A literary exposition of the body by an English science writer.
Aldersey-Williams (Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the
Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc, 2011, etc.) traveled, did
extensive research and even dissected cadavers in an anatomy
class to get a feel for what humans are like, inside and out.
The result is a historical telling of how bodies have been
viewed by cultures old and new. At various times, the body was
seen as a world to be explored, with parts named by their
discoverers. With Descartes came the concept of the body as
machine, with a separate soul. Occasionally, the body was viewed
as an ideal, measured to fit inside a circle or square, or of
such perfect design as to reflect divine creation. Not until
Shakespeare’s time, following Vesalius’ anatomy treatise in
1543, did “anatomizing” take off in earnest, helped by laws
dictating that after hanging, criminals’ bodies were to be
dissected. Such a law enabled Rembrandt to paint The Anatomy
Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, which actually shows