The First Textbook of Anatomy in Korea

Park, Hyoung Woo; Park, Jun Hyoung

Abstract

The first hospital to practice western medicine in Korea, Chejungwon, was opened on April 10, 1885. Then on March 29, 1886, Chejungwon Medical School, Korea's first school to teach western medicine, opened. While anatomy was taught at that time by missionary doctors, there was no Korean translation of an Anatomy textbook. Therefore, Dr. O.R. Avison, who reopened and took charge of Chejungwon Medical School on November 1, 1893, began translating the popular "Gray's Anatomy" with the aid of Korean assistants. Although the text was translated twice, it was not published due one of the manuscripts having gone missing and the other having been lost in a fire. It wasn't until 1906 when the first "Textbook of Anatomy" was translated and published in 3 volumes by Dr. Avison and Mr. Pil Soon Kim (the first graduate of Chejungwon Medical School in 1908). This translation was not based on Gray's Anatomy, but rather on Imada Tsukane's "Practical Anatomy", which had been written in Japanese. During a previous translation, Dr. Avison and Mr. Kim referred to many Chinese and Japanese textbooks, especially for choosing the proper medical terms expressed in Chinese characters. With a basic understanding of how medical terms were expressed in Chinese characters, they decided to translate Imada's textbook. The translation was completed within several months. When comparing the translated textbook with Imada's original one, several pictures were deleted or replaced with others by the translators. Also, much of the narrative was reinforced in detail and new subtitles were used throughout the text. By modifying its contents, they evidently wanted to make this new translation more complete than Imada's original. The text was republished in 1909, but could not be maintained or updated in successive editions due to the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910.