Ewa Janiszewska
Opuscula Musealia, Volume 25, Volume 25 (2018), pp. 93 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843852.OM.17.008.9605opportunity to study major specimens from the past, bringing us closer to understanding these fundamental issues. Until the 1980s, studying objects from museums’ collections, concerning human, plant or animal evolutionary development, were conducted using methods based on anatomical or morphological findings. However, the results were often inaccurate and of solely theoretical value. The use of genetic methods including DNA analysis of museum objects has brought new perspectives for historians, archaeologist, anthropologists, and zoologists.
Ewa Janiszewska
Opuscula Musealia, Volume 25, Volume 25 (2018), pp. 101 - 107
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843852.OM.17.009.9606The history of medicine presented in the source literature is not particularly interesting for today’s young adolescents. Showing it in a more practical and tangible way brings an excellent opportunity to spread historical knowledge. Medical museum studies – a specialist and still developing domain – serves this purpose very well. The results of scientific research performed before World War II – which do not meet ethical standards from today’s point of view – explored the nature of different pathologies of human body, and were preserved as formaldehyde preparations and stored in medical museums. The scientific progress in molecular biology which allows scientists to conduct genetic research of old and decayed exhibits, gives them a chance to explore mysteries of diseases and evolution of pathogens, essential to verify historical data.