NATURE 



145 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1904. 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 

 (i) A Treatise on Applied Anatomy. By Edward H. 

 Taylor, M.D., F.R.C.S.I. Pp. xxvii + 738; 178 

 figures and plates. (London : Charles Griflfin and 

 Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 305. net. 



(2) Tlie Human Sternum. By Andrew Melville Pater- 

 son, M.D. Pp. 8g ; 10 plates. (London: Published 

 for the University Press of Liverpool by Williams 

 and Norgate, 1904.) Price 10s. net. 



(3) Der Gang des Menschen. v. Teil. Die Kinematik 

 des Beinschwingens. By Otto Fischer. Price 5 

 marks, vi. Teil. Ueber den Einfluss der Schvvere 

 und der Muskein auf die Schwingbewegung des 

 Beins. By Otto Fischer. Price 4 marks. (Leipzig : 

 B. G. Teubner, 1904.) 



(i) ' I "O those unfamiliar with the ways of modern 

 -1- medicine the continual appearance of new 

 works on human anatomy must cause some surprise. 

 No subject should be better known, for it has been a 

 matter of almost universal study for centuries. At the 

 best, many will conclude, a new text-book on applied 

 anatomy — the kind of anatomy the surgeon and 

 physician more especially need — can only be a re- 

 setting of old facts, and an examination of Dr. Taylor's 

 work will show that, to a large extent, the conclusion 

 is justified. The steady advance of surgery necessi- 

 tates a continual rearrangement of anatomical per- 

 spective ; the areas of the body which were under a 

 surgical taboo to the septic surgeons of former days 

 are open to the clean operator of modern times. 

 The brain and spinal cord, the cavities of the ear and 

 nose, the organs within the thorax and abdomen, and 

 the great joint cavities of the limbs, have come, one 

 after the other, within the field of everyday surgical 

 procedure during the last thirty years. In his treat- 

 ment of these parts of the body Dr. Taylor is quite up 

 to date ; his pages reflect accurately the best opinion 

 that is to be found in modern text-books of anatomy 

 and surgery. Still, modern advances will not alto- 

 gether explain the rapid appearance of new works on 

 anatomy or on any other subject; every generation 

 demands its books on science or literature wet from 

 the press. 



The study of this work, containing more than half 

 a million words, furnished with highly finished 

 figures, written with clearness and accuracy, raises the 

 question: is the modern surgeon, as seen in a text- 

 book such as this, a more scientific man than his pre- 

 decessor of fifty or a hundred years ago? A consider- 

 ation of a number of subjects in this work, in the treat- 

 ment of which Dr. Taylor is neither better nor worse 

 than other rising surgeons, will show that, as think- 

 ing men, they compare unfavourably with surgeons 

 of past periods. The subjects referred to deal with (i) 

 the appendix vermiformis, the seat of appendicitis; 

 (2) the prostate, which becomes so frequently enlarged 

 in old men ; (3) the epididymis, a structure connected 

 with the testicle and very liable to disease ; (4) the gall 

 bladder, interesting in connection with the formation 

 of gall-stones ; (5) the antrum of the mastoid, an air 

 NO. 1833, VOL. 71] 



space connected with the middle ear; (6) the air spaces 

 opening into the cavity of the nose. These six struc- 

 tures are selected because, during the last twenty or 

 thirty years, they have been the subjects of the keenest 

 inquiry, and surgeons have published their observations 

 concerning them in thousand upon thousand of treatises 

 and articles. One would expect that the basis of their 

 treatment would rest on an intimate knowledge of the 

 normal use of these structures. John Hunter, Everard 

 Home, and John Hilton would certainly have sought 

 a complete knowledge of the functions of these parts 

 to serve as a foundation for a rational treatment. Dr. 

 Taylor adopts the orthodox view as regards these 

 structures; he describes their shape, position, and re- 

 lationships, and the routes by which they may be 

 reached, but not a word is said of their use. Perhaps 

 it is unfair to blame Dr. Taylor for this omission, 

 because it must be confessed that we know much more 

 of the diseases of these structures than of their normal 

 function. Yet in a text-book written for house 

 and operating surgeons surely it is the duty of the 

 author to point out essential gaps in our know- 

 ledge rather than to gloss them over by a multitude 

 of unessential details. This criticism is the more 

 pertinent because the author in this case has not taken 

 a narrow view of applied anatomy ; he devotes a very 

 large part of his space to a description of operative 

 procedures, pathological processes, embryological de- 

 fects, and introduces here and there points in 

 physiology. 



A great part of this work consists not of applied, but 

 of purely descriptive anatomy. Some years ago 

 VValdeyer, of Berlin, gave an elaborate description of 

 some ten or twelve areas he distinguished within the 

 human pelvis — all of which have been adopted in this 

 book ; yet not a word is said as to what manner of use 

 a surgeon can possibly apply them. Again, as regards 

 a small peritoneal recess, which may occur to the left 

 of the terminal part of the duodenum, all the various 

 forms which have been described by hair-splitting 

 surgeons are reproduced in detail. An elaborate de- 

 scription of the condition known as knock-knee is sup- 

 plied, yet no mention is made of how bones react in 

 their growth to the forces which are brought to bear 

 on them, nor is there any allusion to the forces which 

 normally act on the knee joint. 



Surgeon-anatomists have a fondness for the appli- 

 cation of certain proper names to surgical procedures 

 and anatomical structures — such as the " pouch of 

 Prussak," the " fossa of Landzert," " Gosselin's 

 fracture," &c. An examination of the index of this 

 work shows that more than one hundred such terms 

 are used, yet, in comparison with many works, the 

 number is indeed very moderate ; but one feels they 

 are still rather many. Many terms introduced by 

 surgeons are not words which may be used easily, such 

 as " cholecystotomy " (opening the gall-bladder), 

 " cholecystectomy " (excision of the gall-bladder), 

 " cholecystenterostomy " (making a communication 

 between gall-bladder and intestine), " choledocho- 

 tomy " (opening the bile duct). 



(2) In this monograph, a companion to one on the 

 human sacrum, published in 1893, Prof. Paterson 



H 



