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Our Museum
History of the Museum
The Pathological Museum
Virchow's Specimens
The Specimens Today
Rudolf Virchow
Pathology
Ophthalmology
Ruine of Lecture Hall
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Rudolf Virchow attributed the greatest of importance to his collection of
pathological-anatomical specimens. He called it "his dearest child." The abundance
of disease profiles that could be found there documented for him the state of
knowledge that had been reached in his field of pathology. Moreover, in this way
he could refer to his own life's work in an impressive way. The specimens offered
him direct evidence he could use to communicate his knowledge to others.
On the one hand he used the specimens to teach his students, and on the other, he
made a large portion of the collection available to the public. The specimen is the
basic object of all medical collecting. Beginning in the middle of the 16th century,
specimens were prepared and stored primarily at the anatomical research and teaching
institutions of the universities, the anatomical theaters. Here they served to
demonstrate the structures of the "normal" human body. At the beginning of the
19th century, however, the perspective changed. Medical researchers became
increasingly interested in the diseased body. Smaller specimen collections appeared,
especially at the newly founded English medical schools. These collections document
the scientific field of work of a pathologist. Rudolf Virchow was inspired by the
British example to build up his own - but much more comprehensive - collection.
Virchow wanted to increase knowledge about health and disease among the populace
with a publicly accessible collection. In this part of the museum he showed specimens
with particularly striking signs of disease and presented rare diseases - for example,
malformations - in larger series. In some places he added models in plaster or wax to
he showcases and explained certain conditions with accompanying texts.
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