Biomedical Ephemera, or: A Frog for Your Boils

Fig 1. Anterior Aspect of the Fingers - Veins, tendons, nerves, and aponeuroses Fig 2. Posterior Aspect of the Fingers - Exterior surface, skeletal articulation, vessels and nerves, and fibrous membranes of the extensor tendons Fig 3. Perpendicular and Longitudinal Section of the Last Phalanx - Showing the composition of the nail and distal end of the thumb Fig 4. Exterior Side View of the Finger - Bent at different articulations to show the angle of articulation

The palm of the hand is glabrous (hairless), and has nearly 1600-3000 sweat glands per square inch in most people. For comparison, the armpits have about 600-1500 sweat glands per square inch, on average.

An Atlas of Surgical Apparatus. Henry Thomas Chapman, 1832.

1832 funeral scaffold for a Sioux chief near Fort Pierre.

Though above-ground burials were not uncommon in burial huts, it was less common to expose the body to the elements. The body was probably kept here ceremonially, as a place of reverence, for a few days before a large funerary gathering. 

Blood Pheasants, Ithaginis cruentus, from Nepal and the surrounding areas. Lives at low elevations, unlike some Himalayan birds. Generally does not make its home above 5000 feet above sea level.

A Century of Birds from the Himalayas. John Gould, 1832.

Pteroglossus ulocomus, the Curl-crested Araçari. Now known as Pteroglossus beauharnaisii. 

I like the name of these Toucans. "Ptero" means "of the wing" or "wing", and "-glossus" means "pertaining to the tongue. Tonguewings! 

From Voyage Autour de Monde par les Mers de L'Inde et de Chine. Captain M. Laplace, 1832.