Human anatomy remains a mystery to most people with only half able to identify the correct position of the heart, new research suggests.
A study published in the medical journal BMC Family Practice said that despite better access to information many people did not know where the major organs were found.
Only a third were able to pinpoint the lungs, and the 722 people questioned only got half the answers right on average.
This was true even if they had a medical problem with the organ they were trying to identify.
Researchers from King's College London questioned patients at Kings, Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in the capital, as well as members of the public.
A similar survey was carried out in 1970, but the results of the latest poll were no better than nearly forty years ago.
John Weinman, who led the study, said: "We thought that the improvements in education seen since then, coupled with an increased media focus on medical and health related topics, and growing access to the internet as a source of medical information, might have led to an increase in patients' anatomical knowledge. As it turns out, there has been no significant improvement in the intervening years."
The people questioned were shown drawings of a male or female body with organs shown in different positions, one of which was correct.
Some were easy, 85.9% could find the intestines and 80.7% knew where the bladder was. Women also performed better when looking at a female body.
Our lack of knowledge has implications for the way doctors should speak to patients, the researchers said.
The conclusion of the study said: "Health care professionals still need to take care in providing organ specific information to patients and should not assume that patients have this information, even for those organs in which their medical problem is located. The consultation may offer many opportunities for both checking and improving patients' knowledge."
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