker; a man who studied both
human and animal anatomy and physiology; a man
with great powers of observation who performed scientific investigations in optics and mechanics, and
even invented new fields of engineering; a man who
designed machines, directed civil engineering projects, and adorned buildings; and a man with fantastic artistic talent who left the world some of its greatest masterpieces of painting and sculpture.
His genius was not bounded by time and technology. His research and invention extended beyond
the realm of knowledge and technology available in
his day. He was a visionary but also a pragmatist, a
thinker but also a man of action. Along with Erasmus, Rabelais, and a few other outstanding humanists, he was a quintessential product of the explosion
in the arts and sciences that took place at the turn of
the fifteenth century. The Renaissance man I am
talking about is Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519),
whom I nominate as a precursor member of the International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps.
Leonardo was born near Florence in Tuscany in
1452. After a thorough education, he entered Verrocchio’s workshop where he apprenticed in painting
and sculpture. At the age of twenty, he was admitted
to the painter’s guild of Florence and began his career as a painter. At the age of thirty, he went to the
court of Ludovico il Moro in Milan where his talent
flourished. Because he believed that painting and
sculpture should express the laws of science, Leonardo studied anatomy and botany. His natural curiosity led him to perform experiments on living animals and to study the flight of birds. His love for
technology and continuous quest to improve his artistic and architectural achievements led him to devote time to mathematical investigation. His interest
in science led Leonardo to invent the propeller and
develop a water channeling project. His interest in
pump systems led him to study construction materials and friction.
In 1499, Ludovico il Moro was forced to flee Milan
ahead of the invading French troops of Louis XII.
During the ensuing few years, Leonardo wandered
between Milan, Florence, Mantua, and Venice
where he offered his services to both the French and
the Italians. After a stay in Rome under the protection of Pope Leo X, he accepted the invitation of the
French king Francis I and moved to the Castle of
Cloux near Amboise where he finished his notebooks on “the nature of water, machines, and other
objects.” Leonardo da Vinci died in Amboise in
1519.
During his lifetime, Leonardo produced many
works of art. Although known mainly for his painting and sculpture, he also excelled in architecture,
decoration, and music. His achievements in scientific
investigation and technological development as well
as many of his visions and premonitions were not
Received November 1998.
Presented in part at the 6th Congress of the International Society for Rotary Blood Pumps, July 25 27, 1998, in Park City,
Utah, U.S.A.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. JeanRaoul Monties, Centre Hospitalier Regional et Universitaire de
Marseille, C.H.R.U. La Timone, Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385,
Marseille Cedex 05, France.
Artificial Organs
23(6):477–479, Blackwell Science, Inc.
© 1999 International Society for Artificial Organs
477
limited by knowledge available in his day. Some of
his inventions were the products of his own observations and experiments. However, Leonardo was
aware of the limits of human invention and wrote in
hisNotebooks of Anatomythat, “No invention of
human intelligence can ever equal the elegance,
grace, and efficiency of nature because in the inventions of nature nothing is missing and nothing is superfluous.”
Today I would like to call your attention to the
part of Leonardo’s work with implications for rotary
blood pumps in the fields of anatomy and physiology, hydraulics, mechanics and physics, and construction materials.
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Leonardo called the heart “an admirable instrument invented by the Supreme being” and studied it
carefully. He observed cardiac movement by sacrificing pigs with a dagger in the heart. He drew detailed sketches of the heart valve structures, especially the semilunar valves of the aorta . However, he
did not notice the openings in the septum through
which blood passes between chambers, and it was
not until 1629 that the English physician William
Harvey demonstrated the function of the heart and
the circulation of blood. Still, Leonardo should be
considered as a visionary who wrote that the movement of blood in the body was comparable to the
flux in plants and invented the term “continuous
flow” which he described as the “cause that moves
the humors in all species of animal life against the
natural force of gravity” (Cod. Atl., 171r).
HYDRODYNAMICS
Leonardo was involved in many water channeling
projects in his native Tuscany. He studied fluid mechanics, turbulence caused by obstacles in the stream
of flow and irregularities on the wall, whirlpools, and
dead spaces. Thus, while Leonardo never studied
shearing itself, he discovered its consequences.
Based on his observation of the basic laws of hydrodynamics, he drew sketches of boat docks and wake
turbulence. He studied streams using small rafts
made from chips of wood. He described the effects
of circulatory fluid movement created using a crank
handle system that pumped water by centrifugal
force. He also designed blade wheels, reaction
wheels, propellers, and screws. These are the forerunners of our centrifugal and axial pumps.
PHYSICS AND MECHANICS
Leonardo’s notebooks contain thousands of
sketches and notes about physics and mechanics often supported by experimental data. Some of these
data are relevant to the purpose of our Society. In his
work to develop a machine “capable of producing
energy,” Leonardo dealt with the problem of shaft
friction and built a test bench to study “pole friction.” He introduced the concept of efficiency to
science and intuitively sensed the importance of
resistance. He invented roller bearings and “sunand-planet” devices. Based on his experimental data,
Leonardo concluded that resistance due to friction
was related to the type of material in contact and the
condition of the contact surfaces. He also observed
that resistance could be reduced by lubricating the
contact surfaces with fluids or other substances.
These principles are well known today, but they
were revolutionary back in the sixteenth century.
Leonardo was also aware of magnetism and observed that the attraction between a piece of iron
and a magnet decreased rapidly with distance.
Well before Papin, Leonardo imagined that steam
could be harnessed to move vehicles. His sketches
included a wide variety of now familiar technologies:
helicopters, submarines, tanks, machine guns, weaving machines, parachutes, and underwater diving
equipment.
Of course, Leonardo da Vinci could not have designed a circulatory assist device. As I said before, he
did not know the circulatory system, and the high
speed motor technology necessary to build centrifugal pumps and turbines was not available. Still Leonardo had the skills necessary to qualify as an eminent member of our society. He had a keen sense of
observation of natural and experimental events. He
wrote that observation was “the basic rule for all
scientists trying to understand natural events. Nature
begins with the reason and ends with experience, but
researchers must follow the opposite path: from experimentation we must understand the reason”
(Cod. E, 55r).
The reader of Leonardo’s notebooks cannot help
but be struck by the strictness of the methodology
used by the author in pursuit of truth. Each problem
is described carefully and defined in detail. All conclusions are fully supported by experimental findings.
Leonardo had the ability to find practical applications for scientific and technological breakthroughs
even in areas far removed from the initial innovation. He had insatiable curiosity and insightfulness.
Leonardo was active in the study of nature, art, and
engineering. Each provided matter for original study
and speculation. His attitude was always pragmatic.
All his research was aimed at practical applications,
not all of which were feasible in his day. Leonardo
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 478
Artif Organs, Vol. 23, No. 6, 1999
explored every avenue opened by his study. His
knowledge was awesome and universal, covering a
wide range of fields.
Leonardo was in advance of his time. This explains
why many of his inventions were unfinished. The
state of science and technology in the sixteenth century did not allow him to complete his visionary
dreams.
As proof of his quest for truth and perfection,
Leonardo left us not only some of the world’s greatest paintings, drawings, and writings, but also a
method of research based on a continuum of technological developments and clinical findings. Our society, our prestigious President of Honor, and our
illustrious forefathers have all worked according to
the precepts of Leonardo’s methodology. Our goal is
to offer patients an alternative to heart transplantation to fulfill the prophetic question asked by Leonardo: “Why did Nature not arrange things such that
one animal could live from the death of another?”
(Cod. M, 156-b).
I am sure that Leonardo da Vinci can be considered a precursor member of our Society. His dying
words in the arms of King Francis I were, “just as a
day well spent is rewarded with a good night’s sleep,
so a life well spent is rewarded with a happy death.”
REFERENCES
Leonard de Vinci[notebooks]. Atlas Edition, Paris, 1990.
Encyclopaedia Universalis France, tome 9. Paris, 1977.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 479
Artif Organs, Vol. 23, No. 6, 1999
Copyright of Artificial Organs is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed
to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However,
users may print, download, or email articles for individual use