Comment on: The anatomical collection of Giovan Battista Rini (1795-1856).

Panzer et al. (2012) are to be congratulated on their recent article regarding the anatomical collection of Giovan Battista Rini, examined with a noninvasive paleoradiological method, computerized tomography (CT). The eight anatomical preparations were five heads with necks, two busts, and one heart, currently located at the Desenzano Hospital Pathologic Division (Brescia, Italy) and were made by Giovan Battista Rini in the mid-19th century. Some of these anatomical preparations were achieved by means of a special form of corrosion which, together with dry preparation, flourished in Italy during the 19th and 20th centuries. We would like to bring to the attention of the authors another, very large (50), collection of anatomical specimens, of the same period, preserved at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Padova and made with the ‘‘tannisation" technique. Tannisation is a method developed by Ludovico Brunetti, professor of Pathological Anatomy in Padova in the mid-19th century, and is based on the use of tannic acid to preserve the tissues (Brunetti, 1866).