Des Prétendus Canaux Qui Feraient Communiquer les Vaisseaux Sanguins et Lymphatiques (So-Called Channels that Would Communicate Blood and Lymphatic Vessels), Jean Tarchanoff (Ivan Tarkhanov), 1875

Georgian physiologist Ivan Tarkhanov (1846–1908) spent two years in Paris working in Claude Bernard’s laboratory. In this study, Tarkhanov observed injections into the blood and lymphatic vessels in the web of a frog’s foot. The chromolithograph plate illustrates a microscopic view of the membrane after injections of carmine (top) and Prussian blue (bottom).

Cataloging requires subject analysis to determine and translate the “aboutness” of a title into a controlled vocabulary, such as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The frog was the 19th century’s “Martyr of Science,” so several of the pamphlet titles were assigned the heading “Anura” (frogs or toads), including this work by Tarkhanov.

—Rare Book Cataloger