History of the Study of Human Body Composition: A Brief Review ZIMIAN WANG, 1 * ZHONG-MING WANG, 2 AND STEVEN B. HEYMSFIELD 1 1 St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10025 2 Department of Anatomy, Liaoning College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang 110032, China ABSTRACT This review assembles a chronology of human body compo- sition research with the goal of exposing historical roots and identifying fu- ture potential trends. Body composition research has emerged over the past several decades as a distinct field, and for many scientists body composition is their primary investigative focus. Technological advances will likely move the field forward and, ultimately, help to expand knowledge of human body composition variability in health and disease. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 11:157–165, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc. There is no limit to knowledge —Confucius The study of human body composition is a branch of human biology which focuses on the in vivo quantification of body compo- nents, the quantitative relationships be- tween components, and the quantitative changes in these components related to various influencing factors (Wang et al., 1992). Conjecture on human body composition can be traced back to antiquity. Circa 440 BC, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, proposed the idea that as a whole organism the human body is composed of four ‘‘con- stituents,’’ blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. A similar hypothesis was also proposed by ancient Chinese scholars, who suggested that there were five ‘‘elements’’ in the human body, including metal, wood, wa- ter, fire, and earth. Good health was achieved through a balance of the five ele- ments, and any imbalance resulted in dis- ease. However, these ancient ideas were not based on experiments. Since that time, hu- man beings have come a long way toward understanding the composition of their own bodies. Avicenna (980–1037 AD) in the Ara- bic world authored Canon Medicinae, which provided knowledge of organ size. Five hun- dred years later, Andreas Vesalius (1514– 1564) also reported information on organ size and mass in his classic treatise De Hu- mani Corporis Fabrica (Rothman et al., 1995). As a branch of modern science, the study of human body composition has a history of about 150 years, which can be roughly di- vided into two periods, the early and recent stages. EARLY STAGE IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN BODY COMPOSITION (1850s–1950s) The enlightenment of human body compo- sition research depended on the develop- ment of other branches of science, such as chemistry, anatomy, and nutrition. It was a great German chemist, Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), who first found that many substances in food were also present in the human body. He also found that body fluids contained more sodium and less potassium than tissues. Liebig’s work, based on chemi- cal analysis, marked the beginning of the modern study of human body composition. Reviewing the early stage in the study of human body composition, three separate Contract grant sponsor: National Institutes of Health; Con- tract grant numbers: RR00645 and NIDDK 42618. *Correspondence to: ZiMian Wang, PhD, Weight Control Unit, 1090 Amsterdam Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10025. E- mail: ZW28@Columbia.edu Received 27 August 1998; Revision received 18 September 1998; Accepted 20 October 1998 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 11:157–165 (1999) © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.