SCIENTIST CHECKS THE LEVEL OF FORMALDEHYDE OF A JANUS HUMANUS IN BERLIN, 1998-03-24 (photo)

Petra Lennig, scientific assistent at Berlin's Charite Museum of Pathology checks the level of formaldehyde in a case containing the skeletons of two foetuses fused together in 1794, known by the scientific name Janus Humanus March 24. The museum, which will be reopened after reconstruction work is completed in Berlin on March 25, was founded in 1899 by the German physician Rudolf Virchow as part of the Charite Hospital, one of the most famous university hospitals in Europe. The exhibit, which is likely to be the most valuable and comprehensive pathological and anatomical collection ever compiled, displays about 2,000 items of the original 20,000 that belonged to the museum. The remainder were destroyed in World War II. GERMANY