Surgical Instruments From Antiquity and Craft X-ray in the Medical Museum in Varna
Ancient medical instruments, a nail wrapping pot are just a small part of the curious exhibits presented by the Varna Museum of History of Medicine. The cultural institution is one of the few of this type in Europe and shows visitors unique objects that can not be seen elsewhere. Since the autumn of last year, the museum has a new owner and today it is included for the first time in the Night of the Museums.
The responsibility of the exposition is already an association formed between the Medical University in Varna, the University Hospital “St. Marina” and the Bulgarian Red Cross, a story about BTA, Assoc. Prof. Emanuela Mutafova, Dean of the Faculty of Public Health. According to her, the maintenance of the museum is a double responsibility — to those who have created and developed medicine over the centuries and to current and future students who can see the history of their profession, to touch their predecessors and learn from their Experience.
Hippocrates and his followers were on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast
The academic leadership of the university is very responsive to its new tasks and has already developed an ambitious program of the museum’s activities this summer, Prof. Mutfova pointed out.
In addition to all the initiatives, the focus will be research. As a concrete example, Prof. Mutafova pointed out that at the moment specialists are very seriously investigating the credibility of the hypothesis that Hippocrates and his followers were on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and that they probably arrived in Constanta, Romania today.
The museum will also be seriously committed to working with children. Space is now being formed where, in a modern interactive way, they will have the opportunity to learn about healthy lifestyles, useful nutrition, hygienic habits, the structure of the human body. The training will be led by highly qualified specialists from the university and students.
The museum has a garden that has been renovated and completely reconstructed, Prof. Mutafova also said. In it are planted all kinds of medicinal plants, which will support the training of future pharmacists. The garden was renovated by a donor — a doctor whose grandfather was one of the most respected Varna doctors.
The spirit of donation is lurking in the museum, Prof. Mutafova said. The building was donated by Paraskeva Nikolaou, a prominent Varna philanthropist who gave money not only for medicine but also for churches and schools. In the spirit of his example, in the last year, the museum’s collection has increased sharply. Donations have been made not only by doctors and relatives of medics from the country but also from abroad. The new exhibits have not yet been exhibited, but the plans are to display them gradually in thematic exhibitions.
The museum is unique in that it tells about the development of medicine in different directions from the earliest times until the 1950s, added Ivelina Dimitrova, curator of the cultural institution. It has an exceptionally rich anthropological collection.
Bones are found during archaeological excavations and reveal that the ancients have died quite young on modern criteria — 30–40 years old, and have suffered from diseases typical of elderly people today.
Close to the antique bones in the shop windows are also arranged instruments of medicine from these distant times. Bronze and iron medical miracles look pretty ominous and do not have any thoughts about medicine. In order to get a complete picture of ancient health care alongside them, there is a zoomorphic toy figure and a medicine dishwasher.
The museum has an impressive collection of Roman instruments
The museum has an impressive collection of Roman instruments. At that time there were already profiled directions in medicine, Dimitrova said. In her words, military doctors had quite good surgical skills.
Although from a modern point of view, their activity is quite disturbing in view of their anesthetics. They were plant-based, says Dimitrova, and agrees that they are rather likely to have drugged their patients than to have them put aside, as their modern counterparts did.
In the Middle Ages, ancient healers are now missing. The call for a healthy spirit in a healthy body is no longer valid, but the Christian priests who usually practice in the monasteries deal with treatment. For this period it is characteristic that the doctors were not surgeons because the body was not so important, Dimitrova said. The sick are treated with herbs and prayers. At the expense of the lack of normal medicine, all sorts of Swaddlers, wizards, wizards are rising.
he bullet casting, the hotties, the suction cups come to the fore. Among the exhibits in the museum, there is a pot for winding a navel, as well as a dried bat, which most of the modern doctors can hardly know exactly what he used. Thrushes elicit carefully arranged blood-supplying tools to treat fever. Right next to them are healing lye and healing mud, which were also present in the arsenal of the people’s healers.
In the first half of the 19th century, the first graduate doctors came to Bulgaria
In the first half of the 19th century, the first graduate doctors came to Bulgaria, Dimitrova said. These people were forced to lead a fierce battle to educate their compatriots since at that time personal hygiene was not particularly honored. Actually, doctors play the role of enlighteners and teach their contemporaries even the elementary rules of washing their hands regularly.
Gradually things are developing in the country. Novelties in medical science usually go through the sea settlements and most of all through Varna. Many doctors are emigrants from other countries who, for one reason or another, arrive in the city and remain living in it. This led to the creation of the first association of doctors at the end of 1883. The organization has its own statutes and rules. Its founders are among the organizers of the Bulgarian Medical Association, which was not structured until 1901.
During this period the beginning of the modern Bulgarian pharmacy was also started. The work of the pharmacies was very strictly regulated, explained Dimitrova. Unlike the modern ones, they were concession, and only in settlements where there was a doctor. Each pharmacy had its own logo and stamp, and the distance between them was at least 250 m. The right to mix powders and sell had only a master-pharmacist.
The museum has a separate corner where an old-fashioned pharmacy is located
The museum has a separate corner where an old-fashioned pharmacy is located. The setting is quite cozy — a large wooden cabinet with countless drawers and thousands of bottles, strictly arranged on the shelves.
Actually, the activity of master-pharmacists was just as a clergy, said Dimitrova. This is evidenced by the built-in mortars, saucers, scales, and any other appliances with which they were crushed and carefully mixed with powders and medicines. Next to the cabinet is a set, remarkably like a miniature kettle for brandy. There were healing distillates in it.
In the middle of the cabinet, there are shelves hidden behind a large mirror. There are poisonous substances stored there. When someone came to ask for poison — for mice, cockroaches, rats, the master-pharmacist was obliged to judge the client, Dimitrova explained. When he turned to open the cabinet and take out the substance, the mirror allowed the pharmacist to once again look at the man and re-evaluate if he wanted the poison to really mice or his wife, for example.
In the late 19th century, the first dentists appeared in Bulgaria. They also have specialized equipment well presented in the museum. Until then, the tooth extraction was done, which can, and especially the barbers, says Dimitrova. It is documented that even there was an association of barbers-surgeons. There are several types of pliers in the museum that they worked with and which would make every modern patient with screaming leave the dental expert’s office.
The exhibits of the museum include exhibits showing the history of sea therapy, whose center became Varna in the beginning of the 20th century. Apparatuses and lamps for heating and physiotherapy, part of which at least externally have associations for the Inquisition and not for healing procedures.
The first microscopes and the ancestors of modern apparatus are also richly represented. Among the exhibits is a hand-made X-ray machine. It is a work of Plovdiv craftsman and the order is made by a Varna doctor. But there is no data on how the patients felt after the powerful radiation from the strange machine.
