gross beginnings

Time honored traditions at the beginning of August are being threatened. Every year a hundred people file out of anatomy lecture and into the gross anatomy lab for the first time. The rows of black body bags, drains in the floor, and bright white lights. The initial hesitation of breaking into something sacred. All of these impressions are put into perspective by the plate on the wall that reminds you, "Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae." This is the place where the dead rejoice in teaching the living. That right of the dead may be over. Gross lab has become out of fashion. Under the auspices of technology and cost effectiveness medical education has been dealt another blow. Is there a better way to learn about location of structures than through direct examination? More than just learning about location, structure, and function anatomy did something much more important. It took away the shock factor. Not matter what you see in the ER you have definitely seen worse. Nothing suprises you after you peel back the flesh of the face and saw the head in half.