Dissecting the History of Anatomy in the Third Reich

This paper is a personal narrative of involvement with the revelations of the use of anatomical and pathological specimens of victims of Nazi terror. The narrative documents responses to the question of the retention and use of anatomical and pathological specimens from victims of Nazi terror by leading academic and scientific institutions and organizations in Germany and Austria including the government of the Federal Republic of (West) Germany, the University of Tübingen, the University of Vienna, the Max Planck Society and the Anatomische Gesellschaft. It begins with the public revelations of 1989 and concludes with the September 2010 Symposium on the History of Anatomy during the Third Reich at the University of Würzburg. The narrative documents a 22-year transition in attitude and responses to the investigation and documentation of the history of anatomy and pathology during the Third Reich. The chronicle includes the 1989 proposed “Call for an International Commemoration” by the author, together with the bioethicist Professor Arthur Caplan, on the occasion of the planned burial of the misbegotten specimens and the responses to that proposal. Originally published in Annals of Anatomy Vol. 194, No. 3, 2012© 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Image credit: Table of Contents image provided by the Medical University of Vienna, MUW-AD-003250-5-ABB-90

Bastidores da anatomia: da história à essência humana

INTRODUCTION: The history of Anatomy, its artistic representation and the history of the human body, with its taboos, have come a long way until the present moment. The objective of this work is to understand the historical points of this area of knowledge, as well as the subjectivity involved, correlating it with Literature and the Arts. DEVELOPMENT: The production of anatomical knowledge begins in prehistory; it is watertight in the Middle Ages; gains momentum in Oriental Medicine and reaches its peak in spectacles of public dissections. Anatomy is established as a form of entertainment through the regulation of public dissections, leading to the trivialization of death, the appreciation of the grotesque, the scarcity of corpses and the fear of misappropriation of bodies. As anatomy has grown as an area of knowledge, it has created the basis for health sciences and human care. It has emerged over time that the study of anatomical pieces requires essential principles - sensitivity, ethics and respect - and allows us to reflect on the transposition of the boundaries between the beautiful versus the grotesque; the pleasant versus the disgusting. It also allows reflection on the trivialization, commercialization and eroticization of the body, as well as on the limits of science. CONCLUSION: Human anatomy, in its multiple aspects, has come a long way and constitutes a precious source of knowledge, however, it is faced with enticement by the most different interests. It is necessary to rescue the beauty of the human body, which is an inseparable part of the being that inhabits / dwelt there in order to resignify its human essence.

For the Benefit of Students: Memory and Anatomical Learning at Bologna in the Fourteenth to Early Sixteenth Centuries

The anatomical textbook in the late Middle Ages was one part of a greater pedagogical process that involved students’ seeing, hearing, reading, and eventually knowing information about the human body. By examining the role of the anatomical textbook and accompanying bodily images in anatomical learning, this article illuminates the complexity and self-consciousness of anatomical education in the medieval university, as professors focused on ways to enhance student memory of the material. Traditionally, the history of anatomy has been heavily influenced by the anatomical Renaissance of the late-sixteenth century, highlighting a focus on innovative medical knowledge and the scientific method. However, if we engage a pedagogical lens when looking at these medieval authors, it becomes quickly obvious that the whole point of university medicine was not to explore unknown boundaries and discover new ideas of medicine, but rather to communicate the current and established body of knowledge to those not familiar with it.

At the end of the line: on kairological history

This essay examines, from a position within Classics, different angles on critiques of historicism and the turn to anachronism in History, Art History, Medieval Studies, and Queer Theory before proposing the idea of ‘kairological history’, on the model of the artist Paul Chan’s ‘kairological art’. On this analysis, ‘kairological history’ engages the critical and creative resources of anachronic thinking alongside tools of historicism (e.g. empiricism, successionism, periodization, alterity) in making choices about ‘telling time’. These choices reflect a critical understanding of how temporality shapes the valuation of the past, particularly in relation to a ‘classical’ past; the negotiation of identity and difference between past and present; and the kinds of communities that history aims to support. The second half of the essay examines two instances of anachronism within the history of anatomy, one from Galen and one from the early twenty-first century. Both cases represent problems that historicism can correct. But the modality of correction, in itself, is anaemic and risks the very teleology that linear history is so often faulted for. The essay therefore explores what gets lost and what gets found when temporality is aligned with linearity, as well as non-linear modes of telling time.

Antoine Ferrein (1693-1769)—His Life and Contribution to Anatomy and Physiology: The Description of the Vocal Chords and Their Function

The purpose of this study is to summarize the life and work of the French anatomist and surgeon Antoine Ferrein (1693-1769). Ferrein made an impact in the history of anatomy and physiology through his work and especially with the description of phonation, renal anatomy, and liver and biliary structure. He also made an impact on ophthalmology with the description of the eyelid and its diseases. After a thorough review of the literature, we present in this review his life and his main discoveries with special emphasis on the anatomic description of the vocal chords resembling the chords of a violin tempered by the air exhaled from the lungs and how the physiology of phonation and the surgery of the larynx were revolutionized after that.