Scientific Illustration

ofpaperandponies:

Also your balls shrivel up and die.

biomedicalephemera:

Cadaver of newborn infant submerged two weeks (top) and four weeks (bottom) in running freshwater

Long before there were large-scale body farms (most famously the UT-Knoxville Forensic Anthropology Center, aka “The Body Farm”) to systematically test and observe the effects of various conditions on deceased bodies found in nature (or, for that matter, in unnatural settings), forensic pathology pioneers would sometimes replicate outdoor conditions on cadavers that were found and considered unidentifiable, and learn how different conditions affected the rates and modes of decomposition.

This newborn was found two weeks after death (determined by the growth rate of local algaes at that time of year), but was left in place for two more weeks in order to provide accurate depiction of a body submerged for one month in cold running water.

Note the algae forming a mostly-uniform coat on the body, but amassing much larger growths in the curves and open spaces, such as behind the knee, and in the crook of the elbow. Though the skin eventually decomposes and obscures the natural angles of those regions, the algal blooms will obscure such angles much earlier on in the decomposition process. From afar, this can make the cadaver appear to have been deceased for much longer than it actually has been.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Lower esophagus, stomach, and duodenum of poisoning victims

- Top Left: Acute arsenical poisoning. Note the spots where the arsenic ate its way through the tough wall of the stomach.
- Top Right: Potassium-cyanide poisoning. Largely hemorrhagic, slimy, contracted stomach.
- Second Left: Poisoning with corrosive sublimate. Greyish-green stomach, with lack of bloodflow to local vessels.
- Second Right: Concentrated nitric acid poisoning. Extremely rigid, bright green esophagus, pharynx, stomach, and small intestine.
- Third Left: Acute carbolic acid poisoning.
- Third Right: Subacute carbolic acid poisoning. Note the extreme inflammation as opposed to contracted dead tissue, especially in the esophagus.
- Bottom Left: Dilute sulfuric acid poisoning.
- Bottom Right: Concentrated sulfuric acid poisoning. Note the appearance of the stomach in the dilute versus concentrated sulfuric acid. The author notes a “firm, cooked” appearance to the concentrated sulfuric acid poisoning, and you can observe the beginnings of that “cooked” appearance in the dilute sulfuric acid poisoning.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Top: Hand of a day-laborer who had been drowned 24 hours prior
Bottom: Hand of a drowned person submerged in running water for several weeks

The process of tissues decomposing and sloughing off in animals generally reaches its peak around three to four weeks, in a moderate climate. However, in running water, the washing away of the acids from the liquefied fats and proteins, and the lack of insect activity, can often significantly retard or alter the decomposition.

Because of this, it can often take several extra weeks for tissues submerged in running water to separate from the body, and when they do separate, they don’t so much slough off when their substrate is consumed, but “slip” off, often in large sheets. The dermis of the hand is well-connected to itself, but less well-connected to its substrate, and as such is often subject to a phenomenon called “gloving” - where the skin slips off in, you guessed it, a “glove”.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Lower extremity of newborn, under running water for several months - formation of “adipocere”

One of the most interesting things to find in a cadaver is when adipocere forms. This so-called “grave wax” shows that a body is at least several months old, as it takes a while for the biochemical reactions to take place that form this substance.

While most cadavers go through the full decomposition process and are rotted away by bacteria and other organisms, bodies that form adipocere begin a process of anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis at the start of the putrefaction stage of decomposition. As most of the proteins in the body are digested, the fat in the body racidifies, and instead of being digested with everything else, breaks down into glycerine, fatty solids (saturated fats), and fluid fatty acids (unsaturated fat). The glycerine and fluid fatty acids are washed away or dissolved, and the solid fat remains behind, forming a cast of the body.

Adipocere is white or gray, and very much like thick cottage cheese in its crumbly texture. It’s very hardy and preservative in quality, and cadavers over 700 years old have been found to have easily-discernible fine facial structures because of it. However, the formation of the substance requires very specific conditions to be met, the most important of which is a body with a relatively high fat content (though there are occasional exceptions). Because of this, infants, young women, and the obese are most likely to be found in this state.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Mummified cadaver of suicide by hanging

On the other end of the scale from that rapid putrefaction is mummification.

This cadaver is of a man who hanged himself in a dry, airy attic ten years before being found. His organs began to putrefy shortly after death, but as he disappeared (and likely hanged himself shortly after) in mid-November, the dry, cold, winter air halted to decomposition process. As he dessicated all winter long, the heat and insect activity of the following summers had little effect on his remains. Since the area he was found had little humidity during the summer, it appears that the heat hardened the remaining skin, and did not allow further decomposition as it would have when coupled with dampness.

Atlas of Legal Medicine. Dr. Eduard von Hofmann, 1898.

biomedicalephemera:

Megatherium americanum - The Giant Ground Sloth

The skeleton of Megatherium set up in the London Natural History Museum, and a depiction of a possibility of Megatherium behavior in life.

Though the population was already decreasing when the first humans arrived in South America, the disappearance of the Giant Sloth was helped along by the new immigrants. Using mammoth-hunting skills, this large and lumbering creature was an ideal kill for a human tribe. It was one of the many Pleistocene megafauna that went extinct during the Quaternary extinctions.

Extinct monsters. H. N. Hutchinson, 1896.

(via biomedicalephemera)

biomedicalephemera:

Anatomy of the coccyx and sacrum

In reference to this question, here is the anatomy of the coccyx and sacrum. As can be seen, the sacral portion of the spinal column is still significantly important, in terms of both structural importance and nervous integration/protection. However, the coccygeal spine does little more than anchor two pelvic muscle pairs, and a few ligaments.

In terms of “having a tail”, the closest humans tend to come to that is being born with a tiny, flesh-covered tail (when the coccyx is malformed), which is almost always removed straight after birth, or being born with spina bifida occulta, which can often present with a birthmark over the site of the malformed vertebrae, which has a tendency to grow hair. This hair has occasionally grown long enough to warrant a person inclusion in a “freak show” as a “tailed man/woman” in the recent past.

biomedicalephemera:

The Ornithorhynchus

This illustration makes me feel like I could train a platypus to beg for treats…they’d probably stab me with their venomous leg-spikes. Well, the males, at least. 

Types of Animal Life. St. George Mivart, 1893.

(via dendroica)

biomedicalephemera:

rhamphotheca:

Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

from A Hand-book to the Marsupialia and Monotremata (1896) by E. Lloyd

Don’t think I’ve ever posted this plate, but even if I have…PLATYPUS!