The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prosector \Pro*sec"tor\, n. [L., an anatomist, from prosecare to cut up; pro before + secare to cut.] One who makes dissections for anatomical illustration; usually, the assistant of a professional anatomist.
Wiktionary
n. A person who prepares a body for dissection by students, or dissects them as demonstrations
Wikipedia
right|framed|Prosector and physician in a dissection. From "Anathomia", M. da Luzzi, 1459 A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and pathology.
The act of prosecting differs from that of dissecting. A prosection is a professionally prepared dissection prepared by a prosector – a person who is well versed in anatomy and who therefore prepares a specimen so that others may study and learn anatomy from it. A dissection is prepared by a student who is dissecting the specimen for the purpose of learning more about the anatomical structures pertaining to that specimen. The term dissection may also be used to describe the act of cutting. Therefore, a prosector dissects to prepare a prosection.
Prosecting is intricate work where numerous tools are used to produce a desired specimen. Scalpels and scissors allow for sharp dissection where tissue is cut, e.g. the biceps brachii muscle can be removed from the specimen by cutting the origin and insertion with a scalpel. Probes and the prosector's own fingers are examples of tools used for blunt dissection where tissue may be separated from surrounding structures without cutting, i.e. the bellies of biceps brachii and coracobrachialis muscle were made clearer by loosening the fascia between the two muscles with a blunt probe.
Usage examples of "prosector".
He was as naked and as open as a corpse on a table, and dark Anubis the jackal god was his prosector and his prosecutor and his persecutor.
She became so skilful that she was made the prosector of anatomy, that is, one who prepares bodies for demonstration by the professors.
Bologna have had from Otto Agenius Lustrulanus, whom Mondino had used as an assiduous prosector, if he had not been taken away by a swift and lamentable death before he had completed the sixth lustrum of his life!
He worked in two hospitals: as an intern in one, and as a prosector in the other.