The Beauty Of Body Snatching Summary

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The Beauty of Bodysnatching written by Burch Druin is a fascinating biography of Astley Cooper, an English Surgeon, and Anatomist, who gained worldwide fame in support of his contribution to Vascular Surgery and a further area of expertise. The extract gives a reflective insight into Cooper’s contribution to study of Anatomy and medicine. Cooper enjoyed the job of body snatching, which helped him to conduct a series of discoveries that were important for the future study and understanding of Physiology. In the Romantic era, when prettiness or horror was a sensitive matter and extensive concern at that time many physicians discouraged surgery, but Cooper passionately practiced it. Hector Berlioz, born in the romantic era was a great lover of music. Being a child of a doctor was forced to take up the drug even he hated it. The description of the dissecting room by Hector Berlioz shows how his initial visit had terrorized him. Though at the beginning Berlioz was not prepared for dissecting the body parts and the physical impact of the hospital was slowly getting used to it. The hospital was depicted with perished and crazy wards. The horrible smell of incontinence and diarrhea that was spread in the atmosphere of hospital always clings to him even when he went home. Even it was a hot and sunny evening, the scene of unhealthy patients and their …show more content…

The author compares Berlioz, a man of music to Cooper, a man of anatomy and surgery, to show that it is the desire for knowledge of interest that drove them to the peak of success in their respective fields. The author cites what William Hazlitt, an opponent of the romantic age said about the anatomist ’s that he likes to see the objects related to their subject as it create new thoughts in the student's minds that ultimately overcomes the pain but he dislikes the prospect of the corpse that presents to ordinary

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