Surface Anatomy and Landmarks.
In all of our leading medical colleges the students are carefully and thoroughly drilled on a study of certain persons selected as models. The object is to master by observation and manipulation the details of what is known as surface anatomy and landmarks. Now while detailed work of this kind is not necessary in secondary schools, yet a limited amount of study along these lines is deeply interesting and profitable. The habit of looking at the living body with anatomical eyes and with eyes at our fingers’ ends, during the course in physiology, cannot be too highly estimated.
In elementary work it is only fair to state that many points of surface anatomy and many of the landmarks cannot always be defined or located with precision. A great deal in this direction can, however, be done in higher schools with ingenuity, patience, and a due regard for the feelings of all concerned. Students should be taught to examine their own bodies for this purpose. Two friends may thus work together, each serving as a “model” to the other.
To the following syllabus may be added such other similar exercises as ingenuity may suggest or time permit.