What is Anatomy?
Anatomy (from the Greek word anatome,”dissection”), is a branch of natural science dealing with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its beginnings in prehistoric times. For centuries anatomical knowledge consisted largely of observations of dissected plants and animals. The proper understanding of structure, however, implies a knowledge of function in the living organism. Anatomy is therefore almost inseparable from physiology, which is sometimes called functional anatomy. As one of the basic life sciences, anatomy is closely related to medicine and to other branches of biology. It is convenient to subdivide the study of anatomy in several different ways. One classification is based on the type of organisms studied, the major subdivisions being plant anatomy and animal anatomy. Animal anatomy is further subdivided into human anatomy (which we cover in detail) and comparative anatomy, which seeks out similarities and differences among animal types.
Anatomy is the study of the structure of the body. Derived from the Greek to cut up: the Latin ‘to cut up’ gives us dissect. Structure determines function and vice versa. Understanding the links between structure and function is intellectually more satisfying than learning lists, and makes long term retention easier. The abnormal patterns seen in disease are also related to anatomy: the transmission of stress from outstretched hand to trunk determines the location of skeletal fractures. The structure of the mouth determines the route of puss from a dental abscess. During your course we shall continually stress both the relationship between structure and function and the relationship between structure and disease. Subdivisions Under the general heading of anatomy are several subdivisions. Embryology examines development of adult structure from fertilised ovum Cytology deals with the structure of individual cells Histology deals with aggregations of cells, tissues, or aggregations of tis
In its broadest sense, anatomy is the study of the structure of something, in this case a human. Human anatomy deals with the way the parts of humans, from molecules to bones, interact to form a functional whole. The study of anatomy is distinct from the study of physiology, although the two are often paired. While anatomy deals with the structure of an organism, physiology deals with the way the parts function together. For example, an anatomist may study the types of cells in the cardiac conduction system and how those cells are connected, while a physiologist would look at why and how the heart beats. Thus, anatomy and physiology are separate, but complimentary, studies of how an organism works.
