Object of the Month: May 2024 “A Midwife’s Amulet” At the end of April 1945, shortly before the liberation of Czechoslovakia and only a few days before his death, the gynecologist and numismatist Antonín Mastný (1875-1945) donated to the Medical Museum, “to honor the memory of Professor Emil Zikmund,” a pendant of silver chains and a thaler, decorated by […]
Object of the Month: December 2022 Christmas Eve Menu, The Economical Cook Book of Prague (1819) For December 2022, we chose the most popular cookbook of the Austrian Monarchy at the beginning of the 19 century and a few of the Christmas recipes it recommends. Die wirthschaftliche Prager Köchinn, welche nach einem eigenen Speiszettel für jeden […]
Object of the Month: July 2022 Theriac From the Exhibition Plagues 1521-2021 in the NML Medical Museum Stoneware medicinal jar inscribed with Elect[uarium] theriac[a] in the Museum collection, was made from early 20 century Germany. Theriac, a universal remedy to cure both illness and poisoning and secure lasting health, is normally associated with more remote […]
Object of the Month: June 2022 Cautery to Stop Haemorrhage and to Cure Plague From the Exhibition Plagues 1521-2021 in the NML Medical Museum Quae medicamenta non sanant, ferrum sanat. Quae ferrum non sanat, ignis sanat. Quae vero ignis non sanat, insanabilia reputari oportet. That which medicines cannot cure, iron [knife] cures. That which […]
Object of the Month, May 2022 From the Exhibition Plagues 1521-2021 in the NML Medical Museum Nickel Milicz, a goldsmith and plate maker in Joachimsthal, inherited his father’s workshop in 1546. His plague medal depicts, on the verso, Moses stopping the plague of serpents by raising a staff with bearing a brass serpent (Num. 21.6-9), circumscribed with the quote […]
Object of the Month: April 2022 Knife for cutting clothes and boots of the injured First aid to a person with an open bone fracture, a bleeding wound or heat or chemical burns must be given quickly, causing as little pain and hurt as possible. Clothes covering the wound are best cut with a knife or […]
Object of the Month: March 2022 Reader, Beware: Books Not Licked Do Not Transmit TB “To be pasted on the inside cover of a borrowed book! Reader, beware! (1) The borrower provides a clean paper cover for the borrowed book. (2) In the interest of public health, every reader is requested to report any infectious disease in the […]
Object of the Month: February 2022 Fan-shaped Spatula When the abdominal cavity is open by incision (laparotomy) for ileus surgery or Caesarian section, intra-abdominal pressure may rise, pushing intestinal loops into the cut, preventing suture. An assistant, if available, can compress the intestine by hand, the surgeon may use a wide spatula. Both hand and […]
This butterfly is (in) oculated. Are You? Object of the Month: January 2022 The January Object of the Month is based on wordplay: the English version must therefore be an explanation, rather a translation. The COVID 19 vaccination rates in the Czech Republic remain stubbornly Central European: higher than in Romania, Bulgaria or Poland and […]
Object of the Month: December 2021 “Vaccination Protects my Life”: Vilibald Weinzett, 1954 The matchbox sticker featuring a – perhaps – smiling child was published in 1954 by the SOLO factory in the Moravian town of Lipník nad Bečvou and conceived by the Research Institute of Health Education in Prague. The factory, founded in 1908, […]