Dr. Louis Jerome Auzoux, France, 1797-1880| Anantomical Cross-Sectional Model of a Cockchafer (Melolontha Vulgaris)

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Anon, Papieren Anatomie, De Wonderschone Papier-machemodellen van Dokter Auzoux, Boerhaave Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, illustrated p.40-43.

Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797–1880) was a French anatomist who pioneered the use of papier-mâché anatomical models in the 19^th century. Auzoux’s highly accurate ‘anatomy clastique’ (from the Greek Klastos meaning broken into pieces) were born out of his frustration with finding and preserving human cadavers for dissection and study. He set up a workshop in his hometown of Saint Aubin d’Ecrosville in 1827 which traded as Maison Auzoux and the firm’s output quickly expanded into the manufacture of large scale didactic zoological and botanical models. The papier-mâché models were a far superior alternative to their wax precursors, whose segmental form allowed students to study the inner organs and tissues of the subject in intricate detail.