Biomedical Ephemera, or: A Frog for Your Boils

Exencephaly, Pseudocephaly, and Anencephaly

In exencephaly, the brain is formed without the brain casing - the cranium. It is generally missing the forebrain (the prefrontal lobe), but is otherwise mostly formed. Despite this, the spinal cord is rarely formed with the brain, as there is a disconnect between the telencephalon and the hindbrain during very early development, and only the midbrain is formed.

In pseudoencephaly (a term rarely used in medicine nowadays), the midbrain and spinal cord are formed, but the forebrain is not.

In anencephaly, the most common of the three conditions, the brain and spinal cord are only tiny specs of what they should be. Curiously, despite them being a literal extension of the brain, the eyeballs sometimes fully form, though with no receptors to process the information they receive, even if the fetus were to survive, they would not see anything.

Human Monstrosities, Part IV. Barton Cooke Hirst and George A. Piersol, 1893.

New York Quinine and Chemical Works advertisements.

These ads were targeted towards pharmacists and smaller third-party patent medicine manufacturers. While quinine inclusion was generally indicated on the end product, substances such as cocaine and morphine almost never were, until the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. In addition to what one would think of as "vegetable" ingredients, such as, say, the willow tree bark that was the precursor to aspirin, both cocaine and morphine were also considered "vegetable" products - neither of them were truly synthetically produced, since their starting point came from plants.

[The Pharmaceutical Era. 1893.]

"The Smallest Anteater" (The Silky Anteater, Cyclopes didactylus dorsus)

This anteater is slow-moving and largely arboreal, much like their sloth cousins. However, they also have a partially prehensile tail, and eat, well, ants. Sometimes they also eat other insects that pass by them, but they don't produce chitinase, so they can't fully digest those bugs.

Types of Animal Life. St. George Mivart, 1893.

The Ornithorhynchus

This illustration makes me feel like I could train a platypus to beg for treats...they'd probably stab me with their venomous leg-spikes. Well, the males, at least. 

Types of Animal Life. St. George Mivart, 1893.

From The Points of the Horse: a familiar treatise on equine conformation. By Horace Hayes, 1893.

From The Points of the Horse: a familiar treatise on equine conformation. By Horace Hayes, 1893.