[I] 



INTRODUCTION 



Xlie progress of medicine remained static and had to mark time 

 for many centuries. It had to await one development, which was 

 slo^v in eventuating, was attendant with great superstition, was 

 unmatched for dramatic incident and heroism, was led by a small 

 minority against the deep-seated resistance of the masses. In 

 order to advance, it was necessary for the profession to reveal 

 the accurate geography and architecture of man by permitting the 

 restricted privilege of dissecting human bodies of a selected few 

 from the general population. The means to this end has created 

 an enduring, silent and gigantic struggle revolving around the 

 use of dead subjects for the promotion of anatomical science. 

 There is nothing in the life of man which is more attendant with 

 fear, uncertainty, mysticism and superstition than his dead. 



There is one way, and one only, in which the composition 

 of man can be understood thoroughly and that is by dissection 

 or "anatomizing" as it is sometimes called. This is true of every 

 organic thing which an individual wishes to understand. All great 

 thinkers on medical education have been in accord with this 

 view. The parts of animals can be examined individually but 

 cannot be put together again, whereas other machinery, with 

 mechanical parts made by man, can be both disassembled and 

 reassembled. Taking apart, however, remains an accepted method 

 in teaching about functional units, the essential working organs 

 of which are always masked. 



In respect to the question of human dissection, it offers an 

 opportunity for man to study man. The evolution of this practice 

 has been such that the privilege has been granted to a few per- 

 sons. Looking at it broadly, the spotlight has been focused di- 

 rectly and sharply on man's opinions and regard for the dead. 

 Overcoming his objections, to human anatomizing, has been the 



