The Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg owns an anatomical collection of "comparative and human anatomy". An important part of this collection consists of preparations of incalculable historic value. This collection has its origin in the private collection of Meckel, which was founded by Johann Friedrich Meckel senior (1724-1774) in Berlin in the middle of the 18th century. At that time interest in Anatomy increased enormously due to the progress being made in dissection techniques. After the death of Friedrich Meckel, his son, Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1755-1803), took over the collection and brought it to Halle in 1779. The collection reached its peak with Johann Friedrich Meckel junior (1781-1833), who, as the third generation, increased it enormously by up to 12.000 preparations. At the end of the 18th century the private Meckel collection was valued as one of the biggest and most famous collections of Anatomy within Europe. After the death of Meckel junior the important anatomic zootomic cabinet was bought by the Prussian State government for the University of Halle-Wittenberg. The main emphasis of this exposition lies in the description of the history of the Meckel-collection, as well as in the analysis of its preparation profile. This paper describes the development of the collection from its founding until its sale in 1836. The various chapters describe, on the one hand, the content of the collection and on the other hand preparation techniques that were known and used at the time are explained by means of preparations. Moreover, it examines the development and execution of the preparation techniques. |