life:
On this day in 1895, scientist Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-Rays.
When Wilhelm Roentgen took the very first X-ray photograph — a ghostly image of his wife’s hand — in 1895, the German physicist not only earned himself the very first Nobel Prize in Physics, he also gave the world the gift of creepy skeletal photographs and seeing bizarre things stuck inside living but unlucky people.
Pictured: 1896 X-ray of Roentgen’s wife’s hand, similar to the very first X-ray picture. Upon seeing her skeletal hand, she reportedly exclaimed, “I have seen my own death!”
(see more — Extraordinary X-Rays)
Cross section of brain at third ventricle.
Shows the pineal gland, medulla, thalamus, caudate nucleus, corpus callosum, optic chiasma, and cerebellum. I love the term for the anterior lobe of the cerebellum used here…”l’arbre de vie”. Literally translated, it means “the tree of life”.
Traite de la Cephalotomie, ou Description Anatomique. Compiled by chief surgeon at Avignon. Published by Francois Gerard, 1748.
