230 Anniversary of the birth of Jan Evangelista Purkyně (December 17 1787 Libochovice – July 28 1869 Prague)

Czech Medical Students’ Association Medal designed by Otakar Španiel (1881-1955), issued in 1937 to commemorate the 150 birthday of Jan Evangelista Purkyně and to celebrate 50 years of the Purkyne Endowment Fund (NML Medical Museum Numismatic Collection, M 641)

The sculptor and medallist Otakar Španiel spent 25 years working on the portrait of J. E. Purkyně and designed what may be the largest corpus of medals and plaques with his image. The 1937 medal completes his effort to give expression to the scientist‘s character and physical likeness. The Medical Museum purchased the medal on December 23, 1964, during a period when its exposition concentrated on numismatic representations of medical history, from the inheritance of Bohumil Prusik, Professor of Internal Medicine in Prague (1886- 1964). The obverse shows Purkyne’s bust. The reverse reads “Omne vivum ex ovo” (Every living thing comes from an egg), a William Harvey quote inscribed on Purkyne’s tombstone to indicate his contributions to embryology, followed by a Latin text encouraging further commemoration of the anniversary. The staff of Asclepius bound with a laurel branch points to Purkyne’s scientific work: the lime branch is typical for the medallist, but hints at Purkyne’s Slavic sentiments as well.