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Pieces of You from Better World Books Pieces of You - medical mayhem. By Michael Stillman This month we review the first catalogue from Better World Books of Mishawaka, Indiana. Better World is not your typical bookstore. They stock some 6 million books, including 50,000 in their rare, antiquarian and collectible category. Better World is also noted for making substantial donations to literary and similar causes, as well as running an environmentally friendly shop. Not your father's bookstore. This catalogue comes with the odd title Pieces of You. This is not some metaphorical expression or the like. They mean it literally. This is a catalogue of books dealing with anatomy, primarily human, though a few monkeys, cats, rats, even fleas make their way into its the pages. You can learn all about your various parts, their use, maintenance, repair, even replacement. And while all of these organs, limbs, vessels and such are worthy in their own right, we should all be thankful that, in our case at least, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Here are some of the books being offered. We will start with a man who could logically be called the father of anatomy. He lived in second century Rome, and although he never cut any humans open (it wasn't allowed, so he dissected monkeys), he remained the authority in the field for around 1300 years. That gives you an idea of the rate of progress during the Middle Ages. It wasn't until Vesalius began cutting open humans in the 16th century that anatomy again moved forward. Offered is a copy of Galen: On The Usefulness of The Parts of the Body, and though not published until 1968, some 1,700+ years after Galen died, it is a first of sorts. It is the first English edition translated directly from the original Greek. Priced at $50. The most expensive book in this catalogue, and rightfully so, is an inscribed copy of Descriptive Zoopraxography Or the Science of Animal Locomotion, by Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge was a noted photographer of animals in motion, creating a precursor to motion pictures. He would take numerous pictures of a moving animal split seconds apart. He used this process to answer an old question, "do all four of a horse's feet come off the ground at once when running?" (answer: yes). Muybridge developed a device for spinning through still photographs rapidly to create the illusion of motion, something akin to the process of motion films. This copy of Muybridge's 1893 book is inscribed to Dr. Henry Pickering Bowditch, a Dean of the Harvard Medical School who studied movement of the human body. $3,000. The Surgical Treatment of Chronic Suppuration of the Middle Ear and Mastoid is a 1906 treatise on hearing by Dr. Seymour Oppenheimer. Better World notes that when "your child claims that he didn't hear you, you may wish to show him some of these surgical methods to improve his hearing." $40. It gets worse. Much Worse. Next is A Treatise on Diseases of the Rectum, Anus, and Sigmoid Flexure, courtesy of one Joseph M. Matthews in 1893. Better World points out, "Things with points, hooks, or which use electricity shouldn't have anything to do with this part of your body." Amen. For those looking for a scary book to read, truth can be scarier than fiction. $70.
Pieces of You from Better World Books Smile for the camera! - Dr. Clapp's trap. While most of the dismembering that takes place in this catalogue was done for good scientific or medical cause, Better World has slipped a few books in here that move from medicine to mayhem. Buck Ruxton knew both. He was an English doctor who believed his wife had been unfaithful. This evidently troubled Dr. Ruxton, as he proceeded to murder both his wife and her maid. It was only after their deaths that he proceeded to perform surgery, dismembering their bodies and spreading the pieces across the countryside. This was not a gruesome ritual, but an attempt to make the bodies unidentifiable. Instead, Dr. Ruxton became an inspiration for forensic science. Forensic pathologist Dr. John Glaister and anatomist James Cooper Brash put the pieces back together, so to speak, which led to Ruxton's eventual arrest and conviction. Glaister and Brash wrote this book about the case: Medico-Legal Aspects of the Ruxton Case. Dr. Ruxton was rewarded for his role in the advancement of pathology by being hung at the end of a rope. $70. Next we have a book about a group of people who did much to advance the training and skill of England's doctors, and yet they received nothing but public scorn in return for their efforts: The Sack-'Em-Up Men: An Account of the Rise and Fall of the Modern Resurrectionists. The modern resurrectionists were not theologians. Actually, the more common term for their profession is "body snatcher." Dr. James Moores Ball recounts the story of the men who would dig up graves in the "dead" of night to sell the bodies for medical purposes. The market for this product was understandable. At the time, physicians and scientists had no access to bodies for study. Who would want surgery performed by someone who had never practiced the procedure before, not even actually seen what's in there? Still, the law said that no human bodies could be dissected except those of executed murderers, who were in short supply. This gruesome practice was finally laid to rest after the passage of the Anatomy Act of 1832, which provided that unclaimed paupers' bodies, or those voluntarily willed to science, could be used. $80. Here is a work from Dr. George Wood Clapp (no, he was a dentist, not a gynecologist). His ever-popular 1910 tract is entitled Mechanical Side of Anatomical Articulation. Evidently, Dr. Clapp was one of America's most popular dentists (not that this would take much) in the early 20th century. He promoted dental health on the radio and articles he wrote for DENISPLY, a manufacturer of false teeth. In this work he emphasizes the importance of accounting for movement of the jaw when creating dentures. $30. Better World Books may be found online at www.betterworldbooks.com. Inquiries concerning these books may be made to tgilchrist@betterworldbooks.com. This catalogue is available for download through the following link: http://images.betterworldbooks.com/content/ARC-Pieces-Of-You.pdf

Pieces of You from Better World Books

Pieces of You - medical mayhem.

By Michael Stillman

This month we review the first catalogue from Better World Books of Mishawaka, Indiana. Better World is not your typical bookstore. They stock some 6 million books, including 50,000 in their rare, antiquarian and collectible category. Better World is also noted for making substantial donations to literary and similar causes, as well as running an environmentally friendly shop. Not your father's bookstore.

This catalogue comes with the odd title Pieces of You. This is not some metaphorical expression or the like. They mean it literally. This is a catalogue of books dealing with anatomy, primarily human, though a few monkeys, cats, rats, even fleas make their way into its the pages. You can learn all about your various parts, their use, maintenance, repair, even replacement. And while all of these organs, limbs, vessels and such are worthy in their own right, we should all be thankful that, in our case at least, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Here are some of the books being offered.

We will start with a man who could logically be called the father of anatomy. He lived in second century Rome, and although he never cut any humans open (it wasn't allowed, so he dissected monkeys), he remained the authority in the field for around 1300 years. That gives you an idea of the rate of progress during the Middle Ages. It wasn't until Vesalius began cutting open humans in the 16th century that anatomy again moved forward. Offered is a copy of Galen: On The Usefulness of The Parts of the Body, and though not published until 1968, some 1,700+ years after Galen died, it is a first of sorts. It is the first English edition translated directly from the original Greek. Priced at $50.

The most expensive book in this catalogue, and rightfully so, is an inscribed copy of Descriptive Zoopraxography Or the Science of Animal Locomotion, by Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge was a noted photographer of animals in motion, creating a precursor to motion pictures. He would take numerous pictures of a moving animal split seconds apart. He used this process to answer an old question, "do all four of a horse's feet come off the ground at once when running?" (answer: yes). Muybridge developed a device for spinning through still photographs rapidly to create the illusion of motion, something akin to the process of motion films. This copy of Muybridge's 1893 book is inscribed to Dr. Henry Pickering Bowditch, a Dean of the Harvard Medical School who studied movement of the human body. $3,000.

The Surgical Treatment of Chronic Suppuration of the Middle Ear and Mastoid is a 1906 treatise on hearing by Dr. Seymour Oppenheimer. Better World notes that when "your child claims that he didn't hear you, you may wish to show him some of these surgical methods to improve his hearing." $40.

It gets worse. Much Worse. Next is A Treatise on Diseases of the Rectum, Anus, and Sigmoid Flexure, courtesy of one Joseph M. Matthews in 1893. Better World points out, "Things with points, hooks, or which use electricity shouldn't have anything to do with this part of your body." Amen. For those looking for a scary book to read, truth can be scarier than fiction. $70.

Pieces of You from Better World Books

Smile for the camera! - Dr. Clapp's trap.

While most of the dismembering that takes place in this catalogue was done for good scientific or medical cause, Better World has slipped a few books in here that move from medicine to mayhem. Buck Ruxton knew both. He was an English doctor who believed his wife had been unfaithful. This evidently troubled Dr. Ruxton, as he proceeded to murder both his wife and her maid. It was only after their deaths that he proceeded to perform surgery, dismembering their bodies and spreading the pieces across the countryside. This was not a gruesome ritual, but an attempt to make the bodies unidentifiable. Instead, Dr. Ruxton became an inspiration for forensic science. Forensic pathologist Dr. John Glaister and anatomist James Cooper Brash put the pieces back together, so to speak, which led to Ruxton's eventual arrest and conviction. Glaister and Brash wrote this book about the case: Medico-Legal Aspects of the Ruxton Case. Dr. Ruxton was rewarded for his role in the advancement of pathology by being hung at the end of a rope. $70.

Next we have a book about a group of people who did much to advance the training and skill of England's doctors, and yet they received nothing but public scorn in return for their efforts: The Sack-'Em-Up Men: An Account of the Rise and Fall of the Modern Resurrectionists. The modern resurrectionists were not theologians. Actually, the more common term for their profession is "body snatcher." Dr. James Moores Ball recounts the story of the men who would dig up graves in the "dead" of night to sell the bodies for medical purposes. The market for this product was understandable. At the time, physicians and scientists had no access to bodies for study. Who would want surgery performed by someone who had never practiced the procedure before, not even actually seen what's in there? Still, the law said that no human bodies could be dissected except those of executed murderers, who were in short supply. This gruesome practice was finally laid to rest after the passage of the Anatomy Act of 1832, which provided that unclaimed paupers' bodies, or those voluntarily willed to science, could be used. $80.

Here is a work from Dr. George Wood Clapp (no, he was a dentist, not a gynecologist). His ever-popular 1910 tract is entitled Mechanical Side of Anatomical Articulation. Evidently, Dr. Clapp was one of America's most popular dentists (not that this would take much) in the early 20th century. He promoted dental health on the radio and articles he wrote for DENISPLY, a manufacturer of false teeth. In this work he emphasizes the importance of accounting for movement of the jaw when creating dentures. $30.

Better World Books may be found online at www.betterworldbooks.com. Inquiries concerning these books may be made to tgilchrist@betterworldbooks.com.

This catalogue is available for download through the following link: http://images.betterworldbooks.com/content/ARC-Pieces-Of-You.pdf