Three are free standing, but most recline in elegantly decorated wood or leather beds or couches, although some are attached to the lids of their boxes. The key things are inside. Porter indicates a movable ivory plate in the chest region. Remove that and inside the hollow body you see tiny ivory organs, delicately crafted and positioned in the correct part of the body. The tiny pieces can be removed to reveal other organs.
Some mystery surrounds the manikins.
They aren't signed, so nobody knows who crafted them. More importantly, there remain questions about how they were used, Porter said. The organs aren't detailed enough to be of any help to a medical student, so we know they weren't used in their instruction of medical practitioners. They would have known this already, so it wouldn't have taught them anything. But, she adds, there is an emphasis on birthing in these manikins that suggests they did have a use in the instruction of the lay public, particularly women.