Curious Flap Anatomies - 19th Century Obstetrics

Overview
Obstetric Tables: comprising graphic illustrations, with descriptions and practical remarks; exhibiting on dissected plates many important subjects in midwifery by surgeon and accoucheur George Spratt is a medical text published in 1847.

This anatomical codex can currently be found in the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts. Through the use of detailed chromolithography book plates or flaps this book was crafted to help students of medicine and physicians visualize the stages of pregnancy and labor, techniques and/or equipment that could be used to help progress birth, as well as different positions the baby might be in during birth. This intricately created flap anatomy is accompanied by commentary and notes from both the author and doctor, George Spratt.

Substrate Analysis
This anatomical codex looks to be made of wove paper as opposed to laid paper. The two can be distinguished because holding laid paper up to light will cause chain lines to become apparent while wove paper lacks this feature. The chain lines are produced when making laid paper which consists of catching rag-based pulp using a screen which has wires that create the characteristic lines. Wove paper pulp, often made of rags, lacks these lines and has a uniform surface due to the flat mesh paper-making molds used instead. Also, this type of paper was consistent with the time the codex was being produced.

Unfortunately, the pastedown and primarily the first flyleaf at the beginning and end of the codex have extensive evidence of foxing which is an age-related process characterized by reddish brown spots as depicted below. The main causes are chemical contamination from ferric oxide used to coat paper or from the presence of fungi. As for the binding, the book has original gilt cloth publisher’s binding which is brown with some cracking. Also, the title “SPRATTS Obstetric Tables 1847.” which is in gold lettering as well as the ornamental border design are indented impressions on the cover. Focusing on the cracked areas, the side covers seem to be made of compressed paper almost like cardboard and the lifting along the spine reveals the use of some printed binding waste. This was a common way to repurpose misprinted or surplus paper for reinforcement of the spine. For this codex, there appears to be two columns printed on the waste paper that was used to strengthen the spine and from what can be read it seems to be burial rules such as a cemetery code or guideline. This is likely evidence of some job printing materials being recycled and often these types of documents would solely be preserved in these forms and only uncovered in the event of damage because they were everyday papers not considered important enough to save for the future.

Regarding the bibliographical format of the atlas, each gathering appears to be comprised of an inconsistent number of pages. This might be due to the book plates which were glued in afterwards since they had to be made using lithography techniques separately while the rest which was text was produced by relief printing. In fact, the page pictured below specifies that the codex was stereotyped by E.B. Mears at 130 Race Street in Philadelphia. Stereotyping is the practice of making a solid plate of type metal cast from a mold taken of the surface of a form or page setup. This would be useful since this medical codex was going to be printed for many medical professionals and students in America and Europe for use as a textbook mostly and having these stereotypes would make production faster and more standardized since the type for each page would not have to be reset to print any additional copies ordered.