Spalteholz W. Hand-Atlas of Human Anatomy. Volume 1. Bones, Joints, Ligaments

Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1906. — 252 p.Soon after the appearance of the first part of this atlas, from various sides the wish was repeatedly expressed, among others by my friend Prof. F. P. Mall, that an English edition be published. The publishers at first hesitated, but when so distinguished a specialist as Professor Barker was found ready to translate the work and edit it, they acquiesced. In order to secure the utmost conformity with the German work, the illustrations have been printed from the original plates, and for the translation, the text of the fourth German edition, under preparation, was submitted. I myself, moreover, have superintended the proofreading.
In accordance with the plan which I had laid as a foundation for the work, the atlas is intended to embrace the whole of descriptive anatomy with the exception of histology ; it includes also, as far as possible, the relations which are brought out by magnification with strong hand lenses. It is intended thus to have due regard also for the field which lies between macroscopic anatomy and microscopic anatomy proper. The topographic relations of the organs and especially of the vessels and nerves have been given the utmost consideration attainable within the compass of a book which treats primarily of descriptive anatomy.
In order to increase the clearness of the illustrations, a large portion of them have been done in colors, so that the parts whose portrayal in the sections is of importance, are brought into prominence by the colors.
The number of drawings necessary is provisionally roughly estimated at about 800, but if necessary this number will be increased.
It is intended, if possible, that the second volume, containing muscles and blood vessels, shall appear in the course of the winter, the third volume containing the 'viscera, brain, nerves, and sense organs, immediately after its completion in the German edition.
At the end of the atlas a complete index will be printed.
For all the illustrations, with unimportant exceptions, new original drawings were made. To the choice of the objects and the production of the drawings the most thoughtful attention was devoted. With regard to the admission and manner of representation of an object, pedagogic principles have been, first and foremost, determining; where an object appeared difficult a greater number of drawings were made, and vice versa. The illustrations, in all cases, have been faithfully drawn from original preparations, but at the same time no copy of a definite individual case, but always a composite from several sections, has been made.
The preparations were made for the most part especially for this purpose and accepted only after many repetitions if the relations did not appear to me clear enough. In those cases in which I have given new delineations which depart somewhat from the customary, I introduced them with full consciousness, on the strength of new preparations.
All illustrations have been made from dissections of the right half of the body.
As the basis for the technical terms, I have, throughout, made use of the new anatomical nomenclature, BNA, as unanimously adopted by the anatomical association at its IX. meeting in Basel on April 19, 1895 and published with introduction and explanations by W. His. I have held myself strictly to the terms there given and only in a few isolated cases added terms according to my own judgment. Also for the mass of quoted terms, the compilation just referred to has served me as a standard; only a few terms will be found missing.
As to the process of reproduction, with a few exceptions the Half-tone has been chosen, because this mechanical method reproduces the original drawing far more accurately than does the woodcut.
The drawings of the attachments of muscles were completed from preparations which were made by the late Prof. W. Braune himself.
As far as the text is concerned, I undertook only unwillingly the writing thereof, since it may permit the student to think, that this text will suffice for the study of anatomy in general. I have decided to write ultimately a supplement to the same if it be much desired, and shall then devote to it the greatest care. My effort has been, to give a clear description of the figures, and at the same time to explain all the descriptive terms made use of in the figure. In so doing the manuscript unintentionally turned out to be much more detailed than was really necessary in the text accompanying an atlas, in which, indeed, the illustrations are the essentials; thus it resembles many text hooks in completeness. And yet again it is more incomplete than a full text book should be in as much as I found it necessary to omit entirely all general matter, and occasionally, if room for the text was wanting, it was necessary that the illustration alone should speak for itself. Consequently the text remains, for the most part, a guide; it ought not to, and can in no way, render a text book of anatomy unnecessary.
In the part on articulations, I have provided a description of the pure anatomic relations only, and except in the case of the mandibular articulation, have intentionally, nowhere entered into the function of the same; for while the old classification of joints according to the form of the articulating surfaces has now only partial value, nevertheless a new classification according to the amount of motion possible during life is not yet applicable to all joints.
For showing the soft parts, especially the muscles and viscera, material carefully hardened in formalin has been largely used.
The data regarding the action of the individual muscles take into account only the influence which the muscles exert on the joints over which they pass.
Werner Spalteholz.