These ivory manikins were usually between six and seven inches long, and the internal organs sometimes could be taken out for examination.

Gaetano Guilo Zumbo was the first to make colored wax models in Bologna during the latter part of the seventeenth century, and Italian craftsmen improved upon his techniques the following century, creating some of the finest wax models ever made. Clemente Susini carried on this specialized craft in the eighteenth century, aided by the fine anatomist Paolo Mascagni. The wax figures had to be individually carved, and it took up to two hundred cadavers to make one model because of the lack of adequate preservation.

Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux (1797-1880) addressed the demand for anatomic models in a different way by creating paper-mache representations of body parts, occasionally greater than life-size. Auzoux was a French medical graduate, though he never practiced medicine, preferring to supply anatomic figures to medical schools in Europe, England, and the United States. He took colored strips of paper and used either hide glue or natural resins to form full figures and anatomic parts for his models.

The life-size female model pictured is posing as Venus de Milo, and all the muscles and organs are labeled.

This smaller male model currently resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Exploded skulls" for demonstration were first manufactured by French anatomist Beauchene in the middle of the 19th century.

This ninteenth century model by Auzoux was made of plaster rather than the usual paper-mache,

This is a life-size paper manikin that that could be viewed in layers to demonstrate deeper sections of the body.

This is one of ten early 20th century anatomic charts illustrating all parts of the body.

As the population grew rapidly at the beginning of the twentieth century, the increased need for study materials could only be met through mass production. The artistry of wax and paper-mache figures was lost forever, giving way to “flap” models with the anatomy of each organ revealed as a layer of paper or metal was peeled off from the one above. Flap anatomies (ca. 1880–1910): (top) Yaggy’s Anatomical Study by I.W. Yaggy and J.J. West, Smith’s American Manikin by Elias Smith, MD, Pilz Anatomical Manikin by American Thermo-Wave Co., NY; (bottom) Bodyscope by Ralph Segal, NY, Dr. Minder’s Anatomical Manikin of the Human Body by American Thermo-Wave Co., NY, Philip’s Model of the Human Body (Female) by George Philip and son, London