Product Description

Not since it first published in 1858 has Gray's Anatomy introduced so much innovation to the world of anatomical references. A team of renowned clinicians, anatomists, and basic scientists have radically transformed this classic resource to incorporate all of the newest anatomical knowledge...reorganized it by body region to parallel clinical practice...and added many new surface anatomy, radiologic anatomy, and microanatomy images to complement the exquisite artwork that the book is known for. In addition, a new, multimedia package enables users to consult the printed book... access a dynamic, continuously updated web site...or explore a CD-ROM containing all of the book's images plus 9 fully rotatable, strippable anatomical models. Although there are now many books called "Gray's Anatomy," only this 39th Edition carries on the true lineage of the original text. And, only this 39th Edition delivers so much pragmatic, clinically indispensable information.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #626065 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1600 pages

From Scientific American
The eminent mid-20th century British historian of medicine F.N.L. Poynter once said of Gray's Anatomy that "what began as a book has become an institution."

Like all progressive institutions, this one periodically looks itself over, evaluates its development and takes measures to be sure that it has kept up with the times. Keeping up has occasionally required increasing the complexity of its operations, necessarily expanding its bureaucracy, and seeking new and forward-looking leadership. As the institution among medical books, Gray's Anatomy has throughout its history continued to do all these things, with the result that it has only improved with age; it is venerable but not hoary.

With this prologue as background, I am pleased to report that the all-important tradition of improvement with age is most emphatically maintained by the newest edition of Gray's Anatomy, the 39th. The new leadership comes in the accomplished person of Susan Standring, professor of experimental neurobiology at King's College London and incidentally the first female editor in chief. The necessary bureaucracy has been once more expanded to an assemblage of what is by my count a total of almost a score of editors and more than three times that many specialist contributors and reviewers, some of whom are respected holdovers from the excellent 38th edition of 1995. The volume resulting from everyone's labors is, at 11 pounds, now heavy enough for use as a gym weight to build the skeletal muscles it so elegantly describes, from their myoblastic genesis and cellular physiology to their good old-fashioned origins and insertions.

Anyone perusing the last 10 incarnations of this vigorous old warhorse of medical literature will note that a significant change came about with the 35th in 1973, when the visual character of the book began a veritable transformation. Since that time, each edition has incrementally added material covering advances in such fields as molecular biology, imaging, computer-assisted and electron microscopy, embryology and immunohistology to encompass new knowledge and provide didactic clarifications. Henry Gray's original offering of 1858 has taken on the task of providing an overview of the science on which comprehensive understanding of gross anatomy is based in today's biomedical and clinical worlds.

After the publication of the 37th edition in 1989, a formal editorial board was created to provide a supervisory framework for the additions being made by the specialist authors whose contributions were increasing the value of Gray's Anatomy as a source for basic science and clinical applications. When the next edition appeared in 1995, the main changes to be found in it--other than new sections on surface and neonatal anatomy--were organizational, consisting primarily of rearranging the material to make it more accessible and useful. But with the present volume, new and important ground has been broken--or at least more fully and effectively tilled. The authors have increasingly taken on the task of accommodating the new uses to which anatomy is being put in clinical situations, such as minimally invasive surgery, endoscopy, arthroscopy, microsurgery, and the entire expanding field of imaging, including three-dimensional studies.

In addition to providing many pertinent illustrations, Standring and her authoritative team have taken the major and very practical step of presenting their material by regions rather than by the old method of systems such as the reproductive, the gastrointestinal and the muscular. This is a tremendous advantage for clinicians, because it reflects the way in which they need to see anatomy. And it has at least as worthy a benefit for students, because it will correlate even their earliest first-year learning directly to the real world of bedside medicine. Not only that, but brief comments about common diseases are interspersed in the text as their respective anatomical locations are being discussed. All of this is reflected in a change in the book's subtitle, which on first glance would seem insignificant but actually says a great deal. It has gone from The Anatomical Basis of Medicine and Surgery to The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice.

Quite obviously, no single reviewer is competent to judge the reliability of every bit of material to be found in this encyclopedic book. As a general surgeon selectively studying sections with which I have a career's worth of experience and only perusing others, I am much taken with their usefulness and lucid readability, which says a great deal for an anatomy text. At the astonishingly low price of $169 for the print edition and only an extra $30 to have it on CD-ROM and online as well, this may be the best value seen in medical publishing since 1819, when René Laennec's two-volume treatise on auscultation was put on sale at a price of 13 francs, with a stethoscope thrown in for a small additional cost.

One final word. I t is customary when reviewing a book that is in all ways as outstanding as this one to introduce a quibble or two, if for no other reason than to show that the volume has been carefully and completely evaluated with a critical eye. Being a surgeon and not an anatomist (who therefore does not know a fissura antitragohelicina from a sulcus antihelicis transversus), I have been able to find only one item about which to grouse: One looks in vain for the "Surface Anatomy of the Lower Limb" to be found on page 1339, as the table of contents claims. It is to be located 60 pages further on, where the topic is just as clearly presented as is every other facet of this beautifully produced and medically invaluable book.

Sherwin B. Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine, is the author of How We Die, which won the National Book Award in 1994. His most recent book is Lost in America: A Journey with My Father (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003).

Review
"...a medical icon...a clear standard, a text by which others are measured..." -- USA Today, April 10, 2005

Review
An Institution between Covers - the 39th Edition Expands Gray's Original Task - By Sherwin B. Nuland


"The eminent mid-20th century British historian of medicine F.N.L. Poynter once said of Gray's Anatomy that "what began as a book has become an institution."

Like all progressive institutions, this one periodically looks itself over, evaluates its development and takes measures to be sure that it has kept up with the times. Keeping up has occasionally required increasing the complexity of its operations, necessarily expanding its bureaucracy, and seeking new forward-looking leadership. As the institution among medical books, Gray's Anatomy has throughout its history continued to do all these things, with the result that it has only improved with age; it is venerable, but not hoary.

Quite obviously, no single reviewer is competent to judge the reliability of every bit of material to be found in this encyclopedic book. As a general surgeon selectively studying sections with which I have a career's worth of experience and only perusing others, I am much taken with their usefulness and lucid readability, which says a great deal for an anatomy text. At the astonishingly low price of $169 for the print edition and only an extra $30 to have it on CD-ROM and online as well, this may be the best value seen in medical publishing since 1819, when Rene Laennec's two-volume treatise on auscultation was put on sale at a price of 13 francs, with a stethoscope thrown in for a small additional cost.

One final word. It is customary when reviewing a book that is in all ways as outstanding as this one to introduce a quibble or two, if for no other reason than to show that the volume has been carefully and completely evaluated with a critical eye. Being a surgeon and not an anatomist (who therefore does not know a fissura antitragohelicina from a sulcus antihelcis transversus), I have been able to find only one item about which to grouse: One looks in vain for the "Surface Anatomy of the Lower Limb" to be found on page 1339, as the table of contents claims. It is to be located 60 pages further on, where the topic is just as clearly presented as is every other facet of this beautifully produced and medically invaluable book."
-Scientific American, March 2005

Customer Reviews

Get THIS version, not a paperback! It's the best!
Gray's Anatomy, first published in 1858, is thought by the average layman to be merely a historical classic, and is usually purchased as a paperback reprint of the 1905 version.

If you want the most up-to-date description of human anatomy, steer clear of the paperbacks and buy the 38th edition in hardback. It costs a lot more, but it is more than worth it. It contains an amazing amount of technical information that has only been discovered in the last ten or twenty years (such as the spiral architecture of the heart, MRI imagery, and details of microbiology and cellur arcitecture). It even contains a nice summary of the history of the universe. If I had the rest of my life (I'm a 35-year old engineer) to do nothing but read this book, I could not come close to absorbing all knowledge it contains.

I firmly believe that this is the most important book I own.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who wishes to learn more about the marvelous machine that is the human body.

A cogent description of the human body.
This book is truly a masterpiece. The writing and layout is good. Descriptions and illustrations are clear and well done. I am not a medical professional and yet I find this book fascinating in its breadth and scope. To better comprehend some of the anatomical structures I first read relevant portions of this book and then go to Netter's Atlas Of Human Anatomy. One point of caution though - get the 38th British Edition. This is by far superior to the American Edition which costs half as much. The extra money spent will be well worth it. After all there is a lifetime of adventure embedded in this volume.

39th Edition of Gray's Anatomy (Susan Standring, Ed.)
Totally distinct from earlier editions is the radically different organization of this classical textbook: the human body is no longer described as containing different systems - the skeleton, the vascular system, the nervous system,...- but the body is now divided in regions. The reason for this radical change, chief editor Susan Standring (King's College, London) explains, is that in the real world, practising clinicians in their daily practice use a regional approach, rather than a systemic view. Therefore, it is understood that the new, 39th Edition of Gray's Anatomy is more adapted to the needs of surgeons, radiologists and other clinicians, than to medical students or scientists interested in the area of human anatomy. However, there is some consideration of the editors for a section `systemic overview'. So, the endocrine system, the blood (haematopoietic) and immune system are not entirely overlooked.

In particular, when regarding the master gland of the endocrine system, namely the pituitary, readers should know that this organ may be found in the `region' of the diencephalon (Section 2.1.). So, neuroanatomists may rejoice that they finally regained control over the capital region of the human body, and over all body functions regulated by this region. Unfortunately, unlike the 38th Edition, the editor of this section has decided to relapse into a terminology that was already obsolete 15 years ago. `Chromophobic' cells belong to the dark ages when new imaging techniques were still looming for their curious but ignorant discoverers. Bibliographic references are reduced to a baseline level. This would result in insufficient source material for research purposes, but, on the other hand, the references are concise enough for users that may feel comfortable with a general slowing down of scientific progress.

However, many, many advantages of the newly revised topics may be found in this 39th Edition. For those interested in the anatomy of the pelvic floor, the inner ear, or the organization of the peritoneum, Gray's Anatomy will meet their expectations. Also shortcuts to topics like assisted fertilization, preimplantation embryology are included, although it never has been easy being both at the cutting edge and also a textbook that bridges the generation gaps. Therefore, together with many, I will be looking forward to the 40th Edition.

Wilfried ALLAERTS
Biological Publishing A&O
The Netherlands