Biomedical Ephemera, or: A Frog for Your Boils

Graceful small-headed sea snake - Hydrophis gracilis [now Microcephalophis gracilis]

The graceful small-headed sea snake, or slender sea snake, is one of the members of the Hydrophiidae, a family of highly-venomous seafaring reptiles. Though they can function on land, many members of this species spend effectively their entire life at sea. Their habitat - the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and Persian Gulf - has an average water temperature high enough to allow these snakes to not need any time "sunning" themselves.

Despite their highly venomous nature, most sea snakes (including this species) are very placid. They rarely bite, even when threatened - not that I'd advocate you approaching one! - but as they must hunt fish that are faster than them in the water, their venom is potent enough to immediately immobilize and kill even their largest prey.

Transactions of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society of London. 1841.

Monkey Represented on an Egyptian Tomb

This representation is most likely of a vervet monkey. Many primates still inhabit the Nile river valley that were also there when the ancient Egyptians were around, but the vervet monkey is not one of them. Wild vervets now live significantly more south than the Egyptians regularly traveled. 

Though many species of monkey were extant in ancient Egypt (and most were kept as pets at some point), only a few were considered "holy", or representative of their more important gods. The vervet monkey, while kept as a pet by both the working class and they royalty, was not generally venerated in the same way as, say, baboons were. 

General Introduction to the Natural History of Mammiferous Animals, with a Particular View of the Physical History of Man, and the More Closely Allied Genera of Quadrumana, or Monkeys. W. C. Linnaeus Martin, 1841.

Tardigrade 

Also known as the water-bear or moss piglet, "tardigrade" means "slow walker". They're extremophiles who can survive in damn near every condition, even though they prefer mossy and swampy wet places. If they have to, they can survive the vacuum of space (!), temperatures near absolute zero, temperatures of nearly 300 degrees, a decade without water, and when exposed to over 1000 times more radiation than other animals that have been tested.

If anything is going to survive an apocalypse and take over the world, it won't be those big ol' roaches. It'll be these guys.

Marvels of Pond-Life; or, a Year's Microscopic Recreations among the Polyps, Infusoria, Rotifers, Water-Bears, and Polyzoa. Henry J. Slack, 1841.

(A great and colorfully written book, by the way)

Comparative anatomy of brain structure and higher-functioning animals.

4. Chimpanzee 5. Tigress 6. Kangaroo 7. Wombat

From A General Introduction to the Natural History of Mammiferous Animals, and the more closely allied genera of the order Quadrumana, or Monkeys. W.C. Linnaeus Martin, 1841.

From A General Introduction to the Natural History of Mammiferous Animals, and the more closely allied genera of the order Quadrumana, or Monkeys. By W.C. Linnaeus Martin, 1841.

No relation to the original Linnaeus. His father named him after the naturalist because of his love for organizing things as a young child.

Death of William Henry Harrison, aka "Ol' Tippecanoe". April 6, 1841. His wife and Secretary of State are at his side. One of his grown sons and other cabinet members are also in the room. Harrison had the shortest term of any US president, at only 31 days. When he gave his inaugural address on March 4, it was frigid out, with late winter flurries. He wanted to prove himself still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe that the nation knew him as, and delivered a two-hour address in the flurries without a cap or an overcoat.

When Harrison developed a bad cold three weeks later, the prevailing theories led doctors to believe that his extended exposure to the elements was to blame. The cold turned to pleurisy and pneumonia, but Harrison was still forced to lead the very busy schedule of a president, leading to little rest and time for recovery. Many "remedies" of the time were attempted in order to help him get better. Leeches, castor oil, Virginia snakeweed, and opium were all used, and other contemporary "curers" were also probably utilized. Notably, bloodletting was not used, though leeches were.

In the end, Harrison developed pneumonia through his entire lower right lobe, fluid in the lungs, jaundice, and septicemia.

After Harrison died, the Whig party remained extremely divided, and was never again a major contender in elections.