Widespread exploitation of the honeybee by early Neolithic farmers.

The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolution agriculture, as evidenced by the widespread presence of ancient Egyptian bee iconography dating to the Old Kingdom (approximately 2400 BC). There are also indications of Stone Age people harvesting bee products; for example, honey hunting is interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect's biochemistry. Thus, the chemical 'fingerprint' of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.

Wax hearts: seeking the antiquity of cardiac pathology.

Wax models of normal and diseased organs were formerly essential medical teaching tools. The ceroplastic heart models from two 19th century pathology museums at the Universities of Florence (n = 8) and Coimbra (n = 10) were analysed. The Florentine collection comprised congenital malformations as well as infectious and inflammatory disorders. The Coimbra waxworks included congenital defects, cardiac hypertrophy and dilation, valvular pathology and cardiac adiposity. This study focuses on heart diseases and teaching resources in European university hospitals during the 19th century. It also highlights the importance of wax models in medical education both then and today, in an era of informatics and digital photography.

From the wax cast of brain ventricles (1508-9) by Leonardo da Vinci to air cast ventriculography (1918) by Walter E. Dandy.

The mold of the human cerebral ventricles produced in 1918 by Walter E. Dandy had an experimental precedent, a wax cast of ox ventricles made four hundred years earlier (1508-9) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). This paper is an homage to the epitome of Renaissance and polymath Leonard da Vinci, as well as to Walter Edward Dandy (1886-1946) who developed the ventriculography (1918) and pneumoencephalography (1919) techniques. Pneumoencephalography was applied broadly up to the late 1970s, when it was replaced by less invasive and more accurate neuroimaging techniques.

[Modelling science. The ceroplastics of Ignacio Lacaba in the Colegio de Cirugía de San Carlos, Madrid]. / Modelando ciencia. La ceroplástica de Ignacio Lacaba en el Colegio de Cirugía de San Carlos de Madrid.

Models made of wax had enormous diffusion in the anatomical teaching of the 18th century. It transcended the borders of a science that impregnated with scientific knowledge the artistic expression of beauty. Based on this premise, the San Carlos Royal College of Surgery created in Madrid a large collection of anatomical models, which is currently maintained by the Javier Puerta Anatomy Museum in the School of Medicine at Madrid Complutense University. The collection began in 1786 with Ignacio Lacaba, the first dissector of the Surgery College of Madrid, whose artistic sensibility and deep knowledge of anatomy contributed and facilitated harmonization between the work of the wax sculptors and language and anatomical expression.

The spatial rhetoric of Gustav Zeiller's popular anatomical museum.

This article focuses on the public experience of science by studying the exhibition practice of a small popular anatomy museum. The owner, Gustav Zeiller, a little-known German model maker and entrepreneur, opened his private collection in Dresden in 1888 with the aim of providing experts and laymen alike with a scientific education on bodily matters and health care. The spatial configuration of his museum environment turned the wax models into didactic instruments. Relying on the possible connexion between material culture studies and history of the emotions, this article highlights how Zeiller choreographed the encounter between the museum objects and its visitors. I argue that the spatial set up of his museum objects entailed rhetorical choices that did not simply address the social utility of his museum. Moreover, it fulfilled the aim of modifying the emotional disposition of his intended spectatorship. I hope to show that studying the emotional responses toward artefacts can offer a fruitful approach to examine the public experience of medicine.

The evolution of anatomical illustration and wax modelling in Italy from the 16th to early 19th centuries.

Although the contribution to anatomical illustration by Vesalius and his followers has received much attention, less credit has been given to Veslingius and particularly Fabricius. By 1600, Fabricius had amassed more than 300 paintings that together made the Tabulae Pictae, a great atlas of anatomy that was highly admired by his contemporaries. Many of his new observations were incorporated into subsequent books, including those by Casserius, Spighelius, Harvey and Veslingius. Also of importance were the Tabulae by Eustachius (1552), which, although only published in 1714, greatly influenced anatomical wax modelling. In 1742, Pope Benedict XIV established a Museum of Anatomy in Bologna, entrusting to Ercole Lelli the creation of several anatomical preparations in wax. Felice Fontana realised that the production of a large number of models by the casting method would make cadaveric specimens superfluous for anatomical teaching and in 1771 he asked the Grand Duke to fund a wax-modelling workshop in Florence as part of the Natural History Museum, later known as La Specola. Fontana engaged Giuseppe Ferrini as his first modeller and then the 19-year-old Clemente Susini who, by his death in 1814, had superintended the production of, or personally made, more than 2000 models. In 1780, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II visited La Specola and ordered a great number of models for his Josephinum museum; these were made by Fontana with the help of Clemente Susini and supervised by the anatomist Paolo Mascagni. It is, however, in Cagliari that some of Susini's greatest waxes are to be found. These were made when he was free of Fontana's influence and were based on dissections made by Francesco Antonio Boi (University of Cagliari). Their distinctive anatomical features include the emphasis given to nerves and the absence of lymphatics in the brain, a mistake made on earlier waxes. The refined technical perfection of the anatomical details demonstrates the closeness of the cooperation between Susini and Boi, whereas the expressiveness of the faces and the harmony of colours make the models of Cagliari masterpieces of figurative art.

Anatomical models and wax Venuses: art masterpieces or scientific craft works?

The art of wax modelling has an ancient origin but rose to prominence in 14th century Italy with the cult of votive artefacts. With the advent of Neoclassicism this art, now deemed repulsive, continued to survive in a scientific environment, where it flourished in the study of normal and pathological anatomy, obstetrics, zoology and botany. The achievement of having originated the creation of anatomical models in coloured wax must be ascribed to a joint effort undertaken by the Sicilian wax modeller Gaetano Giulio Zumbo and the French surgeon Guillaume Desnoues in the late 17th century. Interest in anatomical wax models spread throughout Europe during the 18th century, first in Bologna with Ercole Lelli, Giovanni Manzolini and Anna Morandi, and then in Florence with Felice Fontana and Clemente Susini. In England, the art of anatomical ceroplastics was brought to London from Florence by the sculptor Joseph Towne. Throughout the centuries many anatomical artists preferred this material due to the remarkable mimetic likeness obtained, far surpassing any other material. Independent of the material used, whether wood, wax or clay, anatomical models were always considered merely craft works confined to hospitals or faculties of medicine and have survived to this day only because of their scientific interest. Italian and English waxes are stylistically different but the remarkable results obtained by Susini and Towne, and the fact that some contemporary artists are again representing anatomical wax bodies in their works, makes the border that formerly separated art and craft indistinguishable.

The Belgrade dermatovenereologic moulage collection: past and present.

The Belgrade dermatovenereologic moulge collection is formed during the period between 1925 and 1958, with one break between 1940 and 1950. The first moulages have been created after the foundation of the Belgrade University's School of Medicine and the Institute of Dermatology and Venereology (IDV), when this form of education became very significant. The collection is now comprised of 350 moulages, of which 280 pieces are completely preserved, whereas 70 are previously damaged. This article describes the work of two authors of moulages: one was Dr. Sergej Pavlovic Alisov, physician, amateur sculptor and painter, and the other was academic sculptor Vojislav Sikoparija. Wide variety of presented cases of skin and venereal diseases have been analysed; before World War I, there was a high proportion and florid pathology of venereal diseases and leprosy, whereas after World War II, these diseases became infrequent. Moulages at the IDV display high authenticity, which in some cases, made possible the correction of original diagnosis according to current criteria. Moulages represent a very significant subject of medical profession, and the need of an expert opinion on the conservation and reparation of moulages, which could be implemented by those in possession of such collections, is emphasized.

From sealing wax to bone wax: predecessors to Horsley's development.

OBJECT: Writers of neurosurgical history have traditionally maintained that the initial use of cranial bone wax for hemostasis in humans was developed and promoted by Sir Victor Horsley, the father of British neurosurgery. A thorough literature review, however, suggests that the use of bone wax for cranial bone hemostasis had its roots more than 50 years before Dr. Horsley's description in 1892. In this study the authors review the sources addressing this issue and establish due credit to the surgeons using bone wax for cranial bone hemostasis before Horsley. METHODS: Primary and secondary general surgery and neurosurgery literature from 1850 to the present was comprehensively reviewed. The key words used in the literature searchers were "bone wax," "sealing wax," "cranial surgery," "Victor Horsley," "hemostasis," and "bone hemostasis." RESULTS: Although Dr. Horsley's description in 1892 clearly delineates the necessary formula for creating a soft, malleable, nonbrittle wax that would easily promote hemostasis, the literature suggests that sealing wax was commonly used as early as 1850 for hemostasis in cranial bones. Even though there is documentation that Magendie (1783-1855) used wax to occlude venous sinuses in animals, detailed documentation of the constituents are not available. Evidence reveals that surgeons like Henri Ferdinand Dolbeau (1840-1877), professor of external pathology and the surgical clinic (1868-1872) at the Paris hospitals, used bone wax in 1864 for the extirpation of a frontal osteoma/exostoses of the frontal sinus. CONCLUSIONS: The use of bone wax in cranial surgery was described by Henri Ferdinand Dolbeau, 50 years prior to Sir Victor Horsley's report in 1892. Nonetheless, it was Horsley who advocated and popularized its use in neurological surgery as an additional tool in the hemostatic and surgical armamentarium.

Waxworks and the performance of anatomy in mid-18th-century Italy.

Anatomical waxworks lay at the centre of a composite world of social interaction in mid-18th-century Bologna. Sponsored by Pope Benedict XIV and included among Grand Tour attractions, they earned fame and authority for wax-modellers such as Anna Morandi, Giovanni Manzolini and Ercole Lelli. By dissecting bodies, making waxwork models of them and demonstrating their anatomical collections, these artificers became protagonists of the world of anatomy. Offering representations of the inner body some thought more faithful than the real thing, their collections gave expression to a new set of relations between the role of artefacts in the production and communication of knowledge, the emergence of new apparatuses for viewing and investigating the human body, the legacy of codified visual conventions and the authenticating power of natural spectacle.

Characterization of wax manufactures of historical and artistic interest.

Purpose of this scientific research is the physic and chemical characterization of two historical wax manufactures, made at the end of XIX century by Francesco Bianchi, a papal engraver. The chemical and analytical investigation was necessary to complete and to confirm the restorer's work. The IR Spectroscopy, X-Ray and GC-MS, the best technique to characterise wax, allowed us to obtain the following results. The two manufactures were made with commercial beeswax: in fact, the relative chromatograms showed unchanged peaks about esters of palmitic acid with C24 to C32 alcohol molecules; using standard beeswax we determined the same amount of hydrocarbons present in the wax manufactures. We found several hydrocarbons in these beeswax materials so that it is reasonable to think about successive modifications. ZnO (white zinc), a pigment, was added, probably due to its colour and covering capacity. Sb2S3, Anthimoniun vermilion, a red-orange pigment, was added to these manufactures to give them a soft pink-orange colour. By all used techniques we determined some modifications in the original beeswax; surely they were made to get a more malleable, mouldable, and then more able to be modelled wax.

THE ANATOMICAL MUSEUM PEDRO ARA.

The contribute is aimed to shed light on the history of the Anatomical Museum Pedro Ara since his foundation in 1878. Particularly, it describes the activity of Pedro Ara in preparing the anatomical specimens, which constitute the original collection of the Museum.

JOSEPHINUM AND THE ANATOMICAL WAX MODEL COLLECTION, MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF WIEN.

The collection of anatomical wax models housed at Wien Medical University's Josephinum is one of the greatest achievements initiated by Emperor Joseph II and--reflecting the reformist and revolutionary zeal of the 18th century period in which it was crafted--a remarkable benchmark of Enlightenment in Austria, spanning the divide between art and science. Originally purchased principally for teaching purposes, these artificial yet astonishingly lifelike bodies and body parts have provoked mixed reactions through the centuries, but the value of the collection with its over thousand anatomical wax models remains untouched.

The development of anatomic art and sciences: the ceroplastica anatomic models of La Specola.

Anatomic models are important heuristic aids for surgeons in training. They are uniquely able to convey the three-dimensional relationships of anatomic structures with a physical immediacy not allowed by any other media. We examine the conceptual development of the anatomic model in light of the history of neuroanatomic understanding and coexistent artistic movements. The teaching anatomic model traces its ancestry to the work of Gaetano Zumbo in the late 17th century, on the heels of important anatomic discoveries made in the preceding 100 years of investigation. The anatomic model reached its peak expression in the late 18th century with the founding of the ceroplastica laboratory in Florence. We discuss the technological, artistic, and scientific origins of the anatomic wax model and the conditions that allowed it to flourish in the late 18th century.

The 100-year old collection of wax moulages at the Department of Dermatology of the University of Bonn.

The tradition of wax models in Dermatology, also named moulages, is about 200 years old. Dermatology departments all over the world created wax moulages collections to teach students and doctors as well as to document research. In 1910 Erich Hoffmann, who discovered Spirochaeta pallida together with Fritz Schaudinn, became head of the department of dermatology in Bonn. He founded one of the largest moulage collections in Germany. This almost unknown collection consists of more than 1,000 delicate and well conserved wax models. Two excellent wax moulage makers, Auguste Kaltschmidt and Hermann Hessling, produced most of these masterpieces between 1913 and 1937. Until recently, A. Kaltschmidt has only been known to have worked as moulage maker in Rostock, while the biographic details of both her and H. Hessling remained obscure. This paper aims (i) to outline Erich Hoffmann's role for and his contribution to the moulage collection and (ii) to give the first biographic details about the two outstanding dermatologic moulage makers of the collection of Bonn.