What+is+an+Autopsy?+Source+1

[] Kruszelnicki, Karl S. "Autopsy › News in Science (ABC Science)." //ABC.net.au//. ABC Science, 23 Oct. 2002. Web. 17 Sept. 2011. .

__**15 Facts:**__ > >
 * 1) Autopsies are not very romantic, but we need them to plan the overall health care of Australia, and to find new diseases.
 * 2) There's an old saying in medicine - "You can always make a correct diagnosis - but sometimes, you have to wait until the autopsy!"
 * 3) The cause of death is misdiagnosed in about 50% of elderly patients!
 * 4) The autopsy is the one single test that will tell what actually killed the patient.
 * 5) The word "autopsy" comes from the Greek words "auto" and "opsis", and it literally means "to see for oneself".
 * 6) The first recorded autopsies were carried out around 300 BC by doctors living in Alexandria.
 * 7) 500 years later, in 200 AD, medicine had advanced.
 * 8) The Greek doctor Galen actually compared what he found at autopsy, with what he had seen on his patients, and what they had complained of
 * 9) The first known legal autopsy, to try to find the cause of death, was ordered by a magistrate in Bologna in 1302.
 * 10) To understand the human anatomy better, and to improve their skills, the artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo each performed autopsies
 * 11) But the autopsy really became significant in 1761, when Giovanni Morganni published his great work //On the Seats and Causes of Diseases as Investigated by Anatomy//.
 * 12) An autopsy first begins with a very careful examination of the outside of the body
 * 13) Then, the front of the body is cut open, in the shape of the letter "Y".
 * 14) Two cuts are made from near the two armpits, down to a point at the bottom of the sternum or breastbone, and then a single cut is made straight down to the pubic bone.
 * 15) The internal organs are examined, by the naked eye and with a microscope, the findings are recorded, the organs are replaced, and the cut sewn up.