Anatomy for Beginners

Did anyone else watch this fascinating series on C4 last week?

The first episode was about the skin, muscles and blood vessels, the second episode covered the heart and lungs, the third was about the digestive system.

I found the fourth episode the most interesting, it was about the reproductive system in both men and women.

The autopsies were performed by Dr Gunther Hagen from the institute for Plastination.
The bodies were recently deceased and had given permission to be dissected on TV.

Eventually the Dr cut through the pubic bone and removed the pelvic organs, including the bladder, penis, testicles and prostate.

It was amazing the see how far inside the body the penis goes. There was the same amount again inside the body. The Dr mentioned that the penis is about twice as long at the bit you can see.
Also I did not realise that the prostate gland sat right at the base (I mean where it originates inside the body) of the penis.

I am currently hanging OTS and it gave me a good view of what was going on, the pubic bone acts as a kind of fulcrum at this angle.

There were also live models in the studio. The male was not cut and seemed to have a fairly good flaccid :-)
Mine seems to retract more at this time of year.

You have a stronger stomach then me, but then again, they don’t show that in the States.

I see that bluenun, that was incredible. That guy seems to be a bit too comfortable when chopping up the dead bodies though.
Also, on the digestion one - it was quite disturbing when he pulled the whole stomach out and said “that’s beautiful”.

I think he is some kind of psycho, and what is with his hat?
Very unprofessional, lol.

gprent, before it was screened I thought that it would not be my cup of tea especially if there is blood involved.

But it was not gory at all, I found the hardest part to watch was when he pulled the skin of a body and opened the skull with a saw.

There was no blood though.

C4 are renowned for showing new and unusual stuff and I feel privileged to have seen the series. I learnt a lot.

PEst, he did seem comfortable with what he was doing, I guess he has had a lot of experience and it is no big deal to him, I think the hat is a bit of a gimmick.
I thought the other guy narrating was very informative.

Crappy dutch TV, The only English channels I get are BBC1 and 2 :(

I watched part one. The information given was extremely basic, but it was interesting to see what the body parts actually look like and how everything fits together. Illustrations aren’t nearly as informative. I wish they would have spent more camera time on the cadaver. I’ll try to find part 4.

Yes it was basic hobby but it was aimed at beginners and only 1 hours airtime per system.

At college we spent many weeks per system but I still learnt a great deal from the TV programmes.
Like you said illustrations just don’t have the same impact as seeing it for your own eyes.

I loved the series, last part tonight :)