52 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



1 The end to be aimed at is one so special, so totally different 

 from what is usually expected from a teacher of anatomy, that 

 I venture to say that but few of its postulates can be theoreti- 

 cally laid down beforehand; the majority must follow from 

 practice and experience. The new lecturer must indeed 

 draw up some system of instruction, but little may possibly 

 remain of his scheme by the time it has been carried into 

 execution. 



1 Anatomy, taught as an exact science to the medical student, 

 has quite other aims, other proportions, and a widely different 

 method. It starts with the necessity of giving the sharpest and 

 most abstract definitions that are possible; for the physician 

 and surgeon cannot limit himself to the appearance of the parts 

 as they are in the sound body. His principal business is to 

 discover sharp and simple characteristics that will not leave 

 him in doubt, even where illness or lesion has so distorted 

 the appearance of the parts, that the untrained eye could no 

 longer find its way among them ; and medical anatomy is thus 

 in its essentials a collection of dry concepts, very difficult to 

 realize, of evil repute even for the long-suffering memory of the 

 medical student, and the obvious appearance is hardly ever 

 called in as more than an aid to the memory, while on the 

 other hand it is all-essential to the artist. 



' For the doctor, for instance, what is of importance in 

 any particular musck besides the point of attachment which 

 determines its action, is the situation of the vessels and 

 nerves upon or beneath it, the lie of the fascia that sur- 

 round it, and control the flow of pus, and so on. What 

 the muscle looks like, whether thin or thick, round or flat; 

 to what extent it consists of flesh, and where its tendons 

 begin ; whether it can be seen through the skin to these 

 and similar questions he is for the most part quite indifferent, 

 while it is just these points that make the muscle interesting 

 to the artist. 



1 Art anatomy is therefore distinct from medical anatomy not 

 merely in its content (since it embraces a portion of the latter, 

 but has to work it up more specially), but still more essentially 

 in its methods. 



' How anatomy should be taught for the artist is best decided 

 by determining wherein and why it can help him. The artists 

 of antiquity were ignorant of the internal aspects of the human 

 body. The ancients had a natural, unconquerable aversion to 

 the dissection of corpses, and were also hampered by their 

 religious convictions, which made all desecration of the dead 

 an unpardonable trespass against the most awful and sacred 

 laws of the gods. Even late into the Middle Ages human 

 bodies were never dissected by physicians those of apes at 



