BOOKMARK
Anatomy book, a first, is written in Hawaiian

"Anatomia 1838," by G. P. Judd, translated by Esther T Mookini; University of Hawai'i Press, hardback, $26

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Book Editor

This project of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence may seem remote and esoteric — a back-to-back translation and reproduction of Dr. Gerret P. Judd's book of anatomy, the first in the Hawaiian language.

But there is much both of value and of interest in the book, which illustrates how fluent Judd had become in his adopted language, such that he could make effective use of idiom and employ a plain and yet somehow elegant tone that is very Hawaiian.

He teaches through gentle questions and examples: "If a man was made without bones, such as a sea cucumber, loli, then how could he possibly stand up?"

The late O. A. Bushnell's introduction invites the reader to imagine the difficulties involved in this project for Judd and the Hawaiian students who helped him create the engravings for the book.

The book itself seems infused with the love of the man whose tombstone reads, "Hawai'i's Friend."