Abstract
A group of 19th century inmates dead in the prison of Parma are the protagonist of an incredible scientific collection. Lorenzo Tenchini started the creation of this collection and dedicated his work and his studies to its completeness. Anatomist and academic, Lorenzo Tenchini (1852–1906) dedicated his scientific studies to macroscopic anatomy, particularly about central nervous system and its correlation with psychic function. In 1881 he became ordinary professor in Normal Human Anatomy at the University of Parma dedicating himself to the study of the anatomical organization of the brain and psychic and social disturbs. During the study of the skulls and brains of psychotic patients and the deformations of skulls belonging to patients admitted in the Hospital of Brescia, he started a collaboration with Alessandro Cugini (1829–1913), founder of the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Parma. Tenchini realized an anatomical collection, preserved today in the Museum of Biomedicine of the University of Parma. This collection represents the masterpiece of his research carried out during his academic activity and still a unicum in the western world, as there are no similar collection assembling such a multidisciplinary information. The peculiarity of this collection is due not only to the scientific interest of the anatomic samples and their full clinical documentation, but also to the methods employed in order to realize it. At the end of the 19th century, as a student of Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909), Tenchini based his work on the study of the face, the skull and brain of each dead inmate of Parma’s prison or Colorno’s mental hospital. These individuals as protagonists of Tenchini’s collection, leave a legacy identifiable as scientific heritage. Their skulls and brains, the reproduction of their faces through ceroplastic and other anatomical samples treated with other techniques, are accompanied by an autoptic and psychiatric full documentation, allowing the collection to be complete with every aspect related to the inmates studied. Through his work, a comparison between different kind of studies, such as psychiatry, psychology, neurology, legal medicine and anthropology, is suitable in scientific research to be realized. Moreover, data come from a forensic context: this allows a comparison with different methodologies employed in modern age by forensic expertise such as the comparison between modern and ancient medical diagnostic technique. This masterpiece represents Tenchini’s neuroanatomical research on behaviour and set a pioneering step in the history of biomedical science allowing further multidisciplinary studies.
Highlights
In the modern age, biomedical achievements spur scientific research
A group of 19th century inmates who died in a prison of Parma, Italy, are the subjects of an incredible scientific collection created by Lorenzo Tenchini (1852–1906)
As a student of Cesare Lombroso and a follower of his ideas, Tenchini’s research endorsed the physiognomy principles of the late 19th century; the faces, skulls, and brains of the patients and inmates he studied still provide a wealth of information from his scientific investigation
Summary
Biomedical achievements spur scientific research. Among new experimental approaches and methodologies, the ingenious and revolutionary studies of an Italian anatomist from the 19th century stand out as his scientific legacy. As a student of Cesare Lombroso and a follower of his ideas, Tenchini’s research endorsed the physiognomy principles of the late 19th century; the faces, skulls, and brains of the patients and inmates he studied still provide a wealth of information from his scientific investigation. All his anatomical preparations (skulls, brains, mummified viscera and masks reproducing the faces of the subjects studied), are accompanied by autopsy and sometimes psychiatric documentation. He used a drying technique similar to mummification combined with intravascular injection of coloured masses (plaster and/or jellies with vegetable gum, essential oils and mordants) [1]
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