First of all, congratulations to Blogger for publishing my pictures in exact reverse order, thus taking away the impact of my post.
Today we took my class to the Body Worlds exhibition at the O2 (the Millennium Dome that was).
Gunther Von Hagens invented the technique of "plastination" to preserve bodies and their parts and use them in displays. There are human and animal bodies in all stages of being stripped down to show their component parts. There are cross sections of parts of the body, showing things like lung cancer and blocked arteries among many other things. It was very interesting, and not nearly as sick-making as this vegetarian feared.
The most amazing item on display was this giraffe.
He split the body in two to reveal the internal organs.
This horse has two riders, and shows various bits of musculature and bone.
This man is carrying his own skin.
This is a pregnant woman with an 8-month baby in her womb.
He displays blood vessels, nerves and any other part of the body you could imagine. There are complete brains, slices of brains, separated hemispheres. You name it, he has preserved and now displays it.
It's amazing. And at least he doesn't have the non-human creatures killed for his art. (It goes without saying he didn't have the humans killed!)
If it comes to an exhibition place near you, you might well enjoy it.
Photos are all from Google.