Mano a grandezza naturale. Corpuscoli ingranditi, 1863
wax model, glass and wood display case 

Musei Biomedici Università degli Studi di Firenze - Sezione di Anatomia

Filippo Pacini ranks as one of the pioneers of histology in modern times. While still a medicine student, he discovered the nervous corpuscles of the fingers which convey touch. He also discovered, well before Robert Koch, the Vibrio cholerae bacterium and how contagion by it occurs. Himself a proficient draughtsman, from 1847 Pacini was professor of painting anatomy at Florence’s Accademia di Belle Arti. From 1849 – when he became a member of the Collegio Medico Fiorentino – he occupied the post of professor of Anatomia Sublime e delle Regioni del Corpo. This model of a human hand was created by Modena-born sculptor Remigio Lei, one of the masters of the art of ceroplastic.