Beschreibung
Paris, Gabon, 1809, 8°, 83 pp., 1 Tafel, feiner Pappband, mit eigenhändiger Widmung des Verfassers auf Titel. First Edition! A rare and innovative work, containing important data for the history of cutaneous histology, dermatology and anthropology. It is divided into 2 parts: the first, illustrated with a plate, is devoted to cutaneous histology; the second to cutaneous pigmentation ("colouring matter") with its physiological and pathological variations. The author examined the skin of "Whites" compared with that of "Negroes". He distinguished between the "corion" (derma), the mucous body (with vascular buds, the albuginea membrane, the substance charged with brown colouring matter and the superficial albuginea membrane) and the epidermis (or cuticle). Gaultier's observations of hyperpigmentation and leucoderma attracted the attention of Rayer, who included several of them in his treatise on skin diseases. "It is not until Gaultier's 1809 Recherches sur l'organisation de la peau de l'homme et sur les causes de sa coloration that there is a representation of the layers of skin and the location of the colour in a French context. Printed in black and white and far less detailed than Lairesse's engraving it is more diagrammatic than the earlier Dutch prints. Spelling out the elements of the mucous layer, their function and the precise seat of the colouring matter, Gaultier treated the black substance more explicitly as a heuristic tool than had previous tracts on skin colour. Earlier anatomical studies, for example those of Littré and to some degree also Albinus's tract (after all dedicated to the 'colour of Ethiopians and other humans') used black skin to research the layering of human skin as such, but because the distinct visibility of one layer was enhanced by the dark substance, Gaultier made an explicit point about this when he stated that his observations were 'helped by the anatomy of the skin of negroes'. The dark colouring matter worked for him like the dyes already brought into play by early modern anatomists for injecting bodily vessels during dissection in order to highlight certain functional parts. Or, for a more recent example, it worked like the contrast-medium utilized in radiology and other modern medical imaging technologies to enhance the visibility of certain inner body parts." Fend, M.: Fleshing Out Surfaces: Skin in French Art and Medicine, 1650-1850, p. 153. See - Rey R: Hygiène et souci de soi, In: Le gouvernement du corps, Communications, 56 (19993), pp. 25-39; Rayer PFO: Traité théorique et pratique des maladies de la peau (1827), vol. 2, pp. 199, 203, 230, 431, 432. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 67390
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