Author: Coco Cao

On our last class excursion, we visited Musee Service de Sante des Armees, a military museum located at the center of Paris. Because it is located in a military hospital, there were always some security guards following us and making sure we don’t accidently go to the wrong places. The museum was created during the war of 1914-1918. The exhibitions presented the military medicine in French armies. There were lots of war related paintings and the museum also included collections related to health support of the armed forces, maxillary and facial surgery, underwater and aerospace medicine, infectious disease medicine. In the exhibition, I was surprised to see very original set of atropine auto-injector provided by the army pharmacy. During my ambulance clinical for emergency medicine technician certification, my preceptor, a paramedic, told me that they carry duodate auto-injector kit, which contains atropine and palidoxime chloride, in case of suspected nerve agent poisoning. In the museum, there were lots of collections related to emergency operations. I heard that physicians use to use nitrous oxide for anesthesia. Also, Chinese also used acupuncture for anesthesia. Since lots of modern medicine were improved from procedures performed during war time, what is the history of anesthesia?

Military operations Continue reading “The Military Medicine Museum in Paris”

If you still wonder about where to go in the countryside of France, you should definitely visit the châteaux of the Loire Valley! Château is a French word for the country house of nobility. The Loire Valley is home to hundreds of châteaux, which were built between the 10^th and 20^th centuries. On a cloudy and chilly Friday, our whole class visited Château de Chenonceau, a beautiful château that spans the River Cher and located in the south of France. Surprisingly, despite its serenity, Château de Chenonceau was turned into a military hospital during WWI. At that time, 120 beds were set up in Catherine de Medici’s two great galleries and all the walls were whitened and the spaces were adapted to meet the hygiene standard. Moreover, the ground floor of the chateau was also equipped with one of the first x-ray machines in France. Speaking of war, it reminds me of thousands of soldiers who suffered from PTSD. It makes me wonder, how were the soldiers with PTSD diagnosed during WWI?

Military Hospital in Château de Chenonceau

Continue reading “From “shell shock” to PTSD”

When Nazi occupied Paris in 1940, Hitler posed in front of his favorite place in Paris, the Eiffel tower. Why he posed in front of Eiffel tower instead of posing on the top of the Eiffel tower? The lift of the tower was sabotaged before Nazi conquered Paris. Therefore, there was a saying that Hitler conquered Paris, but he never conquers Eiffel tower (Selwyn-Holmes, 2010). Speaking of that famous picture, the picture was taken in the front terrace of the Musée de l’Homme, an anthropology museum that contains collections of human in evolution, diversity of human and human in social contexts. On one of our class trips, we visited Musée de l’Homme. Among all of the historical human skeletons and artifacts, I saw a familiar Chinese acupuncture man model with lots of acupuncture points labeled on the body. After being practiced in China and other countries for thousands of years, acupuncture became one of the alternative medicine in western world. How does acupuncture become a common practice and how does it work?

Me with the super tall guys

Continue reading “Intersection between East and West”

Do you remember Spongebob and his ‘Magic conch shell”, where Spongebob pulls a string and the “Magic conch shell” could answer all the questions he has? Do you want to have an all-knowing “Magic conch shell” that could help you make decisions? In one of our class visit, we went to the History of Medicine Museum in one of the medical schools in Paris and there was also a conch shell ear trumpet in the museum. However, the conch shell ear trumpet was not a magic all-knowing shell. Instead, it was a hearing aid that people used in late 19^th to early 20^th century.

Me standing in front of the eye ball models

Continue reading “Listening through the roar of the ocean”

At the time when people had limited scientific knowledges, mutated animals could be easily interpreted as omen. In 18^th century, lots of local farmers in Paris witnessed the births of various mutated animals. Thankfully, some farmers sent the mutated animals to the Ecole Veterinaire d’Alfort, a veterinary school in Paris, for further identification and most of the animals had been used for scientific research. On the first day of our NBB Paris Study Abroad Program, we visited Musee Fragnoard, a museum contains animal dissections and skeletons, located in the Ecole Veterinaire d’Alfort. Musee Fragnoard is named after Honoré Fragnoard, the school’s first professor of anatomy, and he was famous for the preparation and preservation of skinned cadavers.

 Exhibition of infectious disease organs and models.

Continue reading “Science of “Monsters””