A variety of gruesome to sexy magnetic anatomical models of the past

These human body models have been used in medical research and teaching hundreds of years ago.

Few people know that human body models have appeared hundreds of years ago to serve the work of doctors. They are made from a variety of materials such as wax, ivory, paper or even the real body parts of the dead.

When the anatomy began to develop in Europe, doctors could only practice on corpses and encountered many difficulties due to backward post mortem conditions. Therefore, the use of models has helped a lot for studying and researching medicine.

Go back in history to see the human body models used in ancient medicine through the photos below:

This is a head model made of ivory. It used to be a teaching tool in teaching medicine in Europe 300 - 400 years ago. If you click on the cylinder below, the parts like the eyes, tongue and lower jaw of the skull will immediately move.

In Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, obstetricians often exhibited a model of this human body to show their status and scholarship in their expertise.

These models often come in pairs of one male and one female, in which the female model has both fetuses in the womb. In this model, you can observe the uterus with the child inside, accompanied by a red cord representing the umbilical cord.

Although there are not many documents mentioned about this model, it is thought that it is a teaching tool to teach the delivery of midwives or obstetric students in Europe in the nineteenth century. The model of the newborn is placed in a wooden slant on the back.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the supply of cadavers for hospitals and medical schools became scarce in Europe. Doctors have found an innovative and quite scary solution: pumping wax into dead body parts and storing them.

The above arm model was used between 1831-1870 in Europe. The blood vessels are preserved quite intact, showing us the complex and sophisticated structure of the vascular system.

In ancient China, the woman who went to medical treatment was not allowed to see her physician's face due to the rules of feudal ceremonies. They should not let physicians touch people and are not even allowed to name some sensitive body parts when they are examined.

To overcome this problem, the ancient Chinese invented this 'diagnostic doll' . The female patient lying behind a curtain will point at the parts of the doll for the doctor to diagnose.

In the early nineteenth century, the art of "papier-mâché" was applied by the medical community to recreate human organs. Using only pulp, cloth, paste and many other simple materials, scientists have created body models with high accuracy and aesthetics.

The French anatomist Louis Thomas Jerôme Auzoux has made a great contribution to the dissemination of models by papier-mâché. He opened a factory specialized in making paper parts, like this brain model, to serve hospitals and universities.

If you are a medical student during the period of 1776 - 1780 at the University of Florence (Italy), this real-size model may appear in your class.

This statue is cast with wax and concentrates to illustrate the structure of human muscles and bones. This is one of the works of Clemente Susini, the famous Italian sculptor with extremely sophisticated human anatomy models.

This is an eye model used to study in the nineteenth century. The rear pole can be removed, allowing students to observe the parts that make up the eye such as the cornea, pupils and iris, along with the outer eyelids.

In the past, talented artists also painted eye blood vessels to create a feeling of "just like the real thing" for this model.

In the picture is a wax body model used in 1771 - 1800 in Europe. Interestingly, most wax models of this period were male. Meanwhile, the female models are also used but only for the purpose of understanding the difference between male and female bodies.

The female body models as shown in this picture are called the old Europeans named Venus, after the goddess of love and beauty. You can see the internal organs being removed and placed next to this model.