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a word on the Old Anatomical Museum of the Faculty of Medicine
In 1925, in my first college year, I became an intern in the
subject of Anatomical Technique (created in 1907) headed by
Professor Antoni Riera Villaret (1865-1931), made up of different
departments. One of them was the Anatomical Museum, where
many anatomical pieces were very well shown, some of them
by sculptor Enric Monjo Garriga (1896-1976), who had been
working there shortly before, and many other natural preparations
by different conservation methods then performed. I remember
very interesting pieces, among which some represented exceptional
injuries and malformations, non-existent or very difficult
to find nowadays. Moreover, the person in charge was a head
porter who was perfectly uniformed and was aware of everything,
and who enjoyed explaining the origins of each and every piece.
We, the students, called him “el Séneca”
and spent a long time there.
Later on, when I finished anatomy, and due to Professor Riera
Villaret’s retirement, the subject was brought to an
end (1927-1931) and I lost contact with all that. Many years
later, I was informed that, due to lack of space, the Museum
had been closed. A little later, when I became a member of
the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, I asked the great
anatomist and good friend Agustí Gómez (1900-1981)
about the fate of the Museum and he told me it was not worth
to talk about it for they had dreadfully dismantled and ended
something that was very difficult to retrieve; he also said
that the remaining pieces were piled up somewhere in the basement
of the Faculty, belonging to the Department of Pathological
Anatomy. We decided we had to do something about it and went
to see Professor Dídac Ribas Mujal (Manresa, 1922),
who told us that when he joined the Department of Histology
(1971) he had already stumbled upon all those half-ruined
pieces, which had become a hindrance. He did not know what
to do and found appropriate for us to take them to the Royal
Academy, which we did in a van. Then, trouble started, as
in the Academy we did not have a place to store them nor means
to repair all that. We had got deeply involved. Luckily, our
friend Alfons Gregorich Servat (1916-2000), then President
of the Medical Benefit Society [Mutua Médica] (1976-1988),
offered an appropriate place in the Mutua in Vía Laietana
and then a chain of events ensued, as shortly afterwards we
received in the Academy the visit of Mr.Antoni Forrellad (1912-1987),
from Banca Catalana, with the intention of founding a Museum
of the History of Medicine under Dr. Felip Cid’s supervision.
This was just right for our wish to see restored all those
beloved pieces which reminded me our first college years,
listening to learned “Séneca’s” explanations.
I would not like to finish without expressing my gratitude
to Alfons Zarzoso for the great interest he shows in the conservation
of this important Museum for our Medicine that we cannot afford
to loose.
Dr. Moisés Broggi
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© Official Medical Association of Barcelona 
