München : Literarisch-artistische Anstalt (Theodor Riedel), 1882.
Description : [viii] p., 1–80 p., [6 l.] pl. ; illus: 37 phot. figs., tbls. ; 31 cm.
Photograph : collotypes (Lichtdruck) printed on boards. Six composite photographs of corrosion casts.
Photographer : Druck der Tafeln von Max Gemoser in München.
Subject: Ear — Anatomy ; vascular corrosion casts.
Notes :
Preeminent in the history of vascular corrosion casting is Josef Hyrtl's atlas, "Die Corrosions-Anatomie und ihre Ergebnisse," a masterpiece of the book arts, rich in reference material and richly illustrated with chromolithographs of his colored wax injection models (1873: »» ; GM-425). The otological collections of both Hyrtl and Adam Politzer (1835–1920) were purchased by the Mutter Museum, Phila., and later photographed for the Randall and Morse photographic atlas on the osseus ear (1887: »» ; Figs. 34-36: »»). Hyrtl is credited with returning corrosion casting to the kits and cabinets of dissectors, and demonstrated its particular utility for research into the labyrinthine structures of the anatomical ear. Bezold lifts a passage from page 47 of Hyrtl's atlas, quoting,
Bei einer Höhle, welche so unregelmässige Wandungen besitze wie das Cavum tympani, reichen Durchschnitte nicht aus, um eine genaue Vorstellung von ihrer Form und den Verhältnissen ihrer Durchmesser in allen Richtungen zu geben. Nur bei Höhlen von regelmäßiger Gestalt sind Durchschnitte belehrend. Ein befriedigender Ueberblick der Trommelhöhle und ihrer Adnexa (Cellulae mastoideae und Tuba Eustachi), wird nur am Guß derselben möglich, welcher sozusagen den leeren Raum verkörpert und ihn mit allen seinen Unregelmäßigkeiten im treuen Bilde wiedergiebt.
In a cavity, which has such irregular walls as the Cavum tympani, cross-sections are not sufficient to give a precise concept of its shape and the proportions of its diameters in all directions. Averages are instructive only in cavities of regular shape. A satisfactory overview of the drum cavity and its adnexa (Cellulae mastoideae and Tuba Eustachi), is only possible by casting it, which, so to speak, embodies the empty space and reproduces it with all its irregularities in a true picture.
Not just the middle ear complex, adds Bezold, the corrosion cast is no less instructive for the inner ear and what the configuration of the external auditory canal purports. Bezold acquired and perfected his skills in both fresh tissue and macerated bone corrosion casting through the generous offices of Rüdinger at the Munich anatomical institute where his nascent attempts with Rose's metal and vacuum pumping were failures. By 1877 he was sufficiently confident to present his preparations and lecture to scientists attending the fiftieth golden jubilee, Versammlung der Naturforscher und Aerzte, held in Munich, but was unable to go into the finer points of corrosion casting, he said, because the technology was still under development, especially for the temporal bone, "weil sie besonders für das Schläfenbein noch im Werden begriffen ist und der Vervollkommnung noch sehr bedarf." The lecture was transcribed in a paper titled, "Die Corrosionsanatomie des Ohres mit Rücksicht auf die Otiatrik" (1877: »»).
The Bezold atlas is divided into two parts, "Weichtheilcorrosionpräparate" and "Die Knochencorrosionspräparate," or preparations by corrosion of soft tissue and bone. Plates (Tabellen) 1-3 illustrate the first part and plates 4-6 illustrate the second, and all six plates are composite photographs of preparations in natural size. Both parts of the atlas begin with descriptions of the corrosion injection technique used, in nuce, for the first part, because it deviates little from Hyrtl's method, but in extenso for the second part using macerated bones. "To Bezold belongs the merit of having elaborated this method in all its directions," writes Politzer who provided an excellent summary of the Bezold (macerated) method, found in both German and English editions of his monograph on the anatomical and histological dissection of the human ear (p. 165, 1889: »» ; Eng.-transl., 1892: »»). Politzer copied three photographs from Bezold's atlas. His in-text Figs. 126, 129, & 130, match up with Bezold's, Tab. 6–Fig. IIIA, Tab. 1–Fig. VII, and Tab. 2–Fig. IIIB. In-text reproductions of the atlas photographs also appear in the last treatise of the Bezold mastoid corpus, illustrating a chapter he contributed to the Schwartze Handbuch. There, Figures 1 & 2 correspond with Tab. 4–Fig. I and II, although with a different enumeration of the anatomical features. (1893, vol. ii, p. 299-351: »»)
Bezold's last public lecture on vascular corrosion casting was delivered to doctors attending the 1884 international congress of otologists in Basel and transcribed by the title, "Demonstration von Corrosionspräparaten aus der Anatomie des Ohres," (1885: »»). Bezold opened his remarks with references to the works of Hyrtl, Rüdinger, Sömmering, and August Albrecht Meckel (1790–1829), the latter a professor of anatomy at the University of Bern, a bonhomie not lost on his Swiss hosts. Bezold demonstrated the technique as he spoke, using prop samples of casts in various stages of production.