Louis Auzoux obtained a medical degree in 1818 and was appointed to the surgical department of the Hotel-Dieu with Guillaume Dupuytren. In 1820 he visited the papier-mâché workshop of Francois Ameline and later (1827) set up a workshop making very accurate human and veterinary anatomical models in his Normandy birthplace Saint-Aubin-d'Écrosville. This traded as Maison Auzoux. Auzoux also made large scale zoological and botanical models for educational use. The models were called "anatomy clastique" (Greek klastos - broken in pieces), because they could be taken apart to show the full structure. The company also traded in other natural history material.