The Accademia dei Fisiocritici conserves a collection of approximately 50 dissected human anatomical preparations, into the lymphatic vessels of which Tuscan anatomist Paolo Mascagni injected metallic mercury.
There are only a small number of preparations, considering the outstanding volume of work that Mascagni carried out during his career as a scientist and researcher, and the fact that the preparation of specimens for conservation was part of the scientific custom of the era, especially in this field of research.
This is nonetheless a prestigious collection of inestimable historical and scientific value and provides a rare testimony of preparatory and dissection techniques. This was confirmed by radiological investigations performed in 1996 by Prof. Paolo Stefani, then Head of the Institute of and Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging of the University of Siena and member of the Accademia.

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