My Favorite Thing Annika Normann, keeper of Copenhagen’s veterinary collection, waxes lyrical about a foal’s wax lungs.

My Favorite Thing Annika Normann, keeper of Copenhagen’s veterinary collection, waxes lyrical about a foal’s wax lungs.

  • Words James Clasper
  • Photograph Christian Møller Andersen

My favorite thing in our collection is a waxwork model of an unborn foal’s lungs. It was made in 1896 for the anatomical collection at the veterinary school. It’s such a delicate and beautiful specimen, and it’s amazing how well-developed the foal’s lungs are after five months of gestation. It’s also a really hard technique and must have taken such a long time to make. The craftsman who made it used wax to fill all the capillaries of the lungs and then different chemicals to remove the soft tissue, so that we are able to see all the bronchial airways. I love that you can see how it was made, and the color of the wax.

You can also see the old label that tells you the name of the craftsman and the professor he made it for. This specimen is meaningful to me and hopefully it can s...

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