Curious Anatomys: An Extraordinary Story of Dissection and Discovery

Human remains, models and detailed illustrations make up this exhibition, which showcases some of the Royal College of Physicians's rarest exhibits. On show together, for the first time in their history, are six 'anatomical tables' featuring human veins, nerves and arteries that were cut from dissected bodies and varnished on to large wooden panels. The tables are believed to have been brought back from the University of Padua in the seventeenth century by Sir John Finch. The show charts the history of public dissections across Europe, the story of the anatomical tables and the life of Finch, known as a 'lynx with a knife'.