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Temporary exhibition entitled “Between Warsaw and Zakopane. The Legend of Tytus Chałubiński “

 

The opening of the new temporary exhibition entitled “Between Warsaw and Zakopane. The Legend of Tytus Chałubiński “was scheduled for March 23, 2020. Due to the epidemiological situation, the Museum of the History of Medicine has decided to postpone the ceremony until there is no health risk for visitors. The exhibition has been prepared under auspices of His Magnificence, prof. dr hab. Mirosław Wielgoś  and all potential visitors are cordially invited to visit at  later  time in the future. The presentation of the life and legacy of Tytus Chałubiński is meant to be an impulse to familiarize ourselves better with this extraordinary figure. A wide range of his interests (from medicine, botany , art history to mountaineering) shows that he had a very dynamic and open-minded personality. Treating patients, regardless of their social background and status, with great empathy and understanding can be an example for everyone, not only doctors.

The exhibition will be open until March 2021.

The partners of the exhibition are:
Dr Tytus Chałubiński’s Tatra Museum in Zakopane
Herbarium of the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
Stanisław Józef Thugutt’ Geological Museum, Faculty of Geology,
University of Warsaw
Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw
Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University
University of Warsaw Library
National Digital Archives
National Museum in Warsaw
Warsaw Medical Society
Fundacja POKOLENIA POKOLENIOM – a non profit organization

The authors of the exhibition scenario are Kinga Warszawska and Adam Tyszkiewicz from the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw.

Graphic design of the exhibition: Piotr Berezowski.

Photos: Mr. Krzysztof Gardulski – Medical University of Warsaw Department.

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Exhibition “Between Warsaw and Zakopane. The legend of Tytus Chałubiński.”

The Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw informs that all exhibitions are temporarily closed. We will be pleased to welcome you again after the situation related to the epidemiological risk has stabilized at the new exhibition:

Between Warsaw and Zakopane. The legend of Tytus Chałubiński.

Legendary heroes were usually warriors, saints, and outstanding figures. The tales which appear in folklore, were at first passed down by word of mouth; they were modified and sometimes it is difficult to trace them back to their source. They are associated more with metaphor than with fact.

Over a century ago, there lived a certain fine doctor who saved the mountain people from a contagious epidemic and poverty. He also embraced the impoverished folk of the big city with his kindness and the two places of his activity were far removed from one another. He travelled around Europe, visited the best hospitals, studied at universities, uncovered the secrets of the mountains, and healed people free of charge. Perhaps given time, this is how future generations will relate the story of Tytus Chałubiński’s life.

The young man, who came from Radom, attended the Academy of Medicine and Surgery in Vilnius at a time when Polish historical events painted a bleak picture. His medical studies, which he initially chose without any real enthusiasm, provided him with knowledge and directed him to activities which led to him being seen as a living legend in both Warsaw and Zakopane; he was their saviour and helper. By studying medicine and botany concurrently, first in Würzburg and later in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia), he marked out the paths of his adult life – becoming a doctor by profession, a botanist by his passion. Continue reading “Exhibition “Between Warsaw and Zakopane. The legend of Tytus Chałubiński.””

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1920–2020. One hundred years of teaching internal medicine. Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski – the father of modern cardiology, 13.01.2020

The Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM) warmly invites you to the opening of the exhibition 1920–2020. One hundred years of teaching internal medicine. Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski – the father of modern cardiology, which will take place on 13 January at 1 pm, at the WUM Educational Centre, first floor, at 2a Trojdena Street.

The exhibition is under the honorary patronage of Rector Prof. Mirosław Wielgoś.

Over 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 1918/1919 academic year, Dr Mściwój Semerau-Siemanowski begins working as assistant professor under Professor Kazimierz Rzętkowski (1870–1924) at the Second Clinic of Internal Medicine of the University of Warsaw which had been established in The Holy Spirit Hospital (Pol: Szpital św. Ducha) on Elektoralna Street. At this clinic, Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski develops utilitarian methods for carrying out cardiac and cardiovascular examinations, and adds the relatively recently discovered (i.e. only a dozen or so years earlier) electrocardiographic (ECG) examination to the routine tests undergone by patients. From 1920, for the first time in the history of the university, he gives lectures on physical examinations of internal medicine patients, although not yet officially a university teacher. So, symbolically, it could be said that we are celebrating the centenary of modern teaching of internal medicine and the diagnostic testing of research into the circulatory system at our Alma Mater.

Thirty years later cardiology becomes a separate discipline from internal medicine. However, already in the 1920s and 1930s,  after the death of his superior, Dr. Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski lays the foundations of cardiology very firmly.

In 1922, he publishes a dissertation: On the activities of intrinsically beating chambers of the human heart: a pharmacological and physio-pathological study, which became the basis of his post-doctoral thesis (habilitation). Shortly afterwards, the young university teacher begins giving his own lectures on the diagnostics and therapy of cardiovascular diseases. As of the 1924/25 academic year, he establishes and takes over the management of the Department of Internal Diseases in the new St Lazarus Hospital on Książęca Street – the first department in Poland to specialize in cardiovascular diseases, with separate analytical, radiological, electrocardiographic, haematological and resting metabolism laboratories. There was also a room set up at the centre for experimental testing on animals. The laboratories were partially equipped at his own expense.

In 1935 he withdraws from some of the didactic lectures in internal medicine, devoting himself exclusively to cardiological issues – in the years 1936–38 he runs the first two-week postgraduate training course in Poland for cardiologists. However, the establishment of independent structures of Polish cardiology is interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Professor Mściwój Semerau-Siemianowski revists the idea immediately after the war, after returning to Warsaw in 1949.

In 2020, exactly 70 years will have passed since 15 January 1950 when the Cardiology Department of the Society of Polish Internal Medicine Practitioners (Towarzystwa Internistów Polskich – TIP) – the leading centre of internal medicine in Warsaw – was established under Professor Mściwój Semerau-Siemanowski at the Second Clinic of Internal Medicine of the University of Warsaw. In addition to the chairman, the Department included three students and associates of the Master: Jerzy Jakubowski (Vice-President), Dmitri Aleksandrov (Secretary) and Edward Żera (Treasurer). Therefore seventy years ago the formal process of setting cardiology apart from internal medicine began, and four years later the newly-established Society of Polish Internal Medicine Practitioners (TIP) became the Polish Society of Cardiology (PTK). This was officially confirmed on 28 February 1954. We shall be reminding you about all of this at the exhibition marking the centenary and 70th anniversary being held within the walls of the Medical University of Warsaw.

Prof. Krzysztof J. Filipiak

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The Long Night of Museums, 18 May 2019, 6 p.m. – half past midnight; at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM).

 

The Museum of the History of Medicine (WUM), warmly invites you to The Long Night of Museums, which will take place on 18 May 2019 from 6 p.m. – half past midnight, at the Banach Campus of the Medical University of Warsaw.

PROGRAMME

EXHIBITIONS:

  1. On the border between Life and Death. The mysterious mummy from the collections of the Medical University of Warsaw
  2. Femina et Medicina. Portrait of Hygieia in the academic tradition of Warsaw
  3. The past twenty years… Highlights of the Faculty of Health Education at the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM)
  4. Medicine and Pharmacy in Warsaw through the lens of a pre-war camera.

LECTURES / WALKS

  1. Egyptian mummies; an eternal mystery – Prof. Dr. Hab. Andrzej Niwiński. Library and Information Centre (CBI), in the Prof. Antoni Dobrzański Room, 7.15 p.m.
  2. Mummies, mummifiers and paleopathology – Dr. Hanna Pliszka, Halina Przychodzeń, MA, Dr. Małgorzata Brzozowska, Dr. Sylwia Tarka. Library and Information Centre (CBI), in the Prof. Antoni Dobrzański Room, 8 p.m.
  3. Walks: Symbols of the Medical University of Warsaw; The best of… led by Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz (Please assemble at 6.30 p.m. and 11 p.m. at the starting point at the main entrance to the Rector’s Building).

Concert entitled Dance of the Night given by the Orchestra of the Medical University of Warsaw conducted by Beata Herman. It will feature works by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Strauss. Didactic Centre, in the Professor Janusz Piekarcyzk Lecture Hall, 9.30 p.m.

The following venues will only be open to visitors during The Long Night of Museums: Senate Hall; the Study of the Rector, Professor Mirosław Wielgoś MD; the Study of the Dean of the First Faculty of Medicine, Professor Paweł Włodarski MD; the Professor Janusz Piekarczyk Lecture Hall; and the Reading Room of the Main Library of the Medical University of Warsaw (WUM) (2nd floor).

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‘The teaching of medicine and pharmacy within the walls of Vilnius University’ on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius.

In 2019 one hundred years will have passed since the opening of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. To mark this special anniversary, the Museum of Medical History, WUM, has organized a commemorative exhibition entitled: ‘The teaching of medicine and pharmacy within the walls of Vilnius University’. It not only presents the history of the university, but also displays academic memorabilia from Vilnius which are part of the collections of our own museum in Warsaw. This particularly rich collection of exhibits relates to the time when the Stefan Batory University was in existence.

 

The University in Vilnius was founded in 1579 by Stefan Batory, king of Poland. After the Kraków Academy, it was considered the second most significant Polish centre of learning and was one of the easternmost institutes of higher education in early modern Europe. The University’s activities were curtailed for the first time after the fall of the November Uprising in 1831. The Polish community in Vilnius had to wait until 1919 before it was able to re-open its doors. This was thanks largely to Józef Piłsudski who had always had a great affection for Vilnius and all its traditions. He also issued a decree in accordance with which the university was re-named as the Stefan Batory University. Continue reading “‘The teaching of medicine and pharmacy within the walls of Vilnius University’ on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius.”

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The lecture by Professor Thomas Schnalke of the Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine at the Charité entitled: ‘Beneath the Skin. Tracing Life in the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité’.


Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz, Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw warmly invites you to a lecture to be given by Professor Thomas Schnalke of the Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine at the Charité entitled: ‘Beneath the Skin. Tracing Life in the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité’.

The lecture will begin at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday 11 April 2019 and will take place in Room 27 in the Library and Information Centre (Centrum Biblioteczno – Informacyjne) building at 63 Żwirki i Wigury Street.

The lecture will be in English.

The Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine at the Charité is one of the most famous European museums with a medical profile. It is located on the site of the Charité Hospital, in a building which was commissioned by the famous pathologist, Professor Rudolf Virchow. At the exhibition you can learn not only about the history of the hospital and the history of medicine in Germany, but also view the many pathological preparations collected by physicians in Berlin over many decades. In recent years the Museum has organized many interesting and unusual temporary exhibitions showing the connections between medicine and art, as well as forensic science and death. This year, on 21 March 2019, another exhibition opened in Berlin devoted to the famous surgeon, Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Since 2000 the post of director of the Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine at the Charité has been held by Professor Thomas Schnalke, whom we shall have the pleasure of hosting in Warsaw in April. During his lecture he will talk not only about amassing medical collections, but will also present his vision of managing a modern museum of the history of medicine, whose name is recognizable throughout the whole world.

Prof. Thomas Schnalke (b. 1958), is a medical historian. He studied medicine in Würzburg and Marburg. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1987 when he defended a thesis on the history of medical moulage (models in wax of skin lesions, tumours and other pathological skin diseases). In 1993 he obtained his post-doctoral degree in the history of medicine. His research was on urban medicine in German-speaking countries in the eighteenth century. After returning to Berlin in 2000 he began an intensive study of the history of amassing anatomical and anatomical and pathological collections. Under his leadership, many interesting exhibitions on the borderline between medicine, art and forensic science have been organized at the Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine at the Charité. In recent years these have included: HIEB § STICH Dem Verbrechen auf der Spur (2016–2018) and ScheinTOT – Über die Ungewissheit des Todes und die Angst, lebendig begraben zu werden (2018). Professor Schnalke’s most important publications include: Diseases in wax: the history of the medical moulage, Berlin 1995; Medizin im Brief : der städtische Arzt des 18. Jahrhunderts im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz, Stuttgart 1997; and Dem Leben auf der Spur im Berliner Medizinhistorischen Museum der Charité: Dauerausstellung / Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin ; Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité, Berlin 2010 (co-authored with Isabel Atzl).

Admission Free!
We invite you to join us!

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Femina et Medicina. Portrait of Hygieia in the academic tradition of Warsaw, 6.03.2019

Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw prof. Mirosław Wielgoś, MD and Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw Adam Tyszkiewicz, PhD invite you to the opening of the exhibition entitled: Femina et Medicina. Portrait of Hygieia in the academic tradition of Warsaw.

Its opening will take place on March 6, 2019 at 10.30 am on the first floor in the building of the Library and Information Center, 63 Żwirki i Wigury St. Free Admission.

In the second decade of the seventeenth century, the famous Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, painted one of the most striking images of Hygieia ever produced in early modern art. His goddess of health is not only an excellent personification of female beauty and sensuality—which is clearly accentuated by her exposed left breast and the redtones of her overgarment—but also of vigour, strength and health which are portrayed in her unusually muscular arms, reminiscent of the figures of the famous Sybils painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Continue reading “Femina et Medicina. Portrait of Hygieia in the academic tradition of Warsaw, 6.03.2019”

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THE HERITAGE OF ASCLEPIUS. MEDICINE VERSUS THE HUMANITIES

The Museum of the History of Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, hereby invites you to a new series of museum events in 2019 under the title of ‘The Heritage of Asclepius. Medicine  versus the Humanities’. The aim of the first series of these meetings will be to present medicine against a background of the humanities, such as history of art, literature, theatre, law and philosophy. All the meetings will take place on the first Monday of each month at 5 p.m. During the warmer months of the year, we would also like to invite you to take part in walks which are planned along the Royal Route and on the Lindley Campus. To start with, on 7 January, Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz, Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine, will give a lecture entitled: ‘The relationship between Apollo and Asclepius, that is the relationship between art and medicine’. During the lecture you will learn about the diseases from which well-known artists suffered, including Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and Stanisław Wyspiański, and also discover which early modern works of art and sculptures should be included in the catalogue devoted to the connections between art and medicine and what characterized the architecture of the most famous European hospitals.

We look forward to seeing you on Monday 7 January 2019 at 5 p.m.

Programme:

7 January 2019 – Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz (Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine): ‘The relationship between Apollo and Asclepius, that is the relationship between art and medicine’. In the L. Paszkiewicz Room in the Collegium Anatomicum building, 5  T. Chałubiński Street

4 February 2019 – Dr. Emilia Olechnowicz (Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences ISPAN) – The body as ‘matter worthy of a theatrical setting’. About early modern anatomical theatres. In the W. Grzywo – Dąbrowski Lecture Room in the Department of Forensic Medicine building, 1 W. Oczki Street.

4 March 2019 – Dr. Maria Turos (Medical University of Warsaw) – Lecturers in Uniform – ‘Warsaw School of Medicine’ 1809–1831. In the A. Dobrzański Room in the Library and Information Centre, 63 Żwirki i Wigury Street.

1 April 2019 – Professor Dr. Hab. Elżbieta Wichrowska (Faculty of Polish Language and Literature, University of Warsaw) – From prophecies, ‘reforms’ of outfits, diets to heal the body – that is the first ‘bloomerists’, mesmerists, homoeopaths, vegetarians, hydropathists and abstinents in England and elsewhere… Room no. 27 in the Library and Information Centre, 63 Żwirki i Wigury Street.

6 May 2019 – Dr. Karolina Paczyńska – Famous doctors, hospitals of the past and the teaching of medicine along the Royal Route (walk). Meet at the Barbican, on the side of Krzywe Koło Street

3 June 2019 – Dr. Adam Tyszkiewicz (Museum of the History of Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw) – In the shadow of Warsaw’s skyscrapers. Secrets of the Lindley Campus (walk). Meet in front of the Collegium Anatomicum building at 5 T. Chałubiński Street.

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Professor Dr. Hab. Witold Janusz Rudowski, MD (1918 – 2001)

On 3 December 2018, in the reading room of the Main Library of the Medical University of Warsaw, an exhibition was opened entitled: ‘Surgeon and Soldier of the Home Army (AK), or the reminiscences of the extraordinary life of Professor Dr. Hab. Witold Janusz Rudowski, MD (1918 – 2001), recipient of an honorary degree from the Medical Academy of Warsaw (1978) on the centenary of his birth’.

Visitors will be able to learn about the Professor’s interesting biography and also see, among other things, part of an interesting collection of medals belonging to Prof. Witold Janusz Rudowski, which are on loan to the museum. The medals were awarded to Professor Rudowski in recognition of his professional achievements. The names of many outstanding Polish and foreign doctors appear on them: Józef Struś, Tytus Chałubiński, Karol Marcinkowski, Ludwik Rydygier, Louis Pasteur, as well as the names of universities and medical societies.

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Józef Polikarp Brudziński Salus aegroti suprema lex esto

Józef Polikarp Brudziński Salus aegroti suprema lex esto

Introduce:

And when all of us, both the teachers and students, and the entire university
community, envelop our reborn Alma Mater with care and love, it will remain
and flourish, and future generations will look on it with pride and repeat: The
rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that
house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. It was with
these words that Rector Józef Polikarp Brudziński ended his speech during
the inaugural celebration of the University of Warsaw on 15 November 1915.
Whereas I, on the hundredth anniversary of his death, would like to recall
a beautiful chapter in the history of both Polish education and medicine,
commemorating the life and academic achievements of the revived
University of Warsaw’s first rector—a world renowned neurologist, paediatrician and invaluable academic teacher, who was loved by his students.
It is a real honour to have had a predecessor who was such a celebrity, and
who was involved in so many spheres of activity: medical, academic, social
and political. It also provides me with strong motivation and the challenge to
discharge my duties with due care and diligence for the benefit of the whole
academic community, one hundred years after the reinstatement of the independent University of Warsaw and the appointment of the first rector in its history. Józef Polikarp Brudziński was the first in a series of illustrious and
great personages who, in turn, until 1950, were rectors of the University of
Warsaw, and later of the Medical Academy and of the Medical University of
Warsaw.
Józef Polikarp Brudziński was not only the first rector of the reborn University
of Warsaw, but he was also a physician. Later in the University of Warsaw’s
history—between 1915 and 1949—five of the seventeen rectors were also
medical doctors: Professor Jan Mazurkiewicz – a psychiatrist; Professor
Franciszek Krzyształowicz – a dermatologist; Professor Mieczysław
Michałowicz – a paediatrician; Professor Jerzy Modrakowski – a
pharmacologist and Professor Franciszek Czubalski – a physiologist.
I sincerely belief that 100 years after the death of Józef Polikarp Brudziński,
both current and future generations will look back with pride and gratitude at
the achievements he left to posterity, and will repeat: The rain came down, the
streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
I congratulate the Museum of the History of Medicine for preparing an
exhibition to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Rector Józef
Brudziński—the father of both the revived University of Warsaw and of the
Medical University of Warsaw.

Professor Mirosław Wielgoś, MD
Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw.