Medical Anatomy: Or, Illustrations of the Relative Position and Movements of the Internal Organs

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This beautiful anatomy book depicts the internal organs within the frame of the male and female torso seen from front and back. Physician Francis Sibson (1814-1876) had a taste for fine art, especially the British sculptor and draughtsman John Flaxman (1755-1826), and he clearly wanted his work to look highly finished. The artist for several of the plates was William Fairland, brother of the better-known artist Thomas Fairland. Fairland created coloured drawings and the lithographs for plates 1 to 19, which were mostly printed by Charles Hullmandel (1789-1850), a London lithographer. Plates 20 and 21 were lithographed by J. B. Lveill. This book is an example of how anatomical illustrations aspired to the status of works of art through the drawing and engraving techniques used and the way the image was portrayed. Sibson believed that anatomy was not being properly taught because the functional aspect of the organs, particularly those of circulation and respiration, was being neglected. In his explanation for Pl. I, Sibson writes that he took the outlines of the organs using a transparent tracing frame. From these outlines, Fairland created his artwork. Plates 19 through 21 show movements, structure and sounds of the heart. The work includes descriptions of "Sibson's fascia" and "Sibson's muscle". Bedford 855. Garison-Morton 422. Show more