Introduction: The development of our current understanding of the autonomic nervous system has a rich history with many international contributors.
Conclusions: Although our thoughts of an autonomic nervous system arose with the Greeks, the evolution and final understanding of this neural network would not be fully realized until centuries later. Therefore, our current knowledge of this system is based on hundreds of years of hypotheses and testing and was contributed to by many historic figures.
Keywords: Anatomy; History; Nerves; Physiology; Vegetative system.