Man : a history of the human body / by Arthur Keith.

Arthur Keith

Date:: 1912

Credit: Man : a history of the human body / by Arthur Keith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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respiration and keep them at work both when we sleep and when we wake. There are structures connected with diges- tion which we might examine, but we must postpone their consideration until another opportunity. It may have occurred, how- ever, to the onlooker that, since we can trans-illuminate the human body, it is no longer necessary to dissect it. Dissection is still necessary, for we cannot interpret correctly what is seen when the body is lighted up under X-rays unless we already possess an extremely accurate knowledge of the arrangement of parts as they are displayed in the human body after death. Our cursory visit to the dissecting room has not been in vain if the reader^has realized how complex the structure of the human body really is, and how necessary it is that those who have to cure its disorders should try to understand the intricacy of its mechan- ism. We have seen, however—and this is of more importance for our present purpose— the manner in which our knowledge of the human body is obtained. What one genera- tion of anatomists has learned is written in books and thus handed on. For more than three centuries men have studied the structure of the human body, and yet to-day there is still much, very much, which we do not under- stand, but we live and work in the hope that our knowledge will continue to increase.

Man : a history of the human body / by Arthur Keith.

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