El Museo de Anatomía de la Universidad de Chile, un monumento nacional / The anatomy museum of the University of Chile: a national monument

ABSTRACT

The accrual of anatomical preparations since the nineteenth century in Santiago, Chile, became the so called "anatomical cabinet" under the supervision of professor Julio F Lafargue. Afterwards, this cabinet evolved to form an anatomical museum in the mid twentieth century. It contained preparations using corpses whose identification was not known. Now, the corpses are donated through a body donation program that started thirty years ago. The collection contains, among other interesting items, a situs inversus preparation, Juan Martel's mummy, Tramond house wax preparations and a jibarized head. Nowadays, the museum is open to the community, its collection is recognized as a national historical monument, and has links with other university museums in the country and abroad.