Book Review: The Anatomist
Sidney Barritt - Roanoke Times & World News
Feb 07, 2008
The Gray of 'Gray's Anatomy'
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the original publication of "Gray's Anatomy."
No, not the script to the television show, but the real thing, that thick volume that has been a bible through many editions for generations of medical students struggling through the first year of professional training.
Bill Hayes, a well-published science writer, used his copy one day to check the spelling of a particular word and happened to wonder exactly who was the "Gray" of "Gray's Anatomy." "Gray's Anatomy" doesn't have a jacket flap with the author's picture or a brief bio inside the cover. With good reason, it turns out.
No biography of Henry Gray has been written because there is almost no evidence supporting the reports of schooling, graduation, awards won, posts assumed, etc. There is the monumental text of the book itself, but, as both the author and I learned, the splendidly detailed drawings that bring the text to life, were not executed by Gray himself. Another physician, Henry Vandyke Carter was the artist, and it is from an examination of his voluminous correspondence that Hayes has re-created what little is known of the origins of "Gray's Anatomy."
That is about half the book. The other, and perhaps better, half leads from Hayes' own experiences in gross anatomy. He actually took the course at the University of California in San Francisco, in part with students of pharmacy, in further part with physical therapy students and then with medical students.
He got his hands, albeit well-gloved, dirty. He joined in the dissection of a cadaver with "Gray's Anatomy" as his guide, and that makes this much more than a book about a book.
THE ANATOMIST By Bill Hayes. Ballantine. $24.95
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