Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1814

FRANCIS SIBSON (1814-1876) Medical anatomy: or, Illustrations of the relative position and movements of the internal organs. John Churchill & Sons 1869 [8] pp., 88 columns, 21 part col. plates, illus. 53.4 cm.

Sibson was apprenticed to Lizars (see No. 1435) at age fourteen and in 1831 received his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Some seventeen years later, when practicing in London, he received the M.D. degree from the University of London after passing the required examinations. Although primarily a general physician and surgeon, Sibson made a number of important contributions to the practice of anesthesia during its early days. Sibson is mnemonically remembered by the terms Sibson's fascia (a fibrous band extending from the apical pleura and attaching to the transverse process of the seventh cervical vertebrae) and Sibson's muscle (a part of the scalenus group). Sibson had a special interest in the teaching of anatomy and believed that it was not being properly taught because the functional aspect of the organs, particularly those of circulation and respiration, was being neglected. As a result, he published the present work depicting anterior, posterior, and side views of dissections of male and female cadavers. With the exception of some parts of the neck, only the contents of the thorax and abdomen are shown. The anatomical relationships of the organs, their range of motion, and especially the effects of respiration and cardiac pulsation are described in a unique manner. Sibson makes allowance for the fact that in a cadaver the organ positions are fixed and not, therefore, exactly the same as in the living body. A final commentary on the structure, movements, and sounds of the heart reveals an accuracy far beyond anything that had yet been published in anatomical works. The work was issued in seven fascicles between 1855 and 1869 and is here published complete with a new title page for the first time.

See Related Record(s): 1435

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 422

Gift of John Martin, M.D.