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• Microscopes: A Century of Progress
• The microscope is one of the most powerful instruments for diagnosing disease. It is of such importance to the physician that purchasing a microscope has long been a prerequisite for medical school.
  
  The first microscopes appeared in 159...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Scales: A century of weighing babies, medicines, and gold
• The collection of scales in the EHMHF medical history collection contains examples of infant scales, pharmacy scales, doctor's offic scales, and even scales used to wiegh gold dust during the 19th century Gold Rush. The collection's scales span a pe...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Cardiovascular: Painting a picture of the many developments ocurring in the field of cardiology
• Since the evolution of man, he has been both enthralled and intimidated by the human heart. For centuries, it has stood as a symbol of love while, at the same time, it has also been at the base of some of the vilest human activities, from Aztec sacr...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Alternative "Quack" Medical Devices: Great For What Ails You
• "Quack" medicine is the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. The term typically denotes the peddling of "cure-all" medicines and medical devices. Although more prevalent in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, quackery continues...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pharmacy Equipment and Accessories: Preparing and dispensing remedies as well as medical advice for centuries
• The pharmacy collection at the Edward Hand Medical Heritage Foundation highlights over two hundred years of the pharmacy profession. The collection includes over one thousand bottles of chemicals and herbs used by pharmacists to make and dispense r...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pharmacy: Shop Furniture: Bulk containers for herbs, powders and liquids
• Shop Furniture was the name used by pharmacists for the large ceramic or glass bottles they used to store bulk quantities of herbs, powders, and liquids. Shop furniture bottles were used as early as the late 18th century.
  
  Many of these b...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pharmacy: Combination Tablets: The Pharmacists Own Cures and Mixtures
• 19th century pharmacists oftentimes created their own remedies to sell to their customers. The recipes for these remedies were often a closely held secret.
  
  The pharmacist manufactured, bottled and labeled his own concoctions for both...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pharmacy: Chemicals, Medicines, and Cures From A to M
• The Pharmacy collection at the Edward Hand Medical Heritage Foundation includes drugs and chemicals ranging from the early 19th century to the mid 20th century. In many cases, the bottles in the collection still contain the original contents prepare...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pharmacy: Chemicals, Medicines, and Cures From N to Z
• The Pharmacy collection at the Edward Hand Medical Heritage Foundation includes drugs and chemicals ranging from the early 19th century to the mid 20th century. In many cases, the bottles in the collection still contain the original contents prepare...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Doctor's Bags: Carrying everything the doctor needs to diagnose and treat the sick and injured when making a house call.
• In the early 18th century, many doctors carried their instruments in their pockets. Since there were few instruments available to doctors, there was no need for carrying a bag. As more medical instruments and medicines were developed, doctors just...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Invalid and Infant Feeders
• Also known as Pap Boats, Invalid Feeders were used throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th century to aid in the feeding of patients that were too weak to feed themselves and in feeding infants. The use of invalid and infant feeders was m...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Ophthalmic Eye Care: Instruments For the Practice of Ophthalmology and Optometry
• Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye.
  
  The invention of the ophthalmoscope in 1850 revolutionized the practice of ophthalmology. Doctors could now diagnose and treat disea...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Surgical Kits: Everything the traveling surgeon needed to remove or repair in one handy case
• The Surgical collection at Edward Hand Medical Heritage Foundation includes several surgical kits ranging from elaborate kits stored in decorative wooden cases to the small leather wallet containing the basics for minor surgical needs.
  
  T...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Otorhinolaryngology: The ear nose and throat doctor
• Otorhinolaryngology (Otolaryngology) is the area of medicine that deals with disorders and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat (ENT) region, and related areas of the head and neck. Doctors who specialize in this area are called otorhinolaryngolog...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Dentistry
• Dentistry was a specialty of medicine until the mid 1800s when the first school of dentistry was founded.
  
  Dentists became independent of doctors because the faculties at American medical schools did not accept dentistry as a necessary sub...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Anesthesia
• Before the 1840s, anesthetics were soporifics, which dull the senses and induce sleep, or narcotics. These included opium, jimsonweed, marijuana, alcohol and belladonna. Native American groups often chewed coca leaves for the desired anesthetic eff...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Bloodletting: A Cure or a Curse
• Bloodletting is the removal of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. It is based on a system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluids were regarded as humors that must remain in proper balance in order to maintain he...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Orthopedics: The Bone Doctor
• Orthopedics is the medical specialty concerned with the preservation and restoration of function of the skeletal system and its associated structures, such as spinal and other bones, joints, and muscles.
  
  The term orthopedics was first int...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Medical Office and Examination Furniture
• The collection at the Edward Hand Medical Heritage Foundation includes several examples of 19th century and early 20th century furniture used in the doctor's office and examination rooms. These include items such as, exam chairs and tables, instrume...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pediatrics: From Infants to Adolescents
• The word pediatrics is Greek for "healer of children". The Swedish physician Nils Rosen von Rosenstein (1706-1773) is considered to be the founder of modern pediatrics as a medical specialty. His work "The deseases of children and their remedies", w...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Obstetrics / Gynecology: Delivering Babies and Women's Health
• Obstetrics and gynecology is the medical specialty concerned with the care of women during pregnancy and with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the female reproductive system.
  
  Obstetrics had, throughout history, been undertaken...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Pulmonary Medicine
• Pulmonary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases affecting the lungs. Also called Pulmonology, the science is concerned with the anatome, physiology, and pathology of the lungs.
  ...  View Exhibit Page
  
  
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• Surgery
• Surgery is the branch of medicine that deals with the physical manipulation of a bodily structure to diagnose, prevent, or cure an ailment. Ambroise Pare, a 16th-century French surgeon, stated that to perform surgery is, "To eliminate that which is s...  View Exhibit Page
  
  

Thank you for visiting our virtual museum. For more information on our museum please contact our curator at: curator@edwardhandmedicalheritage.org.