boy who should have ventured to ask any questions would have been regarded in much the same light as was Columbus some three-and-a-half centuries before, when he set forth across the Atlantic in the teeth of all the prejudices of his day. He would have been at once considered as a daring tempter of Providence, an unquiet turbulent spirit, a lewd fellow of the baser sort. Ours was a dogmatic period. A certain code of laws, or rather series of rules, was delivered to us; and this was to be accepted in a respectful un-protestant temper. These rules were the tradition of our elders; and to look for a reason for them were impertinent curiosity, to doubt them gross profanity. Wherefore we accepted them with the utmost admiration. I remember wondering how some words could conduct themselves with the wild irregularity which marked them, when the right thing to do was so well ascertained and laid down. Surely they must have known better. There was a certain collection of nouns styled Heteroclite, upon which I always looked as a band of banditti, of outlaws, of altogether unsafe characters. Then certain verbs, how could they in any way desire to vary from the orderly race of verbs? There seemed some taint in their blood; they were born profligates; they insisted on setting off into far countries. Perhaps, after all, our rules were but a set of conventional observations; our system but a sort of grammatical grundyism; and a broader philosophy might have modified our opinion of those seeming scapegraces. As it was, we embraced and adhered to the said rules without a doubt of their satisfactoriness; and, whether we would or not, we acquired such a familiarity with them as men gain with few things in the course of their life. Such was the spirit of our teaching. Such, perhaps, is still the spirit of much teaching in many places. Such, I dare say, was not invariably the spirit of the teaching in all our older schools. I but speak of things as they were in one old grammar school. In one respect, certainly, as I have said—the practising thoroughly the theory of the place, such as it was the spirit there was excellent. Certainly, it is still provokingly difficult to forget what one learnt there. And now will it seem inconsistent to say that this old grammar school is dear to my memory? Even the house of bondage may have its charms. One may find most pleasant companions amongst one's fellow-captives. There may be fair views from the windows that inspire forgetfulness of the grievances of the interior. The taskmasters may be not without amiable features. And, after all, what is a good thrashing now and then, if one's digestion is satisfactory? What are all the syntaxes of the globe, if only one sleeps well o' nights? Then, let us consider what excellent endurance our school taught us. What splendid training for martyrdom, or any other suffering, it provided! We should have smiled benevolently at the stake, deemed the rack absolute repose, after our hardening experience. I incline to think that the Stoics and their families were mostly educated at some sort of old grammar school. Forgive me, O mine old masters! if I have spoken lightly of your labours. Severe I know well they were. Your arms must ofttimes have ached in their discharge. Ye rest from them now, I trow. Methinks I see your weary ghosts reposing in some fair birch-grove within the Elysian precincts. May no youthful phantoms flit near to disturb your serenity, to stir in you the thought of your ancient prowess, to mock you with their unsubstantiality! Peace be with you, O my masters! ON ANATOMICAL TEACHING. By EDWARD BELLAMY, F.R.C.S. (Eng.) It will be acknowledged that it is a somewhat difficult matter to address a mixed audience upon such a strictly professional matter as the subject of our essay, and still more difficult thoroughly, in the limited space we have at our disposal, to make that matter as practically useful as we might. We trust, however, that the following remarks may prove of use, and interesting to our readers. Without making any unnecessary preamble about the great importance of anatomy, we may commence at once by a glance at the previous training of the student, before he comes under the direction of those who are to hereafter instruct him in his anatomical studies. With a view to the pupil's future position as a student of anatomy and surgery, we cannot lay too great stress upon the importance of the early training of the hand. A good knowledge of the uses of ordinary joiners' tools will lay an excellent foundation for the guidance of the saw, scalpel, and forceps to be afterwards used in dissection. A great mastery over the hand may be obtained by the early and frequent use of the pencil, in directing the more delicate and finer movements of the fingers or wrist. Of course natural aptitude or mechanical taste in some cases, make boys tolerably familiar with handicraft; but the idea we particularly desire to convey is, that book work be not considered the ultimatum, but that manual dexterity be acquired from as early an age as possible by the intending student of anatomy. We may here remark that several of our greatest surgeons have been peculiarly clever in carpentry, turning, &c., long before they entered upon the study of the medical profession. Again, the early study of comparative anatomy and zoology will prove of the greatest possible assistance; but this study should be commenced upon a thoroughly sound basis during a pupil's preliminary education. By a previous knowledge of comparative anatomy, we must be understood to mean an intelligent perception of the various peculiarities of structure of animals, their internal economy, the why and wherefore of their classification, and wherein one species differs from another, as opposed to the so-called popular" notions of birds, beasts, and fishes,* usually considered sufficient. A combination of reading and handicraft may be now advantageously commenced in the dissection of whatever may come in the pupil's way; this will be an excellent introduction to the discrimination of tissues, and the various processes of dissection, shortly to be entered upon, and preliminary difficulties will be the sooner mastered. The ways and means of obtaining material are plentiful enough without any cruelty, and the barbarity of vivisection need form no portion of an educational career, or indeed of any other. Thus much about previous education, we may now enter more particularly upon the subject in hand. It is hardly within our province to give a history of anatomical teaching, suffice it to say that very little definite was known about it until the sixteenth century, when owing to human dissection being in some measure recognised, a greater march took place in anatomical discovery than in any preceding age. It is, however, said that under the first Ptolemy, Herophilus and Erasistratus were authorized to dissect human bodies, but of what the style of teaching in the Alexandrian school was, we can scarcely form any idea, although we hear of students flocking thither. In ancient times the ways and means of acquiring a knowledge of anatomy were very uncertain, and works on human anatomy were "padded" largely with material made up from dissection of the lower animals, and additions to knowledge were made as often as not by what Galen called “ 'Ανατομἢ κατὰ περίπτοσιη” fortuitous anatomy-i.e., the accidental turning up of facts connected with human anatomy-such as portions of a body *We may here remark that the superficial vague knowledge, so frequently the characteristic of the amateur in music, painting, &c., is a noticeable feature in the practitioner who has never been an accurate "student," or who has been content with popular treatises, or royal roads to learning. found dead, and nature's dissection noted. The human body as a whole was seldom, if ever, accurately dissected, and those most desirous of gaining acquaintance of its structure, had the greatest difficulties thrown in their way. We have tolerably accurate accounts of osteological research which have come down to us, and these as mere descriptions of "dry bones" excellent. Beyond the advance of anatomical knowledge amongst the few teachers of medicine, facilities for their pupils dissecting for themselves do not appear to have been made, even after human dissection was deemed indispensable; and the teachers themselves, we find, and that up till no very great period back, had one, two, or three bodies during the year, or for a course; and very frequently that course had to be entirely (?) gone through on one body. And thus the students of the period were forced to learn all they knew from the few demonstrations from time to time afforded them, and from the inaccurate text-books then in use. It may not be deemed uninteresting to quote a passage from the "Surgeons' Records of Edinburgh," of the date of May 18th, 1704, which shows the method in which anatomical teaching was then conducted.* The teachers in Edinburgh in those days were called "operators." The names of the subjects gone through by these operators, are thus enumerated: "The first day, James Hamilton-a discourse on anatomie in generall, with a dissection of the common teguments and muscles of the abdomen. The second day, John Mirrie-the umbilicus, omentum, peritoneum, stomach, pancreas, intestines, vasa lactea, mesentery, receptaculum chyli, and ductus thoracicus. third day, Mr. Alexander Nisbet-the liver, vesica fellis, with their vessels, spleen, kidneys, glandulæ renales, ureters and bladder. The fourth day, George Dundas - the organs of generation in a woman, with a discourse of hernia. The fifth day, Robert Swintoun-the containing and contained parts of the thorax, with the circulation of the blood and respiration. The sixth day, Henry Hamilton-the hair, teguments, dura and pia mater, cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, and nerves within the head. The seventh day, Robert Eliot-the five externale senses, with a demonstration of their several organs. The eighth day, John Jossy-the muscles of the neck and arm, with a discourse on muscular motion. The ninth day, Walter Sotter-the muscles of the back, thigh, and legg. The epilogue, or conclusion, by Dr. Archibald Pitcairn." It The * "Historical Sketch of the Edinburgh Anatomical School," by John Struthers. Edinburgh: 1867. appears that the terms of the grant allowing this public demonstration, required the body to be buried in ten days, whence this division of labour. Let the modern student contrast this with the course he passes through! There is in the Hague a picture, familiar enough to most of us, by Rubens, of a professor (Tulp) lecturing on a corpse to some half dozen very attentive and somewhat elderly students; and this, at though of course of an earlier date than the period we have just quoted from, may be taken probably as tolerably illustrative of an anatomical lecture in former times. No legal provision for students dissecting for themselves was made in England until 1830,* when the horrible disclosures of the means adopted for procuring subjects called the attention of Parliament to the matter. Subjects were obtained, but at such enormous prices, in consequence of the danger of procuring them, that few students could avail themselves of them, so as to be practically familiar with anatomical details, as it is to be hoped they are at the present day. We have not space here to enter into the particulars of the history of the passing of the Anatomy Act of Mr. Warburton, but we may refer our readers to the "Life of Sir Astley Cooper," or to the newspaper and journal literature of that time, where those interested in these matters will find every detail. Legal provision for human dissection was made in Paris and other large continental cities long before we had it at home; and consequently the Parisian schools were inundated with English students, who found that they there had great facilities for practical study, and at a very reasonable cost. The following is a brief sketch of the system of teaching adopted in the metropolitan schools at the present time. The staff of teachers consists generally of a professor or lecturer, or in some cases, joint lecturers, who deliver a systematic course of what is termed descriptive anatomy, a certain number of times a week in the lecture theatre, during the winter six months. This course consists usually of the following subjects: 1st, Osteology, i.e., the minute and accurate description of the bones entering into the framework of the body: 2nd, The description of the ligaments, articulations, and movements of the various joints. 3rd, Myology, a description of the muscles, their attachments, relations, and uses. 4th, The vascular system, comprising the relations and distribution of arteries and veins. 5th. The nervous system, i.e., the anatomy of the brain, spinal cord and the dis * Henry VIII. in 1540, made some sort of grant for human dissection, but it was of a very limited nature. Queen Elizabeth also allowed the bodies of four executed criminals to be used for anatomical purposes during the year. VOL. I. U |