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Anatomy

Image:ENC plate 1-143 750px.jpeg Image:Anatomical chart, Cyclopaedia, 1728, volume 1, between pages 84 and 85.jpg

Anatomy (from the Greek???????? anatomia, from ?????????? anatemnein, to cut up, cut open), is the branch of biologythat deals with the structure and organization of living things. It can be divided into animal anatomy (zootomy) and plant anatomy (phytonomy). Major branches of anatomy include comparative anatomy, histology, and human anatomy.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Animal anatomy
2 Human anatomy
3 Major body systems
4 Organs
5 Bones in the human skeleton
6 Glands
7 Tissues
8 Externally visible parts of the human body
9 Other anatomic terms (not classified)
10 See also
11 External links

Animal anatomy

Animal anatomy may include the study of the structure of different animals, when it is called comparative anatomyor animal morphology, or it may be limited to one animal only, in which case it is spoken of as special anatomy.

Human anatomy

From a utilitarian point of view the study of humansis the most important division of special anatomy, and this human anatomy may be approached from different points of view.

From that of Medicine it consists of a knowledge of the exact form, position, size and relationship of the various structures of the healthy human body, and to this study the term descriptive or topographical human anatomy is given, though it is often, less happily, spoken of as anthropotomy.

So intricate is the human bodythat only a small number of professional human anatomists, after years of patient observation, are complete masters of all its details; most of them specialize on certain parts, such as the brain or viscera, contenting themselves with a good working knowledge of the rest.

Topographical anatomy must be learned by repeated dissection and inspection of dead human bodies. It is no more a sciencethan a pilot's knowledge is, and, like that knowledge, must be exact and available in moments of emergency.

From the morphological point of view, however, human anatomy is a scientific and fascinating study, having for its object the discovery of the causeswhich have brought about the existing structure of humans, and needing a knowledge of the allied sciences of embryologyor developmental biology, phylogeny, and histology.

Pathological anatomy (or morbid anatomy) is the study of diseasedorgans, while sections of normal anatomy, applied to various purposes, receive special names such as medical, surgical, gynaecological, artistic and superficial anatomy. The comparison of the anatomy of different racesof humans is part of the science of physical anthropology or anthropological anatomy. In the present edition of this work the subject of anatomy is treated systematically rather than topographically. Each anatomical article contains first a description of the structures of an organ or system (such as nerves, arteries, heart, and so forth), as it is found in humans; this is followed by an account of the development (embryology) and comparative anatomy (morphology), as far as vertebrate animalsare concerned; but only those parts of the lower animals which are of interest in explaining human body structure are here dealt with. The articles have a twofold purpose; first, to give enough details of structure to make the articles on physiology, surgery, medicine and pathology intelligible; and, secondly, to give the non-expert inquirer, or the worker in some other branch of science, the chief theories on which the modern scientific groundwork of anatomy is built.