Absurdity in Medicine. Stanisław Trzebiński’s Philosophy of Medicine

Stanisław Trzebiński (1861–1930), professor at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, was one of the most distinguished representatives of the Polish School of Philosophy of Medicine before the Second World War. He undertook studies in neurology, philosophy of medicine, and literature. The article explores Trzebiński’s philosophical ideas, especially his call for rationality in medicine and the concept of absurdity in medicine as a precondition for the development of medical knowledge and practice. Today this method is an essential background in Evidence-Based Medicine and confirms cultural and scientific forms of cognition.

Koncepcja organizacji pracy w instytucji naukowej – ankiety i opracowania z okresu okupacji (1941–1942) w Państwowym Muzeum Zoologicznym w Warszawie

The Concept of Work Organisation in a Scientific Institution – Surveys and Studies from the Occupation Period (1941–1942) at the State Zoological Museum in Warsaw During the Second World War, the State Zoological Museum in Warsaw (PMZ) suffered severe losses. Many workers were killed, and parts of the zoological and book collections were stolen by the Germans as early as 1939. The Museum became an important centre of the resistance movement, as it became a storage for weapons, explosives, and chemicals used for sabotage. Despite the repressions, the Museum employees tried to continue their work under the occupation and developed a modern model for the functioning of this institution to be implemented after the war. In the archives of the Museum and Institute of Zoology, a folder was found containing the documentation of the surveys conducted in 1941–1942 on the organisation of work and the future structure of the PMZ. This article presents the first analysis of these documents, which turned out to be a valuable source of information on the functioning of scientific institutions during the occupation, as well as on the history of the PMZ itself.

Recenzje

Jerzy Hickiewicz, Piotr Rataj, Przemysław Sadłowski, Zygmunt Wojciechowski, Kronika Toruńskiej Elektrowni, Gazowni i Tramwajów: Od początku do lat 30. XX wieku, Polskie Zrzeszenie Inżynierów i Techników Sanitarnych, Oddział Toruń, Toruń 2020, ss. 176 Stefan Jackowski, Roman Duda, Historia matematyki w Polsce na tle dziejów nauki i kultury, Instytut Historii Nauki im. L. i A. Birkenmajerów PAN, Oficyna Wydawnicza ASPRA-JR, Warszawa 2019, ss. 626 Lucyna Szaniawska, Edward Brooke-Hitching, Złoty atlas. Największe wyprawy, odkrycia i poszukiwania na mapach, tłum. Janusz Szczepański, Dom Wydawniczy REBIS, Poznań, 2018, ss. 255, 120 reprodukcji dawnych map Anna Trojanowska, Anna Maria Kielak, M. Konstancja Majewska, Jan Majewski, Apteka „Pod Złotym Lwem” na tle krótkiej historii aptekarstwa poznańskiego, Wydawnictwo Nowa Baśń, Poznań 2020, s. 99

Mikrometr śrubowy Gottfrieda Kircha – historia, konstrukcja i upowszechnienie w 1. poł. XVIII w.

Gottfried Kirch’s Screw Micrometer – Its History, Design and Dissemination in the First Half of the 18th Century Gottfried Kirch (1639–1710) developed the screw micrometer to observe the occultation of οTauri by Saturn on January 7/17, 1679. The news about the instrument was not published immediately. The device was popularised by his calendar for 1696. The article presents preliminary findings concerning the dissemination of knowledge about this invention and responds to the claim that it was the most widely used micrometer in the German-speaking lands in the first half of the 18th century.

Listy Władysława Taczanowskiego do Aleksandra Straucha w zbiorach Rosyjskiej Akademii Nauk – interesujący przyczynek historii zoologii w XIX wieku

Letters from Władysław Taczanowski to Alexander Strauch in the Russian Academy of Sciences Collections. An Interesting Contribution to the History of Zoology in the Nineteenth Century The article presents the Polish translation and analysis of the letters from Władysław Taczanowski (1819–1890) to Aleksander Strauch (1832–1893). The correspondence is stored in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and comprises 29 letters written between 1870 and 1889. The main theme of these letters is specimens of reptiles and amphibians sent to Warsaw by Polish naturalists, such as Benedykt Dybowski from Siberia, Konstanty Jelski from French Guiana and Peru, Jan Kalinowski from Korea, as well as specimens brought by Taczanowski from Algeria. Strauch determined the species and used them in his publications. This correspondence is also a valuable testimony of the exchange of specimens between the Warsaw Zoological Cabinet and the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. In return for herpetological specimens, the Warsaw collection received numerous fish specimens from the Russian Empire and a collection of birds from Mikołaj Przewalski’s expedition to Central Asia. The content of the letters allows a better understanding of the functioning of natural history museography but also the organization of shipments, preparation, determination, and exchange of specimens. They are a valuable document of the history of nineteenth-century scientific museography.

Wyposażenie „PRL-owskiej” izby recepturowej ze zbiorów Muzeum Okręgowego im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego w Bydgoszczy. Genius loci czy suma przypadków?

Equipment of a Prescription Room from the Polish People’s Republic Times in the Collection of Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz. Genius loci or the Sum of Cases? In 2017, the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz purchased the collection of a private pharmacy museum, previously functioning in the back of the now-liquidated Pod Łabędziem (‘Under the Swan’) pharmacy in Bydgoszcz, first opened in 1853. Among the acquired museum exhibits, there is prescription room equipment from the Polish People’s Republic period. From the point of view of museum workers and researchers of pharmaceutical material culture, in order to learn more about the acquisitions, it is essential to answer the following questions: Where and when were the prescription furniture and their equipment produced? Were they used only in Pod Łabędziem (‘Under the Swan’) pharmacy? Is the room equipment complete? What can the preserved equipment tell us about the type of drugs produced there? The conducted analysis allows us to state that the prescription furniture were manufactured in Nowe nad Wisłą at the turn of the 1970s. The prescription room is an original component of the described pharmacy but preserved in a truncated form. Its location is secondary. Chaos reigns among the preserved utensils. The current state of affairs does not reflect the standards of work in the former community pharmacy. The sum of the cases prevails over the genius loci.

Towarzystwa naukowe a uniwersytety na łamach Rocznika Kasy im. Mianowskiego „Nauka Polska, Jej potrzeby, Organizacja i Rozwój” (1918–1947)

Scientific Societies and Universities in the Yearbook of Józef Mianowski Fund “Polish Science. Its Needs, Organization and Development” (1918–1947) The author analyzes the relations between scientific societies and universities in Poland in the interwar period. The source material is the Yearbook “Polish Science. Its Needs, Organization, and Development” published by the Józef Mianowski Fund in the years 1918–1947. An investigation of the relationships between scientific societies and universities offers excellent opportunities for interpreting the scientific activity in the Second Polish Republic. The connections between scientific societies and universities involved the centers for propelling scientific thought, where university chairs or scientific society committees played the leading role. Sometimes the works of non-university experts were important. The analysis of the material collected in the “Polish Science” also points to many other professional organizations (associations of professors, associate professors, or assistants). Many universities had societies supporting them. Gaining social support for universities was extremely important at the time.

Magistrala Siedlce – Bołogoje jako przykład kolei strategicznej

The Siedlce-Bołogoje Trunk Line as an Example of a Strategic Railway The article presents a comprehensive view of the origins, technical characteristics and functioning of the Siedlce-Bologoye railway line. This railway, with an impressive length of 1.100 km, was built in the years 1902–1907 as a connection between the lands of the Kingdom of Poland and the governorates of central Russia in order to ensure the efficient transport of troops and their supplies given the anticipated war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The work aims to illustrate to what extent the assumptions of the construction promoters were confirmed and how it was used in particular periods.

Kompendium wiedzy o autorach kalendarzy i ich dziełach

Herbst K.-D., Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher, cz. 1, Einführung und Verzeichnisse, Jena 2020 (Acta Calendariographica – Forschungsberichte, t. 9), ss. 407. Herbst K.-D., Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher, cz. 2, Kalendermacher Achalm – Heldvader, Jena 2020 (Acta Calendariographica – Forschungsberichte, t. 9), ss. 501. Herbst K.-D., Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher, cz. 3, Kalendermacher Heller – Reinstein, Jena 2020 (Acta Calendariographica – Forschungsberichte, t. 9), ss. 501. Herbst K.-D., Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher, cz. 4, Kalendermacher Reisacher – Zorawsky, Jena 2020 (Acta Calendariographica – Forschungsberichte, t. 9), ss. 504. Herbst K.-D., Biobibliographisches Handbuch der Kalendermacher von 1550 bis 1750, www.presseforschung.uni-bremen.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=Startseite [dostęp 18.03.2021]. The article discusses the publications of Klaus-Dieter Herbst, crowning nearly twenty years of his research on early modern calendars. These unique works are presented in two versions: in the ninth volume of a series titled Acta Calendariographica – Forschungsberichte, published in 2020, and the website that has been systematically updated since 2014. The printed version includes an introduction to calendar matters (Part One) and a three-part biographical and bibliographic dictionary, devoted to the calendar makers, their career paths, family relationships, and calendar and publication achievements. The article outlines the specifics and structure of this publication, pointing to the ingenious solutions employed there and interesting problems raised. Słowa kluczowe: kalendarze

Stan górnictwa i hutnictwa w kluczu samsonowskim w świetle lustracji z 1809 roku

The State of Mining and Metallurgy in the Samsonów Complex in the Light of the Survey from 1809 The article presents the Survey of the Samsonów complex from 1809, with a historical commentary. The document contains information on the condition of the mining and metallurgy industry, with particular emphasis on blast furnaces in Samsonów and Szałas, fryers, ore supply, organisation of miners’ work, supply of wood for charring, and organisation of charcoal production.