This is the frontispiece of Vesalius’s 1555 work.
The coat of arms at the top features three weasels. The weasels are the insignia of the town of Wesel, where the Vesalius family lived.
Standing behind the dissected body, there is an articulated skeleton. This highlights Vesalius’s notion that the logical order of anatomical study was from the skeleton outwards.

The female cadaver is placed diagonally on the table so that there is room to show the various knives and a sponge used for dissection. Female cadavers were also hard to obtain so there is an element of bragging here by depicting one.

There are three robed figures (two on the left of the table, one almost hidden by the other, and the other on the right distracted by the dog) that surely represent Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen.

On the left hand-side of the dissected body stands Vesalius, who is looking straight at the ‘camera’. He has one hand on the corpse; the other points upwards, perhaps to the heavens.]]>
Andreas Vesalius]]> Books]]>
putti (cherubs) and other mythical creatures carrying out the background activities required for dissections, such as acquiring cadavers and preparing skeletons. In this ‘Q’ initial, the putti are dissecting the neck of a pig. This is possibly in reference to a famous demonstration by Galen (129-210) who cut the laryngeal nerve (which controls the vocal cords) of a pig, thereby causing it to no longer squeal. The Fabrica was much concerned with correcting Galen’s anatomical errors.]]> Andreas Vesalius]]> Books]]> Reinier de Graaf]]> Books]]> Santiago Ramón y Cajal]]> Books]]> Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, published in 1651, summarizes his work. In it, he discusses conception, embryogenesis, and spontaneous generation. In the frontispiece, we see Zeus opening an egg out of which everything springs: plants, fish, snakes, birds, as well as humans.]]> William Harvey]]> Books]]> Joseph Priestley]]> Books]]> Facial Surgery, much of which was based on his time at Sidcup, as surgeon in charge of the New Zealand section of Queen Mary’s Hospital. It is a valuable record of the early days of post-traumatic facial reconstructive surgery.’ Item chosen by Trish Leishman, Subject Librarian, Health Sciences, University of Otago]]> Henry Percy Pickerill]]> Books]]> Cesare Lombroso]]> Books]]> [Hippocrates]]]> Books]]> ___]]> ___]]> William Hunter]]> Books]]> Peter Henry Buck]]> Books]]> J. P. Maygrier]]> Books]]> Notomie is a copy of the seventh figure from Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica. The illustration top left is a dissected diaphragm with the two crural (leg-like in shape) attachments. The larger of the two holes is for the oesophagus and the smaller for the vena cava. However, they have been incorrectly transposed (the oesophagus should be on the left and vena cava on the right), as this and all the other illustrations in the work are mirror image copies of Vesalius’ originals. The ‘D.B.S.’ stands for Domenico Bonaveri Sculpsit. Bonaveri was the engraver.]]> Domenico Bonaveri]]> Books]]> The strong, energised, naturalistic poses of the men figured in the drawings have come from cadavers. There is a compelling and disturbing juxtaposition of gross detail and energy, even in the way the skeleton crosses its legs. The most disturbing image within is the engraving of the body of a man suspended from the gallows. It’s a gruesome and fascinating book.’ ]]> Domenico Bonaveri]]> Books]]> John Hunter]]> Books]]> Osteographia (1733). Most of the engravings in the volume are quirky. Various animal skeletons are depicted in addition to the human ones. There is no doubt that the engravings are beautifully executed, and the book was large and expensive, with little explanatory text, which suggests that its target was the wealthy ‘general reader’.]]> William Cheselden]]> Books]]> Pharmacopoeia.]]> William Salmon]]> Books]]> New Zealand Dental Journal. He is a Life member of the Dental Association. The portrait of Pickerill that graces the cover of Brown's volume was executed by New Zealand artist Lois White (1903-84) in 1956.]]> Harvey Brown]]> Book covers]]> Catoptrum microcosmicum, published in 1619. This scarce Dutch edition of his Pinax Microcosmographicus, printed in 1667, offers engravings of two anatomical figures and their veins, and male and female figures that could well be termed ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’. The drawings done by Remmelin were rendered into engravings by the Augsburg artist Lucas Kilian (1579-1637).]]> Johann Remmelin]]> Books]]> Pinax Microcosmographicus - a flap book.]]> Johann Remmelin]]> Books]]> Pinax Microcosmographicus - a flap book.]]> Johann Remmelin]]> Books]]> Pinax Microcosmographicus - a flap book.]]> Johann Remmelin]]> Books]]> Robert Liston]]> Books]]> R.S. Croxson and M.D. Goddard]]> Dissertations]]>