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Very Short Introductions #418
Human Anatomy: A Very Short Introduction
A vast subject that includes a strange vocabulary and an apparent mass of facts, human anatomy can at first appear confusing and off-putting. But the basic construction of the human body - the skeleton, the organs of the chest and abdomen, the nervous system, the head and neck with its sensory systems, and anatomy for breathing and swallowing - is vital for anyone studying medicine, biology, and health studies. In this Very Short Introduction Leslie Klenerman provides a clear, concise, and accessible introduction to the structure, function, and main systems of the human body, including a number of clear and simple illustrations to explain the key areas. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 29, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 13, 2022
Most of this book is as dry as a bone.
As dry as, say, the femur, just as a random example, the lower end of which is divided into two large knuckles, the so-called medial and lateral condyles, which are readily felt. These are covered with hyaline cartilage below and behind for articulation with the tibia. Oh, sorry, I fell into a trance there.
But while large parts may be devoted to bones articulating with others laterally/medially/what have you, or the names of important muscles and their function, there are snippets of genuine delight. I had no idea, for instance, that roughly one in 7,000 has a reversal of asymmetric organs, called situs inversus. While this is rare, according to the book, if the quoted prevalence is correct it must be present in a lot of people.
Occasionally some bland sounding statement was actually somewhat interesting on re-reading a passage. "Tears are drained away through small holes seen near the medial margin of each eyelid. They are collected in the lacrimal sac situated in a small depression on the medial surface of the orbit. This in turn drains via the nasolacrimal duct into the front of the nose, which results in snuffling in the tearful."
I particularly enjoyed his "when things go wrong" sections about various systems in the body.
Finally, the acknowledgements deserve a mention. Such a disgustingly high achieving family. I hope there's no poor unmentioned daughter who's merely done a PhD or something.
"My wife Naomi and son Paul, Professor of Immunology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, were a source of continual help, criticism, and encouragement throughout, while my other son, David, Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge acted as a lay reader..."
It is hard for me to know if this would appeal to the general reader. I suspect not. But I was after a book that would improve my knowledge of anatomy, given my job is working with health data. It was what I was after.
As dry as, say, the femur, just as a random example, the lower end of which is divided into two large knuckles, the so-called medial and lateral condyles, which are readily felt. These are covered with hyaline cartilage below and behind for articulation with the tibia. Oh, sorry, I fell into a trance there.
But while large parts may be devoted to bones articulating with others laterally/medially/what have you, or the names of important muscles and their function, there are snippets of genuine delight. I had no idea, for instance, that roughly one in 7,000 has a reversal of asymmetric organs, called situs inversus. While this is rare, according to the book, if the quoted prevalence is correct it must be present in a lot of people.
Occasionally some bland sounding statement was actually somewhat interesting on re-reading a passage. "Tears are drained away through small holes seen near the medial margin of each eyelid. They are collected in the lacrimal sac situated in a small depression on the medial surface of the orbit. This in turn drains via the nasolacrimal duct into the front of the nose, which results in snuffling in the tearful."
I particularly enjoyed his "when things go wrong" sections about various systems in the body.
Finally, the acknowledgements deserve a mention. Such a disgustingly high achieving family. I hope there's no poor unmentioned daughter who's merely done a PhD or something.
"My wife Naomi and son Paul, Professor of Immunology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, were a source of continual help, criticism, and encouragement throughout, while my other son, David, Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge acted as a lay reader..."
It is hard for me to know if this would appeal to the general reader. I suspect not. But I was after a book that would improve my knowledge of anatomy, given my job is working with health data. It was what I was after.
August 2, 2016
A brilliant book; didn't understand half of it (but that's normal), but it's written exactly the way it should be: without trying to be easy (it can't) and without trying to sound like a children's book (it shouldn't). Gives you a whole idea of what it is, your anatomy, and how gloriously complex it is.
November 24, 2018
Human anatomy and physiology is way more complex than can be covered in a "short introduction." That said, this book does a good job with the basics. It's a decent reference for people who want to learn the names and functions of muscles, bones, and ligaments. The summaries of organ function and central and peripheral nervous systems are decent. I'm guessing there are many books out there that do just as good a job with all of these things, and maybe better...because I have a gripe with this one!
My gripe? How the hymen is explained. The author dedicates two sentences to the hymen, if that; as an anatomical feature that's still so misunderstood, it needed more air time. On top of that, the two sentences are misleading, talking about the hymen as something that is intact until sexual intercourse takes place. We already know, through solid medical research, observation, and anecdotal information that this just isn't true. This book would have gotten four stars if not for this error, and I'm tempted to take away another star because perpetuating misinformation like this is so harmful.
My gripe? How the hymen is explained. The author dedicates two sentences to the hymen, if that; as an anatomical feature that's still so misunderstood, it needed more air time. On top of that, the two sentences are misleading, talking about the hymen as something that is intact until sexual intercourse takes place. We already know, through solid medical research, observation, and anecdotal information that this just isn't true. This book would have gotten four stars if not for this error, and I'm tempted to take away another star because perpetuating misinformation like this is so harmful.
February 10, 2021
A whirlwind tour of the large-scale parts of your body (bones, organs, muscles), letting you know their names, their locations, their functions, roughly how they interact, and sometimes a little bit about their evolutionary and embryological histories. At times it can be a sort of avalanche of terminology without a lot of additional information.
June 3, 2019
I picked up ‘Human Anatomy’ because I’m a bit of a fainting goat when it comes to the subject. Also, I live in a country that isn’t big into preventative medicine, plus am an adult with a vague case of hypochondria, so I figured it was about time! Opening this one, it was hinted that the intended audience for this might be pre-med (“it is hoped that it will provide… introduction for those about to embark on anatomy at university”) but then reassuringly, “we all should know about the body we inhabit for the duration of our lives.” So let’s see if I can take it. I have to say, I couldn’t take all of it. Surprise, surprise. Some of it I read almost anaerobically, breathlessly sprinting through a system or piece of anatomy that bewilders. The eyeball! The skull. Various ‘stems’ and nerves! Coronary arteries and blood vessels.
I often paused to wonder why on earth I was reading this book.
The vast majority of this is purely clinical in description (by both definitions) and the author focuses your attention in on a kind of disembodied (sorry, puns unintentional) part of the body that seems to exist in isolation, or emerge from a small, unfolded square of fabric under a surgeon’s eye. It sometimes felt like a far less moving but vaguely similar experience to reading parts of “When Breath Becomes Air.” Overall, I found the writing style unnecessarily inaccessible. There will, of course, be sentences that are legitimately challenging to comprehend:
“The jejunum and ileum are suspended on mesenteries and freely mobile. They extend from the duodenojejunal junction to the right iliac fossa where the terminal ileum opens into the large intestine at the caecum.”
But then, the author almost toys with us by making normal sentences unnecessarily convoluted, too:
“A detailed knowledge of the cranial nerves is part of the armamentarium of all good clinicians as these nerves deal with sensory and motor functions.”
Alright Mr. Thesaurus.
I did learn that progress on anatomy took about a thousand-year break between Galen and Vesalius, and that Christopher Wren used to draw illustrations of anatomy (probably not what I was meant to get out of this book). I also learned that cardiac pain is often felt in the neck or the side of the face, but that’s because the heart develops in the neck in embryo, as do the arms, so both of these structures receive pain fibres from the same spinal cord segments. Mammals all have the same number of cervical vertebrae, so an owl and a giraffe each both have seven. 35% of our bones are made of collagen. Our gut microbiome plays a significant role in determining metabolism.
I can’t say that this was appropriately pitched at my level (major side eyes at that ‘introduction’ in the title), but hopefully next time someone starts describing a medical episode or ailment to me, I won’t as quickly go into complete and utter mental shutdown.
I often paused to wonder why on earth I was reading this book.
The vast majority of this is purely clinical in description (by both definitions) and the author focuses your attention in on a kind of disembodied (sorry, puns unintentional) part of the body that seems to exist in isolation, or emerge from a small, unfolded square of fabric under a surgeon’s eye. It sometimes felt like a far less moving but vaguely similar experience to reading parts of “When Breath Becomes Air.” Overall, I found the writing style unnecessarily inaccessible. There will, of course, be sentences that are legitimately challenging to comprehend:
“The jejunum and ileum are suspended on mesenteries and freely mobile. They extend from the duodenojejunal junction to the right iliac fossa where the terminal ileum opens into the large intestine at the caecum.”
But then, the author almost toys with us by making normal sentences unnecessarily convoluted, too:
“A detailed knowledge of the cranial nerves is part of the armamentarium of all good clinicians as these nerves deal with sensory and motor functions.”
Alright Mr. Thesaurus.
I did learn that progress on anatomy took about a thousand-year break between Galen and Vesalius, and that Christopher Wren used to draw illustrations of anatomy (probably not what I was meant to get out of this book). I also learned that cardiac pain is often felt in the neck or the side of the face, but that’s because the heart develops in the neck in embryo, as do the arms, so both of these structures receive pain fibres from the same spinal cord segments. Mammals all have the same number of cervical vertebrae, so an owl and a giraffe each both have seven. 35% of our bones are made of collagen. Our gut microbiome plays a significant role in determining metabolism.
I can’t say that this was appropriately pitched at my level (major side eyes at that ‘introduction’ in the title), but hopefully next time someone starts describing a medical episode or ailment to me, I won’t as quickly go into complete and utter mental shutdown.
November 17, 2019
Some great chapters about the history of anatomy, and human evolution. These were my favourite bits. But, the bulk of the book is dry descriptive text. Without detailed pictures/video I found it hard to make much sense of the subject. I would like to read a book by the author published in a different series, perhaps paired with an illustrator or photographer.
March 13, 2016
Although I am an avid fan of Oxford's 'Very Short Introduction' series I found this particular entry very disappointing. For a supposedly "clear and accessible" read, this book was weighed down by endless jargon and excruciatingly dull prose. While other science books in this series give effective overviews of their subjects and gradually build the reader's knowledge, the author of this one compartmentalises the functions of the human body and does a poor job when it comes to showing how it functions as a whole. He spends a little time describing each bodily system before moving on to the next one; and his descriptions are little more than lists of names and terminologies.
This being said, Klenerman was well-regarded as an exceptional surgeon, and his knowledge of the human anatomy is apparent throughout the book. He has a clear understanding of how each part of the human body works, from the vocal folds of the larynx that vibrate to produce sound, to the gastrointestinal tract which provides the body with its supply of water and nutrients. His knowledge is often explained in obtuse terms; but it is there - and if you can be bothered with taking notes then you can glean some useful facts from the book.
Yet, in the end, each sentence of the book reads like a self-contained fact and flows poorly into the next, giving the whole thing a rather stilted feel. As such, I wouldn't recommend this; and I'd say that you're better off re-reading one of your old high school science textbooks if you want to learn about the human anatomy.
This being said, Klenerman was well-regarded as an exceptional surgeon, and his knowledge of the human anatomy is apparent throughout the book. He has a clear understanding of how each part of the human body works, from the vocal folds of the larynx that vibrate to produce sound, to the gastrointestinal tract which provides the body with its supply of water and nutrients. His knowledge is often explained in obtuse terms; but it is there - and if you can be bothered with taking notes then you can glean some useful facts from the book.
Yet, in the end, each sentence of the book reads like a self-contained fact and flows poorly into the next, giving the whole thing a rather stilted feel. As such, I wouldn't recommend this; and I'd say that you're better off re-reading one of your old high school science textbooks if you want to learn about the human anatomy.
October 17, 2020
I don't think it is possible to do justice the wonder and complexity that human anatomy is in a sub-200 page book, however, this book does cover such a wide range of biological architecture it serves a great teacher of one of Evolution's greatest achievements. If you want to learn Anatomy seriously I would not recommend this book, but I would recommend this book to people new to the scene who simply want to gain insight into the subject. Good read over all though.
September 12, 2022
fine but who would actually read this?
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews