"Circulating Now" New Blog of the National Library of Medicine, Washington D.C.

I am very excited to welcome Washington D.C.'s fantastic National Library of Medicine to the blogosphere! All the images you see above are drawn from recent posts found on "Circulate Now," the National Library of Medicine's new blog where such luminaries as Michael Sappol--curator of the unforgettable Dream Anatomy--regularly report on the vast and broad historical collections of "the world's largest biomedical library."

You can visit "Circulate Now" by clicking here.

Early 19th Century Corrosion Cast of a Child: Guest Post by Carla Valentine, Curator of Barts Pathology Museum

I am so excited to announce that the amazing Barts Pathology Museum has launched a blog! On the blog, curator Carla Valentine will regularly report on her detailed research into the over 5,000 fascinating specimens she cares for at the Grade II listed Barts Pathology Museum at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London.

To celebrate the launch, I asked Carla if she might like to write a guest post about one of my favorite pieces from the collection which I had admired in the recent Museum of London's "Doctors, Dissection and ResurrectionMen" exhibition.

Following is her post; If you like what you read (and see!) I  urge you to check out the wonderful--and delightfully image heavy--blog by clicking here.

After a short stint at the Museum of London's 'Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men' this year I’m happy to say the above specimen – a corrosion cast of a child covered in shellac - has found its new home here at Barts Pathology Museum. It was originally housed at our sister hospital The Royal London, which is of course the home of Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man) and in fact it was Frederick Treves, the man who ‘discovered’ the Elephant Man, who actually purchased this specimen on a trip to Paris in the 1800s.

We don’t have much more information about the child except that it probably pre-dates Treves by a long way and is from the early 1800s.

‘Corrosion casting’ similar to this was developed by such pioneers as Jan Swammerdam (above, Wikicommons) and Frederick Ruysch (below, Wikicommons) as early as the 16^th century and was still popular with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century anatomists. Swammerdam and Ruysch had created a technique to inject the blood and lymphatic vessels of corpses with a mixture of wax, talc and pigments that set and endured, and often the surrounding flesh was corroded or removed. Anatomists were still using Swammerdam’s syringe to inject mixtures of varying proportions into their specimens until the early 20^th Century.

According to Museum Vrolik, Ruysch had created the art of injecting specimens with a wax-like substance, dyed red with cinnabar, so that they could be more lifelike when displayed in jars (similar to the pink-tinted embalming fluid used to make loved ones more lifelike today.) However, he also injected tissues and organs which he then ‘embalmed and dried’ which would be more likely to give the dehydrated look of this specimen. In addition to such methods Ruysch introduced a new way of embalming specimens (based upon techniques already known by the ancient Egyptians).”

 
The passage reads: “Examples of organs in the Vrolik collection that have been injected with wax or dried include placentas and penises and, in particular, human and animal hearts. In order to make their anatomical structure more visible, in some cases one half of the heart was injected with red wax and the other half of the organ was injected with dark blue wax. Dry specimens, like bone and certain membranes, were dehydrated by exposing them to the external environment and subsequently coating them with a kind of varnish. The majority of the dry organ and tissue specimens were coated with shellac after drying.” A fate which seems to have befallen our shellac child in his entirety.

Shellac is an incredibly versatile substance which is secreted by the female Laccifer lacca (Lac Beetle), an insect of the order Hemoptera or the ‘true bugs’. It’s well known for it uses as a varnish for garden fences, paintings and musical instruments, but perhaps more surprising is the prevalence of edible shellac compounds in the pharmaceutical and food industries: it is found on medicinal capsules, in the wax of apples and lemons and on confectionery such as M&Ms. Used to limit water loss and prevent dessication, as well as to limit entry of pathogens, it is fairly obvious why this would be a good preservative for prepared anatomical specimens.

The interesting thing about this specimen is that it looks old and of its time – perhaps by using techniques mirroring those of the Ancient Egyptians, Ruysch ensured that an appearance of antiquity was an inevitable by-product. Medical students faced with a specimen such as this today possibly would not value its use as a teaching aid as much as they would have in those heady days of the 18^th and 19^th Centuries and would relegate it to the realms of ‘interesting’ and ‘unusual’ artwork but nothing more.

However that shouldn’t be the case – a study from 2011 was carried out to illustrate the use of shellac as a modern preservation method to replace the dangerous and carcinogenic formalin/formaldehyde which is currently used in dissection rooms. This study (Ref 2) has shown that shellac will preserve a new cadaver indefinitely in a way that is non-toxic, and said cadaver can also be placed into a softening room and in three days’ time be ready for student to use in their dissections. So it seems that an outdated yet beautiful specimen such as this can be used to inspire future generations of medical students and will also be a fascinating talking point on the ground floor of Barts Pathology Museum.

1) The Anatomical Preparations of Frederick Ruysch
2) Shellac: A Non-Toxic Preservative for Human EmbalmingTechniques

You can find out more about Barts Pathology Museum by clicking here. To can check out their new blog by clicking here. You can find out more about Carla Valentine by clicking here.

Image credits: Top image: Joanna Ebenstein; all other images of the specimen: Barts Pathology Museum, QMUL; portraits: wikimedia

Seoul, Korea

Hi all. My sincere apologies for falling behind on Morbid Anatomy. I am currently living in Seoul, Korea as part of the very generous Apex Art Outbound Residency Program (thanks, Josh Foer!), and one of the obligations of the residency is to blog about my experiences. Sadly, this had taken my focus off Morbid Anatomy a bit.

I promise to do my best over this next month in Korea to get some Morbid Anatomy reportage done; in the meantime, if you are curious about what I am finding in Seoul, you can check out my Apex Art blog here.

Thanks for your patience, and I will be back in full force in mid-September!

Welcome, Jim Edmonson and Dittrick Museum, to the Blogosphere!

Friend, friend-of-Morbid-Anatomy, and co-author of the award winning book Dissection James Edmonson has recently brought his museum--the Dittrick Museum of Medical History--into the blogosphere, and in grand style. In the blog's less than 1 month existence, Jim has already managed to produce a number of interesting posts brimming with intelligence, infectious enthusiasm, and lovely images. Welcome to the blogosphere, Jim and crew! Nice to have you here.

You can check out Dittrick Museum blog by clicking here. You can visit the Dittrick Museum website by clicking here its Facebook fan by clicking here.

The top image is, I believe, a plate from master midwife Madame du Coudray’s Abrégé de l'art des accouchements [Summary of the art of childbirth] (1769). Bottom image is of an amazing late 18th century obstetric manikin recently acquired by the Dittrick. Both images are from the Dittrick blog's latest post entitled "Rare 18th century obstetric manikin comes to the Dittrick," which you can read in its entirety by clicking here.

"Death Takes A Holiday," Osteo-Architecture Travel Blog

The Portuguese have a morbid fascination with bone chapels (perhaps we can coin the term “osteo-architecture”), there are probably more here per capita than anywhere in the world...

Thanks to Friend-of-Morbid-Anatomy Paul Rumsey for drawing my attention to the astounding photo collection and travel reportage of self-named "LuDwigg VaNn beethoVeen​" as showcased on his MySpace Blog entitled "Death Takes a Holiday" and committed--or so it seems--to visiting and documenting the finest necropoli, “osteo-architecture," and concentrations of mummies and religious waxworks in the entire world, including sites in Ecuador, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Newark, New Jersey.

The above sampling of images is just a tiny fraction of the many incredible images to be found on the blog. Please click on each one to see much larger and more detailed versions. To see many more astounding images and to find out more about these spectacular sites, visit his "Death Takes a Holiday" blog by clicking here. Thanks so much, Paul, for sending this amazing treasure trove along!

More Dery on Boing Boing, Crypt of the Capuchin Monks

Mark Dery has just uploaded his latest fascinating Boing Boing guest-post which examines and riffs on the crypt of the Capuchin monks in Rome. His post begins "In the dream life of 18th and 19th Europe, Italy and the Gothic were conjoined twins..." And trust me--it just gets better from there.

Click here to view the entire post. More on Dery's guest-blogging stint here .

Mark Dery, Guest Blogging on Boing Boing, Parses the Pathological Sublime

If you have not already done so, do hop over to Boing Boing to check out author and cultural critic Mark Dery--who you might recall from this previous post--as he guest posts on the blog about his Italian Grand Tour of the Pathological Sublime. My favorite entry thus far is called "A Young Person's Guide to the Pathological Sublime" and touches on--among other things--the Lam Qua paintings (see above, from post), Mütter Museum photography, and the fine flickering line at the edge of spectacle and edification. Not to be missed!

Click here to visit the post. You can view the complete Yale Lam Qua collection, commissioned by Peter Parker (but not that Peter Parker!), by clicking here.

Mrs Bennett: Before and After, From the Wellcome Library

Above is a wonderful series of pathological portraits plucked from the Wellcome Library's extensive "Gentlefolk of Leeds Afflicted with Disease" Collection, (sic) and featured on the Wellcome Library Blog today. The portraits, both from around 1820, depict a Mrs. Bennett before-and-after undergoing a skin disease cure. The first portrait, showing her in the full subjection to her disease, is entitled, eloquently, "Mrs Bennett. Disease from 1818 to 1821". The second portrait, showcasing her complete recovery, is entitled, with equal flair, "Under Cure From 1818 to 1821."

See full story by clicking here. You can peruse the whole fascinating Wellcome Library Blog by clicking here. More on the fantastic, amazing, utterly entralling Wellcome Collection in these recent posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

New Wellcome Library Blog

It just came to my attention that the Wellcome Library has launched a blog! Here you will find interesting posts on topical matters relating to Wellcome concerns, descriptions of upcoming events and new publications, job opportunities, and links to wonderful Wellcome features such as the Wellcome Images database, from which the above image is drawn. I am looking forward to seeing how this blog develops in future months; judging from past work from the organization, its sure to be interesting.

You can visit the blog here. For recent Morbid Anatomy posts about the Wellcome, click here.

Image Credit: In a room filled with skulls of the famous, the phrenologist Gall examines Pitt the Younger and Gustavus IV, the King of Sweden, both currently plagued by Napoléon. Coloured etching, 1806. Wellcome Library, London

"A Repository for Bottled Monsters" Weblog, 2008

If you have not already found your way over, I highly recommend you visit The National Museum of Health and Medicine's new (and picturesquely titled) blog "A Repository for Bottled Monsters." However did they come up with that name, you may ask? From the website:

It's historical. I found it in a quote from one of the former curators... He closed with the complaint, "We still suffer under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public, but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General."

Visit the blog to read the complete quote, as well as postings on WWII Venereal Diseases, book and museum reviews, news on upcoming exhibitions, and much more. Also, don't forget to visit (and revisit!) their Flickr pages, which are updated daily and contain an amazing number of wonder-inducing images, complete with informative captions. You can find them here, here, and here.

All above images from "Bottled Monsters" and NMHM's Flickr pages.