Julio Luis Cárdenas Valenzuela

Summary

Arrival in Chile in 1846, the anatomical statue of Dr. Auzoux is purchased by the government for the Museum of Natural History. In 1864, it was donated to the School of Medicine, serving several generations of students, and given up for lost in 1923. Since then was casually used by students and teachers, unaware of their origin, until it begins its search, being in 2005, in a regular condition. For restoration, it was cleaned every substance outside the model. Then, we carried out a visual record of the "statue" jointly and separately, disarming by regions to identify each of its parts, analyzing the conservation quality of the material used, type of material, inscriptions and fasteners used in its preparation. The whole process was supported by digital images. The statue corresponded to a life-size human figure representing an adult man standing without his skin, constructed of papier mache. The right hemisphere is built block, leaning from his right foot on a iron rod ending in a three-point basis. The left side of the body has different hinged together by systems bronze hooks and eyelets that allow adjustment parts fit parts. It consists of 26 removable parts with 92 parts total separable and 2000 details, each identified by a number. In general, the parts for wear in the joint areas or anchors, with clear deterioration of his painting, being more exposed surface areas in the model the most affected. Since this statue is the oldest documented anatomical object of the country and considering the state of disrepair of it, it was imperative to start the restoration process to preserve it for future generations of anatomists.

KEYWORDS: Anatomical Model; Teaching Anatomy; Dr. Auzoux; Conservation.

How to cite this article

CÁRDENAS, V. J. L. The anatomical statue of Dr. Auzoux. First anatomical model of teaching purposes in Chile. Int. J. Morphol., 33(1):393-399, 2015.