Anatomical Heart Model

This is a 3D scan of a papier-mache model of a dissected heart, illustrating its anatomical structure. The model, now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, was made by the Shimadzu Corporation, which was founded in Japan in 1875 to produce educational models and apparatus.

Students of anatomy and physiology, including those training to be doctors or nurses, need to understand the structure of body parts, how they work, and how they relate to other parts. Examining cadavers is useful for this purpose, and anatomy museums preserve real body parts for study, but inanimate models are more convenient. The earliest anatomical models were made from wax, but they were too fragile to handle. Papier mache, first used for this purpose by medical student Louis Auzoux in France, proved to be more durable and suitable for mass production.

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