The Body Landscapes of Fritz Kahn
In this short post I look at some more illustrations produced by the Weimar era popular science writer and illustrator Fritz Kahn. Theses illustrations are interesting because they break with Kahn's more popular man-as-machine metaphor by depicting the body as a fantastic landscape. Produced early in Kahn's career to me these illustrations present a more traditional and romantic view of the body than Kahn's later work.
This first image is illustrates the glands of the skin as chimneys on the hand:
Chimneys of the Skin
The next image depicts the inside of blood vessels and could be considered a bit of a stretch as a body-landscape. However, I have seen exactly the same illustration in another Kahn publication with the sole addition of small fairy-people riding on-top of the blood cells through the vein. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the image at some point in my move from Toronto.
The Vein as a Tunnel
A bit more of a stretch is this illustration labeled "how the dessert cleans the tongue" where the tongue is a landscape being worked on by little figures who represent various foods and drinks. The reason this is a stretch is that the meme of little people working (and carrying out tasks) inside the body is very common in Kahn's illustrations, including his body-machine images. This image is part of a series of fascinating illustrations dealing with eating habits and I will definitely do a full post on in this topic in the future. 
How the Dessert Cleans the Tongue
Next is an illustration meant to show the spead of the neural impulse compared to the speed of contemporary air travel and wireless communication. Interesting here is the choice of North and South America as the comparitive landscape, probably related to Kahn's move to the United States following being smuggled out of Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War Two. 
The Speed of the Neural Impluse
This last illustration is my favorite of the series and the image that prompted this quick post. This illustration is of a landscape drawn from the perspective of a person inside the nose looking out.
Through the Proboscis Darkly
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