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

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the 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 science, having i ...

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 the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in a reference to the seat o ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. 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 (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the wor ...

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 anatomist, now remembered primarily for his remarkable collection of '' écorchés'' (flayed figures) in the Musée Fragonard d'Alfort. Fragonard was born in Grasse as cousin ...

, 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 excell ...

s bequeathed by Jean-Baptiste Sue to the

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

, these earlier collections were dispersed during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. The cabinet's anatomical collection was reorganized and vigorously expanded by

Mathieu Orfila Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila ( Catalan: ''Mateu Josep Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger'') (24 April 1787 – 12 March 1853) was a Spanish toxicologist and chemist, the founder of the science of toxicology. Role in forensic toxicology If t ...

. Appointed dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris in 1832, Orfila visited the Hunterian Museum 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 the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

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 A brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as Visual perception, vision. I ...

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 most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...

s and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

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

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

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 an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

, splanchnology (casts of

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

lung The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of ...

s, and

trachea The trachea, 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 air- breathing animals with lungs. The trachea extends from t ...

), 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 (from Latin, , meaning "water") 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 ...

systems (

Marie Philibert Constant Sappey Marie Philibert Constant Sappey (1810 – 15 March 1896) was a French anatomist born in Cernon, near the city of Bourg-en-Bresse. He studied medicine at the University of Paris, earning his degree in 1843. Later he became a professor of anat ...

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

structure (Augier),

(Eralp),

esophagus The esophagus (American English) or oesophagus (British English; both ), non-technically known also as the food pipe or gullet, is an organ in vertebrates through which food passes, aided by peristaltic contractions, from the pharynx to t ...

(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