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Instruments and Devices: The Material Culture of Medicine
2011
Displayed in Weldon Library
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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