#ArtDept: 19th Century Illustrations for the Surgical Removal of Unwanted Parts of the Human Body, Curious or Just Gross?

I didn’t expect to recover from my second operation but since I did, I consider that I’m living on borrowed time.


Henri Matisse

Plate XXXIV. Surgical instruments used for external urethrotomy in prostatectomy (removal of part of the prostate gland)

These lithographs were created for American surgeon Joseph Panacoast for his 1844 book A Treatise An Operative Surgery (1805 – 1882). He was a leading pioneer in the practice of surgery, plastic surgery, in particular. Pancoast was responsible for most of the advancements in surgery that he describes and were so very depicted graphically.

An advertisement for the book revealed:

A treatise on operative surgery comprising a description of the various processes of the art, including all the new operations; exhibiting the state of surgical science in is present advanced condition; with eighty plates containing four-hundred and eighty-six separate illustrations.


Plate XLIX. Surgery to correct strabismus, involving the division of the internal rectus of the right eye. Strabismus is the misalignment of the eyes.

Surgical treatments date back to the prehistoric era. The oldest evidence is trepanation, where a hole is drilled or scraped into the skull in order to treat health problems related to intracranial pressure and other diseases.

Surgical texts from ancient Egypt date back about 3500 years ago. Surgical operations were performed by priests, specialized in medical treatments similar to today. Infections were treated with honey.

Anesthesia was developed in the mid-19th century. Before the advent of anesthesia, surgery was a traumatically painful procedure and surgeons were encouraged to be as swift as possible to minimize patient suffering. This also meant that operations were largely restricted to amputations and external growth removals. Beginning in the era of Pancoast, surgery began to change dramatically with the discovery of effective and practical anesthetic chemicals such as ether.

You might want to be sitting down for the illustrations below:


Plate LXVI. Surgical technique for lithotomy.
Plate 42, Techniques for the removal of cataracts
Plate 70, Surgical techniques for lithotripsy (the removal of bladder and kidney stones)
Plate LXVII. Surgical technique for lithotomy (the removal of a bladder stone)
Plate 65, Surgical removal of tumours from the scrotum
Plate 57, Procedure for the removal of stones from the prostate and urethra14th century painted wood engraving showing the necessary position for the patient for removal of bladder stones

Unfortunately, the introduction of anesthetics encouraged more surgery, which inadvertently caused more dangerous patient post-operative infections. The concept of infection was unknown until relatively modern times. The first progress in combating infection was made in 1847 by the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) noticed that medical students fresh from the dissecting room were causing more maternal deaths when delivering babies compared to midwives. Despite ridicule and opposition, Semmelweis introduced compulsory handwashing for everyone entering the operating room.


An operation in 1753, by Gaspare Traversi.

If you think this was a tough post to get through, I want you to know that I composed it while eating a banana.

All pictures in public domain

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