Editing Andreas Vesalius (section)

=== Other publications ===
In 1538, Vesalius wrote ''Epistola, docens venam axillarem dextri cubiti in dolore laterali secandam'' (''A letter, teaching that in cases of pain in the side, the axillary vein of the right elbow be cut''), commonly known as the Venesection Letter, which demonstrated a revived [[venesection]], a classical procedure in which blood was drawn near the site of the ailment.  He sought to locate the precise site for venesection in [[pleurisy]] within the framework of the classical method.  The real significance of the book is his attempt to support his arguments by the location and continuity of the [[venous system]] from his observations rather than appeal to earlier published works.  With this novel approach to the problem of venesection, Vesalius posed the then striking hypothesis that anatomical dissection might be used to test speculation.

In 1546, three years after the ''Fabrica'', he wrote his ''Epistola rationem modumque propinandi radicis Chynae decocti'', commonly known as the Epistle on the China Root. Ostensibly an appraisal of a popular but ineffective treatment for gout, syphilis, and [[calculus (medicine)|stones]], this work is especially important as a continued polemic against Galenism and a reply to critics in the camp of his former professor Jacobus Sylvius, now an obsessive detractor.

In February 1561, Vesalius was given a copy of Gabriele Fallopio's ''Observationes anatomicae'', friendly additions and corrections to the Fabrica. Before the end of the year Vesalius composed a cordial reply, ''Anatomicarum Gabrielis Fallopii observationum examen'', generally referred to as the ''Examen''. In this work he recognizes in Fallopio a true equal in the science of dissection he had done so much to create. Vesalius' reply to Fallopio was published in May 1564, a month after Vesalius' death on the Greek island of [[Zante]] (now called [[Zakynthos]]).