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UTM Museums and History

The Institut Pasteur of Tunis Museum

In 1893, Louis Pasteur entrusted his nephew, Adrien Loir, with establishing a vaccination center in Tunis. This led to the creation of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis (IPT), focusing on vaccination, public hygiene, medical analysis, and teaching. In 1900, it was officially recognized as an institute.

In 1902, Charles Nicolle succeeded Adrien Loir and led the IPT for 33 years. He studied numerous infectious diseases, identified their transmission methods, and introduced the concept of inapparent diseases. His groundbreaking work, particularly on typhus, earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1928, cementing IPT’s international reputation. Founder of the Archives of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis in 1906, Nicolle was laid to rest at the entrance of the Institute, as per his wishes.

Charles Nicolle

Nobel Lecture

Investigations on Typhus

I am going to give you an account of how I arrived at the results for which I have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. I shall also summarize these results.

It did not seem likely that I was destined to undertake research on typhus. I was born, first studied medicine and undertook my first research work in a French province from which typhus had disappeared since 1814. It is true that I came across a few imported cases at Rouen in 1889. They made no particular impression on me.

My arrival in Tunisia placed me immediately in contact with typhus. Ten days after my arrival, at the beginning of January 1903, I saw a few cases in natives living in a suburb of Tunis.

In those days the disease flared up each winter in the rural districts of Tunisia. From these remote districts it spread to the doss houses, the prisons and the outskirts of towns. The native districts of Tunis and the prisons were regularly stricken. The epidemic receded in June; it drew back into the remote country districts and was not heard of again until the end of the year.

Of all the problems which were open to me for study, typhus was the most urgent and the most unexplored. We knew nothing of the way in which contagion spread. The field of experimental study was virgin ground. We were scarcely able to conclude, from the results of debatable experiments, that it was possible to inoculate the disease from one man to another by means of the blood.

In June of 1903 I was determined to carry out a preliminary study. At that time typhus was raging in a native prison, 80 kilometres South of Tunis, Djouggar. I requested the doctor in charge of this establishment to allow me to accompany him on his weekly visits. We made an appointment. The evening before I had a haemoptysis. If it had not been for this accident, my first contact with typhus would undoubtedly have been my last. My colleague, Motheau, and his servant went to Djouggar; they spent the night there, contracted typhus and both died.

Most of the doctors in the Tunisian administration, especially those in country districts, contracted typhus and approximately one third of them died of it. The fact that I was fortunate enough to escape contagion, in spite of frequent, sometimes daily contacts with the disease, was because I soon guessed how it spread….

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This is an extract from Charles Nicolle Nobel Lecture

* As Professor Nicolle has been prevented by ill health from coming to Stockholm to deliver his Nobel Lecture, he has very kindly sent the text to the Editor of Les Prix Nobel for publication.

From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965

The Museum of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis 

Musée de la faculté de médecine

Le musée national de la médecine est un musée de Tunis (Tunisie) créé le 8 novembre 1997. Il occupe une partie du pavillon I de l’ancienne faculté de médecine de Tunis, à  Rue Zouheir-Essafi.

Le musée expose une variété d’instruments et de documents historiques concernant la médecine en Tunisie :

des instruments de chirurgie datant des IXe et Xe siècles ; des accessoires de médecine générale ; des équipements médicaux datant des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles ; des copies d’anciens manuscrits se rapportant à la médecine et à la chirurgie ; des documents sur l’histoire de la médecine (notamment en Tunisie) ; des diplômes anciens ; des portraits de pionniers de la médecine tunisienne contemporaine ; des portraits de médecins arabo-musulmans célèbres (dont Avicenne) ; des timbres tunisiens ayant pour thème la médecine ; des plantes médicinales avec leurs indications et modes d’utilisation. Le musée est ouvert gratuitement aux visiteurs, du mardi au dimanche, de 11 heures à 17 heures. En été et pendant le mois du ramadan, le musée est ouvert de 9 heures à 14 heures.

The science museum at The Faculty of Science of Tunis

Geology and Mineralogy Museum

Musée de la Faculté des Sciences de Tunis

La galerie de mémoire de la Faculté des Sciences de Tunis a été créée en 2019-2020, dans le cadre de la  préparation du 60ème anniversaire de cette dernière. L’équipe de la fondation est composée du doyen de la FST Mr Nourredine Amdouni, la vice présidente de l’Université Mme Fadhila Darragi,  le vice doyen Mr Taoufik Ghrairi et la documentaliste Mme Hela Ben Jemai. 

Il renferme les photos poster de l’historique de la création de la FST avec les différentes lois, les décrets et les articles et des photos de la faculté et des doyens successifs.

The Memory of Biomedical Engineering at the Higher Institute of Medical technology of Tunis

Pictures from the Musuem of Biomedical Engineering at the Tunis

Higher Institute of Medical Technology

The museum houses old eqipement as a Gamma camera and a scanner, in

addition to a variety of equipment and instruments made in-house and carried

out within the Institute.

Memories from the faculty of Economics and management (FSEGT)