236 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



to relate, the first woman who won fame by her knowledge 

 of science and by her contributions to it, did so in the field 

 where a woman would, one would think, be least disposed 

 to exercise her talent and least likely to find congenial 

 work. It was in the then comparatively new science of 

 human anatomy a science which had been inaugurated in 

 the famous medical schools of Salerno and which was sub- 

 sequently so highly developed in the great University of 

 Bologna. 



The name of this remarkable woman was Anna Morandi 

 Manzolini. She was born in 1716 in Bologna, where, after 

 a brilliant career in her favorite branch of science, she died 

 at the age of fifty-eight. She held the chair of anatomy in 

 the University of Bologna for many years, and is noted for 

 a number of important discoveries made as the result of 

 her dissections of cadavers. 



But she won a still greater title to fame by the marvelous 

 skill which she exhibited in making anatomical models out 

 of indurated wax. They were so carefully fashioned that 

 some of them could scarcely be distinguished from the parts 

 of the body from which they were modeled. As aids in the 

 study of anatomy they were most highly valued and eagerly 

 sought for on all sides. The collection which she made for 

 her own use was, after her death, acquired by the Medical 

 Institute of Bologna and prized as one of its most precious 

 possessions. 



Three years after her demise, Luigi Galvani, professor 

 of anatomy in the same university in which Anna had 

 achieved such fame, made use of these wax models for a 

 course of lectures on the organs and structure of the hu- 

 man body. 



These famous models, first perfected by Anna Manzolini, 

 were the archetypes of the exquisite wax models of Vas- 

 sourie as well as of the unrivaled papier-mache creations 

 of Dr. Auzoux and of all similar productions now so ex- 

 tensively used in our schools and colleges. 



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