IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB659893039

Cross-sectional representations of the central nervous system in Pirogov’s “Ice Anatomy” (2022)

Lichterman, Boleslav L. (Author)
Lanska, Douglas J. (Author)

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Volume: 31
Issue: 2-3
Pages: 312-333

DOI: 10.1080/0964704X.2022.2050642

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2022.2050642

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Neuroanatomy Human anatomy Surgery 19th century Russia Pirogov, Nikolai Ivanovich

Russian surgeon Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (Pirogoff; 1810–1881) introduced the teaching of applied topographical anatomy in Russia. Pirogov’s monumental four-part atlas, Anatome topographica sectionibus per corporis humanum congelatum triplici directione ductis illustrate (An Illustrated Topographic Anatomy of Saw Cuts Made in Three Dimensions Across the Frozen Human Body), colloquially known as the “Ice Anatomy,” was published in Latin in folio in the 1850s. Pirogov sought to investigate “the normal and pathological positions of different organs and body parts using sections made in the three principal directions [anatomical planes] … throughout all regions.” To accomplish this, he froze cadavers “to the density of the thickest wood” and then cut them into thin plates with a special mechanical saw. His approach was reportedly inspired by his observations of butchers sawing across frozen pig carcasses at the meat market in St. Petersburg during winter. Pirogov systemically obtained full-size representations of more than 1,000 sections. A painter made a representative copy of the cross-sectional contours of each section, using ruled glass overlain on the sections. The final lithographs were of high artistic quality and execution, resembling modern high-resolution medical imaging (i.e., CT or MRI). Moreover, structures were serially sectioned and systematically illustrated along all three anatomical planes, something that had never previously been attempted. This allowed clinicians and anatomists to scrutinize the spatial relationships of structures from multiple perspectives and at a much more detailed level than was previously possible, although the cost, massiveness, and complexity of the completed work precluded wide dissemination.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB659893039/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Igor Telichkin; (2015)
Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810–1881) and Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810–1887): Similarities on the Anniversary of Their 200th Birthdays (/isis/citation/CBB213319681/)

Article Michael Hagner; (2020)
Georg Büchner: Anatomist of the Animal Brain and the Human Mind (/isis/citation/CBB525306925/)

Article Hakosalo, Heini; (2006)
The Brain under the Knife: Serial Sectioning and the Development of Late Nineteenth-Century Neuroanatomy (/isis/citation/CBB000770722/)

Article Douglas J. Lanska; (2022)
Eugène-Louis Doyen and his Atlas d’Anatomie Topographique (1911): Sensationalism and gruesome theater (/isis/citation/CBB718645080/)

Article Marta Mion; Alessia Zanon; Rosario Marchese-Ragona; (2017)
The History of Paranasal Sinus Surgery (/isis/citation/CBB378799487/)

Article Berkowitz, Carin; (2011)
The Beauty of Anatomy: Visual Displays and Surgical Education in Early-Nineteenth-Century (/isis/citation/CBB001250081/)

Book Kichigina, Galina; (2009)
The Imperial Laboratory: Experimental Physiology and Clinical Medicine in Post-Crimean Russia (/isis/citation/CBB001032965/)

Article Ginn, Sheryl R.; Lorusso, Lorenzo; (2008)
Brain, Mind, and Body: Interactions with Art in Renaissance Italy (/isis/citation/CBB000831402/)

Article Shynin, Oscar; (2001)
Pirogov as a Statistician (/isis/citation/CBB000102479/)

Article Douglas J. Lanska; (2022)
Summarizing the medieval anatomy of the head and brain in a single image: Magnus Hundt (1501) and Johann Dryander (1537) as transitional pre-Vesalian anatomists (/isis/citation/CBB099512333/)

Article Kevin Jang; (2021)
Nicolaus Steno and the Cartesian Brain (/isis/citation/CBB575163588/)

Article Catherine E. Storey; (2022)
Then there were 12: The illustrated cranial nerves from Vesalius to Soemmerring (/isis/citation/CBB903067026/)

Chapter Schwarte, Ludger; (2008)
The Anatomy of the Brain as Instrumentalization of Reason (/isis/citation/CBB000831239/)

Article Cartwright, Michael; (1995)
Bodily perception: A reading strategy for the articles “anatomie” and “chirurgie” of the Encyclopédie (/isis/citation/CBB000068124/)

Article Pangerl, Daniel Carlo; (2010)
“Item als man dem kayser Fridrichen sin fuß abschnitt”. Die Beinamputation an Kaiser Friedrich III. am 8. Juni 1493 in Linz (/isis/citation/CBB001034849/)

Article Samuel J. M. M. Alberti; (2018)
Drawing Damaged Bodies: British Medical Art in the Early Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB102567071/)

Chapter Guerrini, Anita; (2012)
The Value of a Dead Body (/isis/citation/CBB001200748/)

Book Wilgis, E. F. Shaw; (2014)
The Wonder of the Human Hand: Care and Repair of the Body's Most Marvelous Instrument (/isis/citation/CBB001510162/)

Book Michael Stolberg; (2022)
Gabrielle Falloppia, 1522/23-1562: The Life and Work of a Renaissance Anatomist (/isis/citation/CBB668925492/)

Article Hodges, Frederick Mansfield; (2001)
The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme (/isis/citation/CBB000100878/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}