Gross Anatomy

This is The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. It was painted by Rembrandt in the year of our Lord, 1632. Aside from my unhealthy fascination with everyone's facial hair in this painting, I have decided to post it because: a) I pass by a very large print of this painting almost everyday on my way to the anatomy lab, and 2) it will help to illustrate some interesting ways that teaching human anatomy has changed since the 17th century.

Human dissections were social events in the 17th century. They were performed in theater settings, and having paid the attendance fee, almost anyone could view the lesson. At my school only medical students and department faculty have access to the anatomy lab. Great care is taken to respect the wishes of the dead and to only display the body under controlled academic learning.

Preservation methods were not what they are today, so dissections were done quickly, usually within a day or two of dying. Also, the subjects were usually men who had been executed recently. Wikipedia purports that the subject in Rembrandt's painting was hung the day of the dissection for armed robbery.

Skilled anatomists were few and far between in the 17th century and were held in high regard. In fact, Dr. Tulp was a skilled physician and mayor of Amsterdam for a time. Therefore, in order for the lecturer to remain clean and presentable, a Preparator was usually present to do most of the actual dissecting. In our lab, both teachers and students have been participating, with most of the physical dissection probably being done by Teaching Assistants.

This reminds me of a very surreal experience I had the other day in the lab...

We have been learning the anatomy of the head and neck for the past several weeks. Many of the structures that we must learn lie deep to more superficial structures (bones and muscles). Therefore, removal of the more superficial layers is often required to appreciate the deeper layers. Often this removal will require some aggressive dissection with some heavy duty tools. The other day, we had been looking at the muscles of mastication (chewing) and other muscles of the neck and it was time to dissect deeper to the floor of the mouth. This was going to require splitting the mandible, the bone that makes up the lower jaw and chin. For whatever reasons, my small group had dispersed, and I was alone for a moment with our cadaver.

Enter the sweet Russian lady holding the apparatus pictured here. This is an electric oscillating saw, often called a "Stryker" saw. The blade oscillates rapidly in order to cut through hard tissue (i.e. bone), but at a small enough amplitude to avoid harming softer tissue (i.e. sweet old lady's fingers). Paralyzed, fascinated, and with my own jaw lowered, I watched this sweet, short, old, Russian lady, with bright orange hair and too much makeup, who has always been so mild mannered and quiet, attempt to find the correct angle and leverage to saw through the dead man's jaw that was lying on the table in front of me. I noticed a faint cloud of dust rising as the blade cut the bone, and I knew then that no matter what I forgot about my time in medical school, I would never, ever, forget that.

I think I'm done for the day.