Category: Anatomical models

France | Paris

About

France’s largest collection of anatomical models and specimens began as small collection cultivated by Honore Fragonard (a professor of anatomy at the University of Paris). The collection was enhanced by Mathieu Orfila ( the dean of Medicine at U. of Paris), after he visited London’s Huntarian. In true french patriotism he sought to out shine the British. The museum contains specimens of humans and animals, including embryological reconstructions and pieces of neuro-anatomy.

Relevant People:

Honore Fragonard

France | Montpellier

About

The oldest and the largest anatomy museum in France, the museum is situated inside the world famous and historic University of Montpellier. Structured with wide Doric columns, the museum‘s collections were listed as historic monuments in 2004. The museum’s educational dimension cannot be missed amidst the eeriness which envelops it. The main features of the museum are: -Deformed foetuses preserved in jars -Human and animal skeletons -An “ethnological” collection of skulls.

Relevant People:

Spain | Madrid

About

This museum was created by Dr. Federico Oloriz Aguilera. He came to Madrid in 1883 and collected over 1900 human skulls and studied them. Today the collection belongs to the Department of Human Anatomy and Embryology in the University of Ciudad, Madrid.

Relevant People:

Dr. Federico Oloriz Aguilera

England | London

About

Gordon museum is the largest medical museum in the United Kingdom located in Kings College, London. Their collection includes many historically important artifacts including the Joseph Towne anatomical and dermatological wax models, the Lam Qua pre-operative tumour paintings and the specimen and artefact collections of Hodgkin, Thomas Addison, Bright and Astley Cooper.

Relevant People:

England | London

About

Founded in 1828, the Grant Museum houses over 67,000 specimens, covering the entire Animal Kingdom. Their collections include some rare and even extinct animal skeletons such as the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo. The Brain Collection Most of the specimens were originally brought from the Gordon museum. Each brain is preserved in alcohol and suspended in glass jars. The collection is made up entirely of mammals, except for a single turtle, allowing the visitors a comparative tour of mammalian brains. The brains were collected from Africa, Asia, South America and Australia and Europe. Most of the brains are whole, a few have been dissected to show the internal anatomy. Of particular interest are the tiger cub that was only a few hours old, and the domestic dog. The dog’s brain has been annotated and each section of the brain sports a tiny label that has been stapled to it.

Relevant People:

Croatia | Zagreb

About

The Croatian Institute for Brain research is an affiliate of the University of Zagreb Medical School, and an independent research facility and archive. Its founder Dr. Ivica Kostovic established Zagreb’s neuroembryological collection; a significant collection of preserved human brains at various stages of development. It is one of the largest collections of human brains in the world consisting of 1,300 developing and adult brains. It has served as a valuable resource for many research projects, more than 30 PhD theses and upwards of 200 publications. The Institute even has a dormitory for researchers wishing to visit and utilize the collection. However, the institute is currently creating an online catalogue of the collection that will be readily available to those who cannot travel all the way to Croatia.

Relevant People:

Professor Ivica Kostovic

Austria | Baden

About

Baden is an Austrian city located close to Vienna. In the Rollett museum, one can see the skull collection of Dr. Franz Joseph Gall, the founder of phrenology. The collection is consists of 119 busts, 78 skulls, 20 wax patterns and 25 masks, including the death mask of Napoleon I.

Relevant People:

Dr. Franz Joseph Gall

Austria | Vienna

About

The famous collection of wax anatomical and obstetric models is the result of a personal initiative of Joseph II. Inspired by the wax models in “La Specola” in Florence, commissioned by his brother (the Grand Duke of Tuscany and later Emperor Leopold II), Joseph II ordered 1,192 models for the newly-founded academy in Vienna. These were produced in Florence between 1784 and 1788 under the supervision of director Felice Fontana and anatomist Paolo Mascagni and eventually arrived in Vienna after a wearisome journey over the Alps. They were intended to serve on the one hand as visual aids for teaching, but on the other they were, even then, intended for the general public. The majority of the models survived to this day and they are exhibited in six rooms in their original rosewood and Venetian glass display cases.

Relevant People:

Austria | Innsbruck

About

The university of Innsbruck, founded by the emperor Leopold I, started its first lectures in 1672. The first anatomical professorship was given to Prof. Theodor Friedrich von STADTLENDER on April 22th 1689. The most important instrument for instructions in anatomy was then, as it is today, the human body. The „Letztwillige Verfügung“, i.e. the disposition of one’s body by will, did not exist in the 17th century. Therefore it was quite a problem to procure corpses and opportunities for dissection, the more so since the dissecting of people was thought to be a sin by many people. One possibility to get suitable corpses for dissection, however, there was: the anatomy professor could try to acquire from the hangman the dead bodies of persons who had been sentenced to death (death penalty being the customary punishment then for many crimes).

Relevant People: