The interior of a dissecting room This is a typical scene in the
dissecting room of a British university medical school, perhaps
around 1900-1910. The cadaver lies on a ceramic anatomy-table. A
gas lamp is above the corpse. A student has placed a book on the
cadaver's forearm as if the cadaver were holding it for him - a
mildly disrespectful action that today a medical school would
not condone. Two of the men are smoking pipes (no disrespect
there: smoking at work was normal). Anatomical prints are
suspended on the wall. In examinations for medical degrees then,
anatomy held a much more important place than it does now,
although even then there were some who thought it was overvalued
by comparison with other qualifications required by general
practitioners, such as an understanding of pharmacology and of
medical politics. On the other hand, others have advocated that
the dissection of the human body would be a beneficial part of
the school curriculum at GCSE or A-level. Part of the success of
the Bodyworlds e