Spalteholz W. Hand-Atlas of Human Anatomy. Volume 3. Viscera, Brain, Nerves, Sense-Organs

Philadelphia; London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1906. — 422 p.Almost eight years have elapsed since the first part of the Atlas appeared. When I began the preliminary work connected with it I did not think it possible that so long a time would be required to complete the hook, and subsequently I have often been surprised at the expenditure of time which has been necessary. The cause of' the long intervals between publications of the single parts lay essentially in the fact that special dissections had to be made for the Atlas. Only in the parts dealing with the hones and ligaments could I use directly, to any great extent, the specimens in our collection. In all other portions of the anatomy there were only single specimens which were suitable for use as a basis for an illustration; by far the largest part had to be made new, especially for this purpose, and usually more than one specimen had to be prepared for each illustration. Aside from individual exceptions, I have prepared these specimens entirely alone, a circumstance which, on the one hand, contributed much to the delay, but on the other has insured as a result an even treatment of all regions and has done much to favor the truth and accuracy of the illustrations.
The illustrations of the muscles have all been taken from formalin preparations and therefore present somewhat more rigid forms than we were accustomed to see in cadavers preserved by other methods. In the short description of the muscles accompanying the plates I have included notes on their action, though these could by no means be exhaustive. Thus, for example, the recently established fact that muscles acting on two joints may, in certain cases, act in other ways than those hitherto assumed, and that muscles can cause movements even in joints over which they do not extend, could, unfortunately, receive no attention in this cursory description. The description given concerns therefore only the influence which the muscles exert upon those joints over which they extend and neglects the deviations in the action which appear in muscles extending over two joints in certain initial positions.
In the work on the central nervous system I have been fortunate in the friendly support of my colleague H. Held , whom I here wish to thank most heartily; all the figures either for which he has placed preparations at my disposal, or which have been drawn at his direction, as well as the next belonging to them have been accredited in each single case to his name. In Figs. 723 — 743, the experiment has been made of introducing colors, without sacrificing accuracy, in the reproduction of the specimen in order to make it more easily possible to grasp the position of the motor nuclei of origin and the sensory nuclei of termination of the cerebral nerves and the course of some of the larger conduction paths. For permission to use the preparation for Fig. 743 I am indebted to Professor Flechsig; I am no less under obligation to him for revising Figs. 755 and 756 dealing with the extent of the sense centers and association centers. Thanks are further due to Professor P. Eisler of Halle, who at my request supplemented his plexus schemata (Figs. 786 and 812) and placed them, in the original, at my disposal, and to Professor Sattler who has been good enough to permit me to use some drawings of the eye made under his direction and several microscopic preparations from his collection.
The schematic drawings illustrating the domain of distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the arm and leg (Figs. 806, 807, 827 and 828) have been prepared by myself from original preparations and from those illustrations of cutaneous nerves in the literature which are free from objection. They are based on the mode of representation of E. Zander, (see Fig. 772) and show the overlapping of the nerve areas and also approximately their extent of variation; what they lose in clearness, as compared with other illustrations with sharply delimited areas, they have certainly won in accuracy.
The index has been prepared here by two medical students Messrs. P. Eosenhauer and A. Strobel; both these gentlemen have carried on this large task with great conscientiousness. I wish to thank them sincerely for their help.
Finally I desire to repeat again here my heartiest thank to Professor His for placing at my disposal without reserve the material and the collections of the Anatomical Institute. I am no less grateful to Mr. G. Hirzel who has given me an entirely free hand with regard to the size of the book and the use of colored illustrations; he has spared neither work nor expense to make the book the best possible.
Of the drawings of the last volume those of Figs. 725 — 743 have been made by Mr. Albert Fiebiger and others by Mr. H. Unger and other gentlemen; but by far the greatest number of them come from the hand of Mr. B. Heroux who is therefore responsible for the largest part of the artistic work. That Mr. B. Heroux has been extraordinarily successful in accomplishing the tasks set him, some of them very difficult, everyone can easily convince himself by looking through the Atlas. To him especially and also to the other gentlemen who have helped in the preparation of the illustrations, I wish here to offer my best thanks.
Werner Spalteholz.