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ANATOMY BOOKS

Early history

The beginnings of anatomy books are found in the very mists of recorded time. Ancient Egyptians left their drawings of trepanation, a procedure of opening the skull, on the walls of the pyramids and the Incas too were known to be anatomists.

Strangely, it is Aristotle, more famous for his philosophical writings, who in the fourth century before Christ who is often acknowledged as the first anatomist. He made anatomical drawings showing how the arteries branched out to the parts of the body.

Human dissection was strictly forbidden, but is known to have happened under the cover of darkness. Galen, the doctor who is known to have used manipulation to cure a famous Roman scholar’s palsied arm in the second century BC, was a master anatomist, officially only on animals. He loved macabre public displays, dissecting living pigs in public, demonstrating how incisions made into the spinal cord would paralyse their legs!

Middle Ages

In the fourteenth century Michelangelo is known to have done dissections by candlelight in an Italian hospital, thereby gaining the inspiration and great accuracy of his many statues and paintings.

Leonardo da Vinci too is known to have been an anatomist. One has only to look at his sketches to know that the great genius had an intricate knowledge of anatomy.

Seventeenth Century

In the seventeenth century, when human dissection was still strictly forbidden, William Harvey, the father of surgery, dissected his own deceased father and is credited with the discovery that it is the heart that actually pumps our blood.

Nineteenth Century

It was not until 1832 that widespread human dissection was permitted in Great Britain. Prior to that body snatching, grisly murders and grave robbing was widely practised to source human cadavers for anatomists, eager to discover the mysteries of the human body. The remains of their dissections have recently been dug up in British archaeological investigations.

Henry Gray, the British anatomist, published undoubtedly the most famous anatomical textbook, still affectionately known the world over as Grays Anatomy, 150 years ago.

Twenty-first Century

Spine, Spinal cord, and ANS

There have been many texts written since, but we feature Spine, Spinal cord, and ANS by Cramer and Darby as a recent text most relevant to chiropractors. Written by a chiropractor, this book is full of clinical gems.

CLINICAL NEUROANATOMY made ridiculously simple

Whilst chiropractors rightly claim to work on a daily basis with the neurological systems of the body, one wonders how many could confidently name all the cranial nerves, and give a brief summary of their function! I confess that I numbered amongst those who couldn't, until freshening up on Dr Goldberg's little book.

For more information about this 100 page gem, click here …

Primeval Pictures

Have you ever wished that you had two weeks to go back to the Gross Anatomy lab and review all that stuff? I have! At Primal Pictures you have an excellent alternative. Save you travelling to Los Angeles or New York, Chicago or Davenport ... Perhaps won't save you the time though. Once you start viewing these three dimensional images time will pass very smartly. Anatomy books and CDs can provide much for the busy doctor. That's assuming that your alma mata provides the service and you have the choice!

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Jull's Test for Deep Cervical Flexor muscle weakness.

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