Dissection

“ Nerve and audacity were required to assail these new problems; enlightened only by his own dissections and his own reading, he practised what he had never seen. The unaided natural senses of sight and touch guided a hand, erudite only by dissection, safely to the recesses of a quivering and moving patient. ”

“ The dissection of the human body was of the utmost importance to the healing art. While the practice was forbidden, it could only have been performed furtively and in a hasty and unsatisfactory manner. The science of anatomy, on which that of medicine to be anything but quackery must be founded, now took its proper place in the education of the doctor. The bodies of all malefactors were given over for the purposes of dissection.409 Herophilus is accused of having also dissected alive as many as six hundred criminals. ”

“ As the brain, in severe cases, exhibits symptoms of oppression, so on dissection it will be found red and turgid, enabling us to account for the convulsive movements during the termination of the malady. The whole body, more particularly the abdomen, gives out a fetid gangrenous odour, which has procured for braxy the pastoral appéllation of "stinking ill" and renders the dissection far from pleasant. ”

“ CHAPTER I. The complaint as to the scarcity of bodies for dissection is as old as the history of anatomy itself. Great respect for the body of the dead has characterised mankind in nearly all ages; post mortem dissection was looked upon as a great indignity by the relatives of the deceased, and every precaution was taken to prevent its occurrence.
It would be beyond the scope of the present work to attempt a history of anatomical teaching; as will be pointed out later on, the resurrection-men did not come into existence until the early part of the eighteenth century. ”

“ To assure the operator of a thorough dissection he may inject the site with sterile water through the opening made with the knife, squeezing it out before injecting the nose.
If the skin has had to be freed by surgical means the mass injected should be sufficient to overcome the defect almost entirely, to prevent the reformation of the bands of connective tissue which have been severed. ”

“ When his pupils showed him some interesting appearance in a dissection, he would say; “That is the way, sir, to learn your profession. Look for yourself; never mind what other people may say, no opinion or theories can interfere with information derived from dissection.” ”

“ Dissection, a word, derived from Latin, that is etymologically equivalent to the word anatomy, derived from Greek. Its literal meaning is 'cutting up', and it is used to define the technical procedures for acquiring a practical knowledge of the anatomy or structure of the body. Dissection of the human body is an essential part of the education of a medical practitioner, for it is the only means whereby he can acquire a thorough and practical familiarity with the geography of the territories in which all his professional activities lie. ”

“ Effects similar to those resulting from wounds in dissection often occur in nurses and others who have pricked themselves with pins while washing foul clothes, or from handling poultices or dressings removed from bad, putrid, or sloughing surfaces. ”

“ A few simple dissections to be performed with fresh beef-joints, tendons of turkey legs, and so on, will never engender cruel or brutal feelings toward living things. In the lower grades a discreet teacher will rarely advise his pupils to dissect a dead cat, dog, frog, or any other animal. Instead of actual dissection, the pupils should examine specimens or certain parts previously dissected by the teacher,—as the muscles and tendons of a sheep, the heart of an ox, the eye of a codfish, and so on. ”

“ The art of anatomical dissection consists in freeing the muscles, tendons, arteries, veins, and nerves from the surrounding fat and connective tissue which in the living body preserves and covers them.
It is absolutely necessary that the student should not only know from books, but actually see with his own eyes, and for a long period attentively observe the origin and course of every nerve, artery, and vein which in the whole body is capable of being dissected out. ”

“ On dissection, we find in the veins and the right cavities of the heart, sometimes also in the left, but very rarely in the arteries, a black diffluent blood, forming sometimes into soft and diffluent coagula, and coagulating, very imperfectly, when exposed to atmospherical air. ”

“ The total number of subjects requisite for teaching in the schools of anatomy would be about 600. Notwithstanding that the prejudice against dissection has much abated, the full number deemed requisite has never been obtained of late years from all sources. In some instances, persons of education set an example by giving up their own bodies for dissection; in some other instances, the use of the remains is obtained by persuasions, and the promises of more respectful interment afterwards, than could otherwise be obtained. ”

“ A physiological dissection, like that which transfusion of blood may be said, in some sort, to perform upon the glandular, nervous, and muscular systems, how complete soever it may be, has no value, unless the results of the analysis are combined; the experimental cutting up of the human body ought to end by recomposing the whole of it. ”

“ Dissection has, however, proved that it is a state in which congestion is about to be followed by inflammation of the brain or of its membranes; that the stage succeeding to this is one of active inflammation, even if the patient should eventually recover; and if he relapse into that state of stupefactive insensibility which precedes death, sufficient evidence to account for his decease may be found in the laceration of the substance of the brain, in small extravasations in various parts, or in other mischief which may not perhaps be expected. ”

“ Anatomical knowledge is the only foundation on which the structure of medical science can be built. Without this, we should but increase the sufferings of those afflicted with diseases, and endanger their lives. Opportunities of dissection should therefore be afforded to us. The bodies of persons dying in the hospitals abroad are given to the surgeons for dissection, and even with the acquiescence of the public. ”

“ For this very commendable sanitary regulation Boniface has been set down by historians of medicine as striking a death blow at the development of anatomy for the next two centuries. As a matter of fact, however, anatomy continued to be studied in the universities after this Bull as it had been before, and it is evident that never by any misapprehension as to its meaning was the practise of dissection lessened. Curiously enough the history of human dissection can only be traced with absolute certainty from the time immediately after this Bull. ”

“ The vena cava inferior is seen dorsally. The genital duct guides the student to the genital gland; if the subject is a male, the testes may be exposed by dissection, or by pulling the vas deferens gently the scrotal sac will be turned inside out, and the testes brought into view. The ovary lies exposed without dissection posterior to the kidney. ”

“ Many have thought that it was exclusively formed of them; but this is not founded either upon observation or dissection. We see a transparent filamentous texture, and nothing more. Each cell is a reservoir intermediate between the exhalants that terminate and the absorbents that arise there. They are in a small way what the serous sacs are in a large one. We do not see the orifice of either set of vessels.
Nerves.
We see many nerves running through the cellular texture. But do these filaments stop there? Dissection affords no light upon the subject ”

“ Thus a dissection is a non-overlapping exhaustive analysis of an event into a set of parts, and conversely the dissected event is the one and only event of which that set is a dissection. There will always be an indefinite number of dissections of any given event. ”

“ In the article by Dr Southwood Smith which first called public attention to these evils, he points out, in a very striking manner, the paramount necessity of a supply of subjects. He reminds his readers of the wild theories of former times when anatomical knowledge was not possessed, and enforces on their attention the fact that this knowledge can only be acquired, with any degree of perfection, by means of dissection. He further reminds them that no operation can be performed without torture to the living, and danger to life itself, by the hand of a surgeon unpractised in dissection ”

“ For finer dissections the smaller scalpels are to be employed, and in such cases the dissection-technique of fixed arm and free finger movement must be used. In many places within the body the cutting-edge of the knife should be directed outward rather than inward so that underlying structures may not be injured. ”

“ For the study of the interior of the eye and its contents in situ either a fresh or a hardened eye will do; a hardened eye is preferable. In the dissection for isolating the hyaloid membrane, vitreous, lens, and other parts, the anterior and posterior halves of the evacuated eye may be separated entirely, and each half studied. However, the choroid and the retina will be more or less mutilated, and the vitreous and other parts will be removed. ”

“ There has always existed a popular horror of dissection, and this has manifested itself from the earliest times in history down to and within the last half century, in refusal to enact such secular legislation as would properly provide for the practice of dissection. ”

“ We operate upon them as upon scrofulous tumours, by incision, dissection, sutures, and the rest of the treatment, only avoiding to wound the membrane, lest its fluid contents be poured out and obstruct the operation, and lest a part of it should be left behind, which often occasions a renewal of the complaint at the wrists, ankles, and the moveable parts about joints, as a scrofulous tumour does in like manner, if the whole or a part of it be left behind. If any such thing be left it will be better not to sew up the wound, but to consume the remainder with septic applications. ”

“ On dissection, it was found to exhibit no material difference from the general structure of the ray, excepting with respect to the electric or galvanic organs, [Pg 201] which have been minutely examined and detailed by the celebrated anatomist, John Hunter: he states them “to be placed on each side of the cranium and gills, reaching thence to each great fin, and extending longitudinally from the anterior extremity of the animal, to the transverse cartilage which divides the thorax from the abdomen.” ”

“ The dissection is rendered easier and is attended with less risk of injury to the nerves, if the patient is placed in the sitting posture so as to empty the veins, and, instead of a knife, the conical scissors of Mayo are employed. When the glands are extensively affected on both sides of the neck, it is advisable to allow an interval to elapse rather than to operate on both sides at one sitting. ”

“ Not enough time has been given to thoroughly dissecting all parts of the eye. As much time should be given as is necessary to bring [14] out prominently all its parts. Other organs of the body are more thoroughly dissected, and, therefore, the student has better opportunity to gain a clearer comprehension and better understanding of the anatomy and physiology of those organs. Also, as much time should be given, proportionately, to the learning of the technique of the dissection of the eye as is given to the learning of the technique of dissecting other organs of the body. ”

“ All these conditions cannot remain after death. Hence, if we desire to form positive opinions concerning much which is unfolded by dissection, we must supply the defect by analogy. Thus, whenever, in any part of the heart or arteries, the cohesion between the internal membrane and the subjacent structure is manifestly lessened, and the membrane is unusually red at that part, we may regard these appearances as the vestiges of inflammation, without thinking that we go too far in so regarding them. ”

“ The following method will assure one of success in nearly every instance. Failures are almost impossible. Punctures, perforations, tears, etc., are rare. The beginner should isolate the retina in about six to seven minutes; the expert in about four and a half to five minutes.
Select an eye with a long optic nerve, and prepare it for this dissection by placing it in a 10 per cent. solution of formaldehyde for [75] about ten to fourteen days, but no longer. If it is left in the hardening fluid longer than that length of time, it will interfere with the easy removal of the vitreous. ”

“ One reason why eye dissections are easily carried on is because material can always be [20] readily procured. Any butcher will furnish sheep, pig, or beef eyes. Or, if one has the time to visit the manager of a slaughter-house, and make known to him one’s needs, he will supply enough eyes to carry through a host of interesting dissections and experiments, and give sufficient material for careful, orderly, and fruitful study. ”

“ From the relations of the mass, as thus seen, it was believed that the hemorrhage had proceeded from one of the mesenteric arteries; but, as it was clear that a minute dissection would [Pg 516] be required to determine the particular branch involved, it was agreed that the infiltrated tissues and the adjoining soft parts should be preserved for subsequent study. ”