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Under Your Skin: the Anatomy Artwork of H.V. Carter

The history of Gray’s Anatomy is well known, but it's brilliant illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter, is frequently it's "unsung hero." Though working tirelessly on the book that would go on to be the single most important textbook for anatomy and medical students, his contribution was "torpedoed" by Henry Gray, and he sunk into obscurity. What remains are the images, displayed here, from the Dittrick Museum's 1859 edition. There were two authors, of Gray's Anatomy, not one. However, as Druin Burch explains, Henry Vandyke Carter "regarded himself, sometimes with a little help from Gray, as belonging to a lower 'genus'...

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What do Medical Museums *Really* have to Offer?

Sometimes it is important not to let objects speak for themselves. The Dittrick Medical History Center has the most extensive collection of 19th and early 20th century surgical instruments in the United States, the largest collection of historic contraceptives in the world, and the most comprehensive gallery of diagnostic instruments (like the earliest stethoscopes!) in North America. We also boast fascinating material on the history of birth, the history of anesthesia, the history of hospital care, WWI medicine, forensics, and much more. But objects and artifacts, as amazing as they are, don't tell the whole story. Museums--and medical museums in...

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Deadly Diphtheria: the children's plague

Diphtheria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae), an acute bacterial infection spread by personal contact, was the most feared of all childhood diseases. Diphtheria may be documented back to ancient Egypt and Greece, but severe recurring outbreaks begin only after 1700. One of every ten children infected died from this disease. Symptoms ranged from severe sore throat to suffocation due to a 'false membrane' covering the larynx. The disease primarily affected children under the age of 5. Until treatment became widely available in the 1920s, the public viewed this disease as a death sentence. In the 1880s Dr. Joseph O’Dwyer, a Cleveland native, developed...

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Murder and Mayhem: Mathieu Orfila and the Lafarge Trial

Who was Mathieu Orfila? In 1840, Mathieu Orfila, was summoned to the Lafarge murder trial in Paris. The Marsh test had proven inconclusive due to improper handling, and prosecution sought an expert. What made Orfila different? His methods. Piece by piece, he put the case together, eliminating all other possibilities. Orfila is also credited as one of the first to use a microscope to assess stains of blood and bodily fluids. His work refined forensics as a science. Patient and meticulous, Orfila worked to make chemical analysis part of forensic medicine. He also made careful studies of asphyxiation, the decomposition of...

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