On Not Hurting Your Kids' Balls

"These days, the newer the baby, the more likely we are to carry it. (For good reason.) But the ancient Greek physician Soranus thought that babies, especially boys, should not be carrieduntil four months of age. Carrying posed the risk of severe testicular injury, Soranus thought. Today we worry about raising children who aren’t well-adjusted; the Greeks worried about raising children who weren’t eunuchs. This bias against carrying held through medieval times, apparently."

from Slate

Antique Breast Pump

Thanks to DCK for letting me see it and SS for the photos!

Hayy ibn Yaqzan and Knowing Through Dissection

The story, written by Abu Bakr ibn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Tufayl, begins with Hayy ibn Yaqzan. He was abandoned on an island and was essentially raised by a doe. He had to learn about the world through observation. When his doe-mother died, he sought to find out how to make her live again. It did not work, but he learned about the body:

§ 16

Notwithstanding this she grew lean and weak, and continued a while in a languishing condition, till at last she dyed, and then all her motions and actions ceased. When the boy perceived her in this condition, he was ready to dye for grief. He called her with the same voice which she used to answer to, and made what noise he could, but there was no motion, no alteration. Then he began to peep into her ears and eyes, but could perceive no visible defect in either; in like manner he examined all the parts of her Body, and found nothing amiss, but every thing as it should be. He had a vehement desire to find that part where the defect was, that he might remove it, and she return to her former state. But he was altogether at a loss how to compass his design, nor could he possibly bring it about.

§ 17

That which put him upon this search, was what he had observed in himself. He had noticed that when he shut his eyes, or held anything before them, he could see nothing at all, till that obstacle was removed; and so when he put his fingers into his ears, that he could not hear, till he took them out again; and when he closed his nostrils together, he smelt nothing till they were opened; from whence he concluded that all his perceptive and active faculties were liable to impediments, upon the removal of which, their operations returned to their former course. Therefore, when he had examined every external part of her, and found no visible defect and yet at the same time perceived an universal cessation of motion in the whole body, not peculiar to one member but common to them all, he began to imagine that the hurt was in some organ which was remote from the sight and hidden in the inward part of the body; and that this organ was of such nature and use, that without its help, none of the other external organs could exercise their proper functions; and that if this organ suffer any hurt, the damage was general, and a cessation of the whole ensued.

§ 18

18 This made him very desirous to find that organ if possible, that he might remove the defect from it, that so it might be as it used to be, and the whole body might enjoy the benefit of it, and the functions return to their former course. He had before observed, in the bodies of wild beasts and other animals, that all their members were solid, and that there were only three cavities, vizthe skull, the breast, and the belly; he imagined therefore that this organ which he wanted must needs be in one of these cavities, and above all, he had a strong persuasion that it was in the middlemost of them. For he verily believed that all the members stood in need of this organ, and that from thence it must necessarily follow that the seat of it must be in the centre. And when he reflected upon his own body, he felt the presence of such an organ in his breast. Now since he was able to hinder the action of all his other organs, such as hands, feet, ears, nose and eyes, and deprive himself of it, he conceived that it might be possible to subsist without them; but when he considered this organ within his breast he could not conceive the possibility of subsisting without it, so much as the twinkling of an eye. And upon this account, whenever he fought with any wild beast, he always took particular care to protect his breast from being pierced by its horns, because of the apprehension which he had of that organ which was contained in it.

§ 19

Having, by this way of reasoning, assured himself that the disaffected organ lay in the breast; he was resolved to make a search in order to examine it, that whatsoever the impediment was, he might remove it if possible; but then again, he was afraid on the other side, lest his undertaking should be worse than the disease, and prove prejudicial. He began to consider next, whether or no he had ever remembered any wild beasts or other animals which he had seen in that condition, recover again, and return to the same state which they were in before, but he could call to mind no such instance; from whence he concluded that if she was let alone there would be no hopes at all, but if he should be so fortunate as to find that organ and remove the impediment, there might be some hope. Upon this he resolved to open her breast and make enquiry; in order to which he provided himself with fragments of flint, and splinters of dry cane almost like knives, with which he made an incision between the ribs, and cutting through the flesh, came to the diaphragma; which he finding very tough, assured himself that such a covering must needs belong to that organ which he looked for, and that if he could once get through that, he should find it. He met with some difficulty in his work, because his instruments were none of the best, for he had none but such as were made either of flint or cane.

§ 20

However, he sharpened them again and renewed his attempt with all the skill he was master of. At last he broke through, and the first part he met with was the lungs, which he at first sight mistook for that which he searched for, and turned them about this way and that way to see if he could find in them the seat of the disease. He first happened upon that lobe which lay next the side which he had opened and when he perceived that it did lean sideways, he was satisfied that it was not the organ he looked for, because he was fully persuaded that that must needs be in the midst of the body, as well in regard of latitude as longitude. He proceeded in his search, till at last he found the heart, which when he saw closed with a very strong cover, and fastened with stout ligaments, and covered by the lungs on that side which he had opened, he began to say to himself: "If this organ be so on the other side as it is on this which I have opened, then it is certainly in the midst, and without doubt the same I look for; especially considering the convenience of the situation, the comeliness and regularity of its figure, the firmness of the flesh, and besides, its being guarded with such a membrane as I have not observed in any other part." Upon this he searches the other side, and finding the same membrane on the inside of the ribs, and the lungs in the same posture which he had observed on that side which he had opened first, he concluded this organ to be the part which he looked for.

§ 21

Therefore he first attacks the pericardium, which, after a long trial and a great deal of pains, he made shift to tear; and when he had laid the heart bare, and perceived that it was solid on every side, he began to examine it, to see if he could find any apparent hurt in it; but finding none, he squeezed it with his hand, and perceived that it was hollow. He began then to think that what he looked for might possibly be contained in that cavity. When he came to open it, he found in it two cavities, one on the right side, the other on the left. That on the right side was full of clotted blood, that on the left quite empty. "Then (says he) without all doubt, one of those two cavities must needs be the receptacle of what I look for; as for that on this right side there’s nothing in it but congealed blood, which was not so, be sure, till the whole body was in that condition in which it now is" (for he had observed that all blood congeals when it flows from the body). "This blood does not differ in the least from any other; and I find it common to all the organs. What I look for cannot by any means be such a matter as this; for that which I seek is something which is peculiar to this place, which I find I could not subsist without, so much as the twinkling of an eye. And this is that which I looked for at first. As for this blood, how often have I lost a great deal of it in my skirmishes with the wild beasts, and yet it never did me any considerable harm, nor rendered me incapable of performing any action of life, and therefore what I look for is not in this cavity. Now as for the cavity on the left side, I find it is altogether empty, and I have no reason in the world to think that it was made in vain, because I find every organ appointed for such and such particular functions. How then can this ventricle of the heart, which I see is of so excellent a frame, serve for no use at all? I cannot think but that the same thing which I am in search of, once dwelt here, but has now deserted his habitation and left it empty, and that the absence of that thing has occasioned this privation of sense and cessation of motion which happened to the body." Now when he perceived that the being which had inhabited there before had left its house before it fell to ruin, and forsaken it when as yet it continued whole and entire, he concluded that it was highly probable that it would never return to it any more, after its being so cut and mangled.

§ 22

Upon this the whole body seemed to him a very inconsiderable thing, and worth nothing in respect of that being he believed once inhabited, and now had left it. Therefore he applied himself wholly to the consideration of that being. What it was and how it subsisted? What joined it to this body? Whither it went, and by what passage, when it left the body? What was the cause of its departure, whether it were forced to leave its mansion, or left the body of its own accord? And in case it went away voluntarily, what it was that rendered the body so disagreeable to it, as to make it forsake it? And whilst he was perplexed with such variety of thoughts, he laid aside all concern for the carcass, and banished it from his mind; for now he perceived that his mother, which had nursed him so tenderly and had suckled him, was that something which was departed; and from it proceeded all her actions, and not from this inactive body; but that all this body was to it only as an instrument, like his cudgel which he had made for himself, with which he used to fight with the wild beasts. So that now, all his regard to the body was removed, and transferred to that by which the body is governed, and by whose power it moves. Nor had he any other desire but to make enquiry after that.

Image and Translation from ERBzine

Information mentioned here and other translated text can also be found in Robert Irwin, Night Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature (The Penguin Press): 290-298.

Exhibition by the US Holocaust Museum

For more, see The Exhibition Page

Mummies for Eating and More!

A fascinating post on Early Modern Drugs and Medicinal Cannibalism at Res Obscura

True Facts About the Dung Beetle

Thanks to AK, NS, and BM

Bodleian Library Publications of Yore

Art of Danny Quirk

From The Huffington Post

And similar to the "flayed angel" of Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty:

From Historical Anatomies on the Web

On Wet Specimens

A Bat in a Jar – Wet Specimen and the History of the Curiosity Cabinet 

– By: Elke Weesjes

"How to Give Birth to a Rabbit"

from The Awl

St. Patty's Day Story on Collecting

"History Evergreen" tells the story of a man fascinated by Irish history and collecting.

1916 Easter Proclamation declaring Ireland an independent state.

"[A] new figure of Anatomy, which represents a woman chained down upon a table, suppos'd opened alive; wherein the circulation of the blood is made visible through glass veins and arteries: the circulation is also seen from the mother to the child, and from the child to the mother, with the Histolick and Diastolick motion of the hears and action of the lungs. All which particulars, with several others, will be shewn and clearly explained by [the surgeon] Mr. Chovet himself. Note, a Gentlewoman qualified will attend the ladies."

--From the London Evening Post, 27 December 1733, quoted in George C. Peachey, A Memoir of William and John Hunter (William Brendan, 1924), p. 30 and requoted in Lyle Massey, "“On Waxes and Wombs: Eighteenth-Century Representations of the Gravid Uterus,” in Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture and the Human Figure, ed., Roberta Panzanella (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2008), p. 98.

From the Public Domain Review

A story on CORPSE WATER.

"In the Interests of Science"

From The Huntington Art Collections

Sunday Antiquing

"In 1592, a British ship sank near the island of Alderney in the English Channel carrying an odd piece of cargo: a small, angular crystal....Once it was brought back to land, a few European scientists began to suspect the mysterious object might be a calcite crystal, which they believe Vikings and other European seafarers used to navigate before the introduction of the magnetic compass." 

For more, see ScienceShot

On the Valkyrie: With a Looney Tunes Review

So, there's some news on an actual depiction of a valkyrie at the British Museum

But most of us don't know much about valkyries beyond Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries and, of course, it's famous Elmer Fudd cover (and perhaps that mention on 30 Rock)

{Bugs Bunny is possibly the best drag queen ever.}

BUT "The legends of the valkyries – the ominous companions of the god Odin who descend on battlefields to choose which warriors will die – have been among the most enduring in Scandinavian folklore and literature. Later images, often inspired by Wagner's music, tend to be romantic creatures with flowing locks and voluptuous bodies."

And from Wikipedia: "In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who decide which soldiers die in battle and which live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr), the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar. When the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens, and sometimes connected to swans or horses."

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

One of my favorite readings from Brit Lit was this wonderful satire by Swift, who proposes that we control the poor population by eating children.

Some quotes:

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”



"Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen."


"As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs."

For the full text, go HERE

And for a modern version:

 Thanks to MS!

Ancient Anatomy Specimen

 

 

See more HERE

Thanks JS!

"Describing my doctoral work can evoke the odd blush or chuckle. Such reactions are perhaps implicit to my research topic: genitalia in the 18th century."

For full article, see HERE

And for a song about genitals, below:

"When Pregnancy Tests Were Toads"

"As a young woman in the 1950s, Audrey Peattie injected urine into toads every day....Audrey’s job involved processing urine specimens for use in the Xenopus test, also called the ‘Hogben test’ in honour of one of its inventors, the British physiologist Lancelot Hogben. A hormone found in the urine of pregnant women – today known as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) – can induce the female Xenopus toad to lay hundreds of eggs. The Hogben test involved injecting a toad with urine and seeing whether it laid eggs (a positive reaction)."

From Wellcome History

From Fissell, Vernacular Bodies, OUP, 2003

The book also says that midwives used to cut the umbilical cord differently according to gender: short for girls and long for boys to make their "privie membres the longer"

Joel-Peter Witkin v. NIN reprise

While I'm posting about NIN, here's the music video for Closer based loosely on the photographs of Joel-Peter Witkin:

Nine Inch Nails - Closer (Director's Cut)

www.youtube.com

Music video by Nine Inch Nails performing Closer. (C) 1989 Interscope Records

• 
  
• 
  

  So someone made this video compilation of Witkin's images to make things right. Or something. 
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orKxP17Hs6U
  

  
  

  joel peter witkin

  
  

  arte

  
  

Famous Graves

From The Guardian

The curse of grave-robbers dates all the way from the pyramids to the “resurrectionists” who in the early 19th century would supply colleges training future surgeons with bodies for students to practise on by disturbing the recent dead. So much so that some cemeteries built watchtowers or offered “mortsafes”, lockable iron cages to place over graves (still to be seen in situ in some Scottish kirkyards). Others opted for a warning on the tombstone, as may be the case with Shakespeare’s grave, inside Holy Trinity Church Stratford-upon-Avon. His dates (1564-1616) are followed by a verse that ends: “Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he who moves my bones.”

Paper Anatomy

from HERE

Thanks JS!

Paolo Ventura, Automaton #06, 2010

Part of a current exhibition at the Italian Academy, Columbia University

A Hangman Talks Shop

From Slate's Vault

Coral Sex

Slate tells us How Corals Do It

Ivory

From the New York Times: 

Chinese investors have anointed it “white gold.” Carvers and collectors prefer the term “organic gemstone.” Smugglers, however, use a gruesomely straightforward name for the recently harvested African elephant tusks that find their way to this remote trading outpost on the Vietnamese border.“We call them bloody teeth,” said Xing, a furniture maker and ivory trafficker who is part of a shadowy trade that has revived calls for a total international ban on ivory sales.

Ivory is etched deeply into the Chinese identity. Popular lore tells of emperors who believed ivory chopsticks would change color upon contact with poisoned food. In Chinese medicine, ivory powder is said to purge toxins from the body and give a luminous complexion. As part of its public relations effort to legitimize the trade, the government in 2006 added ivory carving to its official Intangible Cultural Heritage register, along with traditional opera, kung fu and acupuncture."