Gray's Anatomy

This article is about the textbook. For the television series, see Grey's Anatomy. For other uses, see Gray's Anatomy (disambiguation).

Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body

Author	Henry Gray
Original title	Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical
Illustrator	Henry Vandyke Carter
Language	English
Subject	Human anatomy
Publication date	1858
Publication place	England

An illustration from the 1918 edition

Gray's Anatomy is an English-language human anatomy textbook originally written by Henry Gray. Earlier editions were called Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical, but the book's name is commonly shortened to, and later editions are titled, Gray's Anatomy. The book is widely regarded as an extremely influential work on the subject, and has continued to be revised and republished from its initial publication in 1858 to the present day. The 40th –and 150 year anniversary– edition of the book was published in 2008.

Publication history

Henry Gray

Origins

The British anatomist Henry Gray was born in 1827. He studied the development of the endocrine glands and spleen and in 1853 was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy at St George's Hospital Medical School in London. In 1855, he approached his colleague Henry Vandyke Carter with his idea to produce an inexpensive and accessible anatomy textbook for medical students. Dissecting unclaimed bodies from workhouse and hospital mortuaries through the Anatomy Act of 1832, the two worked for 18 months on what would form the basis of the book. Their work was first released in 1858 in England by the publisher J.W. Parker. An imprint of this English first edition was published in the United States in 1859. Gray prepared a second, revised edition, which was published in the United Kingdom in 1860, also by J.W. Parker. However, Gray died the following year, at the age of 34, having contracted smallpox while treating his nephew (who survived). His death had come just three years after the initial publication of his Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical. Even so, the work on his much-praised book was continued by others. Longman's publication reportedly began in 1863, after their acquisition of the J.W. Parker publishing business. This coincides with the publication date of the third British edition of Gray's Anatomy. Successive British editions of Gray's Anatomy continued to be published under the Longman, and more recently Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier imprints, reflecting further changes in ownership of the publishing companies over the years.

American editions

The full American rights were purchased by Blanchard and Lea, who published the first of thirty distinct U.S., or "American Editions" of Gray's Anatomy on June 18 1908. Lea & Febiger continued publishing the American editions until the company was sold in 1990.

The First American publication was edited by Richard James Dunglison, whose father Robley Dunglison was physician to Thomas Jefferson. Dunglison edited the next four editions. These were: the Second American Edition (February 1862); the New Third American from the Fifth English Edition (May 1870); the New American from the Eighth English Edition (July 1878); and the New American from the Tenth English Edition (August 1883). Dr W.W. Keen edited the next two editions, namely: the New American from the Eleventh English Edition (Sept. 1887); and the New American from the Thirteenth English Edition (Sept. 1893).

In September 1896 reference to the English edition was dropped, and it was published as the Fourteenth Edition, edited by Bern B. Gallaudet, F.J. Brockway, and J.P. McMurrich, who also edited the Fifteenth Edition (Oct. 1901). The Sixteenth Edition (October 1905) was edited by J.C. DaCosta, and the Seventeenth (Sept. 1908) by DaCosta and E.A. Spitzka. Spitzka edited the Eighteenth (Oct. 1910) and Nineteenth (July 1913) editions, and in October 1913, R. Howden edited the New American from the Eighteenth English Edition. The "American" editions then continued with consecutive numbering from the Twentieth onwards, with W.H. Lewis editing the 20th (Sept. 1918), 21st (Aug. 1924), 22nd (Aug. 1930), 23rd (July 1936), and 24th (May 1942). C.M. Gross edited the 25th (Aug. 1948), 26th (July 1954), 27th (Aug. 1959), 28th (Aug. 1966), and 29th (Jan. 1973). Carmine D. Clemente edited and extensively revised the 30th edition (October 1984). With the sale of Lea & Febiger in 1990, the 30th edition was the last American Edition.

Discrepancies in numbering of American and British editions

The sometimes separate editing efforts and the mismatch between British and American edition numbering led to the existence, for many years, of two main "flavors" or "branches" of Gray's Anatomy: the U.S. and the British one. This can easily cause misunderstandings and confusion, especially when quoting from or trying to purchase a certain edition. For example a comparison of publishing histories shows that the American numbering kept roughly apace with the British up until the 16th editions in 1905, with the American editions either acknowledging the English edition, or simply matching the numbering in the 14th, 15th and 16th editions. Then the American numbering crept ahead, with the 17th American edition published in 1908, while the 17th British edition was published in 1909. This increased to a three-year gap for the 18th and 19th editions, leading to the 1913 publication of the New American from the Eighteenth English, which brought the numbering back into line. Both 20th editions were then published in the same year (1918). Thereafter, it was the British numbering that published ahead, with the 21st British edition in 1920, and the 21st American edition in 1924. This discrepancy continued to increase, so that the 30th British edition was published in 1949, while the 30th and last American edition was published in 1984.

Currently available editions

An illustration from the 1918 edition.

The newest, 40th edition of Gray's Anatomy was published on 26 September 2008 by Elsevier under the Churchill Livingstone imprint in both print and on-line versions. The senior editor of this book and accompanying website is Professor Susan Standring, who is Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at King's College London. The two most recent editions differ from all previous editions in an important respect: They present anatomical structures by their regional anatomy (i.e. ordered according to what part of the body the structures are located in – e.g. the anatomy of the bones, blood vessels and nerves, etc. of the upper extremity is described in one place). All previous editions of Gray's Anatomy were organized by systemic anatomy (i.e. there were separate sections for the body's entire skeletal system, entire circulatory system and entire nervous system, etc.). The editors of the 39th edition acknowledged the validity of both approaches, but nevertheless switched to regional anatomy by popular demand.

Older, out-of-copyright editions of the book continue to be reprinted and sold. On the World-Wide Web in particular, there are numerous offers for older editions. Unfortunately it is not always clear which (British or American) edition these books are republications of. Many seem to be reprints of the 1901 (probably U.S.) edition. Also on the World-Wide Web, there are several sites where various older versions can be read online. Although older editions may serve historic and artistic uses because their companion illustrations and anatomical cross sections are renowned for their rustic and often haunting presentation, they no longer represent an up-to-date anatomical understanding, as much less was known at the time.

Henry Gray wrote the original version of Gray's Anatomy with an audience of medical students and physicians in mind, especially surgeons. For many decades however, precisely because Gray's textbook became such a classic, successive editors made major efforts to preserve its position as possibly the most authoritative text on the subject in the English language. Toward this end, a long-term strategy appears to have been to make each edition come close to containing a fully comprehensive account of the anatomical medical understanding available at the time of publication. Given the explosion of medical knowledge in the 20th century, it is easily appreciated that this led to a vast expansion of the book, which threatened to collapse under its own weight in a metaphorical and physical sense. From the 35th edition onward, increased efforts were made to reverse this trend and keep the book readable by students. Nevertheless, the 38th edition contained 2,092 pages in large format – the highest page count of any and an increase from the 35th edition, which had 1,471 pages. (The current 40th edition has 1,576 pages.) Newer editions of Gray's Anatomy –and even several recent older ones– are still considered to be about the most comprehensive and detailed books of such type on the subject. Despite the aforementioned efforts to keep Gray's Anatomy readable by students, when the 39th edition was published, students were identified as a secondary market for the book, and companion publications such as Gray's Anatomy for Students, Gray's Atlas of Anatomy and Gray's Anatomy Review have also been published in recent years.

Cultural references

The American medical drama Grey's Anatomy takes its name from the title of this book. The 1996 Steven Soderbergh film Gray's Anatomy, featuring monologuist Spalding Gray, also takes its name from the title of the book, as does Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings, a 2009 book by British political philosopher John N. Gray.

In Ian McEwan's Atonement, the work is studied at great length by the character Robbie Turner.

See also

• List of human anatomical features
• List of images and subjects in Gray's Anatomy

Further reading

• Gray, Henry (1858), Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical, London: John W. Parker and Son, retrieved 16 October 2011 Online- and PDF versions of the 1st edition at Open Library/Internet Archive. Other editions also available at this site.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 40th edition (2008), 1,576 pages, Churchill-Livingstone, Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-443-06684-9
• Richardson, Ruth (2005), "A Historical Introduction to Gray's Anatomy" (PDF), in Susan Standring (ed.), Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice (39th (electronic version) ed.), Edinburgh: Elsevier Churchill Livingston, retrieved 16 October 2011 A comprehensive history of the British Edition of the book{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Richardson, Ruth. The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy, (2008). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199552991
• Hayes, Bill. The Anatomist: a True story of Gray's Anatomy, (2007). Ballantine. ISBN 978-0345456892

External links

• Online version of Gray's Anatomy — The complete 20th U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, published in 1918. NB: This is the most recent American version that is in the public domain.
• First American publication of the English edition (Philadelphia, 1859). NB: This is not the 'American' edition. American rights had yet to be purchased. See article text.
  • Online audio recording of the text of the same edition in five parts: 12345
• Video of @Google Talk by Bill Hayes on Gray's Anatomy
• iPhone version of one of the early editions of Gray's Anatomy, with illustrations by Henry Vandyke Carter.