In the 19th century, human anatomy was badly taught, in poorly suited run-down premises, by teachers with very uneven levels of knowledge. Louis Hubert Farabeuf came from a poor family, and abandoned his ambition to train as a surgeon, due to poor health. He turned his focus to anatomy, and had modern premises constructed in the Paris Medical School. He also set out the operating rules of anatomy labs that have come down to us today. He was a brilliant anatomist and an exceptional teacher of operative medicine, wrote several books and developed several surgical instruments that are still in use. His career was no bed of roses, but distinctly thorny – which by no means prevented his legacy from enduring.