Andrius Sniadecki's thoughts on what kind of clinic should be used to treat patients and train medical students led to an exhibition presenting the medical histories of patients at the Vilnius University (VU) Clinics of Therapeutics, Surgery, and Obstetrics, as well as the medical diagnostic instruments, treatment methods, and research papers of the doctors who have worked in the Clinics. The location is indeed suitable for this purpose: after the closure of Vilnius University, the Vilnius Academy of Medicine and Surgery was established, and in 1834 it was given the then Puslovskis' Palace on Didžioji Street. Today, it houses the Vilnius Picture Gallery, a branch of the National Art Museum of Lithuania. 

 

The beginning of the 19th century is considered to be the golden age of Vilnius University. At that time it was one of the largest and most important institutions of higher education in Eastern Europe. It had four faculties where theoretical and practical disciplines were taught by top specialists invited from Western Europe, an Institute of Medicine, where talented medical students could study for free, newly established clinics and dispensaries, the Institutes of Maternity and Vaccination, and the Vilnius Medical Society.

 

Repeated bloodletting, inducing profuse diarrhoea and vomiting, opening artificial skin ulcers using corrosive substances and heat, inducing blistering of the patient's skin by applying ointments with cantharides powder, the use of heavy metal salts to treat severe patients and other therapeutic practices were used in Vilnius Clinics and other clinics in Western European cities until the end of the 19th century. The first neurosurgical and other systemic surgeries were performed at the Vilnius University Clinics, the clinical-anatomical method was used, autopsies of deceased patients were performed, and clinical diagnosis was confirmed on the basis of post-mortem findings. Although various diseases in the clinics of the University of Applied Sciences at the beginning of the 19th century were in many cases treated primarily as biological and pathological phenomena, distancing themselves from metaphysical explanations and folk superstitions, some nervous diseases were described using mythological and demonological explanations, and the caltrops disease was perceived as a disease endemic to the Lithuanian and Polish regions and affecting not only skin and its appendages, but also the nervous system, the internal organs and other organs. The exhibition will be accompanied by educational activities and public lectures. "So what kind of clinic is this?" - the answer to this question will be available to every visitor to the exhibition.

 

Organisers: Vilnius University Library, Museum of History of Medicine and Pharmacy of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences 

Coordinators of the Andrius Sniadecki Readings: Birutė Railienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė 

Coordinators of the exhibition: Rimvydas Baranauskas, Birutė Railienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Saulius Špokevičius, Aistis Žalnora 

Exhibition artist Miglė Datkūnaitė 

 

Sponsors: Vrublevskiai Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Vilnius University Library, Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine Museum of Medical History and the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Museum of History of Medicine and Pharmacy, Rimvydas Baranauskas, Mindaugas Jakas, Žygimantas Juodeikis, Birutė Railienė, Laima Petrauskienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Saulius Špokevičius