Scientific Illustration

biomedicalephemera:

Cavia porcellus - The Guinea Pig

Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs. Alfred Edmund Brehm, 1900.

biomedicalephemera:

Embryo of Neomeris, showing dorsal plates [now Neophocaena spp - the Black Finless Porpoise]

These “plates” develop into dermal ossicles (small bony skin concretions) as the embryo develops. These ossicles are similar to the skin of reptiles, and are rare in mammals, as fur cannot grow from them, and fur is the primary dermal protection in most mammals. The giant ground sloths had them on their stomachs, though, and this would have prevented the pointy sticks and thorns of plants from injuring them, as they ate the fruits and nuts from high in trees.

Cetaceans tend to have dermal ossicles on their easily-injured extremities, such as their dorsal and pectoral fins. In the Black Finless Porpoise, the dorsal fin is absent, but the dermal ossicles still remain.

A Book of Whales. F. E. Beddard, 1900.

biomedicalephemera:

Visceral Hemorrhage in Newborn

This can be caused by trauma during birth, such as if the infant gets stuck and needs to be extracted with forceps. If you look at the liver (lowermost organ), you can see the necrotic tissue on the right-hand side. You can also see necrosis within the kidney cross-section, spreading from the renal pelvis.

An American Text-Book of the Diseases of Children. Louis Starr, 1900.

biomedicalephemera:

Porpoise fetus, baleen whale (Balaenoptera musculus, the Blue Whale) pectoral fin (analogous to hand structure), toothed whale (Beluga) pectoral fin.

A Book of Whales. F. A. Goddard, 1900.