Skip to content

About Plastination

The process of plastination, where the dissected body parts are treated and fixed with silicone-like polymers enables them to be displayed without decomposing. This technique of plastination was first developed by Dr Gunther von Hagen in Germany over twenty years ago, and further developed in Dahlian University in Northern China. Newer techniques, which try to replicate the intricacies of the human body include 3D printing and computer imaging.

The Musculo-skeletal system allows the body support and even movement, so it can source food which is digested by our alimentary system to provide energy to allow our body computer, the brain, to function.  We have teeth, which cut and grind the food, moved by powerful muscles, and the broken down food is then digested by enzymes, and absorbed through the bowel wall, into the mesentericblood supply surrounding the bowel. 

When you study the fine microscopic structure of the anatomy, this is called histology.  When a structure becomes diseased, it becomes “pathology”.  A medical specialist called a pathology studies abnormal anatomy and histology.  

When I was a student, I studied the human body in an anatomical laboratory, where dissected bodies were stored in formalin tubs.

- Dr Jerry Schwartz

Read an article about plastination from Tower Magazine here