History of Medicine Museum

Today we visited the Museo de la Historia de la Medicina in Cuenca. It's in the old medical school building, on the U of Cuenca's campus, where there's still a functioning medical and dental clinic. 

A seemingly random collection of items related to medicine in Ecuador in the 20th century, with  instruments, equipment, medicines, signage, medical journals, office setups, uniforms. It reminded me of  Philadelphia's Mutter Museum, and also of Chicago's Museum of Surgical Science, two favorites.

Enter the museum through the main archway.  Current medical clinic on the left, dental clinic on the right..

The entry courtyard -- in process.  See the circle thing behind the tree in the back?

Sitting behind the trees in the photo above sits this bed, of some (?) utility. 

Iron lung, ca. 1940, in the courtyard.

Dental equipment stand.  I'm pretty sure my Uncle Hay had one like this in the 50s.

Dentist's chair from the late 1800s - a foot-pedaled drill. Dentist pedals while drilling. Argh.

A view of  one of many rooms of unlabeled equipment -- autoclaves, lights, measures, stuff.

Equipment for stimulation of patients with nervous disorders.  The front part of this case is electrical and has dials and a gauge -- difficult to see for the poor photo -- the upper part contains the attachments, including a rake-like thing. ?

 

This is a delivery table/chair -- for having babies -- note the stirrups, their width and their position.  !  No date, but clearly from the middle ages?

Not sure. 

An operating table, with light.

There was no explanation, no signage for this child's preserved body.  Nor for the one below, which was clearly a fetus.  Bodies in a glass case, with other random bones.  Haunting.

We met the director of the museum, who was sorting through the rooms of donations, organizing it.  He pulled out an early  X-Ray slide to show us.

This museum also had a collection of Cuban health propaganda signs that were very interesting.  I'll post them another time.