 | |
| Author | Henry Gray |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Henry Vandyke Carter |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | John William Parker & Son |
Publication date | 1858 |
| Publication place | England |
| First edition | |
| Editor | Susan Standring (editor-in-chief) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
Publication date | 2020 |
| Pages | 1,606 |
| ISBN | 9780702077050 |
| Forty-second edition | |
Gray's Anatomy is a reference book ofhuman anatomy written byHenry Gray, illustrated byHenry Vandyke Carter and first published in London in 1858. It has had multiple revised editions, and the current edition, the 42nd (October 2020), remains a standard reference, often considered "the doctors'bible".[1]
Earlier editions were calledAnatomy: Descriptive and Surgical,Anatomy of the Human Body andGray's Anatomy: Descriptive and Applied, but the book's name is commonly shortened to, and later editions are titled,Gray's Anatomy. The book is widely regarded as an extremely influential work on the subject.
TheEnglish anatomistHenry Gray was born in 1827. He studied the development of theendocrine glands andspleen and in 1853 was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy atSt George's Hospital Medical School inLondon. In 1855, he approached his colleagueHenry Vandyke Carter with his idea to produce an inexpensive and accessible anatomy textbook for medical students. Dissecting unclaimed bodies from workhouse and hospitalmortuaries through theAnatomy Act 1832, the two worked for 18 months on what would form the basis of the book. Their work was first published in 1858 byJohn William Parker in London.[2]It was dedicated by Gray toSir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet.
An imprint of this English first edition was published in the United States in 1859, with slight alterations.[3][4]
Gray prepared a second, revised edition, which was published in the United Kingdom in 1860, also by J.W. Parker.[5][6] However, Gray died the following year, at the age of 34, having contractedsmallpox[5] while treating his nephew (who survived). His death had come just three years after the initial publication of hisAnatomy Descriptive and Surgical.
Even so, the work on his much-praised book was continued by others.[7]
Longman's publication reportedly began in 1863, after their acquisition of the J.W. Parker publishing business.[8] This coincided with the publication date of the third British edition ofGray's Anatomy.[9] Successive British editions ofGray's Anatomy continued to be published under the Longman, and more recentlyChurchill Livingstone/Elsevier imprints, reflecting further changes in ownership of the publishing companies over the years.
The full American rights were purchased by Blanchard and Lea, who published the first of twenty-five[a] distinct American editions ofGray's Anatomy in 1862, and whose company becameLea & Febiger in 1908. Lea & Febiger continued publishing the American editions until the company was sold in 1990.[10]
The first American publication was edited by Richard James Dunglison, whose fatherRobley Dunglison was physician toThomas Jefferson.[11] Dunglison edited the next four editions. These were: theSecond American Edition (February 1862); theNew Third American from the Fifth English Edition (May 1870); theNew American from the Eighth English Edition (July 1878); and theNew American from the Tenth English Edition (August 1883).W. W. Keen edited the next two editions, namely: theNew American from the Eleventh English Edition (September 1887); and theNew American from the Thirteenth English Edition (September 1893).
In September 1896, reference to the English edition was dropped and it was published as theFourteenth Edition, edited by Bern B. Gallaudet, F. J. Brockway, and J. P. McMurrich, who also edited theFifteenth Edition (October 1901). There is also an edition dated 1896 which does still reference the English edition stating it is "A New Edition, Thoroughly Revised by American Authorities, from the thirteenth English Edition" and edited byT. Pickering Pick, F.R.C.S. and published by Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York.[12]
TheSixteenth Edition (October 1905) was edited by J. C. DaCosta, and theSeventeenth (September 1908) by DaCosta andE. A. Spitzka. Spitzka edited theEighteenth (Oct. 1910) andNineteenth (July 1913) editions, and in October 1913, R. Howden edited theNew American from the Eighteenth English Edition. The "American" editions then continued with consecutive numbering from the Twentieth onwards, withW. H. Lewis editing the 20th (September. 1918), 21st (August 1924), 22nd (August 1930), 23rd (July 1936), and 24th (May 1942). Charles Mayo Goss edited the 25th (August 1948), 26th (July 1954), 27th (August 1959), 28th (August 1966), and 29th (January 1973). Carmine D. Clemente edited and extensively revised the 30th edition (October 1984).[13] With the sale of Lea & Febiger in 1990, the 30th edition was the last American Edition.
Sometimes separate editing efforts with mismatches between British and American edition numbering led to the existence, for many years, of two main "flavours" or "branches" ofGray's Anatomy: the U.S. and the British one. This can easily cause misunderstandings and confusion, especially when quoting from or trying to purchase a certain edition. For example, a comparison of publishing histories shows that the American numbering kept roughly apace with the British up until the 16th editions in 1905, with the American editions either acknowledging the English edition, or simply matching the numbering in the 14th, 15th and 16th editions. Then the American numbering crept ahead, with the 17th American edition published in 1908, while the 17th British edition was published in 1909. This increased to a three-year gap for the 18th and 19th editions, leading to the 1913 publication of theNew American from the Eighteenth English, which brought the numbering back into line. Both 20th editions were then published in the same year (1918). Thereafter, it was the British numbering that pushed ahead, with the 21st British edition in 1920, and the 21st American edition in 1924. This discrepancy continued to increase, so that the 30th British edition was published in 1949, while the 30th and last American edition was published in 1984.[9][14]
The current editions also containhistology,embryology, andpathology subjects that complementsanatomical knowledge.[1] The newest edition is the 42nd edition. The more popular[clarification needed] 41st edition ofGray's Anatomy was published on 25 September 2015 byElsevier in both print and online versions, and is the first edition to have enhanced online content including anatomical videos and a bonusGray's imaging library. The 41st edition also has 24 specially invited online commentaries on contemporary anatomical topics such as advances inelectron andfluorescent microscopy; the neurovascular bundles of theprostate;stem cells inregenerative medicine; the anatomy of facial aging; and technical aspects and applications ofdiagnostic radiology.
The senior editor of this book and accompanying website on ExpertConsult[15] is ProfessorSusan Standring, who isEmeritus Professor of Anatomy atKing's College London.[1] The three most recent editions differ from all previous editions in an important aspect: they present anatomical structures by theirregional anatomy (i.e., ordered according to what part of the body the structures are located in – e.g. the anatomy of the bones, blood vessels and nerves, etc. of theupper extremity is described in one place). All editions ofGray's Anatomy previous to the 39th were organized bysystemic anatomy (i.e., there were separate sections for the body's entireskeletal system, entirecirculatory system and entirenervous system, etc.). The editors of the 39th edition acknowledged the validity of both approaches but switched to regional anatomy by popular demand.[16]
Older, out-of-copyright editions of the book continue to be reprinted and sold, particularly on the internet. However it is not always clear which (British or American) edition these books are republications of. Many seem to bereprints of the 1901 (probably U.S.) edition.[citation needed] Additionally, there are several sites where various older versions can be read online.[17][18][19]
Henry Gray wroteGray's Anatomy with a readership ofmedical students andphysicians in mind, especiallysurgeons. For many decades however, precisely because Gray's textbook became such a classic, successive editors made major efforts to preserve its position as possibly the most authoritative text on the subject in English. Toward this end, a long-term strategy appears to have been to make each edition come close to containing afully comprehensive account of the anatomical medical understanding available at the time of publication.[citation needed] The explosion of medical knowledge in the 20th century led to a vast expansion of the book, which threatened to collapse under its own weight metaphorically and physically. From the 35th edition onward, increased efforts were made to reverse this trend and keep the book readable by students. Nevertheless, the 38th edition contained 2,092 pages in large format[20] – the highest page count of any and an increase from the 35th edition, which had 1,471 pages.[21] The 41st edition has 1,584 pages.Newer editions ofGray's Anatomy – and even several recent older ones – are still considered to be the most comprehensive and detailed textbooks on the subject.[22] Despite previous efforts to keepGray's Anatomy readable by students, when the 39th edition was published, students were identified as a secondary market for the book,[23] and companion publications such asGray's Anatomy for Students,[b]Gray's Atlas of Anatomy andGray's Anatomy Review have also been published in recent years.[24]
| Edition | Year | Main author/editor(s) | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1858 | Henry Gray | John William Parker & Son |
| 2nd | 1860 | ||
| 3rd | 1864 | Timothy Holmes | Longman |
| 4th | 1866 | ||
| 5th | 1869 | ||
| 6th | 1872 | ||
| 7th | 1875 | ||
| 8th | 1877 | ||
| 9th | 1880 | ||
| 10th | 1883 | Thomas Pickering Pick | |
| 11th | 1887 | ||
| 12th | 1890 | ||
| 13th | 1893 | ||
| 14th | 1897 | ||
| 15th | 1901 | Thomas Pickering Pick &Robert Howden | |
| 16th | 1905 | ||
| 17th | 1909 | Robert Howden | |
| 18th | 1913 | Robert Howden &Arthur John Jex-Blake &W. Fedde Fedden | |
| 19th | 1916 | ||
| 20th | 1918 | ||
| 21st | 1920 | Robert Howden | |
| 22nd | 1923 | ||
| 23rd | 1926 | ||
| 24th | 1930 | Thomas Baillie Johnston | |
| 25th | 1932 | ||
| 26th | 1935 | ||
| 27th | 1938 | Thomas Baillie Johnston &James Whillis | |
| 28th | 1942 | ||
| 29th | 1946 | ||
| 30th | 1949 | ||
| 31st | 1954 | ||
| 32nd | 1958 | Thomas Baillie Johnston &David Vaughan Davies &Francis Davies | |
| 33rd | 1962 | David Vaughan Davies &Francis Davies | |
| 34th | 1967 | David Vaughan Davies &Rex Ernest Coupland | |
| 35th | 1973 | Peter L. Williams &Roger Warwick | |
| 36th | 1980 | Roger Warwick &Peter L. Williams | Churchill Livingstone |
| 37th | 1989 | Peter L. Williams | |
| 38th | 1995 | ||
| 39th | 2005 | Susan Standring | Elsevier |
| 40th | 2008 | ||
| 41st | 2016 | ||
| 42nd | 2021 |
