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Man, says science, is simply a highly developed cat (New York Journal, 1898)
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Earnst Haeckel’s Christmas Cards
All the sweet things that the squiddies,
Twittering in the dewy spray,
Wish each other in the springtime,
I wish you this happy day.Marine themed Christmas cards from Earnst Haeckel, the eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny, stem cell, and the kingdom Protista. [Wikipedia]
Advent Calendar of Oddments 2012: December 16th
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![theoddmentemporium:
Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead
In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named after the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 18th century. When Galvani was doing some dissection work in his lab, his scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog’s leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. [Source]
Two decades later, Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the process one step further when he applied it to the corpses of humans. In 1803 he performed experiments in public on the severed heads of ‘malefactors,’ despatched in Bologna and London. The following accounts demonstrate what was witnessed:
“George Forster was hung … at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.”
“[The galvanic] stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand.”
There is much speculation that Aldini’s experiments were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdwldduVf41rnseozo1_500.jpg)
Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead
In biology, galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. The effect was named after the scientist Luigi Galvani, who investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 18th century. When Galvani was doing some dissection work in his lab, his scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog’s leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a distinct form of electricity. [Source]
Two decades later, Galvani’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the process one step further when he applied it to the corpses of humans. In 1803 he performed experiments in public on the severed heads of ‘malefactors,’ despatched in Bologna and London. The following accounts demonstrate what was witnessed:
“George Forster was hung … at Newgate Prison, for the drowning of his wife and youngest child in the Paddington Canal. After hanging for an hour in sub-zero temperatures, Aldini procured the body and began his galvanic experiments. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons’ Company, who was officially present during this experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his return home.”
“[The galvanic] stimulus produced the most horrible contortions and grimaces by the motions of the muscles of the head and face; and an hour and a quarter after death, the arm of one of the bodies was elevated eight inches from the table on which it was supported, and this even when a considerable weight was placed in the hand.”
There is much speculation that Aldini’s experiments were the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
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I have no idea what is going on here, who illustrated this, what text it’s from and what it’s publication date is. Enlighten me?
“Original drawing by Clarice Ashworth Francone. Francone, medical illustrator at UOMS, spent her second year of medical illustration study at Johns Hopkins University, training under Max Bröedel, the father of medical illustration, before coming to Oregon.”
http://www.ohsu.edu/library/hom/exhibits/200706_anatomy.shtml
(Source found via Google Search by Image)
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Wait. So language is in your eye bags?
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Posted on July 12, 2012 via SKunQ with 266 notes
Source: skunkasaurus
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From ‘Insecten-Belustigung’ (Insect Amusements) by AJ Rösel von Rosenhof. The books were released in installments between 1746 and 1761.
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Bonus - Drosera Capensis
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Posted on October 17, 2011 via Ghost in the Stacks with 114 notes
Source: ivynoelle
