Medical Museums, With Special Reference to the Army Medical Museum at Washington: The President’s Address, Delivered Before the Congress of American … September 20, 1888 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Medical Museums, With Special Reference to the Army Medical Museum at Washington The origin Of collections of objects of natural history was possibly, as suggested by Beekman, the custom of keeping curious objects in temmes; but we have no record of the formation of any collections specially con nected with anatomy or medicine before the sixteenth century. It is true that human anatomy had been intro duced in the schools by Mundinus in 1306, and that no doubt in Bologna, in Paris, and a few other places, a skeleton or two was preserved for purposes of instruction but alcohol was unknown as a preservative before the end of the fifteenth century, anatomical details were of no interest until Vesalius had stirred up controversy with the Galenists, and injected preparations were not thought of until after Harvey’s announcement, in 1628. Of the discovery of the circulation of the blood.’