Introduction to Human Anatomy: Planes, Cavities, Regions and the Cell

The opening lesson on human anatomy: anatomy as the study of the structure of the body and the relationship of its parts, and the body as a chemical and physical machine subject to law. Separates gross anatomy studied by region - trunk, upper limb, lower limb, head and neck - from the systemic study of the body, and works the levels of organisation from the cell through a tissue as a grouping of like cells, to organs and systems. Sets out the three imaginary planes with their orientations: the sagittal planes as vertical planes dividing right from left with the midsagittal plane in the middle, the horizontal or transverse planes parallel to the floor, and the frontal or coronal planes vertical and at right angles to the sagittal. Continues with the dorsal and ventral body cavities and their subdivisions, the specific body regions, and the nine regions and the four quadrants of the abdominal cavity, and on why anatomical and medical terminology has to be known, reading the parts of a term with examples such as erythrocyte. Ends on the cell as the basic microscopic unit of the body and its structure: the nucleus with its chromosomes and its central role in guiding the life processes of the cell, the cell membrane and its selective permeability, the cytoplasm, the mitochondria as the powerhouses that supply energy wherever it is needed, and the endoplasmic reticulum carrying material from one part of the cell to another.