Inside Duke Medicine
Gray’s Anatomy @ 150
posted September 4th, 2008Quick: Its name is that of probably the best-known medical book in the world. Change a letter, and it becomes a cult TV show.
The answer: Gray’s Anatomy.
This esteemed atlas of the human machine is celebrating its 150th birthday this year.
“It’s like it’s always been there, the go-to book for virtually every physician,” said Duke’s Nancy Major, M.D., who just finished editing the on musculoskeletal portion of the next American edition of Gray’s. “But it’s doesn’t stay the same – it gets better, more detailed with each edition. When we know more,it goes into Gray’s.”
The new edition features computer disks and other electronic aids to the text. But, it got its start in 1855, when namesake Henry Gray and illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter, both surgeons at St George’s Hospital in London, began collaborating on a practical anatomy text.
They performed dissections over 18 months, with Gray writing and Carter sketching. Their work was published in 1858. It was immediately acclaimed for its elegant layout and clear images.
According to London’s Telegraph, Gray earned £150 for every 1,000 copies. Carter, who’d by then gone to India to study tropical disease, received no royalties.
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