Plate 3. William Cheselden (October 19, 1688 - April 10, 1752) was an English surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery. He studied anatomy in London under William Cowper, and began lecturing anatomy in 1710. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1712 and the following year saw the publishing of his Anatomy of the Human Body, which achieved great popularity becoming an essential study source for students, lasting through thirteen editions, mainly because it was written in English instead of Latin as was customary. In 1733 he published Osteographia or the Anatomy of Bones, the first full and accurate description of the anatomy of the human skeletal system. Osteographia, with its novel vignettes and its use of a camera obscura in the production of the plates, is recognized as a landmark in the history of anatomical illustration. In 1744 he was elected to the position of Warden of the Company of Barber-Surgeons, and had a role in the separation of the surgeons from the barbers and to the creation of the independent Company of Surgeons in 1745, an organization that would become the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He died in 1752 at the age of 63.