Medicine History Museum of the First Sechenov Moscow State Medical University

 

Russia | Moscow

Website 

About

The museum is a subdivision of Moscow State University and is a part of educational process. It’s goals include scientific research, collection and preservation of historical past of the oldest medical institution in Russia. The main museum collection consists of unique documents and relics from the University, family archives of doctors and professors, books, furniture, photographs of famous doctors and scientists, rare medical textbooks form West Europe and Russia, as well as anatomic atlases and dissertations. The Museum has a collection of medical instruments form 18th-20th centuries and equipment allowing to reconstruct the development and evolution of medicine in Russia.

Relevant People:

The Geneva Brain Collection

 

Switzerland | Geneva

Website 

About

The University of Geneva brain collection was founded at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, it consists of 10,154 formaldehyde- or buffered formaldehyde–fixed brains obtained from the autopsies of the Department of Psychiatry and, since 1971, from the Department of Geriatrics. More than 100,000 paraffin-embedded blocks and 200,000 histological slides have also been collected since 1901. From the time of its creation, this collection has served as an important resource for pathological studies and clinicopathological correlations, primarily in the field of dementing illnesses and brain aging research. These materials have permitted a number of original neuropathological observations, such as the classification of Pick’s disease by Constantinidis, or the description of dyshoric angiopathy and laminar sclerosis by Morel. The large number of cases, including some very rare conditions, provides a unique resource and an opportunity for worldwide collaborations.

Relevant People:

Anatomisches Museum Basel (Anatomical Museum, Basel)

 

Switzerland | Basel

Website 

About

The Anatomical Museum in Basel is part of the Faculty of Medicine. It is a centre for research and medical studies and houses a unique collection of historical preparations. Original preparations of human body parts, organs and tissue are displayed, which show the structure of the human body in a systematic and topographic way. Exhibits of prenatal development are also shown. Special exhibitions explain specific areas of anatomy and connected sciences in a way, which is understandable for all visitors. The Anatomical Museum of the University of Basel was founded by Prof. Carl Gustav Jung in 1824. Original preparations of human body parts, organs and tissue are displayed in the museum. They are shown in a systematic and topographic order and describe the structure of the human body. Exhibits of prenatal development are also shown. Special exhibitions explain specific areas of anatomy in a way, which is understandable for all visitors. The museum houses contemporary exhibits as well as numerous historically valuable preparations, which were restored using modern techniques and are now shown in new displays. Of particular interest is the skeleton, which was prepared by Andreas Vesale in 1543 in Basel. It is known as the oldest anatomical preparation of a skeleton in the world. Also of interest is a preparation made in 1573 by Felix Platter, wax models made in 1850 by Carl Gustav Jung and body cross-sections (slices) made in 1900 by Hanson Kelly Corning.

Relevant People:

Prof. Carl Gustav Jung

Heidelberg University Collections

 

Germany | Heidelberg

Website 

About

University was founded in 1386, which makes it the oldest in Germany and 5th oldest in Europe. Individual departments have permeant exhibitions. Medical collections in Germany. Collection of the Institute of Pathology It was established in 1866. Body preparations of various systems are presented as well as full body autopsies as well as. Mostly focuses on rare and interesting diseases.

Relevant People:

La Specola and Biomedica:

 

Italy | Firenze

Website 

About

La specola contains a vast collection of anatomical wax models; there are 10 rooms dedicated to wax models. Biomedica has both anatomical and pathological museum sections. They are a sub-museum of Museo di Storia Naturale which is a part of the Università Degli Studi di Firenze in Florence. It is divided into eight sections located in various parts of Florence: Anthropology and Ethnology, Biomedical, Botany, Chemistry, Geology and Paleontology, Mineralogy, Botanical Garden, Zoology.

Relevant People:

Clemente Susini’s Wax Anatomical Models

 

Italy | Cagliari

Website 

About

Our story begins in the Medicine and Surgery Faculty School of Anatomy of the University of Cagliari in 1801. The wax anatomical models explore the past of Sardinia and the history of the Italian States as well as Europe in 18-19th centuries. Cagliari’s anatomical wax model collection provides a perfect description of the human body and medical and surgical knowledge at the time the models were produced. The Cagliari models are considered artistic masterpieces. The website includes an interactive collection of anatomical tables.

Relevant People:

Universita’ di Balogna

 

Italy | Balogna

Website 

About

The University’s Museum Network – Sistema Museale di Ateneo – includes many collections dating back to the 18th Century closely related to the Istituto delle Scienze: even if the “Camera della Notomia” (Anatomy Room) was there established in 1747 providing teaching material to physicians and anatomists, the institute’s anatomical room was projected by Ercole Lelli (1702-1766) in 1742. Ercole Lelli, “figure director” at the Accademia Clementina di Belle Arti started the anatomical ceroplastic school in Bologna. Starting in 1776, Anna Morandi (1714-1774) and her husband Giovanni Manzolini (1700-1755), wax modelers, made important contributions to the Anatomy Room of the Institute. Their production illustrates the enormous scientific progress that had been achieved in wax modelling and anatomical portrayal that led the study and reproduction of sensory organs and other physiological systems. Anna Morandi depicted herself in a self-portrait, while intently examining a cerebral structure. The work of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)at the institute, and the experiments he conducted, led him to surmise that the power that caused the contraction of fibers, stimulated through electric fluid, lay in nerves rather than muscles. In 1791 he published the “De viribus” where he proved that animals – and thus humans – have a unique electrical property: the brain is the most important organ secreting “electric fluid”; the nerves are the organs that have the greatest affinity with this unique electricity. Thereafter, Luigi Calori (1807-1896) began his career as Professor of Human Anatomy becoming President of the Academy of Sciences. Thanks to the ceroplastic artist Cesare Bettini (1801-1805), he realized some of the most important models concerning the brain structure as the wax models collection of encephalon and the eye compounds. All the materials connected with this period of intense anatomical studies are still preserved in the Museums and Collections of the Sistema Museale di Ateneo.

Relevant People:

Ercole Lelli | Luigi Galvani

Museo Camillo Golgi

 

Italy | Corteno

Website 

About

In 1894 the Institute of General Pathology, directed by Golgi and one of the most famous biomedical research centres in Europe at the time, was set in the historic building Palazzo Botta. The very same rooms today house the the Camillo Golgi Museum in order to bring back, thanks to the heritage of scientific tools and documents left behind, the living memory of that laboratory. The Museum was founded in October 2012 and comprises six rooms. The first room shows the original office of the Institute’s Directors. In the second one a review of Camillo Golgi’s greatest discoveries is on display: the black reaction, the research studies on malaria and the identification of the Golgi apparatus, which took place right in this building. Beside a rich collection of microtomes and microscopes, a collection of camera lucidas and of the first devices developed for microphotography is also accommodated in the room. The third room focuses on some of Golgi’s students and the equipment they used to make their cutting-edge discoveries. The old library and the archive are housed in the fourth room and in the fifth one, where the antique furniture allows the visitors to catch also visually the atmosphere of that period. The last room is the Aula Golgi, the splendid hemicycle where Camillo Golgi taught and where seminars and conferences are held still today.

Relevant People:

Camillo Golgi

Museo per la Storia dell’Università

 

Italy | Pavia

Website 

About

The museum houses a room dedicated to Camillo Golgi, who was awarded the NobelPrize for medicine in 1906 for his invention of a histology method, known as the black or silver chromate method, which laid the foundation of modern neuroscience. A case shows instruments and documentes concerning Golgi’s life and discoveries. They include key discoveries for the field of cytology such as the Golgi apparatus, and his studies on malaria, which were important for infectivology. A case is dedicated to Adelchi Negri, whose name is linked to a major discovery about rabies (Negri bodies). The museum has an important archival collection (about 3000 documents) relating to teaching and research activities, Golgi&’s political commitment or his private life.

Relevant People:

Alessandro Volta







 
Supported by
 
In collaboration with
FENS          IBRO EPFL          Experimental Museology Lab eM+
All information and images rights are reserved to the corresponding institutions. Theme and design: by David Martinez Moreno.