Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 [Hardcover]

John Harley Warner (Author), James M. Edmonson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0922233349 | ISBN-13: 978-0922233342 | Publication Date: May 19, 2009 | Edition: 1

"Cadavers, camera, action!" (The New York Times Book Review). From the advent of photography in the 19th and into the 20th century, medical students, often in secrecy, took photographs of themselves with the cadavers that they dissected: their first patients. Featuring 138 of these historic photographs and illuminating essays by two experts on the subject, Dissection reveals a startling piece of American history. Sherwin Nuland, MD, said this is "a truly unique and important book [that] documents a period in medical education in a way that is matched by no other existing contribution." And Mary Roach said Dissection "is the most extraordinary book I have ever seen--the perfect coffee table book for all the households where I'd most like to be invited for coffee."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Blast Books; 1 edition (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0922233349
• ISBN-13: 978-0922233342
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grotesque and Funny Souvenirs of Medical Initiation, May 30, 2009

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 (Hardcover)

If I could choose to take one class again from back in medical school, it would be an easy choice. I'd do gross anatomy again, the cadaver lab. It was in many ways the most interesting of the courses, learning about the details of the complex cosmos of innards that each one of us carries about. It was a social learning process; my cadaver partners and I were all new to medical school, and we were helping each other in taking apart our specimen, and exposing structures we had never before seen. It was certainly a rite of passage, an initiation that only upcoming doctors got, gaining arcane knowledge that few others needed (or wanted, for that matter). To that end, my gross anatomy lab, with around eighteen tables in it, each containing a tank of formaldehyde into which the cadaver could be lowered at the end of the day's cutting, was a restricted area. No one except us medical students, and our instructors, were supposed to be in there. I did, one time, sneak my wife in, so that she could see where I was spending all that time. There was also a strict rule: there were never to be any cameras in the lab. As far as I know, there never were. Yet this was not always the case, as demonstrated by a strange, morbidly entertaining, and enlightening volume _Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880 - 1930_ (Blast Books) by John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson. Both authors are medical historians, and Edmonson is curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum of Case Western Reserve University from which most of these photographs come. The pictures are not anatomical studies, but document students at work (and play) as well as giving visual demonstration of social attitudes within medical education at the time.

There are over a hundred photographs here, laid out in a glossy and handsome volume. Usually the photos were taken by the students themselves, or their professors. The pictures here show students not in candid activity, but posed and ready to be recorded. In groups, one student might have a big volume open, obviously reading about the current exploration, and perhaps reading aloud to the fellows around the table. The cadavers were stolen from graveyards or confiscated by the state because their "class, ethnicity, race, or poverty made them vulnerable to dissection." Their status is indicated in the photographs in different ways. In only some of the photographs of dissected bodies is it possible to tell the race of the person on the table. In one of them, a slogan has been written on the table that indicates by offensive language that all of the cadaver's racial group "smell alike to us". Other tables have been chalked to indicate the sentiment, "He lived for others but died for us," a phrase that seems to have been a standard for these young anatomists. Many of the photos display a disrespect for the cadaver (and Warner makes a correct analogy to lynching photos of the time) that is easily interpreted as racially motivated. Also, however, the photos display the sort of dark humor used by students who were not completely comfortable with what they were doing. A grinning skull atop a skeleton might be equipped with a pipe, or posed with a card-playing skeleton buddy. The most bizarre photos here are classic displays of humor trying to overcome anxiety. It seems that many students found relief and amusement by posing the partially dissected cadavers standing around a live student lying on the table: "A student's dream."

The photos here are strange souvenirs from a distant time. Dissection was even more important in their day than now, although experimental physiology and chemistry were making inroads into the beginning curriculum. Nowadays, not all medical schools have gross anatomy labs, with students learning from pre-dissected specimens or from computer-modeled cadavers. Within the traditional labs, the biggest change is the source of the cadavers. The disassembled bodies in the bizarre, funny, and grotesque pictures in this book belonged to people who never wanted to be there; cadavers now more often come from those who have specifically made the contribution of their own bodies so that future doctors can learn from them. There are rules now that the bodies must be treated with the respect due to the generous donors, but such rules must be superfluous to any medical student who understands the nature of the donation. However, some rules change and still remain the same: Edmonson writes that now, "Photography is expressly forbidden, and rules today often ban cell phones with cameras."

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The quintessential book for everyone who wants to know about how doctors learn(ed) about the human body, May 5, 2009

By 

Lana Thompson "Reader, writer, researcher" (Boca Raton, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 (Hardcover)

This book is perfect for the research that I am doing on the history of medicine, the history of the body and the history of dissection. I have been reading the Flexner Report which relates the sad state of medicine in the early 20th century. Few medical schools were able to provide bodies for their students in order to learn about anatomy. I think that one must understand the exuberance in being able to overcome the taboos regarding death and nudity. These are the first students who were able to see what the books described. Many morgues have signs that say "here is the place where the dead teach the living." This book has epigraphs that say "She lived for others and died for us." From a social standpoint, the book is instructive: there are few female M.D. medical students. Other than the porter (who was probably the diener), most of the "negroes" are subjects of study. Now, look at pages 58 and 59. The University of Pennsylvania segregated dissecting teams.

I could write about this book all day but instead, I encourage others to get this book. In addition to the photographic value, if you are interested in the social history of medicine, or medical anthropology, this book is a must.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking into an avoided topic., May 31, 2009

By 

Robert L. Urban - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 (Hardcover)

This is an interesting examination of a subject that I'd not read about, and one that I probably would not have chosen to pursue, except that the irreverence of the cover illustration attracted me and aroused my curiosity about this phase of medical training. Once I began to read the text I was quite caught up with the different aspects of this topic and how they have changed. Very thought provoking. Too bad that the picture quality is quite uneven.