Museum of Radiology

The Museum of Radiology is located in the waiting room of the Military Hospital of Brussels. While patients wait to receive their medical imaging, visitors to the museum can view posters and photographs tacked to the hallway wall depicting the history of early radiology technology. The museum also includes information about current technologies, like ultrasounds and computed tomography.

The museum also includes several separate rooms that recreate, with the help of life-sized dummies, scenes of medical discoveries. In one room, with the mannequins dressed in 19th century garb, there’s a scene of Professor Rontgen (who discovered the use of x-ray imaging), showing his wife an x-ray he took of her hand. The scene also features the equipment used for the radiography on that famous night of December 22nd, 1895. It is noted that six days after this scene actually took place, the invention and properties of x-rays were carefully detailed and published by Professor Rontgen, officially altering the understanding of early medical imaging at the brink of the turn of the century.

The museum also has a room dedicated to scopes – huge, box-like machines used from 1900 to1950, used mainly in catching early stages of tuberculosis. Within the halls of the Military Hospital of Brussels lies a truly interactive and highly imaginative display of historical scientific invention. Juxtaposed to current technologies, whether patient or patron, a visit to this museum can only add to the wonderment of the history of medical advancement.