Cyber museums

We probably can't predict how doctors will treat people 100 years from now, but the internet gives us useful insight into how the profession has developed. Timelines are a useful way to document medical history; they give you a sense of continuity and connection of different ages and discoveries. The Wellcome Library's MedHist (http://medhist.ac.uk/timeline.html) is a rich gateway to the history of medicine that has a timeline linking major medical developments throughout historical periods.

Another interesting time map is found at www.chronology.org.uk. It chronicles state medicine and public health in the United Kingdom, starting from 1066. Mental health is one area of medicine in which change was slow but persistent. The mental health history time line (www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/mhhtim.htm) depicts these changes from ad129 until May 2003. You can browse these websites by years or periods, and many include photos, ancient texts, and links to other history resources.

Museums traditionally detail the history of medicine exhibiting pieces from past eras. Cyber museums allow you to visit those exhibits from the comfort of your room.

The cyber museum of The American Association of Neurosurgeons (www.neurosurgery.org/cybermuseum/index.html) houses many virtual halls that explore ancient neurosurgical practices in different civilisations and the development of modern neurosurgery. You can navigate your way around the museum and pick up interesting articles about neurosurgery from the different rooms.

Want to know more about ancient medicine? Then Indiana University's Asclepion (www.indiana.edu/∼ancmed/intro.HTM) might be your thing. On a map featuring Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, you can find articles about the ancient medical systems that operated, although it's a bit text heavy. If you are more into the Middle Ages then you should visit www.intermaggie.com/med/index.php, which gives you a concise but interesting overview of medieval medicine and its complex religious and social aspects.

Still under construction, the Museum of Disability (www.disabilitymuseum.org) has a remarkable online library of photos, artworks, disability aids, and other exhibits that monitor the changing attitudes towards disabled people and responses to their psychological and physical needs.

Online art galleries can also offer amazing artworks related to medical history; consider for example the anatomical plates of Pietro de Cartona (www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/rbr/imaging/cortona/index.htm) that feature dissected humans in dramatic poses and superb detail. The paintings of Louis Wain, a European artist in the beginning of this century, depict a change in the way he painted “cats” before and after he was affected with schizophrenia and wonderfully correlates the appearance of the cats with progression of his psychosis (www.epub.org.br/cm/gallery/gall_leonardo/fig1-a.htm). More breathtaking art by artists who had psychiatric conditions is available in the Neuroscience Art Gallery (www.epub.org.br/cm/gallery/gall_leonardo/main.htm).