Teaching watercolor of inguinal hernias in male patients
Description:
After Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery's Traite complet de l'anatomie de l'homme, plate 34 Large watercolor showing several different hernias in men. The far left shows the genitalia of a man with oblique inguinal hernias on both sides. Above is a drawing of the surgical anatomy of the inguinal canal, in stylized lines of black, red, and blue. At the very top of the painting are two small drawings of a small umbilical hernia behind the navel - on the left is the exterior view and on the right is a cross section view. In the lower center is the genitalia and upper thighs of a male infant suffering from a congenital inguinal hernia. And on the right is the genitalia and thighs of a man with a direct inguinal hernia, which has caused his scrotum to swell dramatically, reaching his left knee. Blue veins are apparent over the whole of the distorted scrotum. Watercolor is framed in green sewn textile, with metal grommets in each of the four corners.
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Notes:
Henry Jacob Bigelow employed artist Oscar Wallis exclusively from 1848 - 1854 to paint a series of large teaching watercolors to illustrate Bigelow's lectures at Harvard Medical School. Wallis painted the teaching diagrams from local subjects and from the atlases of established medical authorities. The effort cost Bigelow $6,000. In 1890 Bigelow presented the watercolors to Reginald H. Fitz to be used in the Harvard Medical School's Department of Anatomy. The watercolors were transferred into the Warren Anatomical Museum between 1890 and 1930.
