The Adler Museum of Medicine, Wits Medical School, Parktown
The Adler Museum of Medicine’s comprehensive collection of medical artefacts not only impresses the visitor with how far medicine has come, and makes one mightily relieved that we are being treated in this day and age, but is also a respected resource for the health sciences.
Over 50 years old, founded and curated by Drs Cyril and Esther Adler until their deaths, the museum depicts the history of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy through the ages. To bring the history alive to the visitor, there are reconstructions of an African herb shop, a patient consulting a sangoma (traditional healer), a 20th century Johannesburg pharmacy, a doctor’s consulting room, a dental surgery, an operating theatre and an optometry display of the same period. Other attractions range from a reconstruction of a patient being treated by the famous Persian physician Avicenna to an exhibition of early electro-medical equipment.
And then there are the contraptions used on patients in the past, enough to set one’s imagination off in a direction best not followed. Apart from the hundreds of items of medical historical interest on display, there are also documents, sculptures, pictures, photographs, videos and philatelic and medallion collections relating to medical history.
The Museum has a library of rare books and a significant history of medicine reference library with over 5000 volumes, available to students, researchers and interested members of the public.
The Museum is situated in the foyer of the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa
Visiting hours are: Monday to Friday, 09:30 to 16:00: Tel: +27 11 717 2081: Email the Curator: Website.
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