"STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL COLOR PLATES." Studien in der Anatomie des Nervensystems und des Bindegewebes [Studies in the Anatomy of the Nervous System and Connective Tissue]

Stockholm: P.A. Norstedts & Soners Forlag, 1876. First edition. 1876 "ONE OF THE MOST STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL NEUROANATOMIES EVER PUBLISHED"--COPY OF EINAR KEY, SURGEON SON OF THE AUTHOR AXEL KEY. Two large folio hardcover volumes, 32x42 cm, 3/4 leather binding with gilt-ruled brown cloth covers, gilt titles to front covers, spines with raised bands and gilt titles, bookplate on front paste-down of each volume of Einar Key, professor of surgery and son of the author Axel Key. Vol. I: [i-xii], 220 pp, 39 lithographic plates on heavy paper, many in brilliant color, some folding, each with facing descriptive text. Vol. II: loose front free endpaper, [i-viii], 228 pp, 36 plates. Corners, cover edges, and spine ends worn, hinges cracked but covers securely attached and bindings tight. Browning to page edges—all text pages and plates crisp, bright, and unmarked. A very good copy of this scarce work with contents lovingly preserved by the author's son, covers worn as described. GARRISON-MORTON 1408.2 "One of the most strikingly beautiful neuroanatomies ever published, with exquisite reproductions of the colour dye injection experiments. The authors confirmed the existence of the foramina of Magendie and Luschka, and studied the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid. All published." Described by Eva Ahren in Hidden Treasures (2012): "It was owned by Charles Darwin, Jean-Martin Charcot, Hermann von Helmholtz, and other illustrious scientists. It was displayed as a triumph of Swedish science at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, along with other Swedish exhibits (such as the schoolhouse now known as the Swedish Cottage in New York's Central Park). Written in German, the most important scientific language of the day, the massive two-volume Studies in the Anatomy of the Nervous System and Connective Tissue deals with the brain and spinal cord (particularly the covering membranes and communicative passages between the brain's ventricles, serous spaces, and lymphatic vessels) and the nerves (their structure, sheaths, and endings). Four men worked together closely for seven years to produce it: Axel Key (1832-1901), Gustaf Retzius (1842-1919); and the artists Nils Otto Bjorkman (1833-1900) and Theodor Lundberg (1852-1926). Key was professor of pathological anatomy at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and later its director. A liberal public intellectual, he had studied with Rudolph Virchow in Berlin and. like other Swedish scientists, was well connected to European scientific networks. Retzius, son of the prominent comparative anatomist Anders Retzius, was beginning a productive career that would range over histology (mainly of the nervous system and sense organs), comparative anatomy, physical anthropology, and popular medicine. Bjorkman was an expert scientific draftsman, known for graceful renderings of the minute details of microscopic specimens and also for ethnographic travels to Lapland, where he made drawings and collected Sami artifacts. The young and talented Lundberg would later become a celebrated sculptor and director of the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. Their project of mapping the brain was a visual exploration. First, they acquired their numerous specimens of brains and spines, most likely from the autopsied bodies of people who died in public hospitals, jails, and workhouses. Then the anatomists adapted and developed histological techniques to make the specimens reveal the desired features. They injected them with colored substances and also dipped them in acidic salt solutions of gold, silver, and osmium (the same method Camillo Golgi later used when he discovered the nerve cell). Handling the specimens required expertise and first-rate equipment: the sharpest scalpels and microtomes for slicing the brains, the finest microscopes for examining them. The Karolinska Institute had extensive collections, and some of the specimens likely ended up there, among thousands of other microscopic slides. The artists drew the selected specimens with meticulous attention to detail, form, color, and depth. The printers then used the colored drawings to produce superb chromolithographic plates to go with the text. It was a costly book to print, in large format with superior binding and high-quality ink on fine paper, and could be completed only with support from a benefactor who donated 20,000 kronor. In this and other works, Retzius collaborated with the finest Swedish and German artists, photographers, and printers, although the collaborations were not always easy. Retzius eventually broke with Biorkman, a superb draftsman, over stylistic matters. The artist, he believed, sacrificed accuracy in favor of aesthetics. Retzius thereafter chose to make his own drawings. The images in these volumes are not mere illustrations of scientific findings-they are the findings. Without the image there is no scientific result. But scientific illustrations also do other work. Illustrated monographs and articles help to build personal and institutional reputations and to attract funding and students. Today's neuroscience is just as dependent on technologies of visualization, but with computed tomography, positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scientists can look into the brains of living people-something that would have been inconceivable to Key and Retzius. However, the beauty of their lithographic brain images has never been surpassed." AXEL KEY (1832 – 1901) was a Swedish pathologist, member of parliament, writer and rector at the Karolinska Institute. Key obtained his medical degree at Lund University and worked as assistant surgeon for two years in Stockholm. During his time as a doctoral student, he spent some time in Berlin, where he was an assistant to the Darwinian and liberal Rudolf Virchow in his department of pathology at the Charité Hospital. The year before Key received his doctorate, he was appointed temporary professor of pathological anatomy at the Karolinska Institute, and in 1862 he was appointed full professor. He received his doctor of medicine degree in 1862 after having defended his doctorate the previous year with the thesis Om smaknervernas förändring i grodtungan ('On changes in the taste buds in the frog tongue'). Among his achievements was arranging for a pathological laboratory for the institution, and he introduced cellular pathology into Swedish medical science. GUSTAF RETZIUS (1842 – 1919) was a Swedish physician and anatomist who dedicated a large part of his life to researching the histology of the sense organs and nervous system. He enrolled at Uppsala University in 1860, and received his medicine kandidat degree there in 1866, transferred to the Karolinska Institute, where he received a Licentiate of Medical Science degree in 1869 and completed his doctorate in medicine (PhD) in 1871 at Lund University. Retzius worked as an assistant under pathologist Axel Key; the two had a long partnership, publishing research together. In 1901 Retzius became a member of the Swedish Academy, and he was also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. As a result, he took part in the awarding of the Nobel Prize. Retzius himself was also a Nobel Prize nominee himself 23 times, in 11 different years from 1901 to 1916. PROVENANCE: EINAR KEY (1872 - 1954), the son of Axel Key, was a leading figure in Swedish medicine and a surgeon of international renown. He studied medicine first at Upsala and later in Stockholm, where he graduated at the Karolinska Institute in 1907. He was appointed chief surgeon at the Maria Hospital, Stockholm, in 1911, and he retained this post until he retired in 1937. He was also one of the first to apply surgical treatment to pulmonary tuberculosis, and his work paved the way for the present generation of thoracic surgeons. From the inception of Acta chirurgica Scandinavica in 1919 Key was its editor, thus carrying on his father's work. In 1936 he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and in 1949 a Foreign Corresponding Member of the British Medical Association. (Inventory #: 1545)