 In his landmark book published in 1543, "De humani corporis fabrica", he described an experiment in which he passed a reed into the trachea of a dying animal whose thorax had been opened and maintained ventilation by blowing into the reed intermittently.Vesalius wrote that the technique could be life-saving.Antonio Musa Brassavola (1490–1554) of Ferrara treated a patient suffering from peritonsillar abscess by tracheotomy after the patient had been refused by barber surgeons.