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PubMed1996

[The museums of pathologic anatomy: a very much neglected sector of scientific museology, worth of reconsideration].

This brief work aims at drawing attention to the problems affecting museums of pathological anatomy and the possibility to revise their role and give them other purposes than the merely educational ones for which they are established. Current educational methods and tools, using sophisticated and modern audio-visual and multimedia systems, have been so thoroughly renewed that the preservation of anatomic specimens for exemplification and illustration is no longer a fundamental requirement. Clearly enough, Pathological Anatomy Museums need to change in order to meet new requirements and achieve new goals. Therefore, the creation as well as the revamping of a Museum should be based on the use of multimedia and interactive systems. These should include the collection of pictures of rare or peculiar cases as well as the possibility to propose pre-established educational programmes to students, while offering to scholars other programmes with different levels of difficulties and historical-documentary information. This is the approach followed by the experimental model implemented in our Institute which is presented in this work. Also, the Museum should be responsible for collecting and safeguarding rare anatomic material or specimens of particular interest from a historical-geographical and chronological point of view. The Museum should be a biologic archive from which information can be trapped for study and research works. For this reason, it should not be located only in one place, but the information and data therein contained should be made available, through a computer network, in the various centres and departments of Pathological Anatomy. Secondly, collections of dried osteologic materials should be properly preserved, since they are an important educational tool of great value for paleopathological studies. Finally, particular attention should be given to the oldest museums hosting collections of anatomic artworks such as wax impressions and casts, which, being the expression of a specific age and scientific attitude, are to be considered as a cultural heritage to be safeguarded.

Humans↗
PubMed1990

Spatial and temporal continuity of kangaroo rat populations shown by sequencing mitochondrial DNA from museum specimens.

The advent of direct sequencing via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has opened up the possibility of molecular studies on museum specimens. Here we analyze genetic variation in populations over time by applying PCR to DNA extracted from museum specimens sampled from populations of one species over the last 78 years. Included in this study were 43 museum specimens of the Panamint kangaroo rat Dipodomys panamintinus from localities representing each of three geographically distinct subspecies. These specimens were originally collected and prepared as dried skins in 1911, 1917, or 1937. For each specimen, a 225-bp segment of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced. These mitochondrial DNA sequences were compared to those of 63 specimens collected at the same localities in 1988. The three subspecies were nearly completely distinct. Only 2 of the 106 individuals shared mitochondrial types between subspecies. For all three localities, the diversity levels were maintained between the two temporal samples. The concordance observed between the two temporally separate phylogenies supports the use of museum specimens for phylogenetic inference. This study demonstrates the accuracy and routine nature of the use of museum specimens in the analysis of mitochondrial sequence variation in natural populations and, importantly, that a temporal aspect can now be added to such studies.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Case studies in pathology from the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine was founded as the Army Medical Museum during the American Civil War to document the effects of war wounds and disease on the human body. Since then, the Museum has created a collection of documented pathologic specimens that can be used to study the gross and microscopic appearance of disease conditions. The Museum's collections are a vital link to the past and the future of medical research and form a unique national medical repository that is used continuously for research, education, and exhibit purposes. Today, the Museum in association with its parent institution, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, provides access to over 130 years of documented medical specimens. These specimens allow the unique opportunity to re-examine historical classification systems and disease diagnoses. The case of subacute chronic osteomyelitis with cortical sequestration of Private J. Potter from the Civil War is presented here.

Amputation, Surgical↗
PubMed1986

Health museums or theme parks: a new approach to intersectoral collaboration.

This paper is an outline of a proposed initiative on intersectoral collaboration in health promotion--collaboration between health, tourist, cultural and entertainment sectors to provide a powerful mass educational experience about the human mind and body. There has been a recent rise in interest in using the technology of museums, science centres, exploratories and theme parks for the promotion of health. This revival is shown to have a historical tradition in the health education museum started in this century in Europe 75 years ago at the Deutsches Hygiene Museum and then spreading to the USA. The proposed Body, Mind, City Museum planned for Liverpool acts as a future model for a new type of health Museum; a mixture of science exploratorium and a Walt Disney-style them park. It is intended that "hand-on" exhibits using interactive video, computers, games and experiences will be used to test people's own capacities or to describe biological functions or processes. This will be combined with park rides and simulations with their inherent appeal of fun, movement and surprise, for example the ride through the blood vessels and the "walk-through brain". This type of venture has a number of special features and advantages; it is truly intersectoral, it may be self-financing, and it can provide a mass audience with a powerful individual experience.

England↗
PubMed2006

Pedro Ara anatomic museum.

Museums where anatomical pieces are exhibited are disappearing. The advance of the computer together with the advance of conventional and three-dimensional radiology makes the organs to be exposed without practicing dissection and the virtual images replace the real ones in the educational process. Some current laws that restrict the use of corpses and fetuses for obituary and exhibition studies have also contributed to the tendency. The anatomical museum, today named Pedro Ara, was founded in December 1920 and it exhibits anatomic works from the embryonic stage to old age, contributing unbeatable teachings to the medical sciences and the general public. The museum is located in the Angel Roque Suarez Anatomic Institute in the Clinical National Hospital which depends on the National University of Cordoba. It is visited daily by hundreds of people from all over the world. The museum owns 1211 pieces that combine ethical, scientific, aesthetical and educational values achieving a realization that received international acknowledgement. The most valuable exhibited work is 'Old man's head' made by Professor Pedro Ara in 1928-1929 (Figure 1), which, owing to its high quality, is in an impeccable and unharmed condition despite being exhibited for 80 years. Other authors, such as Professor Humberto Fracassi, also enriched the museum with their work and we, convinced that it favors and will favor our human formation and professional training, have the privilege of being their heirs and the responsibility of being their followers.

Anatomy↗
PubMed2005

[Educational research and the production of knowledge at science museums].

The article examines the processes by which scientific knowledge is socialized, based on the concepts of museographical/didactical transposition and recontextualization within the realm of science museums. Ways of producing knowledge in museums are analyzed, alongside a discussion of the potential challenges and possibilities involved when applying these concepts to research on dissemination and education in a museum setting. Some considerations are advanced on how these may contribute to the development of pedagogical practice in museums. The processes by which scientific knowledge is transformed for the purpose of educating and disseminating knowledge do not merely simplify ideas and concepts, since new knowledge is constructed inside the realm of museum culture.

Education↗
PubMed2005

[Museums, science, and education: new challenges].

The article discusses how the social role of science museums is shaped by scientific and technological endeavor, society's demands, and educational issues, above all in negotiations with a museum's audiences. The text also analyzes the trajectory taken by Brazil's science museums in their process of consolidation and the changes current society has imposed on these institutes. Communication has become the center of the discussion on museum culture, particularly in that it adjusts the educational aspect according to the conception of social practices, which are deemed fundamental resources. Lastly, the article examines the incorporation of the ideas of 'risk' and 'uncertainty', produced by science, into this new way of thinking about museums, which values the public and the communication processes.

Education↗
PubMed2001

[Health anthropology and hospital archiving. The Museum of Pathological Anatomy of the City Hospital of Trieste].

The preparations found in the Trieste Hospital Museum of Pathological Anatomy fit into the context of a medical semiotics which has its origins in the anatomical clinical method. The study of the practices involved in the museum preparation leads back to its purely diagnostic function inasmuch as it convalidates or contradicts the suppositions that, from the symptomatological case history, made from the study of the lesions and the diseased organ. This whole investigative process corresponds to a break in the field of scientific knowledge which marks the birth of a new approach to diagnosis and a new form of nosology, made possible by the great number of sick people and deaths available in a modern hospital. The Museum is permeated with empiricism, morphologism and localisation, and its exhibits fluctuate between macroscopic and microscopic anatomy, between organic and cellular pathology. In the exhibits of infectious and contagious diseases, one can see traces of the revolution brought about by bacteriology and laboratory techniques; in the considerable collection of malignant tumours, one can detect an oncological awareness which relates explicitly to a nosology based on the work of Virchow. The preparations which refer to pathologies that cannot be reduced simply to localisation illustrate an increasing awareness of functional medicine and clinical biochemistry. The Museum has the task of showing and teaching in order to train the hospital doctor. The Museum--through pathological anatomy--directed the community towards a knowledge of healthcare methods destined to change the morbidity and mortality rates due to a certain disease, in relation to those diseases typical of the times.

Archives↗
PubMed2002

[Prof. Alfonsas Kaikaris -- the founder of the Lithuanian Pharmacy Museum: his personality and scientific activities].

Alfonsas Kaikaris (1922-1997) was a professor of pharmacy at the Kaunas Medical Institute (now University), historian, museologist, founder of the Lithuanian Pharmacy Museum and of the field of pharmacy history in Lithuania. A. Kaikaris was born in Zagare in 1922. He received his pharmacy diploma in 1947 and began work at the university. Following the reorganization of the university into two institutes, he went to work in the Medical Institute, where he served as the vice dean of the Pharmacy and Stomatology Department from 1957 until 1963. He began to collect pharmaceutical artifacts in 1957. In 1973, the Institute provided a small room in the attic for these objects and so a small pharmacy museum, the first in Lithuania, was born. Thanks to the hard work of A. Kaikaris and others, today this museum has grown into the Pharmacy and Medical History Center of Lithuania, whose work is widely known throughout Europe. A. Kaikaris was also a member of the board of the Lithuanian Scientific Society and head of the Society's Pharmaceutical History Section from 1964 until he retired in 1987. He is the author of 67 scholarly papers and numerous popular articles and conference presentations. In 1988, he received the Paul Stradins Award from the Paul Stradins Medical History Museum in Riga, Latvia, and until his death in 1997 worked as a consultant to the Lithuanian Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy.

History of Pharmacy↗
PubMed2005

[The passing eye: museums, public education, and the visualization of scientific evidence].

In this examination of certain issues related to the history of museums. An emphasis on the functions and missions entrusted to museums does not necessarily reflect the power museums have to create habits or shape meanings. To the contrary, this may reflect the actual fragility of museums and their need to resort to rhetoric to attract governmental favors and funds. Therefore, concentrating on the monumental, representative, or metaphorical aspects of museums obscures the history of these institutions and of their consolidated practices, there by naturalizing the separation between research space and public space and leaving the historian to play the role of an uninitiated observer of the 'cathedrals of science'.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1999

Corrosive effects from the deposition of gaseous pollutants on surfaces of cultural and artistic value inside museums.

The objectives of the project were to assess the critical relationships between environmental factors and damage of the artifacts and other cultural property exposed inside museums, by studying: (a) the outdoor/indoor pollutant concentration and their transfer inside the museum; (b) the distribution and circulation of pollutants inside the museum influenced by various factors; (c) chemical interactions between pollutants in the gas phase leading to removal and/or formation of secondary pollutants; (d) the final deposition of the indoor pollutants on surfaces of artistic interest and the damage on them, governed by strictly defined physicochemical parameters. All the above information, together with the main factors influencing each stage, were obtained by applying the methodology developed and described in detail here. Measurements of rate constants of reactions in the gas phase, of physicochemical deposition parameters on artefacts, and the synergistic effects of pollutants on the deposition parameters, were conducted. Seven PC programmes for analysing the experimental data were written and used. The pollutants, the solid materials and the museums chosen in this programme are only examples needed to develop the necessary methodology. The numerical results obtained serve the purpose of exemplifying the procedures and not enriching the world's bibliography with useless empirical information. Two commercially available protectives for marble were investigated from the point of view of their reactivity towards SO2 by using a diffusional technique. From measurements of SO2 concentration carried out on three types of marble, the deposition velocities have been calculated. Indoor monitoring of the church of San Luigi dei Francesi and of the Museo della Civiltá Romana in Rome has shown that indoor production of nitrous acid most likely results from heterogeneous reactions indoors, on the walls and the exposed surfaces.

Adsorption↗
PubMed1990

The BDA Museum: looking to the future.

Last year, 1989, was Museums' Year, a year intended to promote a more positive image for museums and galleries, including the British Dental Association's own museum. But how many readers are aware of the background to the BDA museum and the effort that goes into providing this valuable record of dental history?

History of Dentistry↗
PubMed2006

Wolbachia infections in the Cimicidae: museum specimens as an untapped resource for endosymbiont surveys.

Wolbachia spp. are obligate maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria that infect diverse arthropods and filarial nematodes. Previous microscopic and molecular studies have identified Wolbachia in several bed bug species (Cimicidae), but little is known about how widespread Wolbachia infections are among the Cimicidae. Because cimicids of non-medical importance are not commonly collected, we hypothesized that preserved museum specimens could be assayed for Wolbachia infections. For the screening of museum specimens, we designed a set of primers that specifically amplify small diagnostic fragments (130 to 240 bp) of the Wolbachia 16S rRNA gene. Using these and other previously published primers, we screened 39 cimicid species (spanning 16 genera and all 6 recognized subfamilies) and 2 species of the sister family Polyctenidae for Wolbachia infections using museum and wild-caught material. Amplified fragments were sequenced to confirm that our primers were amplifying Wolbachia DNA. We identified 10 infections, 8 of which were previously undescribed. Infections in the F supergroup were common in the subfamily Cimicinae, while infections in the A supergroup were identified in the subfamilies Afrocimicinae and Haematosiphoninae. Even though specimens were degraded, we detected infections in over 23% of cimicid species. Our results indicate that Wolbachia infections may be common among cimicids and that archived museum material is a useful untapped resource for invertebrate endosymbiont surveys. The new screening primers listed in this report will be useful for other researchers conducting Wolbachia surveys with specimens with less-than-optimum DNA quality.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Historical perspectives on health. The Parkes Museum of Hygiene and the Sanitary Institute.

The Parkes Museum was founded in 1876 to commemorate the life and work of Edmund Alexander Parkes (1819-1876), who was the first Professor of Military Hygiene at the Army Medical School and one of the pioneers of the public health reforms of the nineteenth century. The Museum was a multi-disciplinary institution which aimed to teach an awareness of public health matters to the general public and members of the building trade, thereby encouraging healthy design of living accommodation. The Sanitary Institute had been founded in the same year and sought to improve public health practice by setting standards for health professionals. The aims of the two organisations were therefore complementary. From 1883 they occupied the same premises in Margaret Street, London, and in 1888 they amalgamated to form a joint organisation known as The Sanitary Institute. Despite a move of location in 1909, the Parkes Museum continued to exist until the mid-1950s when an extensive refurbishment, together with a change of focus from museum to exhibition, led to its reopening in 1961 as the Health Exhibition Centre. It closed in 1971 when The Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, the successor to The Sanitary Institute, moved to new accommodation in Grosvenor Place, London.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed2005

[The sciences and education in museums at the close of the nineteenth century].

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, natural history museums established solid communication networks, and their different audiences formed what became known as the 'museum movement'. It was within this context of exchange that William H. Flower made his 1889 speech on the roles natural history museums should play. The article analyzes his influence on Argentina's Museo da La Plata, a member of this then-expanding circuit of museums.

Argentina↗
PubMed2005

[Science museums and psychology: interactivity, experimentation, and context].

The article reflects on the notion of the museum experience from the perspective of a visitor to a science and technology museum. Unlike studies that postulate a generic, abstract 'model visitor', the goal was to discuss the perspectives of the visitor as a psychological being, and to this end the research relied on the notion of interactivity. Using two classic psychology studies analyzing the behavior of children and adolescents, the current study first focused on the notion of experimentation, characterized as an interaction between subject and object. It then explored interactions between subjects and contexts, approaching from the notion of mediated action. My conclusion is that a museum experience should, on the one hand, take into account the visitor's ability to act, ask, and experiment and, on the other, the specific museum contexts that invite and propose but may also limit these very chances to act, question, and experiment.

Education↗
PubMed1994

[The establishment of the museum of Hôpital Saint-Louis: chronological milestones and important elements].

Created in 1865, by Alphonse Devergie, physician and head of one of the medical departments in Saint-Louis hospital, the first iconographic collection of the museum was made by water-colours, photographs from the atlas by Hardy and Montméja. Financially supported by the assistance Publique in Paris, thanks to the interest of its manager, Armand Husson, the museum was then enriched by the wax moulages produced by Jules Baretta, from 1867 onwards. Due to the development of the collection, the erection of a specific building was soon regarded as a necessity. The attention given to the project, by Bourneville, City Councellor in Paris, made it possible. First managed by Charles Lailler, physician in Saint-Louis, the museum was definitely located, with the medical library (later called Bibliothèque Henri Feulard), in an independent building, inaugurated August 5th 1889 on the opening of the first International Congress of Dermatology and Syphilology. This new museum, still existing in its original condition, was a part of the restoration of the international influence of the French school of dermatology.

Dermatology↗
PubMed2006

Non-destructive analysis of museum objects by fibre-optic Raman spectroscopy.

Raman spectroscopy is a versatile technique that has frequently been applied for the investigation of art objects. By using mobile Raman instrumentation it is possible to investigate the artworks without the need for sampling. This work evaluates the use of a dedicated mobile spectrometer for the investigation of a range of museum objects in museums in Scotland, including antique Egyptian sarcophagi, a panel painting, painted surfaces on paper and textile, and the painted lid and soundboard of an early keyboard instrument. The investigations of these artefacts illustrate some analytical challenges that arise when analysing museum objects, including fluorescing varnish layers, ambient sunlight, large dimensions of artefacts and the need to handle fragile objects with care. Analysis of the musical instrument (the Mar virginals) was undertaken in the exhibition gallery, while on display, which meant that interaction with the public and health and safety issues had to be taken into account. Experimental set-up for the non-destructive Raman spectroscopic investigation of a textile banner in the National Museums of Scotland.

Journal Article↗