a. [f. the name of the Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514–64).]
1. Connected with anatomical researches.
In quot. with reference to body-snatching.
1824. Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl., XXI. Jan., 110. The mode in which he has examined its individual parts, shows too evidently how much he was influenced by the incorrect notions propagated by the Vesalian demonstration.
1870. H. Lonsdale, Life R. Knox, 65. The students … set out on Vesalian crusades, and succeeded beyond expectation.
2. Vesalian foramen, vein: (see quots.).
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., The Vesalian foramen (foramen Vesalii) of the sphenoid bone (a small venous opening).
1902. Hughes’ Man. Pract. Anat., III. 188. The Vesalian, an emissary vein from the cavernous sinus, which, however, is only occasionally present.
1913. Dorland’s Med. Dict., 1040/2. Vesalian vein, a vessel which connects the pterygoid plexus with the cavernous sinus.
