The art of medical illustration probably reached its zenith with the 11-volume compendium by Bourgery, Claude Bernard, and N.H. Jacob written between 1866 and 1871. The colored illustrations of anatomy and surgery in Traite Complet de L'Anatomie de L'Homme are unsurpassed!
Chapter 1. Anatomy
"...and though you should have love for such things you may perhaps be deterred by natural repugnance, and if this does not prevent you, you may perhaps be deterred by fear of passing the night hours in the company of these corpses, quartered and flayed and horrible to behold..."
— Leonardo da Vinci (ca 1500)
Topics covered in this chapter include:
- Medical Illustration
- Renaissance Art
- The First Modern Medical Classic
- A Missed Opportunity
- Looking for a Subject and a Purpose
- Medicine Becomes a Science
- Art and Physiology
- A Seventeenth Century Controversy
- Structure and Function
- Wonderful Medical Art
- Anatomic Models
- At the Dissecting Table
- Postmortem Instruments
- Microscopic Anatomy
- Embalming