The Anatomical Basis of Medical Practice

 

My dear friend Martha is a retired forensic osteologist. She was part of a 13-person team called in to identify skeletal remains after a mass disaster. She knew the authors of this medical textbook,  published in the early 1970s.

The authors, cheeky and young, decided to illustrate some chapters with Playboy-style photographs. The tongue-in-cheek captions have a faux-technical tone--such as an explanation that says one suggestive pose illustrates "a beautiful example of spinal flexion". The book ignited controversy in the medical establishment and was allowed to go out of print after the first edition sold out.

Martha had never owned a copy of this book and regretted the lost opportunity. One day I found it on eBay for $125. Given that it's priced at up to $900 on Amazon, I snapped it up. It needed repair, but the text block was intact. I took the book apart and fixed it. I cleaned up hot-glue messes, made new endpapers, removed the bookplate of a previous owner (but saved it, to retain the book's history), and strengthened the cover. Then I really had fun making the box.

The book's title page had the publisher's seal, "Sans Tache" which apparently means "without blemish" or "without shame." I ordered an enlarged photo of the seal and made a special inset for the box cover, using magnets. 

When you pull up the ribbon, a photo illustration is revealed. (There's another on the reverse of the inset.)

I sent the book in its special box to Martha as a birthday gift. She loved it! She discovered my humorous little trick when she pulled on the ribbon and says she "had a fit" laughing.

There's another part of this book's history that is darker. One of the authors might possibly have been a murderer. As a medical doctor, he knew how to hide DNA evidence and was never charged. But the bodies of his adulterous wife and her boyfriend were found tied to a tree. He's dead now, and his secret is buried with him.

One of my all-time favorite mystery authors is Aaron Elkins, who created a series about a forensic anthropologist who solves mysteries--Gideon Oliver, the "Skeleton Detective." I think this textbook's backstory would make a truly memorable challenge for the Skeleton Detective!