“We anatomists are like porters in Paris…”

Abstract

Clinical Anatomy is delighted to present our readers with this Special Issue on the clinical anatomy of transgender reassignment surgery. Dr. Justine Schober and colleagues demonstrate the wide array of anatomy necessary to perform such complex procedures. This growing field of surgery demands a strong knowledge of anatomy and the resultant functional changes. In this regard and in the Age of Enlightenment, the Frenchman Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) (Fig. 1) is quoted as saying, Painting of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] “We anatomists are like porters in Paris, who are acquainted with the narrowest and most distant streets, but who know nothing of what takes place in the houses!” Born in Rouen, and among other things, de Fontenelle was a poet, playwright, lawyer, historian, writer, philosopher, mathematician, and member of the Academy of Sciences. “Nature intends that at fixed periods men should succeed each other by the instrumentality of death. They are allowed to keep it at bay up to a certain point; but when that is passed, it will be of no use to make new discoveries in anatomy, or to penetrate more and more into the secrets of the structure of the human body; we shall never outwit nature, we shall die as usual” “Above all, astronomy and anatomy are the two sciences which present to our minds most significantly the two grand characteristics of the Creator; the one, His immensity, by the distances, size, and number of the heavenly bodies; the other, His infinite intelligence, by the mechanism of animate beings.”