Introduction
Are Medical museums only a part of history? Are they becoming extinct due to uprising
digital obsession? Is there a place for them in the near future?
As the Latin expression claims “Mortui vivos docent”, which means “the dead teach the living.” Taking a journey through the Medical museum
is taking a journey through the realm of the dead, the traces of the past. This museum
resembles a living book of someone's life. Perhaps a life full of success and failure,
honor and fear, love and injustice. But regardless of the destiny, those lives became
an honorable teaching resource for everyone. Although Anatomical Museums continue
their longstanding role as an educational resource for clinicians, like other medical
museums, they are enjoying a renaissance by opening its doors to the wider community.[1]
Anatomical museums seemed to appear first in the 16th and 17th centuries and were the part of natural history museums.[2] Every medical faculty tried to establish a lecture room, a library, laboratories,
and training rooms, where dissections could take place. The most impressive and important
preparations of anatomical specimens were consequently taken to the museums.
Anatomical Museum, Department of Normal Anatomy, Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical
University
History
The building of fundamental sciences founded by Prof. Kadyi in 1894 was constructed
on the modern scientific principles. It was built following the project of the architect
Jozef Braunseis (1837–1914) with the collaboration of Prof. Henryk Kadyi and of the
architect Ivan Levynskyi (1851–1919).[3]
[4]
[5]
Prof. Henryk Kadyi (1851–1912) began his educational journey at the Lviv gymnasium
(Lviv, Ukraine) ([Fig. 1]). After that, he joined the Jagiellonial University (Krakow, Poland) and was admitted
at the Medical University of Vienna (Vienna, Austria), where in 1875 he received the
degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1878, he returned to Krakow as an Associate Professor
at the Department of Comparative Anatomy and, in 1881, moved to Lviv as head of the
Department of Normal Anatomy and Histology.[6]
[7]
Fig. 1 Professor Henryk Kadyi (1851–1912).
Together with his colleagues, Professor Kadyi organized the scientific work of the
Department of Anatomy. He was considered an innovator and an unsurpassed master of
making anatomical preparations. He probably gained his fundamental knowledge from
his mentor – Prof. Ludwik Karol Teichmann (1823–1895), the great Polish and world
anatomist. He pioneered in the development of the method of manufacturing corrosion
preparations using cellulose and paraffin. For painting nerve cells, heavy metal salts
were used. Prof. Kadyi also introduced to use formalin in the preservation of cadavers
in Lviv.[6]
In 1907, Prof. Henryk Kadyi was one of the organizers of the 10th Congress of Medical Doctors and Polish Natural Sciences. Prof. Kadyi presented a
method of staining of the gray matter of the brain and of the carmine core after treatment
with uranyl acetate, in the Polish Archives of Biological and Medical Sciences (Polskie
Archiwum Nauk Biologicznych i Lekarskich), which he both edited and published with
his extensive involvement from 1901 to 1907.[6]
[7]
Prof. Henryk Kadyi passed away suddenly and tragically from sepsis infection during
the embalming of Count Stanisław Badeni, Marshall of the Galician Country Parliament
on October 25, 1912.[5]
[7]
[8] He was buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery – a necropolis of the intellectual elite
of the city, which is located near the Medical University.
The Museum Nowadays
The Anatomical Museum of the Department of Normal Anatomy of the Danylo Halytsky Lviv
National Medical University (Lviv, Ukraine) houses a comprehensive collection of > 2,000
preparations. Those medical artifacts include both normal anatomy and malformed specimens.
The museum has an extensive collection of articulated skeletons, individual fetal,
adult and juvenile bones, as well as the skeletons and visceral bones of many animals.
The particularly interesting artifacts are casts, corrosive, mummified organs of the
cardiovascular and nervous system.
The museum is divided into three sections, each with their own focus point. Our Anatomical
Museum is a dynamic place, as its materials are being used in practical classes for
our medical students. They study systemic and descriptive anatomy; however, normal
anatomy is a broader and deeper science. Artists and painters are also common visitors
of the Museum as it displays sculptures of the human body and reconstructions of paintings
by Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius. Thus, using these artworks, dynamic and
plastic anatomy is captured and learned in the Museum.
The First Museum Section
This section focuses on the form and function of the skeletal system and has numerous
educational displays. They include locomotor system specimens such as muscles, joints
and bones. Mostly, the first museum section is devoted to osteology. This collection
includes skeletal material of different genders and ages, and also a fetal skeleton.
Decalcified and cleared bones specimens reveal the paranasal sinuses in the skull
and the trabecular pattern in the long bones.
The unique artifact is the skull with developing teeth (moving from primary to permanent)
([Fig. 2]). Moreover, the museum showcases the sheer diversity of bone anomalies and congenital
malformations (diversity of congenital cardiac defects and skeletal deformities),
such as metopic (frontal) suture, suture bones, acrocephaly (tower skull); vertebral
anomalies: assimilation of the atlas, and bone concrescence. Included in this section
are the skeletons with hypersthenic and asthenic body habitus that can be used to
learn gender and constitutional anatomy. Moreover, a great collection of mammal skeletons
can change your understanding of comparative anatomy.
Fig. 2 The skull with developing teeth (moving from primary to permanent).
The Second Museum Section
The collection in the second section comprises wet preparations of human tissues and
organs and is divided according to the body systems: the urinary system; the respiratory
system; the cardiovascular system; the digestive system; the nervous system; the endocrine
system; the reproductive system; skin and soft tissues; and the sense organs. The
collection contains exhibits of transverse, sagittal and frontal sections of the adult
head, neck and trunk.
The collections in this section include a wide variety of deformities and defects.
For example, in the urinary system collection you can observe ureteral duplication,
a duplicated collecting system, horseshoe and pelvic kidneys, etc.
The nervous system collection includes ~ 100 brain sections in the sagittal, transverse
and coronal parts that show the macroscopic details of cortical and basal gray matter
and the white matter fiber tracts.
The most iconic collection in this section contains the casts of blood vessels ([Fig. 3]), tracheobronchial trees, and nerves. The most well-known, and perhaps the most
curious items in the collection are vessels and nerves of the thoracic cavity, of
the abdominal cavity, and of the upper and lower limbs.
Fig. 3 Branches of the external carotid artery.
The Third Museum Section
The specimens in the third section are displayed in the authentic cabinets that date
back ~ 120 years (the period of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) ([Fig. 4]). The weight of each cabinet is ~ 500 kg (or 1102 lbs). They have a very interesting
feature – it is impossible to open or close them without special position of the cabinet
legs.
Fig. 4 Authentic cabinets in the third museum hall.
This section includes specimens depicting the comparative anatomy of viscera of humans
and mammals; the most common are the exhibits of hearts and lungs. Visitors can observe
a range of heart preparations that belonged to different mammals, such as echidna,
stork, lion, bear, and horse.
Moreover, this section displays the exhibits of the casts of blood vessels. A mummified
preparation of the aorta and its branches, the arterial and venous network (hand and
foot); variations in branching of the aortic arch, of the thyrolinguofacial trunk,
and the transposition of central vessels are of particular relevance in the context
of surgery. The exceptional specimens are the casts of the entire vascular system
of stillborn babies.
Anatomical Theater
The oldest auditorium at the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University is the
Anatomical Theater. The Lecture hall can seat 200 people. During lectures, conducted
by Prof. Henryk Kadyi, ~ 200 students and professors observed the dissection of human
cadavers. Prof. Adolf Beck and Prof. Vladyslav Shymonovych also presented their lectures
here. The Anatomical Theater in Lviv preserved its authenticity and is a place that
helps us understand our relationship with the tangible and intangible heritage of
humanity.
Conclusions
According to the founder of modern human anatomy, Andreas Vesalius, “Anatomia fundamentum
medicinaе est.” This statement remains relevant today. Human Anatomy is the first
medical discipline a student begins to study after enrolling in a medical university.[9] Thus, anatomical museums must continue to be accessible to the public. Anatomical
museums teach us not only about morphology but also help us appreciate the beauty
of the human body. These museums preserve knowledge that has been hard-won by scientists
and are a record of the history of the medical thought processes.
The great collection of the Department of Normal Anatomy of the Danylo Halytskyy Lviv
National Medical University includes both normal anatomy and malformed artifacts.
The Museum is a place of great interest for a wide audience within the medical community,
as well as many physicians and surgeons. Practitioners who span the clinical disciplines
and biomedical sciences, such as anatomists and pathologists, also profit greatly
by visiting anatomical museums.
