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In ancient Babylon, as early as 3500 BC, autopsies on animals were performed not for the study of disease, but rather for the practice of predicting the future by communicating with divine forces
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Galen (131-200 A.D.), a disciple of Hippocrates practicing in ancient Greece, performed surgical dismantling (dissection) of animals and humans
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In the late 1200s the law faculty dominated the University of Bologna and would order autopsies to be performed to help solve legal problems
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Before such edicts from religious leaders, it was considered a crime to dissect the human body and criminal prosecutions for "body snatching" by students of anatomy date back to the early 1300s.
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By the 1500s, the autopsy was generally accepted by the Catholic Church, marking the way for an accepted systematic approach for the study of human pathology.
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Giovanni Bathista Morgagni (1682-1771) who has been considered the first great autopsist.
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Osler not only performed autopsies himself and taught others from autopsies, but also left detailed instructions for his own autopsy.
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In 1910, Abraham Flexner reported the sorry state of medical education in the U. S. at that time.
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The Cabot report issued from the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1920, based on approximately 3000 autopsies performed, revealed astonishing diagnostic inaccuracies on the part of clinicians.
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Government agencies that regulate the accreditation of hospitals and nursing homes are deeply concerned about the decline in autopsy rates