MEDICINA NEI SECOLI ARTE E SCIENZA, 21/1 (2009) 75-90

Journal of History of Medicine

Articoli/Articles

BASQUE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORy OF MEDICINE:

CONSERVATION OF HERITAGE, TEACHING AND
RESEARCH

ANTON ERKOREKA
Medikuntza Historiako Museoa, Bilbao, E

SUMMARY

The Basque Museum of the History of Medicine was founded in 1982

to preserve the historic memory of medicine in the Basque Country and
conserve its scientific heritage. Its permanent exposition comprises
approx. 6,000 medical objects of the 19th and 20th centuries arranged,
thematically in 24 rooms devoted to different medical specialities: folk
medicine, unconventional medicine, pharmacy, weights and measures,
asepsis and antisepsis, microscopes, laboratory material, X-rays,
obstetrics and gynaecology, surgery, anesthesia, endoscope, odontology,
cardiology, ophthalmology, electrotherapy, pathological anatomy and
natural sciences. Temporary exhibitions are also held. The Museum is
located on the university campus (UpV/EHU) and is important in the
training of students in the Faculty of Medicine and the students coming
from other faculties. Teaching and research constitute two of the pillars of
the Museum that are complemented with publications and the organization
of conferences, lectures and other activities.

The Basque Country did not have a University of its own until very
recent times. In the Middle Ages, young men who wanted to study a
university career went either to Salamanca or Montpellier. Over the last
centuries their universities of choice have been Salamanca, Valladolid,
Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Zaragoza, Paris, Bordeaux or Toulouse.

Key words: Medical Museums – History of Medicine – 19th and 20th Centuries -
Basque Country.
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It was not until the 19th century that the Jesuits founded the first
university in Bilbao, the “Universidad de Deusto”. In 1952 the
Opus Dei created the “Universidad de Navarra” in Pamplona and
in 1968 the Spanish State created the first public university, the
“Universidad Autonoma de Bilbao”. On the death of General Franco
and the restoration of democracy, this public University became
officially known in the Basque and Spanish language as “Euskal
Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País Vasco” (University of
the Basque Country) (1980). There subsequently arose two other
public universities: “Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako
Unibertsitate Publikoa” and the “Université de Pau et des Pays de
l’Adour”, as well as “Mondragon Unibertsitatea”, offering courses
and diplomas of a technical nature and having connections with the
Industrial Mondragon Group.
In this university context and when the University of the Basque
Country was launched, there was the need for creating a museum
that gathered and preserved the medical and scientific heritage of the
country. The first step was the creation of the “Seminario de Historia
de la Medicina Vasca / Euskal Medikuntzaren Historia Mintegia”
(History Seminar of Basque Medicine) in 1979, a centre that was
under the management of Jose Luis Goti, professor of the History
of Medicine, in collaboration with Luis S. Granjel, professor of the
History of Medicine of the University of Salamanca, Ignacio Mª
Barriola and other doctors and university students. Their research
on the medical and scientific past as well as their public activities
(conferences, monographic courses for the doctorate, courses in
medical history methodology, etc.), were held in the lecture halls
ceded by the Medical School.
The seminar began to receive donations of medical objects and
libraries from private collections and institutions that made it neces-
sary to enlarge the available space in the Faculty of Medicine.
Consequently, the first rooms of the Museum were open in 1982.

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Fig. 1 - Building of the Central Library on the Campus of Leioa (UPV/EHU). On this floor
most of the Rooms of the Museum are located.

Three years later the University yelded some 20 rooms in the

building of the Central Library on the University Campus of Leioa,
the Museum enlarging to 24 rooms at present.
In 1994 the Museum became a foundation with the name of
“Medikuntza eta Zientzia Historiaren Museoaren Fundazioa /
Fundación Museo Vasco de Histoira de la Medicina y de la Ciencia”
(Basque Museum Foundation of the History of Medicine and
Science)”. In 1996, a guide of the Museum was published1. The
Foundation is presided over by the President of the University, the
Deputy of Culture of Biscay, university authorities and the presidents
of the Academy of Medical Science of Bilbao, Eusko Ikaskuntza
(Society of Basque Studies) and Real Sociedad Bascongada de
Amigos del País (Bascongada Royal Society of Friends of the
Country). The Governing Council appointed as its first director
and founder, Professor Jose Luis Goti, and, at his demise in 1998,

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Fig. 2 - The Seminar during an Academic Ceremony

Professor Anton Erkoreka became the current director of the

institution.

permanent Exposition
The Museum has an area of 1,500 m comprising 24 rooms, in
which around 6,000 medical objects that make up the collection are
displayed. The oldest collection goes back to the 18th century, though
the bulk of the permanent collection are pieces from the second half
of the 19th century and especially from the 20th century. It concerns,
therefore, a specialized museum of our Contemporary Period, though
in English speaking countries it is considered as the Modern Age.
The Museum Collection is ordered thematically in such a way that
each room contains objects linked to a medical subject or speciality.
The first room is for Seminars; it contains a library specialized in the

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Fig. 3 - Barandiaran Room, devoted to Folk Medicine and Unconventional Medicines.

History of Medicine. Here lectures, conferences and seminars are

delivered; and academic events are organized, as there is a seating
capacity for 50 persons. This room is the most frequented of the
Museum and also contains some significant medical objects, basi-
cally microscopes and surgical instruments of the 19th century.
The Barandiaran Room is dedicated to the illustrious anthropologist
and prehistorian, who was behind the creation of the Museum and
collaborated in a selfless way delivering conferences and designing
his own logotype. It is dedicated to folk medicine and parcelled out
in three sections devoted to domestic medicine, religious medicine,
and superstitious medicine (witchcraft and evil eye). Unconventional
medicine has a section of its own displaying objects related to phre-
nology, acupuncture, cupping glass and thermal medicine.

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A visit to the rooms located in the Central Library of the University

Campus begins with the Pharmacy. This section contains a good
collection of pharmacy pots (“botamenes”) and around 1000 flasks
with natural, chemical and “oficinal” products, that were used in the
old pharmacy of Basurto Hospital and in other private pharmacies in
the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, from the work tables and
lab benches for producing the medicines, the exhibits are comple-
mented with mortars, stills, coils (“serpentines”), and a compressor
machine for the manufacture of pills devised by J. Bonals (Barcelona,
1960-70). The visit is complemented with a room of weights and
measures (with 20 precision scales), balances of torsion, and the
classical “romanas”.
A cursory visit for the “Fabrica” of Vesalius and Harvey’s De motu
cordis takes us to the microbial theory of Pasteur explained in the

Fig. 4 - Pharmacy Room

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Asepsis and Antisepsis Room, a place replete with apparatus for ster-
ilizing or incinerating materials (such as autoclaves, stores, ovens,
water baths etc.). The Microscopy Room gathers together around 50
microscopes that make up the Museum collection, as well as spec-
troscopes and trichinoscopes. Most of them from the 19th and 20th
centuries, and from French or German fabrication. The latest acqui-
sitions are electronic microscopes of the second or third generation
that occupy a large area in the exhibition room.
The Clinical Laboratory Room, normally closed to the public,
includes instruments for clinical analysis (such as calorimeters,
hemometers, urometers, polarimeters, centrifuges, microtomes,
etc.). The Radiology and Radiotherapy Room is the focal point of
this part of the Museum with Roentgen tubes, X-Ray portable appa-
ratus, radiodiagnostic apparatus, radiotherapy, and dental radiology
from the first half of the 20th century. Most recently, we have added

Fig. 5 - Electronic Microscope, Philips make (made in Holland, circa 1970)

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to the collection several echographs of diverse models and fabri-

cation. The room is completed with stretchers, armchairs, wooden
chairs for surgical operations, and other objects.
The Obstetrics and Gynaecology Room conserves the objects that
comprise the temporary exhibition held in 1999 concerning this
topic. Here, we have maintained the order and distribution shown
in the catalogue. The Surgery Room stores the surgical equipment
donated to the Museum by half a dozen surgeons and orthopedic
surgeons who were in practice in the second of the 20th century.
Between both rooms, we have recently habilitated another room for
anaesthesia and resuscitation material.
The Endoscopy Room displays specula, ophthalmoscopes,
otoscopes, broncoscopes, rectoscopes or gastroscopes (rigid, semi-
rigid and flexibles). A good number of them date from the begin-
ning of the 20th century. The Dentistry Offices that are conserved in
the adjacent room (containing chairs, tables, a mechanical winch,
probe and extraction material, instruments and prosthesis), are of the
same period. The Ophthalmologic Room has a splendid collection
of scalpels from the end of the 19th century: slit lamps, refractom-
eters, campimeters, spherometers, and preparations. The Cardiology

Fig. 6 - Delivery Chair (18th century)

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Room displays a clinic of this speciality from the beginning of the

20th century with interesting objects, such as the electrocardiograph
designed by the engineer G. Boulitte (Paris, circa 1918).
A neurologist of Cajal’s School gave the name to the Achucarro Room
that conserves his notebooks, jottings and personal objects. In this
Pathological Anatomy Room macroscopic and microscopic prepara-
tions are conserved. The 400 flasks with pathological organs (cancer,
tuberculosis, syphilis, etc) and some foetuses are also worthy of mention.
The Natural Science Room exhibits fossilized bones of dinosaurs that
were extracted from a site in Laño (Alava), as well as other fossils
and minerals. This room is dedicated to Aranzadi, an anthropologist
of the first half of the 20th century, of whose important documenta-
tion is conserved. The Elhuyar Room stores the objects that make up
the temporary exhibition concerning electrotherapy, as well as mate-
rial coming from the Engineering School of Bilbao (Escuela Técnica
Superior de Ingeniería de Bilbao). Room Cid is the last room to have
been recently habilitated as a Research Room. In the near future this
room will house an important medical history library. We close this
rapid review of the collections of the Museum with a mural painted
by Dr. Lázaro that summarises the History of the Basque Medicine;
it includes images of the St. James pilgrimage route, hospitals, insti-
tutions, and important doctors of this Country.
Due to our precarious financial situation and because we are inter-
ested in the preservation of our collections, we are returning to the
“double order” of the Museum that Goethe advocated in his article
Kunst und Altertum (1821), and that Ruskin, Eastlake, Agassiz or
Bode defended at the beginning of the 20th century. In this sense, the
Barriola Room, one of our display areas, is normally closed to the
public. In this room some valuable objects are conserved, such as an
operating theatre of the first decades of the 20th century, an extracor-
poreal circulation unit, an oxygenator bomb of Reanink trademark
(Bilbao, 1960), in line with the apparatus developed by Dodrill,

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Fig. 7 - Extracorporeal Circulation Unit for open heart surgery operations (1960).

Gibbon and others, an iron lung (circa 1960), an electromagnet

for extracting metal splinters from the cornea, and other objects of
considerable size.

Temporary Exhibitions
The opening of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao meant a revolu-
tion in the world of museums, introducing new ways of presenting
collections and attracting the public. One of the innovations was
the continuity of the organization of Temporary Exhibitions, so
that the museums could always offer something new apart from the
Permanent Exposition. As for ourselves, there is no priority to attract
great numbers of visitors as we would be unable to cope through lack
of staff and means. However, the holding of Temporary Exhibitions
enables us to revalue and give them coherence. With the Museums

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new policy set forth from 1998 onwards, we decided to make good
use of our collections, gathering together the scattered objects and
organizing Temporary Exhibitions that could be later transformed
in a Permanent Exhibition, and creating ––whenever possible —
new rooms. For the most part, it has been our intention to publish a
catalogue in Basque, Spanish and English that would conserve the
research and work carried out by, and in, the Museum.
In the initial stages of the life of the Museum, four monographic exhi-
bitions devoted to “Antique Microscopes”, “Basque Medical Historic
Iconography”, “Bizkaia 1789-1814”, and “The Museum looking
ahead” were undertaken. Over the past years, we have organized
five temporary exhibitions with the following titles: “Obstetrics and
Gynaecology Through History”2, “Medical Hydrology in Navarre.
An Iconographic Exhibition”, “Electrotherapy”3, “Laboratory, the
Back Room of Science”4 and “Stultifera Navis. The Ship of Fools”5.
We have also organized two virtual Exhibitions and collaborated
with 16 other temporary exhibitions organized by other Museums
or Institutions.

Library and Archive

The Library comprises 9,000 documents (monographs and periodic
publications) allocated in three collections: History of Medicine and
Science; medical specialities; topics of a general and local nature.
The collections concerning medical subjects that make up the bulk
of the library are at the moment in the process of being catalogued.
Most of the works are of the 19th and 20th centuries including nearly
all the medical monographs published in Spanish during this period.
There is also a good number of books published in French, German
and English as well as series, collections and interesting encyclopae-
dias –– for example, the 38 volumes of the Diccionario de Ciencias
Médicas por una sociedad de los más célebres profesores de Europa
(1821-1827); the 100 volumes of the Dictionnaire encyclopédique

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Fig. 8 - Participants in the Journées transpyrénéennes d’histoire de la médecine organized

by the Société Française d’Histoire de la Médecine (May 2007) in front of the mural loca-
ted at the Entrance to the Museum

des sciences médicales of Dechambre (1864-1889), or 13 volumes of

the Diccionario Enciclopédico de Medicina y Cirugía prácticas of
Eulenburg (1885-1890). The Archive has been created very recently
and is mainly supported by donations from doctors and professors.

Teaching and Research

The Museum is located on the University Campus far away from the
city of Bilbao, which is a limiting factor regarding visitors. But what is
an obstacle concerning its viability and projection outside, is an advan-
tage concerning the academic life of the university in general. Teaching
and Research are two of the main characteristics of our Museum.
As Director of the Museum and professor of the History of Medicine, a
part of the teaching and all the practicals of my students are carried out
in the museum. This fact entails a constant coming and going of students
during the academic year. Several professors from the Medical Faculty,
and some from the Nursing School, Anthropology, Management of
Historic Heritage and Health Documentation and more sporadically
from Fine Arts, Science Faculty and School of Journalism, send their

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students to in Museum for practices or to consult information in our

library. The subjects which are partially or completely delivered in the
Museum are: “History, Theory and Method in Medicine” (60 hours),
“The History of Basque Medicine” (40 hours), “Medical Museology”
(50 hours), “Medical Terminology and Documentation” (50 hours) and
“Bioethics throughout History” (50 hours). The courses most apt to be
taught in the Museum are those of “free election” and the “optionals”
as they are delivered to small groups of students comprising 6 to 25
students, suitable for seminars in which there is a direct participation of
the students, and in which their practical applications have a priority. As
for the main courses, there is considerable overcrowding in the lecture
rooms (50-100 students) making direct partecipation very difficult.
The guided visits for groups is another important activity of the Museum,
as well as 60 to 100 consultations from researchers carried out each year
mainly from our bibliographic collections. In the quarter of a century

Fig. 9 - Students of the “History of Basque Medicine” (2006-2007 academic course)

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of its existence, the Museum has delivered more than 200 conferences
and various doctoral courses. In the Museum’s library some 40 doctoral
theses and minor theses have been deposited by researchers connected
with the Museum. They deal with diverse subject: health institutions,
doctors, epidemics, local history, folk medicine, sources, literature, etc…

publications
The Museum has published around one hundred books throughout
its history. Apart from Guides and Reports in accord with this class
of institution, the titles published reflect the work of the researchers
associated with this institution and make up an indispensable contri-
bution regarding the knowledge of the History of Medicine in the
Basque Country. Four volumes gathering existing bibliographic mate-
rial brought up to date were initially published6. Other issues have
been: medical printing, hydrologic literature, medical journalism,
naval medicine, medical biographies culminating in a Biographical
Dictionary7, hospitals, thermal medicine, folk medicine, the records
of Congress devoted to medicine in the 18th century8, epidemics of the
18th9 and 20th10 centuries or classical texts of great interest, such as the
first monographs published in the 16th century treating of exanthemic
typhus11. From the period 1981-1993 we have also published eight
issues of the journal entitled Cuadernos de Historia de la Medicina
Vasca (Notebooks of the History of Basque Medicine).
The last publication of our Museum deserves a special mention, for
it is a unique and exceptional piece of work concerning Medical
Museology12. It deals with the two volumes that bring together the
works of Professor Felip Cid, museologist and founder of the Museu
d’Història de la Medicina de Catalunya and vicepresident –– for
several years –– of the Association Européenne des Musées d’Histoire
des Sciences Médicales / European Association of Museums of
History of Medical Sciences. As he says in the prologue, it takes
into account the apprenticeship “undertaken in a task submerged in

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a world of heterogeneous objects, fascinating and diverse in nature.

To attempt to cover its totality is a vain pretension however much
one sides to the contrary”. Volume 1 reviews the history of medical
museology while volume 2 is restricted to and makes a theoretical
study of the “medical object” to then turn to the exhibition of collec-
tions and their intrinsic character.
I conclude by insisting that our concept of the Museum of History
of Medicine is indissolubly linked with university teaching and
research. In our country, a Museum of the History of Medicine
would not be feasible without its association with the university
and teaching vocation. In general our medical history museums are
extremely specialized and steeped in culture, have a rich treasure
of heritage but cannot and should not compete with the national
galleries and museums of Europe. These museums of painting and
sculpture attract crowds of visitors which, combined with the media,
go a long way to supporting these institutions.

BIBLIOGRAPHy AND NOTES

1. GOTI J.L., Medikuntza eta zientzia Historiaren Euskal Museoa Fundazioa

= Fundación Museo Vasco de Historia de la Medicina y de las Ciencias
[guía]. Bilbao, Medikuntza Historiaren Museoa (MHM), 1996, 32 p.
2. ERKOREKA A., USANDIZAGA J.M. (Dir), Obstetrizia eta ginekologia
Historian zehar. Erakusketaren Katalogoa = La Obstetricia y ginecología
en la Historia. Catálogo de la Exposición = Obstetrics and gynecology
Through History. Exhibition Catalogue. Bilbao, MHM, 1999. 80 p.
3. ERKOREKA A., CID F. (Dir), Elektroterapia. Erakusketaren Katalogoa
= Electroterapia. Catálogo de la Exposición = Electrotherapy. Exhibition
Catalogue. Bilbao, MHM, 2002, 84 p.
4. ERKOREKA A. (Dir), Laboratorioa. zientzaren Aatzekaldea = El laborato-
rio. La Trastienda de la Ciencia. Bilbao, 2003, 12 p.
5. ERKOREKA A., MARTINEZ AZUMENDI O. (Dir), STULTIFERA NAVIS =
zoroen Untzia. Erakusketaren katalogoa = La Nave de los Locos. Catálogo de

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la Exposición = The Ship of Fools. Exhibition Catalogue. Bilbao, 2006, 88 p.

6. GRANJEL L. S., Bibliografía histórica de la medicina vasca. Salamanca-
Bilbao, MHM, 1980-1987, 4 vol.
7. Diccionario histórico de médicos vascos. Bilbao, MHM, 1993, 205 p.
8. La medicina vasca en la época del Conde de Peñaflorida. Bilbao, MHM,
1985, 378 p.
9. ROJO A., RIERA J., Epidemias, hospitales y guerra en guipúzcoa y Navarra
a finales del siglo XVIII (1793-1795). Salamanca, MHM, 1983, 63 p.
10. ERKOREKA A., La pandemia de gripe española en el país Vasco (1918-
1919). Bilbao, MHM, 2006, 96 p.
11. GURPEGUI J. R. (Introducción, traducción y notas), LOPEZ DE CORELLA
A., De Morbo pustulato, sive Lenticulari, quem Nostrates Tabardillo
Apellant = Sobre la enfermedad pustulada o lenticular, que los nuestros
llaman Tabardillo. Bilbao, MHM, 2003, 109 p.
12. CID F., Museología Médica. Aspectos teóricos y cuestiones prácticas Bilbao,
MHM, 2007, 2 vol., 775 p.

Correspondence should be addressed to:

Anton Erkoreka, Medikuntza Historiaren Museoa. Medikuntza Fakultatea (UPV/
EHU), E-48940 Leioa (Bizkaia).

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