In this, the 150th anniversary of the original publication of Gray’s Anatomy
, Richardson, a scholar of the history of science, relates how this classic came into being. Richardson does a creditable job of explaining how two young doctors, Henry Gray and Henry Vandyke Carter, teamed together to create an anatomy manual better than any available for students in surgery. Their version had better and larger drawings (in fact, their size, which contributed to the book’s success, was an accident: the illustrations were meant to be 25% smaller), simpler text and a very successful integration of surgical techniques with anatomical features. Richardson also impressively reviews the technicalities of scientific publication in the mid-19th century. Far less successful is the analysis of the two men behind Gray’s Anatomy
. With little pertinent material extant, Richardson is left to surmise with a plethora of “perhaps” and “probably.” Conversations between the two authors, between Gray and his publisher, and between the publisher and the printer are simply manufactured. Nonetheless, Richardson uses Gray’s Anatomy
as a springboard to present an interesting slice of scientific history. Illus. (Jan.)
