title: Perceptions of science. The anatomical mission to Burma.
abstract: Until the 1830s, most Americans were unfamiliar with the images of anatomy. Then a small vanguard of reformers and missionaries began to preach, at home and around the world, that an identification with the images and concepts of anatomy was a crucial part of the civilizing process. In his essay, Sappol charts the changes in the perception of self that resulted from this anatomical evangelism. Today, as anatomical images abound in the arts and the media, we still believe that anatomical images show us our inner reality.
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. michael_sappol@nlm.nih.gov
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sappol
mesh_terms: D000715:Anatomy / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D000716:Anatomy, Artistic; D001828:Body Image; D049672:History, 19th Century; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration; D066189:Missionaries; D002052:Myanmar; D012070:Religion and Science; D008921:Religious Missions / Q000266:history; D012649:Self Concept; D013782:Textbooks as Topic