Just like the movies.

That's me on the left, by the way.

One of the most intense classes we as a class are required to take is Gross Anatomy.  That entails anatomy that is visible to the naked eye, no microscopes! no microbiology here!  This class therefore employs the use of cadavers to educate the Biomedical Visualization, Dental and Post-Baccalaureate students in the wonderful ways of the human body.  It is all very exciting. 

Now a little about these cadavers.  

1) All of the cadavers have donated their bodies to science (no strays, homeless, stolen or diseased people here!)  This was not always the case...Interesting side-note I read in Somethings Fierce and Fatal, by Joan Kahn, a book of creepy interesting tales.  

"Around the late 1800's, grave-robbing was a nation-wide horror.  Illinois, like many states, had no law against the stealing of bodies, although it had a statute against selling of corpses.  Under these conditions medical colleges were in a desperate fix, since they had to find cadavers for their classes to dissect.  There was only one thing to do, buy bodies from men who came to the back door at midnight with mysterious sacks which they exchanged for so much money down and no questions asked.  Ghouls, as the grave-robbers were called, had become the terror of rural communities, and friends and relatives of bereaved families patrolled cemeteries for nights after burials, shotguns in hand."

So that's good, no ghoulish sketchy exchanges.  All legit yo.

2) Your cadaver is either female or male, and they are given without preference.  "A number 1 on the tag means female.  A number 2 means male."  My table obtained a female.  The pro about this is that in my first lab dissection I had some mammary glands to work with, which was quite interesting to see.  

3)  Formaldehyde. "Formaldehyde-based solutions are used in embalming to disinfect and temporarily preserve human remains. It is the ability of formaldehyde to fix the tissue that produces the tell-tale firmness of flesh in an embalmed body. Whereas other heavier aldehydes produce a similar firming action none approaches the completeness of formaldehyde." 

It smells.  It sucks.  It makes you feel nauseous.  And it makes you hungry.  Yes, hungry.  Second year student comes up to me and says, "So were you starving after your first lab?"  I  say, "Yes, famished."  And she informs me that formaldehyde has the odd ability to make you hungry.

The chemical compound has that effect. Could be completely made up, but I've heard it from many, so eat something before you go in!  Catch 22 man...

3.  Latex gloves are required.  So are scalpels, obviously.  Both of which you must change about every 10-20 minutes....The blades obviously get dull quick, with the whole cutting dead skin and all, and the gloves make one's hands numb.  I walked out of my dissection lab, after 3 hours of dissecting the arm and forearm, and for 45 minutes afterwards my hands were tingly and my fingers numb.

4.  Bone boxes.  Boxes O' Bones.  At the beginning of our first lab, we were each, as a group, given a box full of human bones to study for tests/sketching assignments.  A human skellyton (excluding the skull and vertebrae) all for ourselves!  Excellent source of material EXCEPT for the fact that they are like, 50 years old, and one has no idea if the indentations and notches in the bones are natural, or just chips from being in a bone box with 15 other boney pieces, and lugged all over campus.  Still, sa-weet!

5.  Dissecting is awesome.  You stare at someone's armpit (axilla region) and all of a sudden 4 hours fly by.  Like when I paint.  No concept of time, and it makes you look at your body (and humans in general) in a new light.  Laying in bed the other day, I started visualizing where all my arteries, veins and muscles lie.  Feeling for my external occipital proturbance (the back of your skull) I felt like a scientist, a doctor, a medical illustrator... which could only mean good things...

And lastly, a terrible dissection misshapes that I thought would be nice to share.

1. "A little blob of cadaver juice splashed in my mouth last week when my labmate's chisel thwacked the wrong way. Note to self: close mouth when near cadaver.

Put me right off my supper, it did."