Picturing the body : five centuries of medical images an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold.

  • Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Date:
1993
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Picturing the body : five centuries of medical images an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/24 (page 18)
    Pages from Carl Ludwig, Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen. Heidelberg, 1852-56. In this work Ludwig set out his pioneering approach to physiology, which was based on precise, quantitative researches into isolated phenomena. Amongst other instru- ments, he invented the kymograph for recording variations in fluid pressure. From 1869 he also directed a physiological institute founded on his principles. Plate in Justus von Liebig, Chemische Briefe. Hamburg, 1913. First published in 1844, this work of Liebig's was a popularization of his discoveries that went through many editions. The thrust of his life's work was the application of chemical ideas and methods to the understanding of various life processes. At Giessen, where he was Professor of Chemistry for 28 years from 1824, he erected the basic workshop of his enterprise - a chemical laboratory. Photographs of laboratory. c. 1900. These particularly fine photographs are possibly of the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories in King Street, London. Housed initially at 42 Snow Hill, the Wellcome Laboratories moved to King Street in 1899. Photographs of laboratories in the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. [late nineteenth and early twentieth century]. Founded in 1891, the Lister Institute was for 20 years or more the most important medical research institution in the UK. Work there significantly contributed to many fields including bacteriology, immunology, biochemistry and medical statistics. It was also a pioneer in the development of many vaccines and sera. CMAC SA/LIS/R152-185 Pages from Augustus D. Waller, 'Introductory address on the electromotive properties of the human heart,' British Medical Journal, 2:751, 1888. This is one of the very early papers on the subject of electrocardiography. In it Waller described his experiments to produce transcriptions of the heart's electrical impulses using Gabriel Lippmann's electrometer. This new representation of the behaviour of the heart reflected the growing medical appetite for precisely expressed evidence in the form of graphs. Leo Schamroth, An introduction to electrocardiography. Johannesburg, 1957. The electrocardiograph, a machine that graphically tracks and records the electrical behaviour of the heart, was developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Initially only found in large hospitals and research laboratories, during the twentieth century it has become more and more widely used. Leo Schamroth's book attempted to be a clear and concise introduction to a subject often given to bewilderingly complicated forms of presentation.