Recent Advances in the Study and 

 Techniques of Anatomy 1 



By Paul G. Roofe 



and 

 Samuel W. Lesher 



Department of Anatomy, University of Kansas 



Anatomy has the distinction of being one of the oldest sciences 

 known to man. We shall not attempt here to trace its history from 

 its beginning but will try to describe a few recent advances in the 

 various divisions of this broad study. Anatomy in its present posi- 

 tion, among the biological sciences, includes gross anatomy, embry- 

 ology, neurology, and cytology. These can be broken down still fur- 

 ther into smaller subdivisions. Early in biological history these four 

 divisions were distinctly isolated phases of anatomy. Today all bar- 

 riers among divisions of a scientific subject, and actually among fields 

 of science in general, are ceasing to exist, a result that is creating 

 a fusion of interests and a sharing of information. 



GROSS ANATOMY 



Gross anatomy had its early beginning among the Babylonians and 

 Egyptians and carried over into the early civilization of the Medi- 

 terranean area. The Greeks under Asklepios and Aristotle failed to 

 give us a complete picture of man's anatomy. Through the Greek 

 Galen, anatomy advanced considerably, but it was not until 1533 that 

 the first complete book of anatomy was written and that was by the 

 Belgian Vesalius, with his "Epitome" and "De Humani Corpus 

 Fabrica." 



Descriptive gross anatomy has not advanced far since the time 

 of Vesalius. In certain aspects, it is a sad commentary that modern 

 textbooks of anatomy have followed the Vesalian pattern. There 

 are a few brave souls who are presenting gross anatomy from a dy- 

 namic and functional view, but by and large the teaching and study 



1 Reprinted, with some revisions, by permission from Transactions of the Kansas Acad- 

 emy of Science, vol. 54, No. 2, 1951. 



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