| Description | There are three dried (and lacquered?) cadavers in the collection. It is possible that these cadavers date from the late eighteenth century as, according to Simpson, one of them is the subject of the full size etching on display in the Resource Centre. The etching is accompanied by the following information on a modern label:
Etching, with some engravings, of male cadaver, showing the lymphatic system injected with mercury (before 1794). This superb illustration, unusual in being life size, was probably executed by Thomas Donaldson, after a drawing (now lost) by Andre Fyffe (1754 - 1824), who was artist and dissector to Monro Secondus (see Number 54). It was printed from three large copper plates, the prints being joined up afterwards, and the date is probably around 1788. Monro Secondus in Edinburgh and William Hunter in London both claimed to have discovered that the lymphatics are an absorbent system quite independent of the circulation. The question of precedence is debated by historians of medicine. The lymphatics were displayed by being injected with mercury. Blood vessels (not shown here) were injected with wax. |
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