Dr. Auzoux's papier-mâché models
Medical student Louis Auzoux was frustrated with the shortage of human corpses available for studying anatomy. Using his own secret papier-mâché mixture he developed 'dissectable' models, which could be used again and again. Later, he also created models of animals and plants.
Real corpses or models?
As a medical student in Paris, Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux XR (1797-1880) noticed that there was often a shortage of human remains available for doing human dissections. Dissections were an essential part of studying medicine. However, even if a body was available, it could only be used once before it began to decompose.
To deal with the shortage of bodies, Auzoux began producing accurate anatomical models that could be taken apart piece by piece.
The models were sturdy and inexpensive, especially when made with the secret papier-mâché mixture that Auzoux had developed (Image 1). The mixture contained cork and clay as well as paper and glue.
From wax to papier-mâché
Introducing papier-mâché as a modelling material was a radical change from earlier modelling techniques. In previous centuries, anatomists and artists made their anatomical models using wax.
While wax models could reproduce anatomical details very accurately, the material was very expensive and too fragile to be handled frequently because the wax would lose its shape.
Papier-mâché, on the other hand, was sturdy enough to produce detachable models that could be used again and again, at less than a tenth of the price of similar wax models.
» Can you put an Auzoux model human back together? Test your knowledge of anatomy in the Body Jigsaw
Commercial success
With financial support from the French state, Auzoux founded a factory for producing anatomical models in his small hometown of St. Aubin d'Ecrosville in France. After a few years, the models became a commercial success, and were used by schools, universities and hospitals, as well as by private individuals who could rent models at low costs.
Responding to changing trends in scientific research and education, the company branched out into producing models of human embryos, animals and plants.
Read more about:
» Dr. Auzoux
» Inside Auzoux's models
» Human models
» Animal models
» Plant models
» Foetus models
Visit the following websites for further information:
- Read more about the Auzoux models on the website "Artificial Anatomy: Papier-mâché Anatomical Models" [http://americanhistory.si.edu/anatomy/index.html] of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
- Do the Smithsonian Museum's interactive anatomy quiz [http://americanhistory.si.edu/anatomy/bodyparts/nma03_bodyparts.html].
- Take a look at the Auzoux model of a horse [http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/galleryguide/E5341.asp] at the Science Museum, London.
- See examples of 18th-century wax models [http://www.msn.unifi.it/CMpro-v-p-98.html] at the Museum "La Specola", Florence.
- Compare historical representations to contemporary images of the body provided by the Visible Human Project [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_gallery.html] of the National Library of Medicine, USA.
Further reading
- B. Grob, The World of Auzoux: Models of Man and Beast in Papier-Mâché (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2000).
- A. B. Davis, 'Louis Thomas Jerôme Auzoux and the papier maché anatomical model', La Ceroplastica nella Scienza e nell'Arte: atti del I Congresso Internazionale Firenze, 3-7 Giugno 1975 (Florence: Olschki, 1977), pp. 257-279.
- M. Lemire, Artistes et Mortels (Paris: Chabaud, 1990).
- S. de Chadarevian and N. Hopwood (eds.), Models: The Third Dimension of Science (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
Anna Maerker
Anna Maerker, 'Dr. Auzoux's papier-mâché models', Explore Whipple Collections, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge, 2008 [http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/explore/models/drauzouxsmodels/, accessed 23 September 2017]
