Contents - 6[-]Foreword - 7[-]Anatomy ornamented - 11[-]The poet and the tsar - 32[-]The pathologisation of dissection - 35[-]Magic stones from the belly of an antelope - 46[-]A cabinet departs - 59[-]Criminal heads - 82[-]The foetus man - 85[-]A nerve-racking job for Lodewijk Bolk - 110[-]Death keeps science alive - 113[-]Mangled by fashion - 130[-]List of captions - 133[-]Bibliography - 141[-]About the contributors - 143The Museum Vrolikianum in Amsterdam was famous amongst scientists and medical men all over Europe in the nineteenth century. No visit to the city was complete without taking the opportunity to gaze in admiration at its five thousand specimens, ranging from curious stillbirths to human skeletons ­ healthy or diseased ­ and all kinds of exotic and not-so-exotic animals.
Recent scientific publications have brought this exceptional collection back into the limelight. With its wonderful photographs by Hans van den Bogaard, this book is certain to extend that renewed interest to an even wider audience. Forces of Form provides a beautifully illustrated overview of Amsterdam’s great tradition of anatomical collecting, homes in on the Vrolik Museum’s long history and reveals the collection’s huge scientific and cultural value. After all, a collection like this deserves to be seen.