At the beginning of the 20s of the last century, the Russian doctor Sergej Bryukhonenko (1890–1960) invented and successfully used in animal studies a device for replacing the function of the heart and lungs. The device, pictured, was able to maintain stable blood pressure by pumping blood through two closed loops. The doctor managed to revive the dog's head - by perfusion and oxygenation of an isolated lung. Continuing his experiments and collaborating with Sergey Chechulin, a student of the famous Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, Bryukhonenko improved the model of the apparatus until it was able to keep a dog alive.

The apparatus shown in the picture belonged to the Russian biochemist Yevgeny Ganik, who was the leading assistant of the Russian physiologist, Nobel laureate Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) for more than 40 years. He is considered the unofficial chief technician of Pavlov's laboratory. This device is an early prototype defibrillator. It was probably used to revive the dogs used in I. Pavlov's physiology experiments, whose hearts had stopped.

French physician and physicist Jacques Arsene d'Arsonval (1851 - 1940) was the pioneer of electrotherapy, who studied the medical use of high-frequency current and created a method known as darsonvalization. The apparatus shown in the picture is a device created under the influence of his discoveries. In the early 20th century, it was popularly known as “violet rays,” because when a high-voltage current ionizes argon gas, the glass tip emits violet light and produces ozone, which kills bacteria. Until the middle of the 20th century, such devices were popular in the treatment of many and various diseases, however, there was a lack of scientific justification for this. Today, almost identical devices are used in dermatology to reduce the liver.

In 1787, German craftsman, third generation blade maker, John Weiss (1773 - 1843) established a successful family business in London. The company specialized in surgical instruments and supplied British army doctors with them. The War Surgeon's Toolkit pictured here consists of 23 items designed to amputate limbs, extract bullets and stop bleeding. Individual instrument sets lost popularity in the late 19th century when the practice of aseptic surgery was introduced, but J. Weiss' company adapted to the changes and continued to operate.

Childbirth pain is one of the strongest pains affecting a woman's body. This device is designed to relieve labor pain and is equipped with a mask that provides a supply of pain-relieving gas to the woman in labor. Most likely, the device was used for the use of "laughing" gas (N2O), if necessary, with the addition of oxygen (O2). "Laughing" gas as a medical pain reliever in childbirth has been known since the 1980s. The origin of its name is related to the side effects caused by the gas: euphoria and confusion. Nowadays, "laughing" gas is no longer considered a sufficiently effective pain reliever.

Bronchoscopy is a procedure that helps a doctor examine a patient's lungs and airways. With the help of the device, a thin, flexible tube is inserted into the patient's airways through the nose or mouth to diagnose lung diseases and infections. If there is a large object stuck in the airway or there is bleeding, then a bronchoscope made of a hard material such as metal is used. Such analogues of the set of instruments produced in East Germany were used for examining patients in several Riga hospitals from the second half of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1980s.