Explanations from the Scientific American Supplement, No. 598, June 18, 1887:

“We reproduce the picture of Mr. Andre Brouillet, which was in the Salon of 1887; and that the subject may be better understood, we give the accompanying sketch and description. This picture is very interesting, not only from an artistic point of view, but also as a representation of students and spectators of all ages admirably grouped around a great master of science when most interested in his work. We borrow from Matin-Salon Mr. Goetschy’s explanation of the picture:

“The hall in which the lesson is given is lighted by two large windows opening on one of the courts of the hospital. The Professor stands at the right of the picture, his head uncovered, one hand close to his body and the other extended slightly in a gesture which is familiar to him, his audience being before him. At his side is Mr. Babinski, chief of the clinic, supporting a person afflicted with hysteria. Near the latter stands a nurse and assistant who watches every movement of the patient. This is Mother Bottard, a good, intelligent, and devoted woman, who is well known to all those present.

“The auditors have arranged themselves at the students’ tables, some seated on the chairs and stools which furnish the room, and others standing, but all following closely the teaching of the master, and at the same time watching the subject. The picture is full of life and motion, and yet is very exact. The head and shoulders of the subject are beautifully and correctly drawn. The artist has brought together many men who are well known in literature and science.”—Le Monde Illustre.

Previously on Skandalon : Jean-Martin Charcot

“This lithograph, from the sixth edition of Maygrier’s Midwifery Illustrated, shows the accoucheur determining the state of pregnancy by what we would now call digital examination, but what was known then by the suitably understated term “touching the female.” Maygrier’s work, published in the early days of obstetrics when male physicians were vying with female midwives over (at least the institutional) the control of childbirth, illustrates the problematic situation early obstetricians were faced with. The idea was that the male physician could put his fingers wherever he wanted, but common decency in post-Empire France (or mid 19th-century America, for that matter) prevented him from actually looking.”

Check the whole blog entry for more plates and much more explanation. All of the plates are online at the BNF’s Gallica digital library.

About the book:

“Burns is an ophthamlic surgeon, but his true passion is vintage photography. He has assembled a collection of more than half a million images and has authored or coauthored works on memorial photography, medical photography, and hand-colored daguerreotypes. Here he presents 127 images in as many pages and then another 50 or so pages of notes, providing specifics of the photographs and extensive discussion of the condition or medical practices shown. More than a few gruesome images are included, though the warm tones of the printing and the antique dress have an anesthetizing effect on the viewer. There are also a good number of images depicting obsolete mid-19th-century practices. The chronological arrangement does impart a sense of progress as we move from images of horrible deformity through pictures of amputation during the Civil War to photos of reparative surgery following World War I. This stunning documentation of a world-class collection belongs not only where there is an interest in the history of photography but also in medical teaching and history collections.” (Amazon)

“This manipulated photo shows the effects of sunlight on the health of the body.”

Wikimedia Commons: “Studies of Embryos” by Leonardo da Vinci (Pen over red chalk 1510-1513).

From The National Library of Medicine’s Dream Anatomy exhibit.