Human Anatomy: Color Atlas and Text

Abstract

This atlas, now in its fourth edition, has long been a stand-by for those wanting good quality photographs of dissections, with explanatory diagrams. These remain its principal strength. The new edition is just a little larger, which has allowed a slightly larger font. However, the font is also somewhat less black, so that I did not notice a marked improvement in readability. The terminology is updated to comply with the new Terminologica Anatomica as one would expect. New cross-sections-there were very few in the previous edition are presented as viewed from below in accordance with radiological practice (though if radiological practice was followed strictly they would be referred to as axial sections). The relatively small number of CT and MRI images are a welcome addition as these are one major way in which students will see most anatomy in clinical practice. A few things that could usefully have been changed have not been. For instance, in the introductory section the dermatome layout of the head and neck is not shown, the cervical nerves are shown only on the rear view and then not extending up far enough onto the head (though this is shown later). One weak element is the lack of surface projections and surface anatomy - the other major way in which students will later encounter anatomy. There are, of course, other good volumes that deal with this, but a good diagram showing the relationships between parietal pleura, the lobes of the lungs and the ribs would be more immediately memorable than the text - a point amplified by the good illustration of the surface projection of the heart and its valves. The exam skills section is now entirely MCQ and misses out the type of questions that asks the students to produce some words from memory rather than simply select from options. It is a minor point in the context of the book's main purpose, but one could argue that patients never present themselves with the choice of five diagnoses neatly written out for selection, and so the variety of question formats used in the previous edition was educationally better. The ‘Clinical skills’ case studies remain almost exactly as before, but the ’Observation skills‘ section using CT and MRI images with a few horizontal sections of wet specimens is to be welcomed and fills a notable gap in the previous edition. Their inclusion in only the thorax, abdomen and head is perhaps understandable in terms of space, but a few MRIs of the limbs and especially the back would have been welcome and clinically relevant. Another gap - the relative lack of correlative radiographs - has not been filled; in the upper limb the only radiograph is of the hand, and in the lower limb two of the foot, the lateral view being rather less well produced than in the earlier edition. It is not at all clear why the MRI of the heart in the previous edition has been exchanged for a CT as the former showed the chambers of the heart to better effect. As before, the dissections go from superficial to deep. This is useful as a guide to dissection but does not help functional understanding as the muscles are dealt with well before the joints on which they act. Apart from minor layout changes most pages stay almost exactly the same and the book is essentially what the previous editions were - a set of superb colour illustrations of dissections with explanatory diagrams and a straightforward descriptive text. These will be valuable as a source of reference for those without access to good dissections. The changes are welcome, if relatively minor. Although the changes do not keep pace with the way in which students will increasingly be asked to interpret anatomy as they engage in their clinical studies, if the book is used by students to develop their own three-dimensional concept of body structure then it will have served a valuable purpose.