Category Archives: Anatomy

It is easy to miss these four little brooches, tucked away as they are in the far corner of Medicine Man alongside Egyptian canopic jars, mortuary crosses and even a shrunken head. But these examples of European mourning jewellery demonstrate an ambiguity at the heart of Henry Wellcome’s collection – the potential for the human subject to become material object after death.

Medicine Man is full of curios serving as literal or metaphorical extensions of the human body, and, like most medical collections, also features artefacts formerly part of the body itself. These brooches are no exception, each containing samples of human hair, neatly arranged and set behind glass.

Hair is certainly a material that occupies the narrow ground between person and thing – in life as much as death. Although it is ‘dead’ matter (as only the follicle contains living cells), once separated from the body, our hair is capable of outlasting us. These qualities of durability, alongside the fact that it is easily removed from the body and can be manipulated into almost any shape, led to the widespread use of hair in the 18th and 19th centuries as a tangible way to remember an absent loved one. Encased in a locket, ring or brooch, a lock of hair stood in for the recently departed, whose memory, it was hoped, would endure for as long as the jewellery itself.

But detached hair, alienated from its natural location on the body, can also provoke disgust – a reaction any of us who have found a stray hair in our food can identify with. The anthropologist Mary Douglas proposed that any ‘matter out of place’, including hair, becomes dirt, posing the threat of chaos and disorder unless carefully gathered and contained (1966)...

Read the full story from which the above image and text are excerpted on the Wellcome Collection blog by clicking here.

Image: Mourning brooches containing the hair of a deceased relative. Wellcome Images

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This Thursday at Observatory! Hope very much to see you there,.

The Empire of Death: Spectacular Ossuaries and Relics in the 16th and 17th Centuries
Lecture and book signing with Dr. Paul Koudounaris, author of The Empire of Death
Date: This Thursday, October 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Atlas Obscura
** Books will be available for sale and signing

For five years, Dr. Paul Koudounaris has traveled the world to document a largely overlooked history: the decoration of religious shrines with human bones and remains in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His newly published book The Empire of Death (Thames and Hudson) presents a collection of Koudounaris' photographs and texts chronicling these incredible sites, many of which are not open to the public and have never before been photographed.

The research for this unique book took the author to over 70 preserved charnel houses and skeletal shrines on four continents to document the once common use of human remains for the veneration of the dead in Christian culture. Among other tribulations, in the course of completing his research, the author was pursued by malevolent spirits, handcuffed to a table in a striptease bar by a prurient monk, forced to undergo a religious pilgrimage and exorcism, and arrested by the Austrian police.

Tonight, join Dr. Koudounarishis for an illustrated talk in which he will provide historical insights into the sites and people who created these marvelous objects and spaces, a discussion of the veneration of the dead in Christian culture, and fantastical travel anecdotes, all illustrated by his breathtaking photographs of these unforgettable artifacts.

Paul Koudounaris received a PhD in Art History from UCLA in 2006, which a specialty in the Baroque. He has taught at major universities in the Los Angeles area, and has written for dozens of magazines and newspapers in several countries, specializing in articles about veneration of the dead.

You can find out more--and get directions to Observatory--by clicking here. To find out more about the beautifully designed and richly illustrated book--and order a copy for yourself!--click here.

All Photo: © Dr. Paul Koudounaris, from his book The Empire of Death

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http://www.AskTheBuilder.com host Tim Carter explains the anatomy of a septic system and walks you through each part of septic systems.

Read the original here:
Septic System Anatomy - Video

This lecture covers basic eye anatomy. This is the first 6 minutes of the powerpoint, which can be viewed in its entirety at Ophthobook.com Here we discuss eyelid and external eye structures.

See the article here:
Ophthalmology Lecture - Eye Anatomy Part 1

Dream Anatomy from Owen D. Young, Jr. on Vimeo.

An inside look at the National Library of Medicine’s Dream Anatomy exhibit detailing the history of art and medicine.

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The work of Warsaw-based artist, Aleksandra Waliszewska is slightly creepy if not highly intriguing, like a bad dream, you yearn to know the meaning behind the twisted visions.

View more of Aleksandra’s work on her blog and Flickr.

[spotted by an anonymous reader]

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