@biomedicalephemera / biomedicalephemera.tumblr.com
Suction-powered Breast Pump
I had no idea that non-manual breast pumps haven’t even been around as long as computers. For as much of a frustration as my friends go through to pump their milk at work, I can’t imagine the pain and time it took to get breast milk through suction or hand-pump devices.
Druggist’s Ready Reference, issued by Morrison, Plummer & Co., importers and jobbers in drugs. 1887.
Oviparity, Ovoviviparity and Viviparity
As many of you have seen, scientists recently discovered a new frog species (the fanged frog, Limnonectes larvaepartus) in Indonesia, which gives birth to tadpoles! Cool, huh?
There are several frog species that give birth to tiny froglets (the tadpoles develop inside the female), but all other frog species that we know of lay eggs that are fertilized outside of the female.
This is the first species we know of that has the eggs fertilized internally, but does not allow its offspring to fully develop before releasing them.
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There are many ways that animals reproduce, but there are four basic categories of reproduction:
Images:
Top: Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) - Viviparous Second row: Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) - Oviparous Third: Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) - Oviparous Fourth: Hercules Beetle (Dynastes hercules) - Oviparous, Northern Banded Newt (Ommatotrioton ophryticus) - Ovuliparous Fifth: Sea Bream (Family Sparidae) - Ovuliparous, Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) - Ovoviviparous Sixth: Fat-tail scorpion (Androctonus australis) - Viviparous
Brehms Tierleben, Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs. Dr. Otto zur Strassen, 1915.
Arcana; or, The Museum of Natural History. George Perry, 1811.
Top: Common Opossum - Didelphis marsupialis Bottom: Virginia Opossum - Didelphis virginiana
Stay in the pouch, kids! We can't stop here; this is bat country!
Even though several marsupial families lived in the Americas before the last ice age, opossums are the only ones still remaining. Thanks to their opportunistic omnivorous diet and high rate of reproduction, opossums have survived in their current form for millenia, even despite their extremely low encephalization quotient. While rote brain volume does not in and of itself determine intelligence of an animal, mammals with smaller encephalization quotients tend to be more specialized and quickly speciated when hardships are encountered (such as ice ages). Opossums in the Americas generally have an EQ around 1/5 that of the raccoons.
Didelphidae (Western hemisphere opossums) have very short lifespans, generally living less than two years in the wild, which is very unusual for a mammal of their size (up to the size of a large housecat). However, they can generally produce two successful litters of up to 13 young each in their short lives.
Australian opossums, while distantly related to those in the Americas, have furry tails, larger brains, and are much less urbanized. They also bear fewer young, live at least twice as long, and are less than half the size of the largest North American opossums.
Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle. Charles d'Orbigny, 1849.
Positions of the fetus requiring intervention at birth, a reclining birthing chair, and instruments used to assist in delivery of the infant.
A General System of Surgery in three parts. Dr. Laurence Heister, 1745.
Nursery in Ripley Memorial Maternity Hospital, Minneapolis, MN. ca. 1910-1920.
Memento mori. Twin infants, 1885, Black River Falls, WI. Charles von Schaick collection.
I've been reading several books and texts from ~1830-1920 lately, and have been researching the histories and current procedures in them, which has taken a LOT of my time (aside from the time taken by my ever-persistent job search...). As I finish them up over the next few days, I'll mostly be posting photographs and illustrations that I don't need to explain, so if there are any animals or particular types of photos (injuries, diseases with no explanation, postmortem?) you'd like to see, let me know today or tomorrow. No promises, but I can probably find something in my files.
