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Vintage Anatomy Fold-Out Illustrations, 1901
Three pages from a rare antique anatomy textbook published in 1901, featuring beautiful scientific illustrations by E. J. Stanley. Each fold-out consists of three layers revealing a different dimension of the body — from skin to muscle and bone to organ and tissue.
(Source: brainpickings.org)
Animal Eyes
In this series, Armenian photographer Suren Manvelyan creates gripping close-up photos of animal’s eyes. Seeing something that’s hidden from the naked eye is always the beauty of macro photography. The animal eyes featured above:
- Blue Yellow Macaw Parrot
- Husky Dog
- Llama
- Horse
- Nile Crocodile
(Source: boredpanda.com)
Human Corpses as Art
The infamous German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens, is the man who has earned himself a rather weird reputation of ‘Mr. Death’ by turning corpses alive. He is the developer and promoter of the Body World exhibit which features dead people engaged in a variety of everyday activities from playing chess to dancing. The skin and several layers of body tissues are peeled in order to give the audience a closer look at the secrets of human life and death.
(Source: oddityjournal.com)
Graphic Medical Oddities and Preserved Human Specimens
The Siriraj Medical Museum in Bangkok,Thailand abounds with medical curiosities. The Siriraj is actually comprised of six different museums: a museum of pathology, a forensics museum, a museum of the history of Thai medicine, a parasitology museum, an anatomical museum, and a prehistoric museum.
The Siriraj’s incredible holdings include: Bones, preserved organs, pathological fetuses, the mummified corpse of a notorious serial killer, a traditional Thai medicine shop, parasitic worms, a two-and-a-half-foot-wide scrotum removed from a man afflicted with elephantiasis, rows of skulls, the standing wax-filled remains of a cannibal, a delicately dissected nervous system, and the skeleton of the museum’s founder.
(Source: si.mahidol.ac.th)
Vintage Photos of Conjoined Twins, One Body-Two Heads
(Source: pinterest.com)
OBJECTIFY THIS: Female anatomy dissected and displayed
Artist Fernando Vicente depicts the INTERIOR workings of females both android and human.
(Source: darkroastedblend.com)
Wax Anatomical Figure of Reclining Woman; Florence, Italy, 1771-1800
Why is this anatomical woman special? Because she has a sexual allure that is not necessary for anatomical teaching purposes. Wax anatomical models of this period had different uses for different audiences. In the European anatomical tradition, the standard or normative body was always male. Female bodies were studied in terms of how they differed. In practice this meant a focus on their reproductive capacities – most often they were pregnant, with a foetus as one of the removable pieces.
But does this explain the model’s passive, sexual pose? Female wax anatomical models were often referred to as ‘Venuses’, after the goddess of love and beauty. Reclining on silk or velvet cushions, in positions copied from works of art, they often had flowing hair and jewellery, which added nothing to their anatomical use. They served to show not just physical differences but also gender differences, as perceived in European culture at that time.
The Bizarre Story of Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage is the most famous person to have survived severe damage to the brain. His accident illustrates the first medical knowledge gained on the relationship between personality and brain damage.
A well-liked and successful construction foreman, Phineas Gage was contracted to work for the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Vermont. In September 1848 while Gage was preparing a railroad bed, an accidental explosion of a charge he had set, blew a 13-pound tamping iron straight through his head.
The tamping iron was 1 1/4 inches in diameter. It went in point first under his left cheek bone and completely out through the top of his head, landing about 25 to 30 yards behind him.
Despite his torn scalp and fractured skull, Gage remained lucid and rational during the ride to the hospital and was even able to speak. Cage not only survived losing a chunk of his brain, he was able to returned home in only 10 weeks. Unfortunately, Gage’s recovery was not a complete success.
The once friendly and well-liked man became mean, impatient, rude, and seemed to have lost any empathy toward others. Those who knew him before the accident said he was “no longer Gage.”
Cage worked in several livery stables for the next ten years until 1859 when his health began to fail. He moved to San Francisco to live with his mother and began to experience the epileptic seizures that would lead to his death in 1860.
His story is still standard content in medical, anatomy, and psychology textbooks. His skull and the tamping iron are currently on display in the Warren Museum Exhibition Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts.
(Source: deakin.edu.au)
Life-Size Vintage Anatomical Chart, United States, 1885-1900
‘White’s Physiological Manikin’ is a life-size male anatomical chart. Foldout sections illustrate tissue groups and sectional views of the body and these peel away to reveal internal organs and muscles. The chart may have been used at traveling anatomy shows open to the public, where the audience was invited to “Know Thyself” to take better care of themselves and their families. Charts and models were used for teaching. This was partly due to the availability of real bodies and the difficulties they entailed. The model was produced by James T. White and Company in New York.
