Gray's Anatomy
Henry Gray?s Anatomy of the Human Body, commonly known as Gray's Anatomy is an anatomy textbook widely considered one of the classic works on human anatomy. The book was first published under the title Gray's Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical in Great Britian in 1858. The book's young British author died after the publication of the 1860 2nd edition, at the age of only 34, but his much-praised book was continued by others. The book was first published in the United States in 1859.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot of confusion over the various editions of this famous book, so some clarification is in order.
British and U.S. editions
Development of the book appears to have branched at some point, possibly in 1878: In this year, the reportedly first dedicated U.S. edition of the book was published (details on this are scarce and unreliable). So while development of the British edition of the text continued (and new British editions continued to appear), there also were different U.S. editions. Worse, the 1878 U.S. edition appears to have started edition numbering afresh (despite the British version's prior publication in the U.S., see above). This "first" U.S. edition roughly corresponded to the 8th British edition, with consecutively numbered further U.S. editions appearing thereafter. This led to the existence, for many years, of two main "flavours" or "branches" of Gray's Anatomy: The U.S. and the British one. This can rather easily cause misunderstandings and confusion, especially when quoting from or when trying to purchase a certain edition.
Most recent available editions
As of 2004, the latest U.S. edition is the 30th edition, published in 1984. The latest British edition is the 38th edition, published in 1995. The latter is also available on CD-ROM. Publishers are World Wide Web, which suggests that the 39th edition was already available. This however is inaccurate and it appears that this is simply an error that was frequently replicated.
A book "Gray's Anatomy for Students" has been announced as well by Churchill-Livingstone, for October 2004. It however should be noted that this is an entirely new book, written from scratch, which only shares the name of the classic.
Seperate from the newer editons, old editions of the book continue to be reprinted and sold. Especially on the WWW, there are many offers for what seem to be reprints of the 1901 (U.S.?) edition. They may serve artistic use: The companion illustrations and anatomical cross-sections are renowned for their rustic (and often times haunting) presentation.
The usefulness however of such reprints for purposes of acquiring up to date medical knowledge might be severely limited. Caveat emptor.
A review
Newer editons of Gray's Anatomy (and even several older ones) are (still) considered to be about the most comprehensive and detailed books of such type on the subject.
Henry Gray wrote the original version of Gray's Anatomy with an audience of medical students and physicians in mind, especially surgeons. For many decades however, precisely because Gray's textbook became such a classic, successive editors made major efforts to preserve its position as possibly the most authoritative text on the subject in English language (if not in the world). Towards this, a long time strategy appears to have been to have the book contain a fully comprehensive account of the anatomical-medical knowledge at the time of publication of each edition. Keeping in mind the explosion of medical knowledge in the 20th century, it is easily appreciated that this led to a vast expansion of the book, which became acutely threatened of drowning under it's own weight (in every sense). From the 35th edition onwards, increased efforts were made to reverse this trend and keep the book readable for students. Nevertheless, the 38th edition still totals 2092 pages in large format. This edition thus still might best serve as an "ultimate reference". It has been described as "the Bible" of anatomy. Undisputedly, it contains a near-immeasurable wealth of knowledge, but the fewest people might actually read it in full.
Copyright considerations — BambooWeb use of Gray's Anatomy
Many older versions of Gray's Anatomy are in the public domain as their copyright has expired many years ago.
The 1918 U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy appears to be the latest U.S. edition in the public domain. This edition can thus be used a source for BambooWeb articles (see BambooWeb:Gray's_Anatomy_images_with_missing_articles). Note however, that it is almost a century old, and can no longer be regarded as authoritative. Modern medical sources should be used to double-check and update any information from Gray's Anatomy.
See also: List of human anatomical features
External links and references
- Gray's Anatomy, 38th edition (1995), 2092 pages, Churchill-Livingstone, ISBN 0-443-04560-7 — the most recent (British) edition.
- Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, 30th edition (1984), 1676 pages, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, ISBN 0-812-10644-X — (the most recent) dedicated U.S. edition.
- (book, ISBN 0-443-06676-0)
- (CD-ROM, ISBN 0-443-06675-2)
- http://www.bartleby.com/107/ — The complete 20th U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy, published in 1918, the content of which is in the public domain.
