The Annual General Meeting of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland was held at Newcastle University Medical School, from 6th to 8th January 1998. It included a symposium on ‘Developmental Neuroscience’ on Wednesday 7th January. The following are abstracts of communications and posters presented at the meeting.

Anatomical Society of Great Britain

15–18 April, 1998. Joint meeting with the Nederlandse Anatomen Vereniging in Rolduc, Netherlands, in cooperation with the South African Anatomical Society.

24–26 July, 2000. University of Cambridge.

International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine

MacNab/Larocca Research Fellowship Award. Deadline: March 1, 1998

1998 Smith & Nephew Travelling Fellowship Award. Deadline April 1, 1998.

Morphological variations of the brachial plexus and variants in the distribution of the anterior division of the middle trunk are relatively frequent. Two of the rarest anomalies occurred in the left brachial plexus of a 62-y-old Japanese male, 1 of 104 plexuses dissected between 1996 and 1997 at Kanazawa University Faculty of Medicine. The superior trunk of the brachial plexus was formed by the anterior primary division of C5 and C6 and a thin branch (0.5 mm in diameter) from C4, the middle trunk by the C7, and the inferior trunk by C8 and T1 (Fig.). We could not determine whether there was a branch derived from T2 to T1, since the subject had died of lung carcinoma. The entire anterior division of the middle trunk crossed the axillary artery and joined the medial root of the median nerve which was the continuation of the medial cord after the cord branched off the ulnar nerve. The lateral cord pierced coracobrachialis and divided into the musculocutaneous nerve and the lateral root of the median nerve just after emerging from the muscle, finally joining the medial root of the median nerve superficial to the brachial artery ∼115 mm distal to the lower border of latissimus dorsi to form the median nerve. The musculocutaneous nerve gave rise to the nerves to biceps brachii, brachialis, and the long head of biceps brachii and finally continued as the lateral cutaneous nerve of the forearm. The branch to coracobrachialis had already been cut and its course could not be traced.

Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Madrid, 26–27 November 1998. Joint Symposium between the Spanish Anatomical Society and the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland on morphogenetic and genetic analysis of vertebrate development.

Winter meeting, 5–7 January 1999. This will be held at the University of Leeds and will include a one and a half day symposium on ‘Structure and function of molecular motors’. Further information can be obtained from Dr Roger Soames, Centre for Human Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.

Summer meeting, 13–15 July 1999. This will be held in Glasgow. The title of the Symposium will be announced later.

Summer meeting, 24–26 July 2000. This will be held at the University of Cambridge.

Research Studentships

Grant funding is available for Research Studentships in the anatomical sciences, commencing October 1999. Project applications are invited from Society Members who hold academic positions in Departments of Anatomical and related Sciences in the UK and Ireland.

Further particulars and application forms are available from Dr D. J. Watt, Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Division of Neuroscience and Psychological Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine, Charing Cross Campus, St Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP (e-mail: d.watt@cxwms.ac.uk). The closing date for applications is 9 October 1998.

The amount of time officially available for the teaching of gross anatomy to medical undergraduates was substantially curtailed during the 1960s, both in the USA and in Europe (Kahn, 1966; Todd, 1968). Since then, this trend has been further enhanced by the expanding introduction of problem-based learning (Pallie & Miller, 1982; Albanese & Mitchell, 1993) deplored by many gross anatomists, radiologists and surgeons (Collins et al. 1994; Anderson & Brown, 1996). But a modification of the content of anatomical teaching has become unavoidable, and is a matter for concern — although very little rejoicing — to the professional morphologist involved in teaching. The few studies which have been aimed at defining a suitable core programme were designed to determine the anatomical knowledge required for various clinical specialties (Lippert & Bernsau, 1972; Quast-Höttge, 1972). These studies showed that the identified knowledge exceeds by far any currently available time for teaching anatomy to medical undergraduates (Lippert, 1974). Against this background, the present study was designed from a different concept, our aim having been to investigate the requirement of anatomical knowledge in general medical practice. The actual paper is a synopsis of the results obtained for 12 topics of systematic gross anatomy evaluated under this criterion. It is an attempt to contribute to a pragmatic solution to a pressing problem.

Archibald Young was born in 1913 into a distinguished medical family. His father was a surgeon of international repute who followed Macewen to the Regius Chair of Surgery in Glasgow. On his mother's side he claimed descent from the famous Highland cateran Rob Roy. The family lived in great style in the fashionable Park area of Glasgow, and entertained Einstein on his visit to the University.

Young was educated at the High School of Glasgow and at St John's College Cambridge before returning to Glasgow to complete his medical training and take a number of junior clinical appointments in surgery and septics. When the Second World War broke out Young joined the RAMC and saw active service in North Africa and Italy. At the end of hostilities he was appointed to the Staff of the Anatomy Department in Glasgow, which remained his base for most of his career.

Variations in the hamstring muscles are not common. We describe here a rare anomalous muscle in the popliteal fossa and speculate on its functional significance.

With the exception of the 7th vertebra, both past and recent literature describe the lower cervical vertebrae as possessing similar morphological characteristics (Soemmering, 1794; Cruveilhier, 1862; Luschka, 1862; Henle, 1871; Braus-Elze, 1954; Romanes, 1981; Williams et al. 1989; Benninghof, 1994). Gross anatomical differences from the 3rd to the 7th cervical vertebrae comprise the shapes of the vertebral body and uncinate and spinous processes (Putz, 1976; Penning, 1988; Lang, 1990) and the more developed anterior tubercle and anterior root of the transverse process of the 6th cervical vertebra (C6) (Paturet, 1951). During routine examination of a series of dried skeletons, the articular processes (AP) of C6 were found to be distinct from the rest of the cervical vertebrae. The aim of this study was to confirm this unusual appearance of the C6 process by inspecting a sample of dried skeletons. We report the morphology of the AP of C6 in 76 well preserved complete adult skeletons (58 males, 18 females; age 31–77 y) and 5 young specimens from the Anatomical Institutes of Alicante, Valencia and Murcia (Spain) and Munich (Germany). Another 12 skeletons were excluded from the study due to arthritic changes in their cervical APs.

John Zachary Young, universally known as JZ, was born in Bristol on 18 March 1907 and died on 4 July 1997. The Zachary in his name was said to be of Cornish origin. His ancestor Thomas Young achieved fame through his modulus and through the Young–Helmholtz theory of colour vision. JZ was educated at Marlborough, which school also produced another notable scientist, student of and early collaborator with JZ, Peter Medawar. Having acquired an interest in zoology at school, JZ read zoology at Magdalen College, Oxford, and then obtained a scholarship to work at the Zoological Section in Naples. There he began to investigate the autonomic innervation of the gut of fish. While in Naples he rediscovered the giant axons of the squid but, unlike L. W. Williams in 1909, he immediately recognised their importance. His observations led to the fundamental studies on the generation of the membrane potential and conduction of the action potential of axons by Hodgkin and Huxley. During his time in Naples before the War, JZ began his lifelong interest in the brain and behaviour of cephalopods.