Monday, November 11, 2013

Necropsy

Eleven lines starting at the eleventh line on the eleventh page of Time of Death by Jessica Snyder Sachs, in memory of all the victims of war especially conscripts and civilians regardless of whose flag they use to cover their dead.

Many trace the work of forensic pathology — the medicolegal
investigation of death — to the ancient Greeks
who, circa 380 B.C., began dissecting
various animal carcasses and applying
their findings — at times absurdly —
to humans. Greek physicians did perform the rare human

dissection. But Hippocratic writings express a deep disdain
for the business, even as they named it: autopsy.
Despite the strange implications of self-
examination, the term has resisted 2,000 years of scientific
lobbying to replace it with the more logical necropsy.


From Time of Death by Jessica Snyder Sachs

No comments:

Post a Comment