Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: wax models

  • Between Vesalius and the CAT scan

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Scribe: noun. A person who copies documents, especially a person who made handwritten copies before the invention of printing.— Dictionary.com The first reliable anatomic drawings based on human dissections may have been those of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519). Later, Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), born in Brussels as Andries van Wesel and having taken a…

  • The wax models of Clemente Susini (1752–1814)

    Clemente Susini is remembered for creating what is probably the most extensive collection of anatomical wax works in the world. He first studied sculpture in Florence, but in 1773 became an apprentice there at the museum of natural history in a workshop recently established to produce wax models for teaching anatomy. Within a few years…

  • Frantisek Chvostek, a notable physician

    Mas AhmedAnna PayneUnited Kingdom Frantisek Chvostek was an eminent physician widely known for his description of the Chvostek sign, still widely used in clinical practice. Being born as the son of a leather tanner in nineteenth century Moravia was not the ideal start for a boy dreaming to become a surgeon, but that was the problem…