George Viner Ellis & G. H. Ford
Illustrations of Dissections in a Series of Original Colored Plates, the Size of Life, Representing the Dissection of the Human Body.
William Wood & Company, 1882. Wood's Library of Standard Medical Authors, volumes 1, 2. Second edition. ix/233, 226 pages, 58 plates.
Each volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.5", is bound in green cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine and series title blind stamped onfront cover. These attractive antique books display light shelfwear, with moderate wear to spines, with mild fraying at ends. Edges of text blocks are tinted red. Bindings are firm. Light foxing is visible on endpapers/blank pages at front/rear of volume. Pages are clean and bright. Brightly colored plates are without markings. All called-for plates are present.
"This volume contains a concise description of Anatomical Plates in folio in a separate Atlas (in this edition the Plates are bound with the text. -- Am. Publishers), with some remarks on the practical applications of Anatomical facts to Surgery. The purpose for which the Plates are designed, and the circumstances connected with their production are explained below.
With the view of carrying out the pictorial representation of dissections, the part of the Human Body to be illustrated is divided into suitable stages or regions; and the muscles, bloodvessels, and nerves of each region are show in layers in the natural order of succession, aso that their mutual connections may be brought before the eye at one and the same time.
The Illustrations comprise views of the Head and Neck, the upper Limb, the Perinaeum, the Abdominal parieties, the Pelvis, and the lower Limb. All teh Figures are drawn of life-size from actual dissections; and they are printed in color with the object of making them as true pictures as possible of Nature, and more serviceable as copies for the student to imitate. Only such dissections were prepared for the Drawings as may be commonly seen in the practical Anatomy Room; and the minute detail, whose counterpart the student with average manual dexterity could not produce without some difficulty and loss of time, was intentionally omitted. Delineations of the ligaments, the viscera of the cavities of the Body, and the organs of the Senses, are not included in the Plates now published.
The labor connected with this Work was divided between its two authors, that part being apportioned to each whcih he was best fitted by previous knowledge and experience to execute. To Mr. Ford were assigned the original Drawings, and the chromo-lithography; and to him is due the merit of portraying with so much effect and exactness the natural appearance of the parts dissected. Upon me rests the responsibility of the selection of the Illustrations, the fidelity of the dissections, and the accuracy of the whole." (From preface by George Viner Ellis)