The English word anatomy is derived from the Greek anatome, meaning dissection; and for many generations of students, the primary center of anatomy instruction was the dissection laboratory. Dissection will no doubt continue to be part of medical school training, if for no reason beyond tradition: the transformation from college senior to freshman medical student begins with the pickling of hands in cadaver preservative. Nevertheless, anatomy instruction must go beyond that because a semester or two of dissection usually provides too much distracting detail for those students not entering the field of surgery and too little necessary detail for those...
