Tag: Fall 2019
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Children at play in the East London Hospital for Children
The first hospital for children in London was established with ten beds in 1866 during a terrible cholera epidemic. It relied entirely on charity, was enlarged in 1875 and subsequently expanded, merged, and incorporated into larger facilities until it was closed after the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948. At the time it…
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Sydney clinic
In the Australian state of New South Wales, a system of medical inspection of schoolchildren was organized in 1913 and arrangements were made to examine each child at least twice during their periods of school attendance, which was compulsory between the ages of seven and fourteen years. The inspections were conducted by a staff of…
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The wax models of Clemente Susini (1752–1814)
Clemente Susini is remembered for creating what is probably the most extensive collection of anatomical wax works in the world. He first studied sculpture in Florence, but in 1773 became an apprentice there at the museum of natural history in a workshop recently established to produce wax models for teaching anatomy. Within a few years…
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Fleas in art and medicine
Fleas cause itching and red bite marks on their hosts but are nowadays mainly a nuisance. This was not always so. In the Middle Ages they spread bubonic plague from rats to man, causing the Black Death epidemics that killed 25 million people—up to 50% of the Europe’s population. They also transmit the agents causing…
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Opening the left ventricle
This image is from Henry W. Cattell’s 1905 Post-mortem pathology; a manual of post-mortem examinations and the interpretations to be drawn therefrom; a practical treatise for students and practioners. It shows the approach for opening the left ventricle after the heart is removed from the body. Highlighted Vignette Volume 12, Issue 4 – Fall 2020…
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Four Women Dancing
The urge to move to music is universal. Dancing represents an essential part of human culture, and acts as a social unifier, increasing cohesion in a group. Collective effervescence, a concept created by sociologist Émile Durkheim, is what sits at the heart of dancing and gives it its unifying power. A more unified community is…
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Sawing to the bone
This illustration, believed to be the frontispiece of one of the surgical texts by Walter Hermann Ryff, is perhaps one of the more realistic for its time. During this era, anatomical and medical texts tended to be fairly bloodless, portraying flayed human beings in states of repose. Here instead we see a leg amputation with…
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Up to date orthopedics
This image of how to treat fractures of the elbow was published in Industrial medicine and surgery in 1919. The arm is held with the elbow fully flexed, and motion under supervision is encouraged after about five days. Currently these fractures are treated similarly, but there is a tendency to have a different degree of…
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Painting an honest image
Rachel FleishmanPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States I send my colleague home to kiss her children, then go to the nursery to meet my patient. The obstetrician shows me the newborn’s penis; it will not stop bleeding. Together, we wrap it with a special gauze. Surgicel. The bandage turns a dark black, adhering to the bloody ridge…