Victor McKusick, “Mendelian Inheritance in Man: Catalog of Human Genes and Genetic Disorders”, 1966 was a nonfiction medical book. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), “Experiments in Plant Hybridization”, 1866 proved simple “trait” inheritance for a few genes. Victor McKusick, “Mendelian Inheritance in Man”, 1966 is a catalog of “cellular chromosomes”. Since 1956, the anatomy of the human genome has been described on the basis of chromosome studies, gene mapping, and DNA sequencing. The “gross anatomy” of Andreas Vesalius, published in 1543, played a significant role in the development of modern medicine. Knowledge of “genomic anatomy” is having a comparably strong and pervasive influence on all of medicine.
The 1966 edition of the catalog, is shown as print book in the photograph above. This was followed by 1968 and 1971 (the “red” book): the 1986 edition (“yellow” book) are shown in the photograph. “Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man” is available today. Today, the DNA sequence of a single, human is 1000 book of 1000 pages per book. Before the “computer age” this DNA chemistry was not technically possible.
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