MLK

ABSTRACT

Heady with an inflated sense of achievement on acquiring a medical seat, a new medical student often gets a rude shock in the morbid world of human anatomy. The unclaimed corpses of the homeless who inhabit our cities laid out on dissection tables, human parts stripped of their coverings, the putrid smell of formalin, and the agonisingly long lists of tendons, muscles, bones and vessels do not fit the romantic image of medicine that they had. In every batch of new entrants, there are a few who feel so revolted by what they see in the anatomy dissection hall that they opt out of the course, or at least seriously contemplate doing so. All in all, anatomy can be boring and demoralising.