Feb 01, 2021 21:00:00

Who made the three books with the skin of a woman?

Humans used to write books and letters on parchment made from the skin of sheep and goats, but sometimes 'anthropodermic books' made from human skin were found in library collections or at auctions . I have also been bid on. Megan Rosenbloom, an American librarian and anthropodermic book expert, explains three books that are known to be 'the person who became the material', which is especially valuable among such anthropodermic book. did.

Seeking the Truth Behind Books Bound in Human Skin --Atlas Obscura
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dark-archives-human-skin-books

The Mutter Museum of the Philadelphia Medical Association of America houses three anthropodermic books. The book was created in 1868 when a poor woman named Mary Lynch was admitted to the Philadelphia General Hospital for tuberculosis. Philadelphia General Hospital is a hospital for the poor with an orphanage and a poorhouse, and the medical care provided there is completely different from the medical care for the wealthy.

by THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA

Nursing and family care is vain, and Lynch died in January 1869, losing weight until he weighed only 60 pounds. John Stockton Huff, a young doctor who was in charge of the Lynch autopsy, said in a later paper in a medical journal, 'I made an incision in the chest to observe the lungs of a woman with tuberculosis and found it in the pectoralis major muscle. I noticed that there was a rare lemon-shaped

cyst. '

When Huff observed the cyst under a microscope, the inside was filled with earthworm-like organisms of various sizes. This is the first case of trichinosis reported in Philadelphia. Huff, who was interested in assisted reproductive technology and parasitology at the time, decided to take skin from Lynch's thighs during dissection and store it.

In contrast to patients admitted to Philadelphia General Hospital, Huff, a doctor from a wealthy family, was also a well-known collector for collecting 8,000 rare books. Based on her experience at Philadelphia General Hospital, Huff, a female health expert, binds three books and adds them to her collection decades after Lynch's death. These three books are the human skin binding books made from Lynch's skin that Huff has kept for decades.

Huff bound the book ' Les nouvelles découvertes sur toutes les parties principals de l'homme, et de la femme ' published in 1680, 'Recueil des secrets de Louyse Bourgeois ' published in 1650, 1789. 'Speculations on the Mode and Appearances of Impregnation in the Human Female ' published in Japan, both of which are medical books on the theme of female health and childbirth. As you can see from the year of publication, none of them are Huff's own books, but Huff writes 'Mary L ...' in the book, indicating that this is a book bound with Mary Lynch's skin.

by THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA

When Huff was thrown out of a carriage by a horse runaway and died at the age of 56, most of his collection was donated to Huff's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Medical Association. Three books made by Huff on Lynch's skin were also donated to the Philadelphia Medical Association at this time.

About Anthropodermic Books Rosenbloom, in his book Dark Archives, may think of a lonely Mad Scientist making a book in an eerie basement when he thinks of a doctor who spells a book with human skin. No. I understand that, but Huff wasn't the only one making anthropodermic books in Philadelphia at the time. We live in modern times with old medical ethics, patient intentions, and how to handle bodies. It's difficult to match with your skin sensation. '