Logan University in Chesterfield, Missouri offers a free Tour of the Body to the community. Tour the Body is a program where anyone can view, touch and learn about a dissected human cadaver. The tour will help participants to gain a better understanding of the structures of the human body.

“This is hands-on, you are feeling what it’s really like, you’re seeing what it’s actually like instead of seeing a picture,” Tour of the Body guide Nicholas Reese said. “So I think having that hands-on experience and having that reality of it really sets the perspective and gives you an opportunity to advance beyond your peers.” 

The anatomy lab is used by Logan students as well as other schools and universities in the area to help them advance their knowledge of human anatomy. Logan University is a chiropractic school but the tour can still be a valuable experience to anyone interested in any aspect of the medical field.

“It is important to see if you can handle the anatomy labs first off because not a lot of people can do it,” a chiropractor that attended Logan University Dr. Laura Stephenson said. “I know there are people that will walk in there and turn right back around so you have to make sure that you’re still interested in it.”

Whether or not a student is interested in the medical field, this is a unique opportunity that can be beneficial for students going into any profession. Students involved in the program and those who lead it agree that the tour can provide a better sense of what can be involved in the medical profession and help participants understand the body on a deeper level.                       

“This is a good opportunity to provide people with high quality information straight from the source,” Reese said. “I think it could be beneficial for anyone [and] you can still teach people things that they didn’t know about themselves.” 

Students like Adam Glenn, a senior in high school, was one of many students that were able to benefit from the tour as he knows he wants to study medicine in the future.

“It was very interesting,” Glenn said. “I looked at dead animals before but never actual human anatomy,” Adam said. “I learned that I can look at a cadaver and not freak out, I’ll probably have to do that more in college or med school.”

The tour may be very interesting and unique but it is not for everyone. To some people, the smell is not great and seeing a real cadaver right in front of them can be unsettling. Mother of Adam, Jennifer Glenn, also participated in Tour of the Body, but her experience was a little different than Adam’s.

 “I think my favorite part about the tour was when we left,” Glenn said.

Tour the Body is a rare experience. Although it may not be for everyone, it has great lasting effects on the school and the medical community which will benefit others for many years to come.

“It’s very nice that these people are donating their bodies to science so we need to get more of the public eye to see how the school and how these cadavers are helping all the students and the future doctors learn,” Stephenson said.