Speculations on the mode and appearances of impregnation in the human female…

Pregnancy

Anthropodermic bibliopegy

The title of this book and its contents are not make this book unique. Rather, this book is unusual in that it is partially bound in skin taken from the thigh of Mary Lynch, an Irish immigrant who died in the Almshouse at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1869. Her skin was removed after her death from tuberculosis and encysted trichinosis by John Stockton Hough, MD, the 23-year-old Resident Physician at the Almshouse.

The book itself is Speculations on the mode and appearances of impregnation in the human female, written by Robert Couper (1750-1818) in 1789. It is an excellent example of the theories surrounding conception in the late 18th century, in consideration of the time that is the “…busiest, and most important in female life; and on account of its intricate and mysterious phenomena, and of the utility which Medicine and Philosophy must derive from a rational and convincing explanation of all its circumstances…”

Hough, John Stockton, 1845-1900

Digitized by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

1789

Couper, Robert, 1750-1818

StillImage

GGa 33

18th Century

Bound monograph