A wax model showing the muscles of the torso and head made by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson in the late eighteenth century. It’s currently on display in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris.

I’m going to be a very busy bee for the next two weeks, so if you’re in Edinburgh and Glasgow and want to see me waving my arms around like this while telling tales from the history of anatomy there are no less than FOUR opportunities to do so!

Come and join us! Very excited to be talking to these incredible women

The top of Charles Darwin’s memento mori walking stick, which he used as he got older to remind himself of the preciousness of life. Currently on display at the Wellcome Collection as part of their exhibition ‘The Coming of Age’.

Just hit ‘send’ on the first draft! CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD: The Lives of Human Remains to be published by HarperCollins (UK) and St Martin’s Press (North America) in Spring 2028.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and in the midst of it all this beautiful new book on the wax models of the Josephinum in Vienna winged its way to me! Now my Friday evening is being spent enjoying its company 🖤

Fell a bit in love with Serena Korda’s Wild Apples in the Wellcome Collection today. It uses the bodies of perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal women to respond to the wax Anatomical Venuses I’ve talked about here in the past.

Today has been a day of editing, watched over by this very sweet we chap from @crimsonpins.bsky.social

The bone crypt of Rothwell Holy Trinity Church. It’s been a few years since I was last here so think I’m about due a return visit. The crypt itself dates to the early thirteenth century, and would have been used to store bones dug up from the graveyard to make way for new graves.

A wax model showing the anatomy of the throat. The coloured ribbons are connected to labels which identify the structures. You can find it in the Brussels Musée de la Médecine

I’m speaking at the Science Festival on Tuesday! www.edinburghscience.co.uk/event/dissec...

A wax model showing the skin reflected back and the top section of the skull removed to reveal the brain. It was one of the many beautiful models made by Joseph Towne during his fifty-three years working at Guy’s hospital in the nineteenth century

This event will be brilliant - come along if you’re in Edinburgh or environs!

Just spotted my pal Cat on TV being interviewed by Vicky McClure. She is a bloody brilliant human being.

Talking Burke, Hare and body dissection with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen for Sky History’s Britain’s Murder Map!

Artists have long studied anatomy to try and make their work more realistic. In 1801 sculptor Thomas Banks and painters Benjamin West and Richard Cosway decided to look at the anatomical accuracy of depictions of Christ being crucified.

A rather sneaky memento mori figure with his arrow in the cloister of Mainz Cathedral

Haunted self portrait

One of my first conversations when back at work after a couple of weeks away was about anatomical models, so here’s a beautiful one. Made by Clemente Susini in eighteenth century Florence, it shows the anatomy of the head and neck, and can now be seen in La Specola in Florence.

Another of Louis Auzoux’s dissectible papier-mâché mannequins, this time in the Musée d’histoire de la Médecine in Paris 🖤

Coming to Glasgow in May! www.eventbrite.com/e/then-and-n...

Our new events programme has launched! Our spring programme is incredibly varied- from vaping to 300 years of Edinburgh Medical School. 🧵👇

Cat Irving (@anatomicalcat.bsky.social) will be joined by Katie Stringer, one of the editors of The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death, for a discussion of the themes and ideas explored in this landmark publication. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dissecting...

In this talk, Human Remains Conservator @anatomicalcat.bsky.social explores how anatomical knowledge has influenced artistic attempts to understand and depict the physical realities of crucifixion. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lunch-time...

Anatomical models made by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson in the late eighteenth century on display in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris. Looking forward to being back in Paris next week!

On the lower floor of Michaelskapelle in Iphofen, Germany, you can find the only remaining ossuary in Lower Franconia. It was an extraordinary place to visit yesterday.

A wonderful memento mori figure at the base of a crucifix in the museum of Mainz cathedral.

Met this rather lovely skeleton on a seventeenth century tomb in Liège Cathedral today…

We made a stop in Liége today to see Guillaume Geefs’ ‘Le génie du mal’, known to the internet as Stupid Sexy Satan. It’s quite a thing to behold but in person you see some easily-missed details…

Every time I go to the Wellcome Bookshop i discover something new and delectable! This is the beauty i could not resist on my visit two weeks ago…

The beautiful ossuary of Marville in France, which has featured on the title slide of a number of my talks (and do get in touch if you’d like me to give a lecture on ossuaries!). I’m off on a road trip on Friday and looking forward to seeing a few ossuaries that I’ve never visited before.

Some of the anatomical features of the face and neck modelled in wax over bone. This was done by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson working in the late nineteenth century. He became much better known for his models than for his surgical endeavours

As always Cat Irving's talk for #GothsForBreakfast was amazing! We explored Burke and Hare (NOT Bodysnatchers), bodysnatchers and the representations of both on screen. Definitely added to my to watch (and to read) lists!

I’ll be speaking at 3pm on the subject of The Sack’em Up Men on Screen: Body Snatchers Go To The Movies (amongst a whole array of amazing speakers!). It’s online, and for a great cause

An anatomical wax model made by Joseph Towne, who spent more than 50 years making wax models for Guy’s Hospital, having been employed there by Astley Cooper in 1826. Cooper was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and had been impressed by seeing a wax skeleton Towne had made

Lovely visit today from @anatomicalcat.bsky.social chatting all things Jeremy Bentham and human remains!

Our Macewen exhibition will be on until July 2026 so there's still plenty of time to come along and learn about this remarkable, surgical pioneer.

It was great to see the current exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on pioneering neurosurgeon William Macewen. I’ve worked with some of the head slices that Macewen cut as part of the preparation for his Atlas of Head Sections, published in 1893.

@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social @anatomicalcat.bsky.social Would make a great sign for an independent medical practice. #Medicine #Doctors

The Totentanz - or Dance of Death - in Bleibach, Germany dates to 1723, and still has all 34 scenes presents. There are 33 figures and their encounter with an anthropomorphised Death plus a skeletal band. In this scene, Death is coming for the cardinal.

When our friend Helena died a group of us met at her flat to help tidy and take some mementos. I found this book on Ithell Colquhoun by Amy Hale and thought it fitting. Last night Amy was our honoured guest and kind enough to sign the book. Funny how these things come around

Shrove is the past tense of shrive, the act of making confession. The noun form, shrift, gives us “short shrift”; the brief, cursory confession offered to condemned prisoners and, therefore, any meagre thing. Ironically, offering short shrift in pancakes is a capital offence in Castle Pieterstein.

Some of the beautiful work of @nathalie.latour.501 spotted on a recent trip to Paris in the Librarie Alain Brieux. I’ve been a fan of Nathalie’s beautiful anatomical waxes for ages - and you might have seen them recently when it featured prominently in Guillermo del Torro’s Frankenstein!

Still time to grab a ticket to listen to me talk about chlamydia from the comfort of your sofa tonight! What better way to end Valentine’s weekend…

It’s Valentine’s Day - so here’s an illustration from McLaren’s Atlas of Venereal Disease from 1889

I’ll be talking cocks with @k8lister.bsky.social in Edinburgh - the perfect Valentine present!

The Edinburgh Science Festival programme is now live! Come and see me on 14th April www.edinburghscience.co.uk/event/dissec...

This image, from the Sisters of Mercy’s Body and Soul EP, shows Dante and the poet Virgil in the lowest levels of the Inferno. Here there is only silence, as the sinners are engulfed in ice. This and more fun facts can be learned in my Goths for Breakfast talk!

What’s a better haunted house than Hell itself? I’ll be speaking about Dante’s deeply gothic Inferno at this day-long event but, more importantly, so will @anatomicalcat.bsky.social and @gothicbodies.bsky.social !