The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy: Bodies, Books, Fortune, Fame

by Ruth Richardson

Overview

This is the story of how the young and ambitious Mr Henry Gray and the talented, diffident Mr Henry Vandyke Carter, created the 'Doctor's Bible'. In Ruth Richardson's vivd account of the making of Gray's Anatomy, we encounter too the publishers, the wood engravers whose craft would soon vanish, the printers, and even the women was rooted in the heart of the Empire: ranging across the elegant terraces and cluttered backstreets of London from Belgravia to the City. Here we read about microscopy, medical fame, commerce, destitution, disease-and, not least, spirited from the workhouses and mortuaries of London, the unnamed dead, whose corpses provided the material for Carter's drawings, which were to make Gray's book famous throughout the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199552993
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ruth Richardson works for the Institute of Historical Research, London, and is the author of Death, Dissection, and the Destitute.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Philip W. Leon, PhD (The Citadel)
Description: This splendid book tells how Gray's Anatomy became an essential part of medical history. It answers some important questions: Who was Henry Gray, and what qualified him to write the textbook that bears his name? Who was Henry Vandyke Carter who illustrated the original Gray's Anatomy? Also, because the textbook was a milestone in medical publishing when it appeared 150 years ago, we learn of the labor-intensive process of producing a book in the nineteenth century.
Purpose: This book addresses these specific questions, but along the way it informs us about life in London in the 1850s and the conditions in which medical students learned about anatomy. Although Gray's Anatomy revealed no new concepts or reversals of existing knowledge of anatomy, the form of presentation and the clarity of the illustrations immediately placed it in the forefront of anatomical texts. The author amply succeeds in her objectives to present the biographies of the writer and the illustrator and their often fractious relationship.
Audience: Anyone interested in medical history will find this book informative and entertaining. All medical professionals, particularly surgeons, will appreciate the first-rate research and the elegant presentation. Scholars of nineteenth century, no matter what discipline, will profit from reading about the society that enabled Gray's Anatomy to succeed as a publishing venture.
Features: This book reveals little-known facts about Gray. He could be charming and brilliant but also self-serving and reluctant to acknowledge the assistance of others. He was not an MD, although this is not surprising because most apothecary-surgeons were not university trained physicians. Gray died at age 34, three years after the publication of his book in 1858. Henry Vandyke Carter, who was an MD, allowed Gray to minimize Carter's contributions. Carter married a woman of questionable moral character who made his life miserable. Also interesting is the commitment of the publisher to make Gray's Anatomy the standard in the field. When production problems arose, the publisher, J.W. Parker & Son, of West Strand, London, threw all of its resources into sustaining the project.
Assessment: This is one of the best books on medical history that I have seen. The author lovingly assembles her material, each page's typography, art, and arrangement emulating the care with which Gray's Anatomy was created. This is a superb contribution to medical history and belongs in every university library.

Doody's Review Service

In this, the 150th anniversary of the original publication of Gray's Anatomy, Richardson, a scholar of the history of science, relates how this classic came into being. Richardson does a creditable job of explaining how two young doctors, Henry Gray and Henry Vandyke Carter, teamed together to create an anatomy manual better than any available for students in surgery. Their version had better and larger drawings (in fact, their size, which contributed to the book's success, was an accident: the illustrations were meant to be 25% smaller), simpler text and a very successful integration of surgical techniques with anatomical features. Richardson also impressively reviews the technicalities of scientific publication in the mid-19th century. Far less successful is the analysis of the two men behind Gray's Anatomy. With little pertinent material extant, Richardson is left to surmise with a plethora of "perhaps" and "probably." Conversations between the two authors, between Gray and his publisher, and between the publisher and the printer are simply manufactured. Nonetheless, Richardson uses Gray's Anatomy as a springboard to present an interesting slice of scientific history. Illus. (Jan.)

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