STATUS OF HI MAN DISSECTION IN THE UNITED STATES 249 



According to the Weiskotten report of 1940, no subject in 

 medical education can be considered to be more basic than anat- 

 omy; therefore, it should serve as the underlying foundation for 

 the students, training and experience. It states there is a great 

 need for more capable and scientific leadership for the students 

 of anatomy. One of the first essentials for a professor of anatomy 

 is that he have an M.D. but this might mean nothing as some of 

 the outstanding teachers in the country are without it. This group 

 of educators felt that anatomical departments need more financial 

 support, that standards should not be uniform and that the 

 teaching should deal with fundamental principles rather than 

 course content, clock-hours or rnethods. It also felt that anatomical 

 or other research tends to create a favorable atmosphere and could 

 be one of the most inspirational features in a department. 



Since medical graduates must pass either a State or National 

 Board Examination in order to obtain a license to practice, the 

 type and nature of the questions given in anatomy will be of some 

 significance in determining standards. Some schools, for instance, 

 require all of their students to pass the National Boards before 

 they confer the M.D. degree. Clements ('39), in his survey, stated 

 that the Boards refer to a maze of anatomical detail, that 78.4 per 

 cent of the questions require descriptive answers and that 79 per 

 cent were on gross structure. He concluded that a broad knowl- 

 edge of the subject is necessary to successfully cope with the Board 

 exams. Whippel ('43) reported that out of 991 candidates ex- 

 amined by the American Board of Surgery, 175 failed in anatomy 

 and he felt that many are either poorly trained, have forgotten 

 the subject or that they are not instructed in the relative im- 

 portance of certain structures. In the same article, J. S. Rodman, 

 in the discussion, mentioned that the members of the Board of 

 Surgery thought that anatomy was still the most important fun- 

 damental subject in the basic training of surgeons. At the time 

 of these publications, the essay type of examination was in vogue. 

 The recent shift to the objective has probably not altered the 

 necessity for the student to know anatomical detail. 



Within the past decade, there have been some relatively radi- 

 cal criticisms by non-anatomists regarding the status of anatomy 

 in the medical curriculum. Gregg ('42) believes that more time 



