On the effects of the Anatomy Act, and the facilities for the study of practical anatomy in Glasgow / by George Buchanan.

  • George Buchanan
Date:
[©1855?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the effects of the Anatomy Act, and the facilities for the study of practical anatomy in Glasgow / by George Buchanan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    sented in the wards of oui- excellent Infirmary. Tlie subject was not exhausted, and may well be continued in another branch, and especially as regards the peculiar facilities afforded in the school of Glasgow for the study of anatomy, contrasted with the diffi- culties before the passing of the Anatomy Act. It is instructive, as well as interesting, to reflect on the advan- tages possessed by the student of the present day over those of former times, and even of a period not very remote. In the mat- ter of books alone, how great is the difference! We have trea- tises on every subject in the cheapest and most accessible form, while the introduction of woodcuts not only adds to the clearness of the text, but relieves the tediousness of a long description. The manuals and handbooks on almost every course in the curri- culum, are marvels of completeness, as well as conciseness. In anatomy we have no lack to choose from : Quain's, Wilson's, and Knox's in descriptive—the Dublin Dissector, Ellis, and Holden, in practical anatomy, all within the means of any student. In- deed, in every branch of study there is some vade mecum in which the matter is so arranged and condensed, that the reader obtains the marrow of the information without wading through whole chapters of explanations; and it is only in some such way that he could overtake the extended course of study now required of him. Passing from this, and refraining from noticing the increased attention that is given to clinical teaching, in nothing is there such a marked difference as in the advance of practical anatomy in this country. What was the state of the case a hundred years ago ? Ana- tomy was cultivated with considerable ardour by some intelli- gent persons in England, but the schools in which it was taught were few and miserably defective, both as respected the plans of the teachers and the facilities afforded to learners. To what a lamentable degree these deficiencies continued to exist in the time of Dr. W. Hunter, who began to lecture in 1746, may be judged of from the following extract from one of his introductory lec- tures :— In the course of my own studies, he says, I attended as diligently as the generality of students do, one of the most repu- table courses of anatomy in Europe. There I learned a good deal by my ears, but almost nothing by my eyes; and therefore hardly anything to the purpose. The defect was, that the professor was obliged to demonstrate all the parts of the body, except the bones, nerves, and vessels, upon one dead body. There was a foetus for the nerves and blood-vessels, and the operations of surgery were explained, to very little purpose indeed, upon a dog. And m the only course which I attended in London, which was by far the most reputable that was given here, the professor used only two dead bodies in his course. The consequence was, that at one ot these places all was harangue, and very little was distmctly seen; in the other, the course was contracted into too small a compass oi