Christopher Addison enjoyed two careers, one as an anatomist followed by that as a politician. He described the detailed topographical anatomy of the abdomen, and his name is associated with one of its key anatomical planes. His political career was influenced by his commitment to social reform and for the need for improvement in public health achieved through government intervention. He held several ministerial offices, and he was the first Minister for Health. He played important roles in the passage of the National Insurance Act 1911 and introduced the Housing and Town Planning Act 1919. Following the Second World War, he was responsible as Leader of the House of Lords for the passage of legislation including that related to the formation of the National Health Service.

When exploring new procedures, surgeons have often found standard anatomical teaching to be deficient. The challenges include unawareness of anatomical variants of importance, the mystery of the liver interior and the small arterial supply to the skin. The surgeons' own anatomical work gave a 'reverse enlightenment' contrasting with the usual model of translational 'bench-to-bedside' clinical innovation.

Charles Averill (1796-1830) was a Cheltenham surgeon who wrote one of the early textbooks for medical students promoting the increased use of human dissection to specifically improve the surgical techniques of the time. The success of this new type of medical text led to three editions being printed both in Britain, North America and Europe. Whilst holding the post of Surgeon at the Cheltenham Dispensary, he also became the first joint curator of the anatomy museum and published a design for the first modern operating table. Having been trained by Sir Astley Cooper, the two surgeons retained a strong professional connection until Averill's tragic fall from a horse at the age of 33. Averill and his achievements remain absent from medical history due to the very fragmented evidence that surrounds his short life.

In 1844 and 1845, Hood's Magazine published a series of Gothic stories under the pen name of 'Gideon Shaddoe'. Two of the series have since been shown to feature a rare collaboration between William Broderip and Richard Owen, then Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy at London's Royal College of Surgeons and later the founding superintendent of the British Museum (Natural History). Owen had served his surgical apprenticeship in Lancaster in the 1820s. This chapter explores the possibility that the second of these collaborations was based upon a real event from the early period of Owen's apprenticeship. I also discuss Richard Owen's early interest in human anatomy and racial craniology and how this influenced his lifelong comparative craniological research and collection in the context of nineteenth-century racial science.

Anatomy is often considered to be a static discipline, but advances in radiological and surgical techniques regularly change structural viewpoints, and the modern anatomist teaches into an ever-changing socio-political context. This chapter focuses on specific challenges faced by the modern anatomist when teaching female genital anatomy in response to the increasing popularity of the female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) industry and the diversification of gender in contemporary society. A qualitative methodological approach was used to explore how female genital anatomy is represented in contemporary scientific literature, anatomical textbooks, and anatomy education. An evidence base for normal female genital anatomy was identified using 12 population-based studies that recorded genital dimensions and confirmed that a wide variation is normal. An analysis of 78 historic and contemporary anatomy texts mapped representations of female genital anatomy over time and confirmed that the spectrum of normal genital appearance is not acknowledged in English-language anatomy textbooks. A series of semi-structured interviews with Australian anatomists identified barriers and facilitators for teaching genital anatomy. Barriers included lack of connection to contemporary clinical practice, technical difficulty and time involved in updating presentations, the crowded curriculum, and personal reticence about teaching genital anatomy. Themes around inclusivity also emerged during the interviews, with anatomists reporting reluctance to experiment with inclusive terminology as another barrier to teaching genital anatomy. The binary language and singular structural arrangements traditionally contained in lectures and textbook chapters on "Female Genital Anatomy" are nowadays rendered exclusive and incomplete. It is imperative that the modern anatomist, when developing anatomy curricula and resources, considers the importance of teaching about anatomical variation and using inclusive language given that many contemporary societies are embracing nonbinary views of gender.

Ultrasonography has increasingly been integrated into undergraduate medical education. Although its impact on the diagnosis of some pathologies and the safety of certain clinical procedures has been discussed and supported by the literature, its role in medical education is still controversial.Advocates argue the benefits of ultrasound in teaching 'living anatomy' and improving students' appreciation of the close anatomical relations as well as physical examination techniques. It was also linked to elements of the hidden curriculum, where the impact on students' professional formation was also explored. Furthermore, ultrasound technology has become an integral diagnostic tool in critical care and emergency medicine, which supports the early introduction into the medical curriculum.On the other hand, criticism of the evidence that supports the impact of ultrasound technology in anatomy education remains. Further concerns about the cost, faculty expertise and time constraints within the crowded medical curriculum, as well as the lack of clear educational guidelines, still exist.Incorporating ultrasound technology into anatomy education differs among institutions worldwide, especially with regard to the stage at which it is introduced, its level of content and its length. This chapter explores the integration of ultrasound into the anatomy curriculum from a pedagogical lens, discusses the challenges of integrating ultrasound into anatomy instruction sessions and suggests strategies to overcome these challenges. It finally discusses steps to integrate this imaging modality into the anatomy curricula.

Medical professionals do not devote much time to thinking about what anatomical illustrations accomplish and how they function as instruments of learning. At the same time, the history of anatomy is marked by strikingly illustrated treatises and atlases that are renowned for their images. Until the last three or four decades very little has been written about why these illustrations are so noteworthy as images and how, as images, they contributed to the growth of knowledge. The purpose of this chapter is to bring together art and epistemology in a discussion of how anatomical illustrations function as cognitive instruments in the development of knowledge and how they use the resources of the visual arts to do that persuasively. The focus of the discussion is Robert Carswell's Pathological Anatomy: Illustrations of the Elementary Forms of Disease, a landmark publication from 1838 in the history of pathology.

Bologna was a city with a long history of anatomical study, with the first anatomical dissection in the modern world taking place there in 1315. After that, dissection was carried out regularly in the city, in a manner that combined education and ritual. In the eighteenth century, a new method of demonstrating anatomy rose to prominence in Bologna: using wax to replicate what could be seen in dissection. One leading practitioner of this art was a woman named Anna Morandi Manzolini, showing how the particular circumstances in Bologna in this period were conducive to supporting both the study of anatomy and the talents of women.

For over 500 years (Leung et al., Health Sci Educ Theory Pract 11(2):209-215, 2006), physical exploration of the human corpse (Segal, Int J Health Serv 14(3):379-396, 1984; Cribb and Bignold, Stud High Educ 24(2):195-209, 2006) has captured the public's imagination (Regan de Bere and Petersen, Soc Sci Med 63(1):76-88, 2006; McLachlan and Patten, Med Educ 40(3):243-253, 2006) as a symbolic rite of passage in the transformation of medical student to doctor (Regan de Bere and Mattick, Adv Health Sci Educ 15:573-585, 2010). Human dissection has been regarded as pivotal to learning anatomy (Böckers et al., Anat Sci Educ 3(1):3-11, 2010) yet has endured a tremulous past, at times placing the medical profession in disrepute. Since antiquity issues have been raised regarding the value and morality of the use of the human body, concerns that even in the twenty-first century have yet to be laid to rest. Indeed, over the last 20 years (Pandey and Zimitat, Med Educ 41(1):7-14, 2007), there has been a decline in dissection in medical schools: replaced in many instances with prosection (dissection performed by a trained anatomy demonstrator for observation by students), living and procedural anatomy, models, plastination, and computer-aided learning (CAL).

Edinburgh's dark tourism industry thrives on its macabre anatomical history, in particular its nineteenth-century legacy of grave-robbing, illicit dissection, and the infamous Burke and Hare murders. This essay explores how the city's dual identity, as a hub of medical innovation and a stage for Gothic horror, has shaped its modern tourism landscape. Focusing on five key sites-the Surgeons' Hall Museums, the University of Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum, Greyfriars Kirkyard, the Old College dissection rooms, and Burke and Hare walking tours-the analysis reveals how Edinburgh confronts its controversial past through deliberate preservation and public engagement. These attractions force visitors to grapple with ethical dilemmas: Are displays of human remains educational tools or exploitative spectacles? Does commercializing tragedy trivialize victims or preserve historical memory?The essay examines the ethical tensions inherent in anatomical tourism, comparing Edinburgh's approach to institutions such as London's Hunterian and Philadelphia's Mütter Museums. It highlights modern debates over consent, repatriation, and the balance between education and entertainment. While critics decry the "Disneyfication" of dark history through sensationalized ghost tours, proponents argue that these narratives foster public engagement with medical ethics. Emerging solutions, such as augmented reality exhibits, community-led curation, and ethical tourism frameworks, suggest a path forward for responsible heritage management.Ultimately, Edinburgh's anatomical tourism offers a unique lens toward the examination of the costs of scientific progress. By refusing to sanitize its past, the city challenges visitors to confront uncomfortable questions about exploitation, memory, and the moral boundaries of medical study. This case study highlights the potential of dark tourism to transcend morbidity and provoke meaningful dialogue about history's complex legacies.

Learning anatomy was a basic requirement in nineteenth-century medical education, carried out through dissection of human cadavers. There was only a restricted number of cadavers legally available, which encouraged the trade of bodysnatching from local cemeteries. Even this did not give sufficient 'subjects' for the needs of Edinburgh's anatomy schools, so attempts were made to 'recover' bodies from further afield. This chapter looks at attempts to transfer 'resurrected' bodies from Liverpool to Edinburgh, by land or sea, based on newspaper accounts of such activities made at the time of their discovery.

The story of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), the most famous of all anatomists, has been profoundly changed by two recent discoveries and the publication of a major survey. The appearance of Vesalius' annotated copy of the 1555 edition of the Fabrica showed that he had planned a further edition of his great work, but it was never published. A 2012 article discussed the annotations in detail, and the most significant changes were translated in the 2014 Karger English translation of the Fabrica. Similar annotations reveal his plans for a second edition of his Institutiones, a student guide to anatomy that he published in 1538. His revision was left incomplete when he switched his attention to the Fabrica. An English version of the Institutiones appeared in 2017, along with a detailed list of the Vesalian revisions. The 2018 census of copies of the Fabrica, by contrast, shows how his book was received by contemporaries and by later owners, challenging many previous suppositions about how the great book was read.

The study of human anatomy has long served as a nexus of scientific inquiry, cultural practice, and political contestation. This introductory chapter synthesizes 12 pivotal studies spanning five centuries of anatomical pedagogy, revealing three enduring tensions: the ethics of bodily knowledge, the mediation between art and science, and the politics of inclusion and exclusion. From Renaissance dissection theatres to modern virtual reality labs, anatomical teaching has mirrored and reinforced societal power structures, often at the expense of marginalized communities. The chapter explores how figures such as Vesalius relied on executed criminals, how nineteenth-century resurrectionists exploited the poor, and how contemporary plastination and virtual reality technologies introduce new ethical dilemmas.It also examines the intersection of art and science through wax models, pathological illustrations, and medical imaging, highlighting how representation shapes perception. In addition, the chapter critiques anatomy's role in colonialism, professional hierarchies, and social policy, exemplified by racialized skull collections and an anatomical approach to welfare reform. By analyzing these historical and modern case studies, it is argued that progress in anatomical education must reckon with its exploitative past and embrace inclusive, ethical frameworks. The conclusion calls for decolonizing anatomical collections, ensuring transparency in modern practices, and prioritizing pedagogical approaches that honor human diversity and dignity.

Life relies on redox reactions to sustain; however, imbalanced redox exerts stress on living beings. This is particularly pivotal as mammalian gamete sperm cells undergo functional maturation in the epididymis, preparing themselves for the long and challenging journey to begin a new life by successfully fertilizing an oocyte. Defects in epididymal sperm maturation are closely related to male infertility and reproductive health. In the epididymis, the halted translational machinery in spermatozoa while maturing in a quiescent state prompts them to immensely depend on epithelial cells for nutritional supports and information exchange. Extensive intercellular communication is therefore required between sperm and epithelial cells, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a crucial role as intercellular carriers. Epididymal luminal microenvironment is spatially specialized to be an acidic, decalcitonic, and pro-reductive protective milieu to prevent premature sperm dysfunction. The uniqueness of epididymal microenvironment also requires the EVs to have adaptive characteristics. Although the biogenesis and compositions of EVs in the epididymis have been reviewed elsewhere, this chapter discusses the potential role of EVs from the perspective of cellular nutrient balance of vitamins and minerals, redox metabolism, and intercellular interplay during sperm maturation to better understand the biology of epididymis in male reproduction.