SH10 TEACHING AND LEARNING ANATOMY IN MELBOURNE OVER 150 YEARS

Abstract

The teaching of anatomy which began unofficially in Melbourne 150 years ago was formally established with the passing of “An Act for Regulating Schools of Anatomy” in 1862 by the Victorian government. Armed with this Act, the University of Melbourne founded its medical school later that same year.The development of anatomy teaching and the separation of anatomy from pathology one hundred years ago, is a colourful story in which several local personalities played their part. Commencing in an improvised outbuilding of his home, the first professor, George Halford began teaching anatomy in May 1863, the first such course in Australia. He was followed by Allen, Berry, Wood Jones and many others, each of whom was to make their own contribution.The influence of surgeons including George Adlington Syme was paramount from the beginning and frequently the teaching of students only survived through their efforts. It was Wood Jones, who first drew attention to the negative aspects of the preservative formaldehyde and the artificial descriptions of anatomy which resulted. He warned in 1923, that “students will one day have to readjust their ideas, since they deal with the living but it is only now that living anatomy has fully taken its place in anatomy learning, through the use of telescopic views and the newer imaging techniques of the living body.From simple beginnings, this department has evolved into a world leader in innovation and its award wining multi‐media package An@tomedia has brought the teaching and learning of anatomy into a new dawn.