SCIENTIFIC ASSISTENT CLEANS EXHIBITS OF BABY WITH A SIRENIAN DEFORMITY IN BERLIN, 1998-03-24 (photo)

Petra Lennig, scientific assistent at Berlin's Charite Museum of Pathology cleans cases containing two babies with sirenian deformities, preserved in formaldehyde 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