Jędrzej Siuta

The 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.

Due to the uniqueness of wet museum exhibits, there is often a shortage of adequately trained people to carry out conservation work in museum units. Unfortunately, in many cases, the museum exhibits require immediate work. There is usually a visible loss of preservative fluid, or no fluid at all if it has evaporated. Moreover, chipped lids and damaged jars frequently occur. Some exhibit labels are damaged or torn off. Some items have been exhibited incorrectly, but when they are transferred to a new vessel or the fluid is replaced, they gain added value. Although there is a great need for conservation work, many museologists fail to carry it out. A significant problem is the absence of unified conservation procedures or guidelines which could be applied for these types of cases. This paper includes conservation formulas and recipes used at the Molecular Techniques Unit. The authors of this paper hope that it will be helpful to all those who deal with preserving wet museum exhibits.