Tartu Ülikooli patoloogilise anatoomia instituudi kollektsioon inimorganismist pärit kividest: The University of Tartu Institute of Pathological Anathomy's Collection of Human Stones

Abstract

This article describes a rare collection of human stones originallyowned by the Institute of Pathological Anatomy and assumed to be astudy collection that dates back to the 19th century.Prior to writing this article, I familiarised myself with the collectionof stones that form in human bodies at the UT Museum(ÜAM_1613:1–65 AjM).Reviewing these collections, one often returns to the question ofwhy do these stones form in our bodies? The most common stones inthe human body are kidney and bladder stones, gallstones, calculiand salivary gland stones. Some of these rarely appear in humanbodies or they may be present without causing any real symptoms,while the person is completely unaware of their existence. It is knownthat poor diet or metabolism disorders may contribute to the build-upof the stones either in the kidneys or bladder or the growth of dentalplaque around our teeth, for example.The collection described in this article ((ÜAM_1613:53/1 AjM) alsohad a note from 1873 in German addressed to the then Professor ofPathological Anatomy Jakob Ernst Arthur Böttcher (1831–1889) attachedto one of its gallstones.The collection was delivered to the museum in May 2000 from theNew Anatomical Theatre. The whole collection is rare and holds significanthistorical and scientific meaning for the University of Tartu.Hence, it was accepted to the main collection of exhibits of the UTMuseum in September 2017.The collection that now belongs to the UT Museum has been ondisplay in the foyer of the education innovation centre in the OldAnatomical Theatre since February 2020