Prepared child's arm, Bernard Siegfried Albinus, 1725-1750

Anatomisch Museum Rijks Universiteit LeidenThe Albinus brothers, both professors at the University of Leiden, had a joint hobby: preparing parts of the human body. Bernard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770), professor of human anatomy, was particularly skilful at this. He had learnt the art of preparation from the Amsterdam anatomist Frederik Ruysch, whose preparations were so brilliantly made that Czar Peter the Great on a visit to his collection once kissed a child's head because it looked so lifelike. Together with his brother Frederik Bernard Albinus prepared a large collection of human and animal parts preserved in alcohol, which after his death was purchased by the University of Leiden.