Instruments and Devices: The Material Culture of Medicine

2011


Displayed in Weldon Library


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Medical technology – in the form of instruments, devices, machines, drugs and systems – has aided medical science, altered medical practice, and changed the illness experience of patients.  Nineteenth-century medical technology – such as the stethoscope—consisted of predominantly surgical and diagnostic instruments used by individual practitioners.  By the twentieth century, large, hospital-based technologies – such as the x-ray—operated by teams emerged as powerful tools in the identification and management of disease.  

The UWO Medical Artifact Collection showcased the material culture of medicine – or the “things” used by practitioners in the practice of medicine.  For historians, medical artifacts constitute a valuable primary source through which to interpret past behaviour, function, values, identity and meaning in the realm of medicine.

 

 

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