Post Mortem attire

Hi Elizabeth, there's some fascinating photos on that site isnt there?

Definitely Nurse, amazing photos!

http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2009/04/dissection-photographs-of-rite-of.html

[Nurse Sarah]

Hi Elizabeth, there's some fascinating photos on that site isnt there?

You might find something of interest on this site:

http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2008/05/vintage-mortician-photos.html

This photo, from there, I believe is from the Victorian period.

http://bp1.blogger.com/_y5Y_xVte8sI/SCmVkbglGGI/AAAAAAAAAoE/OQn2UBEha5g/s1600-h/vintagemortician3.jpg

[Nurse Sarah]

and another photo...note the chalk writing...

http://weheartit.com/entry/54216

[Nurse Sarah]

Pipe smoker observes autopsy -is it Monty??!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ztguuWm1yNw/Sb2f8u5olwI/AAAAAAAAA1E/5BWMvOZ4KuY/s1600-h/zm62g-1.jpg

[Nurse Sarah]

Victorian Medical School..

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ztguuWm1yNw/Sb2f8u-3AmI/AAAAAAAAA1M/qiZobu4OjaQ/s1600-h/card1001c.jpg

Antique 19th century cabinet card photo Post mortem student disection dated 1890. Medical doctor wannabess learn on human cadaver in school. Marked on reverse, Dad At College 1890

[Sam Flynn]

Reminds me obliquely of that famous photograph of Lee Miller in Hitler's bathtub

[silverstealth]

This Asylum Mortuary was closed a few decades ago, they simply locked the door and left it as was. The chap who took me in to photograph the place was convinced it was in its original condition dating back to Victorian times.

Hi all,

Its my understanding that up until and during the period we review Surgeons would wear smocks that they used in every surgery they performed, still stained with the gore. Worn like a resume. I know Lister gradually changed the thinking with respect to sterilization, but my bet is that the post mortem smocks were still those same gore stained aprons.

After all, any germs on that apron wouldnt be an issue for the cadaver.

Cheers all......special hey to Miss Caps.

[cappuccina]

You can see that there were significant improvements in operating room/theatre conditions by 1925 (...this pic is from London Hospital, I think...)

[Graham]

Quite like this little number too..
[ATTACH]6802[/ATTACH]

Suz

Suze,

and this one is a detail from Gottfried von Schweinerschagger's painting "Dr Lister Demonstrates Necrophilia".

I just know I'm right!

Graham

[Graham]

Hi Mont
Probably after Lister (shown here) and his handy carbolic spray!
[ATTACH]6801[/ATTACH]

Suz x

Suze,

own up, now. That picture is a shot from your local amateur operatic company's production of 'Ruddigore'. I'm right, aren't I?

Best,

Graham

[Archaic]

Great photo, Cappucina!

I had always thought it dreadful that surgeons & other health workers wore their germ-infested street clothes around the sick, but I just realized that these people also rubbed elbows with the healthy populace while dressed in the same clothes they wore while autopsying the dead..

How would you like to sit next to one of these fellows on the omnibus at the end of a long day?

God only knows what they got splashed with at work.

Best regards, Archaic

[cappuccina]

Here is a photograph from the time, confirming the things all of you have said...

[Sam Flynn]

Here's Bagster Phillips and assistant at Annie Chapman's autopsy, as depicted in the Michael Caine "Ripper" mini-series:



I seem to recall that, in the film Zulu, Surgeon Reynolds wore a similar brown apron to those seen above, in the scene where a wounded Stanley Baker staggers into the Rorke's Drift infirmary ("Damn you, Chard! Damn all you butchers!").