Every person who is not involved in the medical profession is curious to know what mysterious and scary tools are hiding under a sterile sheet in a surgical dressing room or what happens in the operating room under the bright light of the lamps. The Museum of Medicine, of course, slightly reveals the veil of secrecy, but the main exhibits show to a greater extent the history of the development of medicine, the achievements of great doctors, their jobs and books, photographs and portraits, awards.
Description
Until now, in Russia in no city does the museum of medicine exist as an independent institution. All of them are supplementary institutions at universities, academies, medical scientific communities or hospitals. The creators and custodians, as well as guides, are the employees of the above institutions, that is, doctors, nurses, researchers.
It’s impossible to get to the majority of medical museums, you need access to the administration and preliminary arrangements with employees to conduct a guided tour. Most often, visitors to such museums are local and visiting medical students, doctors from Russian cities and their foreign colleagues.
Museums of medicine in Russia: the history of creation
Proto-museum collections already appeared at the end of the 17th century to a greater extent at monasteries, where sisters of mercy healed not only the soul, but also the body, as well as pharmacies.
The founder of the museum of medicine was Peter I, through whose efforts the famous Kunstkamera was recognized in 1719 and still works in St. Petersburg. Perhaps this is the only case when the ruler initiated the creation of an institution of this kind. Most often, the creators of medical museums are members of scientific communities, scientists and doctors. The Kunstkamera is one of the few museums of medicine that anyone can enter.
At the end of the 19th century, several museums were opened at the departments of medical universities: the Pirogov Memorial Museum, the Museum of the Russian Society for the Preservation of Public Health, etc. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Moscow Museum of Social Hygiene began to work in the years of the formation of Soviet power. The expositions of medical museums in Moscow and other cities (Kiev, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novorossiysk) ranged from memorial and historical to industry. For example, a museum of dentistry or surgery.
The largest medicine museums in Russia
The Museum of Applied Medicine in Moscow was the first major of these museums not only in Russia, but also in Western countries. It was created under the guidance of Professor Savelyev in 1913.
The largest collection of exhibits is in the Museum of the History of Medicine at one of the oldest educational institutions - the University. Sechenov, which is located in Moscow near the metro station "Frunzenskaya". There are many exhibits dedicated to military field medicine 1941-1945. The "evolution" of surgical instruments from wooden and porcelain to modern is shown. There are a large number of visual aids, things and awards of the great Russian doctors (Sechenov, Pirogov, Pavlov, and even who had a short medical career Chekhov).
The Mechnikov Museum of Forensic Medicine in St. Petersburg has always been of great interest not only to students of medical institutions, but also to people of other professions. Until 2000, there was just a department with visual aids for 6th year students studying forensic medicine. Then the leadership of the university opened a museum, which can be visited by organized tourist groups by appointment. Of the most terrible exhibits, the mummy of a girl who hanged herself in the forest, the mummy of a person who was addicted to alcohol, sitting at the table, various injuries to the skull, diseased human organs, the black lung of a heavy smoker and developmental anomalies in banks are most remembered.
Museums of medicine in Moscow
In the capital there are about 10 museums of medicine attached to colleges, institutes, universities and hospitals.
The Museum of the History of Medicine of the Moscow State Medical-Dental University was founded in 1926 and is mainly dedicated to the specialized industry. There are chic dental chairs for the treatment of the nobility, dental machines, which are more than 100 years old.
Museum of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Scientific Center. Bakuleva demonstrates various heart valves; an operating room of the mid-20th century, apparatus for blood circulation and anesthesia were reconstructed here. The staff conducts very informative excursions about early representations of a person in the field of the cardiovascular system.
At the Museum of the History of Surgery. Vishnevsky can find out the biography of the famous surgeon Pirogov, see his letters and awards, as well as the very first topographic atlas on human anatomy, thanks to which doctors ceased to operate almost blindly and to the touch.
Museum of Medicine of Yekaterinburg
The exhibition collection was opened in the early 80's. XX century at the Sverdlovsk Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1 and has more than 70,000 exhibits.
Many storage units are associated with the activities of the famous Ural doctors Sheffer, Lida and Kushelevsky: here are their personal items and awards, notes and prescriptions. Other exhibits relate to folk medicine, including Muslim, there are also ancient microscopes, sets of an ophthalmologist, dentist and gynecologist. The museum has free admission for anyone interested in medicine. You can phone the management in advance and organize an excursion, where employees will gladly tell entertaining and informative stories about their collections.
The role of medical museums in society
First of all, such museums are intended for students receiving the profession of a doctor, or for high school students who want to connect their lives with medicine in the future. For example, the Museum of the History of Medicine of Yekaterinburg is open to all visitors. However, employees note that to ordinary people some of the exhibits seem creepy, so they need only one trip to the museum to satisfy their curiosity. Students of medical universities attend exhibitions several times to get the most out of their future work.
Thanks to such exhibits, a person fully understands the great work of medical workers, which is based on colossal knowledge and humanism. Museum items of field medicine show how difficult it was for doctors and sisters to do medical work in conditions of unsanitary conditions and endless threats of enemy attacks.
Exhibits of forensic medicine make people once again think about their lifestyle, reconsider their attitude to bad habits, value and love everything beautiful that surrounds us.