A papier-maché human anatomical model used in the Madras Medical Establishment in the 1830s

Abstract

An untitled 2-page notice by a Madras Civil Servant John Morris sleeved under ‘Scientific Intelligence’ in the inaugural issue of the Madras Journal of Literature & Science (1834) refers to a human anatomical model built by Louis Aujoux, a French physician–anatomist–model maker. Highly likely this model was used at the Madras Medical Establishment to teach basic medicine to trainees of the Subordinate Medical Service. This was brought to Madras by Surgeon George Knox of the Madras Medical Establishment in the early 1830s, before the establishment of the Madras Medical School under the superintendence of William Mortimer. A similar model was acquired by the Calcutta Medical Establishment a little earlier. The present article, keeping the human anatomical model as the central element, refers to the development of interest in designing human models for purposes of teaching medicine in Europe. That interest stimulated using such models in India as well. The present article also refers to the medical interests of the scholar–princes of Tanjavur and Travancore of the nineteenth century India, who maintained models of full human skeletons, not of bones but made of ivory, in their Curiosity Cabinets (Kunstkammern). From the 2-page notice of Morris, we understand that the model that came to Madras from France was a gift to the Government of Madras for teaching purposes. No further details are traceable.