This is a startling window into the education of American doctors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries-on both a visceral level and for its revealing cultural record. Cringe-worthy shots of medical students-bare-handed gentlemen and a few ladies in street clothes show off their scalpels, saws and textbooks-while their cadavers, mostly poor and black, are awkwardly posed, and exposed. In one stunning shot, a black woman looks out from behind the young students. "What are we to make of an African-American woman, standing, broom handle in hand, behind the dissection table, her gaze fixed on the camera?" the authors ask. More importantly, they conclude, the photo is now drawn "out of the shadows of history" where "we can at least bear witness." A blood-soaked dissection table makes you want to look away and the dark humor of students playing pranks with skeletons are both hilarious and horrible. Postcards sent to family and friends must have caused shock and awe for postmen and recipient alike. Here, a difficult glance into medicine's "uncomfortable past" offers a grand opportunity to understand the legacy doctors and patients live with, and benefit from, today. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contemporary audiences are often shocked to learn that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, medical students around the world posed for photographic portraits with their cadavers; a genre known as dissection photography. Featuring previously unseen images, stories, and anecdotes, this book explores the visual culture of death within the gross anatomy lab through the tradition of dissection photography, examining its historical aspects from both photographic and medical perspectives. The author pays particular attention to the use of dissection photographs as an expression of student identity, and as an evolving transgressive ritual intricately connected to, and eventually superseding, the act of dissection itself.

Electronic book available in pdf format.

This volume addresses the interdependencies between visual technologies and epistemology with regard to our perception of the medical body. The contributions investigate medical bodies as historical, technological and political constructs, constituted where knowledge formation and visual cultures intersect.

FROM REVIEWS OF 1E: "Hruban, Westra and Isacson, working with a superb medical illustrator did an admirable job in taking the Johns Hopkins' gross room manual and translating it into a practical, concise, and easily accessible guide to contemporary practice in the surgical pathology laboratory." -Modern Path

Praise for this book:[Four stars] Populated with superb pictures of anatomical dissections...highly recommend[ed]...to any clinician dealing with skull base conditions.--Doody's ReviewA richly illustrated, step-by-step guide to the full range of approaches in skull base surgery, this book is designed to enable the surgeon to gain not only the technical expertise for common procedures, but to be able to confidently modify standard approaches when necessary. Full-color images of cadavers orient the surgeon to the clinical setting by presenting in precise detail the perspective encountered in the operating room. The images demonstrate surgical anatomy and the relevant structures adjacent to the exposures. Special emphasis on the relationship between the operative corridor and the surrounding anatomy helps the surgeon develop a clear understanding of whether tissues adjacent to the dissection can be exposed without complications.Features: More than 1,000 high-quality images demonstrate key concepts Brief lists of Key Steps guide the surgeon through each step of the dissection Concise text supplements each photograph, providing descriptions of technical maneuvers and clinical pearls Coverage of the latest innovative approaches enables surgeons to optimize clinical techniques Through detailed coverage of surgical anatomy and relevant adjacent structures, this book enables clinicians to develop a solid understanding of the entire operative region as well as the limits and possibilities of each skull base approach. It is an indispensable reference for neurosurgeons, head and neck surgeons, and otolaryngologists, and residents in these specialties.