Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery

In addition, Bourgery also took part in the production of anatomical models made of paper stucco or papier-mâché for the Félix Thibert Anatomy Museum.

Jean-Marc Bourgery died at the age of 52 after completing his work, supposedly as a result of a cholera epidemics in Paris.

He dealt with aspects of morphology that had previously been neglected; he developed a number of new methods and research approaches, which he described systematically and in detail.

Metaphysically, he saw himself as a traveller in search of a universal structure, the secret of which he hoped to unravel through persistent research of the supreme anatomical discipline– far more than just a comprehensive collection of morphological findings.

Bourgery did extracurricular research and was occasionally supported by well-known scientists, such as Mathieu Orfila, François Magendie, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and others.

Bourgery was assisted by medical staff and surgeons during autopsies and preparations of original anatomical samples needed as templates for drawings.

Nicolas Henri Jacob was already established and later honored as a draftsman; he mastered lithographic techniques and also knew the subject of medical science quite well.

There have been also other students and artists who collaborated with him, among which are Charlotte A. Hublier, Jean Baptiste Léveillé, Edmond Pochet, and others.

The procedure allowed a much more accurate drawing and gave a better haptic impression of the anatomical structures than in woodcut or copper engraving possible.

Initially, the lithograph produced only black-and-white images with gray gradation, which were then colored with a brush or stencils by hand.

The monumental work of Bourgery and Jacob received an award and the highest praise from critics[1] and experts.

Illustrations from Bourgery's atlas of anatomy became a compulsory component of the popular science bestseller by Fritz Kahn in 1920s and 1967-1979 in Germany,[4][5] as well as from 1943 in the US.

3, p. 33 “Now that I'm about to finish my life's work, the entire material of which is at my disposal, and since what I've come close to what I set out to do, the public may realize that I did not fail with my intention.” Vol.