Medical Gross and Developmental Anatomy makes or breaks aspiring doctors; more students leave medical school during this course than any other. Now Steve Giegerich puts readers in the classroom as potential doctors come face to face with their first human cadaver and dissects the factors that determine whether they succeed or fail. In January of 1999, one hundred and eighty-one students at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, began a course in Gross Anatomy. Among them were Sherry Ikalowych, a former nurse and mother of four; Jennifer Hannum, an ultra-competitive jock; Udele Tagoe, a determined Duke graduate of Ghanaian decent; and Ivan Gonzalez, a Nicaraguan refugee and unlikely medical student. For these four lab partners, the cadaver, Tom Lewis, lying on the stainless steel table remains anonymous during dissection; but for the reader, Lewis springs to life. As the students grapple with love, hate, power, and awe, Giegerich also explores Lewis's life and his generous decision to donate his body to science. Ultimately, as the students gain reverence for medicine, they develop, too, gratitude for Lewis's thoughtful gift. An ideal gift for doctors and students -- and for fans of E.R. -- Body of Knowledge will take its rightful place alongside Peggy Anderson's Nurse and William Nolen's The Making of a Surgeon.