“I believe I have proven the connection between the intervillous spaces, veins and arteries…”
Riassa Niabuch 1887
An online story from ABC Australia was recently forwarded to me by a longtime friend, colleague and PenPaintandScalpel reader. The article dealt with the domination of male names in the nomenclature of human anatomy, even the female reproductive system. Fallopian tubes and Grafenberg spots are prime examples. Much of this relates to the reality of medicine and science from several centuries ago. Rightly or wrongly, men were the ones at the dissection tables. The majority of anatomical terms are simple descriptive names, that sound fancy as they are in latin. However, the ABC article identifies 432 eponymous names associated with the human body. 423 were men, 5 were gods, one was a king, one a Greek hero and one was a woman. Riassa Niabuch was a 19th century Russian pathologist who named the membrane which forms a connecting layer between the uterus and the placenta. I am very aware that this blog is very male heavy, dealing with the history of art and surgery as it does. Where possible I try to fight this bias, but it is deeply entrenched in these topics and perhaps in me. Let me know if I develop any blindspots and feel free to send me blog ideas. #thanksjulie #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 