The Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière was a museum of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

formerly located on the eighth floor of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris V René Descartes University, 45, rue des Saints-Pères,

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was the largest anatomy museum in France. It was closed around 2005, with all its exhibits going into storage. In 2011 the collections were donated to the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

and are on display in the Medical School.

History

The museum dated from 1794 when

Honoré Fragonard Honoré Fragonard (13 June 1732 – 5 April 1799) was a French anatomy, anatomist, now remembered primarily for his remarkable collection of ''écorchés'' (flayed figures) in the Musée Fragonard d'Alfort. Fragonard was born in Grasse as ...

, demonstrator and professor of anatomy, collected specimens for the Faculty of Medicine of Paris's new anatomical cabinet. Although the city had contained earlier, amateur collections, including a set of more than 1000

wax anatomical model A wax sculpture is a depiction made using a waxy substance. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief. The properties of beeswax make it an excel ...

s bequeathed by Jean-Baptiste Sue to the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

, these earlier collections were dispersed during the French Revolution. The cabinet's anatomical collection was reorganized and vigorously expanded by Mathieu Orfila. Appointed dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris in 1832, Orfila visited the

Hunterian Museum The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

and was inspired by its collections of comparative anatomy. In 1844 he established a museum, which in 1847 was formally inaugurated and named the Musée Orfila in his honor. By 1881 it contained nearly 4500 items, as documented in the catalog published by its curator, Charles Nicolas Houel. Unfortunately, during the early 20th century, the museum fell into great disrepair. According to the museum's web site, precious wax models by Laumonier were consumed for lighting, and only a few hundred of Houel's cataloged items still remain. In 1947, however, Prof. André Delmas began an effort to restore and greatly enlarge the Musée Orfila, conjoining it with the Musée Rouvière, the lymphatic collection of Prof.

Henri Rouvière Henri Rouvière (23 December 1876 – 26 October 1952) was a professor of anatomy born in Le Bleymard, France. He studied in Montpellier, receiving his medical doctorate in 1903. He later became a professor of anatomy and embryology at the Uni ...

(1876-1952). Since 1953 the museum occupied the vast exhibition halls and galleries of the eighth floor of the Faculty of Medicine. The museum contained about 5,800 human and animal anatomical items. It contained a wide range of anatomical specimens, including a small

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

preserved by Fragonard in 1797;

Paul Broca Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...

's castings

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

s of birds, mammals, and humans, including the brains of children, criminals, and representatives of various races, as well as his own brain; showcases of comparative anatomy of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s; casts of the heads of criminals executed during the 19th century; a collection of

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

s from asylums for the mentally ill; major exhibits of different stages of growth of the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

, splanchnology (casts of

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...

s, and

trachea The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...

), and of the viscera and major vessels of the human body; and displays of malformations of the brain caused in rats (Giroud-Delmas),

lymph Lymph () is the fluid that flows through the lymphatic system, a system composed of lymph vessels (channels) and intervening lymph nodes whose function, like the venous system, is to return fluid from the tissues to be recirculated. At the ori ...

systems ( Marie Philibert Constant Sappey),

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

structure (Augier),

(Eralp),

esophagus The esophagus (American English), oesophagus (British English), or œsophagus (Œ, archaic spelling) (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, see spelling difference) all ; : ((o)e)(œ)sophagi or ((o)e)(œ)sophaguses), c ...

(Sussini), and

. It also included the Spitzner collection, a famous set of anatomical wax models dating from the 19th Century.

References

Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière

* André Delmas, "Le Musée Orfila et le Musée Rouvière", in André Pecker, ''La Médecine à Paris du XIIIè au XXè siècle'', Paris, Editions Hervas, Fondation SINGER-POLIGNAC, 1984, pp 289–294. * Charles Nicolas Houel, ''Catalogue du musée Orfila'', Paris, Paul Dupont-Masson, 1881. 524 pages. * P. Vallery-Radot, "Le musée Orfila", ''Histoire de la Médecine'', Numéro spécial, 1958, pp 69–78. {{DEFAULTSORT:Musee d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouviere Buildings and structures in the 6th arrondissement of Paris Medical museums in France 1794 establishments in France Defunct museums in Paris Museums disestablished in 2005

History

See also

References