Customer Reviews

First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the fall I will begin my first semester as a medical school student. I find the prospect of gross anatomy terrifying, and this book did an excellent job of lessening my anxiety towards the course and towards the ordeal that is medical school itself.

As a premedical student, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of work...It examines the physical and emotional aspects of a first year med student quite well. A must-read for anyone contemplating a career in medicine.

The author provides the reader with an opportunity to experience something unique and different -- human dissection.For those involved in medical education, the dissectioin experience is portrayed in a sensitive, insightful and accurate manner. The author's essays and illustrations of the dissections by Versalius provides a sensory of history and meaning that any health propfessions student about to take gross anatomy would find fscinating. This book is must reading for any first year medical student and should be on anyone's list who is concerned with the education of health professionals.

First Cut provides an insider's view of what really happens in the "twilight zone" of the anatomy lab. Carter has followed a group of medical students through their initial fears, failures, and eventual triumphs as they learn to cope with the human aspects of cutting up cadavers. As they do so, they gain a quiet respect and admiration for the people that, through their deaths, have given the ultimate gift of learning. This book should be required reading for all in the medical profession!

I read this book on a Saturday. Straight through. It was that interesting. You might find yourself slowly turning pages, afraid to see what is around the corner, like trying to time when to cover your eyes in the scary movies of your youth. You might find yourself studying the exquisitely detailed engravings from the 1400's. You might find yourself learning new words and new insights into words you already knew. You might look at yourself and others differently after reading this book. You will definitely learn something, but everyone will learn something different. One thing is certain, you will not be bored. Be prepared for a single sitting siege and choose your snack foods carefully--spaghetti, pudding, and the like are ill-advised. After reading this book, you'll probably start exercising again anyway. You'll have to read it to find out why.

The author, not having followed his youthful dream of going to medical school, and now a professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, attends as an observer an anatomy class and its dissection lab at Emory University in Atlanta. The book, illustrated by reproductions of woodcuts from Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica of 1543, follows first year med-students' literally-hands-on introduction to human anatomy. The students are not portrayed with any psychological detail; they are only lightly sketched, little more than names at the dissection tables. The focus is on the cut and opened and dismembered body, not on those who study it. In a sense, the book reports the author's vicarious experience, by observing the students and the cadavers throughout the progression of their dissection, of being a med-student himself. This, of course, is the intrigue of the book: the reader, too, vicariously, is present.

I bought this book before attending graduate school for Physical Therapy, where we have cadaveric dissection. I found this book to be a great tool to prepare myself for what it might be like in the anatomy lab. I really recommend it for anyone preparing for this wonderful learning experience.

A little too flowery for my taste and not very scientific. Then again what did I expect !!! Easy pros however if you want to learn about anatomy, get an anatomy atlas !!