Anatomy is gradually disappearing from the medical curriculum. This is partly because the curriculum is overcrowded and something has to go. It is also because medical education assumes that anatomy’s main value is for surgery and will be learnt later by beginning surgeons. Yet anatomy for surgery is, paradoxically, the least of the reasons for doctors to know is, thus, a minor “surgery” of general practice that requires anatomy in situations where it cannot be“looked up.”.
