The exhibition "So What Kind of a Clinic Is This?" will introduce its visitors into the history of the Clinics of Vilnius University that operated in the buildings of Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA
Exhibition opening at 6 pm on Tuesday, 19 November, 2024
Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA invites to the opening of the exhibition So What Kind of a Clinic Is This? The exhibition introduces the story of the Therapy, Surgery and Obstetrics Clinics of Vilnius University that operated in the late 19th century in the premises of the present-day gallery. Its visitors will get acquainted with the patients’ medical histories, will see the medical diagnostic instruments of the time, the thesis of the doctors of medicine who staffed the clinics, the portraits of Vilnius’ medical elite, the anatomical drawings and plica polonica hair – considered at the time to be an incurable disease. The exhibition will be accompanied by the readings of Prof. Jędrzej Śniadecki, by open lectures and educational activities. The exhibition will run through 16 March 2025.
“The Lithuanian National Museum is a unique mosaic of history and art, where shine the highly valuable art pieces of the collections and the buildings connected to the figures and events of significance to the history of Lithuania, and to its different cultural periods,” Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA, says.
“We put efforts to enlighten our visitors not only on the ancient art of our collection, but also on the building of the gallery, a home to the collection. The history of the formerly Chodkevičius–Puslovskis Palace, especially its later period of the 19th century, still awaits the attention of researchers. We are happy to host the readings of Prof. Jędrzej Śniadecki and the exhibition, as following the founding of Vilnius Medicine-Surgery Academy, the building of the palace, in 1834, was handed over to the Academy. Shortly afterwards, the Academy used the premises for accommodation of its professors and students and as auditoriums for lectures,” Dr Aistė Bimbirytė, director of Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA advises on the history of the building.
The 220th anniversary of the Therapy Clinics of Vilnius University
At the beginning of the 19th century, Vilnius University was one of the largest and leading university-education schools in Eastern Europe. At the four faculties of the school, theoretical and practical disciplines were read by top-level visiting professors from Western Europe. The Medicine Institute provided free studies for talented medical students, alongside operated also the Maternity and Vaccination institutes; Vilnius Medicine Society was a success. The founding of the Therapy Clinic in 1805, on the initiative of Johann Peter Frank and Joseph Frank, they took the opportunity from this period of prosperity. That was of consequence, not only to the University, but to Vilnius in general.
The exhibition So What Kind of a Clinic Is This? presented by the Vilnius Picture Gallery will invite the visitors to celebrate the 220th anniversary of the Therapy Clinic of Vilnius University and the charismatic scholar, a symbol of prosperity of Vilnius University, Prof. Jędrzej Śniadecki. In the 1st half of the 19th century, he brought together the brightest minds of the time. For over a decade, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Association of the History and Philosophy of Science keep his memory by organizing the readings of Prof. Jędrzej Śniadecki. This year the event will take place on Friday, 29 November at 4 pm at the Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA.
How were patients treated in the early 19th century in Vilnius?
The exhibition So What Kind of a Clinic Is This? will allow its visitors to take a peek at what was taking place in the halls of Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA and to learn what most advanced methods were used to cure Vilnius citizens who fell ill.
“The first neurosurgical and other system surgery operations were performed at the Clinics of VU, there, a clinical-anatomical method was applied, autopsies of the deceased patients were conducted and post-mortem findings used to support their clinical diagnosis. Though at the beginning of the 19th century, different illnesses at the Clinics of VU were considered primarily as biological, pathological phenomena, distancing from all metaphysical explanations as well as popular superstitions, however, some of the nervous diseases were given mythological and demonological explanations. Also, plica polonica hair was perceived as endemic to Lithuanian and Poland, an illness damaging not only skin, and its appendages, but also the nervous system, internal and other organs,” Dr Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, co-curator of the exhibition says.
According to the curators, Vilnius Clinics used the practices common across the clinics of Western European cities: repeated bloodlettings, stimulation of profuse diarrhea and vomiting, opening of artificially formed ulcers on the skin using mordants and heat, stimulation of the formation of blisters on the patient’s skin by applying ointments with powder of Spanish flies, the use of heavy metal salts for the treatment of severely ill patients, and similar.
Every visitor to the exhibition will be able to explore and answer the question to themselves on what kind of a clinic that is.
Organizers: Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA, Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Lithuanian Association of the History and Philosophy of Science, Centre for Health Ethics, Law and History of the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University, Museum of the History of Medicine the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University, Clinic of Neurology and Neurosurgery of Vilnius University
Partners: Vilnius University Library, Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
Coordinators of the Readings of Jędrzej Śniadecki: Birutė Railienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė
Exhibition coordinators: Aistė Bimbirytė, Augustina Ivanauskaitė
Exhibition curators: Rimvydas Baranauskas, Birutė Railienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Saulius Špokevičius, Aistis Žalnora
Exhibition design Miglė Datkūnaitė
Supporters: Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, Rūta and Rimvydas Baranauskai
Lenders to the exhibition: Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Vilnius University Library, Museum of the History of Medicine the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University and Department of Anatomy, Histology and Anthropology, Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Rimvydas Baranauskas, Mindaugas Jakas, Žygimantas Juodeikis, Birutė Railienė, Laima Petrauskienė, Eglė Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė, Saulius Špokevičius
4 Didžioji st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 261 1685
vpg@lndm.lt
