There are not enough museums in the world dedicated to wax representations of disfiguring diseases. Luckily, a few such places exist. The Moulagenmuseum in Zurich, Switzerland is the second largest collection of moulages after the famed Le Musée des Moulages in Paris. What’s a moulage you ask? Molds of rubber, latex or plaster are made to mimic the original diseases taken from medical patients for educational purposes. At the Moulagenmuseum thousands of wax representations of diseases, like cancer, syphilis, tuberculosis and leprosy, are on display. Prior to color photography and advanced technology, moulages were important tools for better understanding and specific views in the medical world where that was rarely possible, especially for dermatologists. So think about that the next time you make fun of someone’s skin problem. It’s a disease that’s been around at least since the 5th century when Greek physician Aëtius of Amida first wrote about it. And to think they didn’t have chocolate in the Byzantine Empire. It must have come from the netherworld, specifically the Arai, the Greek goddesses of curses…or some shit like that. Just making crap up at this point.
The Moulagenmuseum in Zurich, Switzerland
