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Autopsy - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Autopsy : (noun)
1: an examination and dissection of a dead body to determine
cause of death or the changes produced by disease [syn: necropsy,
postmortem, PM, postmortem examination]
(verb)
1: perform an autopsy on a dead body; do a post-mortem
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Autopsy : \Au"top*sy\, n. [Gr. ?, fr. ? seen by one's self; ? self
_ ? seen: cf. F. autopsie. See Optic, a.]
1. Personal observation or examination; seeing with one's own
eyes; ocular view.
By autopsy and experiment. --Cudworth.
2. (Med.) Dissection of a dead body, for the purpose of
ascertaining the cause, seat, or nature of a disease; a
post-mortem examination.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Autopsy : Autopsy: A postmortem examination. Also called a necropsy .
Autopsies have been done for more than 2,000 years but during most of this time they were rarely done, and then only for legal purposes. The Roman physician Antistius performed one of the
earliest autopsies on record. In 44 B.C., he examined Julius Caesar and documented 23 wounds, including a final fatal stab to the chest. In 1410, the Catholic Church itself ordered an autopsy -- on
Pope Alexander V, to determine whether his successor had poisoned him. No evidence of this was found.
By the turn of the 20th century, prominent physicians such as Rudolf Virchow in Berlin, Karl Rokitansky in Vienna, and William Osler in Baltimore won popular support for the practice. They defended
it as a tool of discovery, one that was needed to identify the cause of Alzheimer disease . They showed that autopsies prevented errors -- that, without autopsies, doctors could not know when their
diagnoses were incorrect. Most deaths were a mystery then, and perhaps what clinched the argument was the notion that autopsies could provide families with answers -- give the story of a loved one's
life a comprehensible ending. By the end of the Second World War, the autopsy was firmly established as a routine part of death in North America and Europe.
For more information, see Autopsy (Postmortem Examination). And see "The Final Cut" by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker magazine of March 17, 2001.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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