ABSTRACT
When an anatomist or medical student enters a pathology museum in Britain today, they are exposed to what appears to be a comprehensive and often well-balanced collection of specimens. However, such collections were not planned and compiled as one event. The specimens were amassed as part of an evolving process that took decades or even centuries to become the modern collection.1 Medical museums in the past were not just teaching aids, but gave academic credibility to the schools that held them and were perceived as indicators of the expertise of that institution.2 Little is known about the process through which some specimens were acquired and added to museum collections, while others previously thought desirable were later discarded.
