Sagittal section of the uterine pelvis
Relevant muscles, bones, and organs shown, with their supporting ligaments and relative angles and measurements shown.
An American Text-Book of Obstetrics. Ed. Richard C. Norris, 1895.
The Human Head
Ever wonder what your head would look like if it were cut in half?
Well, probably not like this. These are “average” heads. But we’ve all got some fun structures inside of us that are rarely considered by most people. Check out those beautiful conchae!
Atlas of Applied (Topographical) Human Anatomy. Dr. Karl von Bardeleben, Dr. Heinrich Haekel. Translated by J. Howell Evans, 1906.
Thoracic cross-sections of the human body
More than a century before the Visible Human Project brought together almost a dozen sources of millimeter-thin cross-section cuts of the human body to create interactive 3D models, people were already freezing and carving bodies into slices to show the inner form of the human body.
The cross-section and topographical anatomy textbooks were intended for medical students, whose access to real humans/cadavers would not have allowed this particular visualization of how the human body comes together.
An Atlas of Topographical Anatomy: after plane sections of frozen bodies. Wilhelm Braune, translated by Edward Bellamy, 1977.
Source: archive.org
Frozen transverse cross-section of a uterus from multigravida [twin] at the thirty-sixth week.
No contractions have occurred, and the cervix is unshortened, indicating birth was not imminent. Death from eclampsia.
In twin pregnancies, there is an increased risk of eclampsia and pre-eclampsia, and delivery is often induced before the due date, either by the body itself, or by an obstetrician. In addition to the increased risk of eclampsia, multigravida pregnancies are at risk for many other adverse events during development and delivery, and as such are treated as "high-risk" pregnancies, even if the mother and fetuses are both perfectly healthy.
The Practice of Obstetrics. J. Clifton Edgar, 1907.
Longitudinal Thoracic Cross-Sections, Right and Left side
As you can see here, the right lung has three lobes, and the left lung only has two. These lobes are anatomically distinct, but perform the same respiratory functions.
I know this isn't historical, but it's bloody cool anyhow - these days, it's actually possible to donate one lobe of your lung while you're still alive! I always thought of it as something that was donated only when you died, like the heart. Due to a massive deficit of cadaver lungs, the living lung transplant was developed. One lobe of your lungs is removed (leaving you with four lobes), and one lobe of another matching donor is removed, and both of those lobes are transplanted into the recipient. Though your lung doesn't regenerate the missing lobe, the capacity of the remaining lobes will increase to the point where it doesn't need that last one, anyhow. The survival and complication rates of transplanted live-donor lobes are comparable to receiving complete cadaver lungs.
Surgery of the Lung. C. Garre and H. Quincke, 1913.
Brain displaying necrosis due to carbon monoxide poisoning
In the past, carbon monoxide toxicity was not unheard of, especially during the winter. Cold nights and CO-producing fires lead to a silent death while asleep.
Though people were aware that they needed ventilation when fires were burning, frigid cold outside leading to people keeping too much air out, and having a stove burning through the night (so as not to freeze to death...), led to at least several dozen documented deaths throughout the Midwestern United States in the 1890s.
A Text-Book of Pathology. W. G. MacCallum, 1916.
Cross-section of neck at first thoracic vertebra
You can see the blood vessels and relations of the throat structures here. To get a better idea of where this is, it's right below the "Adam's apple" (laryngeal prominence). The thyroid gland can move forward, up, or down, in response to the body pushing the trachea forward when the esophagus (the squished tube behind the trachea) expands during swallowing.
Applied Surgical Anatomy. George Woosley, 1902.
Saggittal cross section of normal human embryo 35 mm long
This would be at approximately the very end of the first trimester, and the end of the stage of pregnancy where the gestating being is called an embryo.
At this point of pregnancy, the tail of the embryo has disappeared. The intestines have just migrated from the umbilical cord into the embryo, the retina is fully pigmented (though the eyes are still closed), the brain has all its basic structures and will begin to rapidly increase in mass in a week or two, and the face is beginning to fuse together and look human.
A Study of the Causes Underlying the Origin of Human Monsters. Franklin P. Mall, 1908.
Partial Cross-Section of Adult Skull
Displaying the divisions of the ear and naso-pharyngeal cavity. As you can see, even though the skull has some pretty well-defined zones and areas, everything is a lot more inter-connected than most of us learn about in grade school. The close connection between the ear canal and throat is why, when you have a sore throat, many times earaches come along with it, and why when you have a sinus headache, the ears often feel "plugged up".
A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Ear Including a Sketch of Aural Anatomy and Physiology. D. B. St. John Roosa, 1884.
Frontal section through the head of newborn - region of molars
The big empty space is where the brain would be, if it were left in the head, just to get a general orientation. The blue circle-shaped regions shown down near the tongue cross-section are odontoblasts (tooth germs). The deciduous (baby) teeth all begin their development early in gestation. By 20 weeks into pregnancy, the initial calcification has established the tooth germs throughout the mouth. Though the crowns of the teeth (harder tissues - dentin and enamel) are not deposited until roughly 5-6 months old in the case of the first molars, you can clearly see the development of the inner tissues of the teeth going on in this cross-section.
Atlas and Textbook of Dentistry Including Diseases of the Mouth. Gustav Preiswerk, 1906.
Sagittal Cross-Section of Lower Male Trunk
If you look up near the top of the illustration, you can see the left common iliac vein. The common iliac vein consists of both the internal and external iliac veins, which consist of the small veins and capillaries that connect to the intestines. This is the blood in your body that supplies you with nutrients - the acids and enzymes in the human digestive tract break down food into molecules small enough to pass through the wall of the intestine. When blood flows down to the lower abdomen, it drops off oxygen where it's needed, and picks up the broken-down nutrients, before flowing to the organs where the nutrients will be processed, through the inferior vena cava. [De-oxygenated blood returns to the heart via the superior vena cava, not inferior.]
Applied Surgical Anatomy, Regionally Presented, for the use of students and practitioners. George Woolsey, 1902.
Coronal cross-sections of Caucasian female, age 33.
Proceedings of the Aberdeen University Anatomical and Anthropological Society. 1902-1904.
Sagittal cross-sections of the head of Caucasian female subject, age 63.
Dissection done as a part of studies to scientifically determine typical characteristics for genders/racial descent. For centuries, people have known that people descended from different races "typically" had different characteristics from others. However, it wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that the first big studies were done to determine exactly how different characteristics manifested themselves, and what differences were significant enough to use in identification. Though it's still far from an exact science, those studies were the first major steps forward in working off of evidence rather than stereotypes and supposition when identifying the "race" of anthropological remains.
Proceedings of the Aberdeen University Anatomical and Anthropological Society. 1902-1904.
Cross-section of male testicles, scrotum, and spermatic cord.
Applied Surgical Anatomy. George Woosley, 1902.
Cross section of brain at third ventricle.
Shows the pineal gland, medulla, thalamus, caudate nucleus, corpus callosum, optic chiasma, and cerebellum. I love the term for the anterior lobe of the cerebellum used here..."l'arbre de vie". Literally translated, it means "the tree of life".
Traite de la Cephalotomie, ou Description Anatomique. Compiled by chief surgeon at Avignon. Published by Francois Gerard, 1748.
Relation of thoracic organs to one another.
Surgical Diseases of the Chest. Carl Beck, 1907.
Two views of the eyeball cross-section.
Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat: A Manual for Students and Practitioners. A.G. Wippern, 1900.