Diseases in Wax

Moulages- inventory from a wax museum? Not in the least. Moulages are three-dimensional wax figures of pathological changes in the human body. Until the mid-1950s they served as teaching models in the medical curriculum. This book, illustrated with numerous color photographs, describes the history of the art of moulaging, which had its beginnings in the anatomical wax figures of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, physicians in newly formed special disciplines of medicine requested models of illness from their fields of competence. This demand was met with moulages. The moulage, a realistic object that could be painted and formed, lent itself above all to the representation of those illnesses that appeared on the epidermis or at least produced changes on the surface of the skin. Thus it was in dermatology - the specialty that places the most value on the study of morphology - that moulages have enjoyed their broadest distribution and most intensive use. How could such an illustrative teaching material, which still exists today in a number of medical schools and museums, have fallen so completely into oblivion? This book provides answers to this question.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Roots of the Art of Moulaging
• Anatomy in Wax: An Offer to Medicine
• The Birth of Anatomia Plastica
• The Spread of Anatomic Wax Modeling
• Bologna: The Anatomic Wax Model Becomes Popular
• Florence: Anatomic Wax Sculpture at Its Height
• From Anatomic Wax Model to Medical Moulage
• A Smooth Transition: The Florentine Art of Moulaging
• A New Start: The Medical Wax Reliefs of Joseph Benedikt Kuriger
• Beginnings in Germany: The Wax Reliefs and Moulages of the Göttingen Obstetric Collection
• A Call for the Moulage: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Franz Heinrich Martens: Mouleur of the First Hour
• Joseph Towne: A Half-Century for the Moulage
• Joseph Towne and the North American Art of Moulaging
• "Hofmayer fecit": The First Ocular Moulages in Vienna
• "A Lupus Faciei Modeled in Wax": Anton Elfinger and the First Skin Moulages in Vienna
• The Hôpital Saint-Louis: The Cradle of the French Art of Moulaging
• Jules Pierre François Baretta: Genius of the Moulage
• The Moment of Truth for the Moulage
• Becoming a Tradition: Vienna and the Moulage
• The Forerunner in Germany: The Breslau Moulage Collection
• A Fine Reputation: Moulages in Berlin
• In the Service of Public Health Education: Moulages in Dresden
• An Unbroken Tradition: The Art of Moulaging in Zürich
• "Textbook in Sculpture and Picture": The Freiburg Moulage Collection
• Moulages without Mouleurs: A Collection in Würzburg
• A Rescue Attempt: Synthetic Moulages in Hannover
• Conclusion