Post-Galenic anatomy and blood-circulation discovery dismantled the microcosm’s three-organ hierarchy

Evidence

In the microcosm, or human body, the hierarchical structure of the three organ systems of liver, heart, and brain with their associated vital, natural, and animal spirits, as described by the ancient physician Galen (ca. A.D. 130–200), was being thrown into doubt by the discoveries of Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), Michael Servetus (1511–1553), Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603), Realdo Columbus (1510?-1559), and the early work of William Harvey (1578–1657), which would culminate in 1628 with his book On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, describing the circulation of the blood. Finally, the geocosm, or living earth, was being defiled by pollution of “its purest streams” and by the mining of its entrails for metals. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 543