Cape Medical Museum

Cape Medical Museum

History

The Cape Medical Museum, which was first opened in 1986, is housed in what was once the residence of the Medical Superintendent of the now defunct City Hospital for Infectious Diseases, built in 1900.

Early medicine in the Cape

Western medical practice started at the Cape in 1652 with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, who set about establishing a refreshment station for the many diseased seamen in the employ of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Slaves assisted with the sick in makeshift hospitals but with time more permanent structures were erected. In 1818 the first civil hospital, the Somerset Hospital was built. This was superceded by the New Somerset Hospital in 1862. At the end of the 19th century, the City Hospital for Infectious Diseases was built and used by British troops during the Anglo-Boer war (SA War).

At the time of the first white settlement at the Cape, Western European medicine was in empiric phase, i.e. diseases we classified according to symptons and, almost without exception, only the latter were treated. This was not out of step with what was done by the indigenous populatiob and by immigrant slaves from the East. Scientific medicine developed in Europe on the basis of anatomy and pathology observed at post mortem dissection and this was followed by the slow development of pharmacology and much later by surgery and physiology.

Early medication relied heavily on patent medicine originally put together by Dutch apothecaries, however health care in the settlement was influenced through contact with the indigenes - the San, hunter-gathers and the Khoikhoi, semi-nomadic herders - who for thousands of years had lived in the shadow of the mountain and beyond. Using the abundant flora and fauna for treatement in their religious and medical customs, they shared their knowledge of indigenous medicinal plants and substances with the new arrivals.

The Malays - slaves, free bondsmen and political prisoners - brought to the Cape by the VOC bore their own culture which impacted on the young community. Nguni traditional medicine was later was later introduced by the Xhosas who migrated from the Eastern Cape. A unique system of health care and folk medicine developed.

Scientific medicine only reached the Cape in the nineteenth century with people like William guybon Atherstone, who in 1847, pioneered the use of ether anesthesia outside of America and Europe.

Towards the end of the 19th century the medical disciplines of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and nursing acheived independent status. Improved organization in public health contributed to the development of a stable society.

The first medical school was established at the University of Cape Town in 1912.

Acknowledgement: thanks to the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the use of the image of a shaman in trance.