Cleanliness and Purity. Hygeia and the Laboratorium voor Hygiene, and Kalanchoè, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
On my leisurely walk through the old academic quarter of Groningen, I passed by the building erected in 1883 for the Laboratory of Hygienics once part of the pharmaceutical-medical department. It was built in 1883 and the main doorway boasts this rendition of the goddess of cleanliness and purity, Hygeia. The sculpture is by Emilius A.H. Bourgonjon (1841-1927), a Belgian who worked in The Netherlands.
The inset is of a wonderful Widow's Thrill, a Kalanchoè, that I saw in a shop more or less around the corner. Its whiteness symbol of purity. It's well known that astronauts and cosmonauts are subjected to dire hygienic norms on their flights. And, too, that those stays in far-off space can make one homesick. In 1979 Valery Ryumin (1939-) and Vladimir Lyakov (1941-2018) spent a long time in Salyut 6. Space loneliness weighed heavily on them, and to pick up their spirits a shipment of supplies from Earth also had a Kalanchoè plant. They were so thrilled by it that they named it 'Tree of Life'.
Cleanliness and Purity. Hygeia and the Laboratorium voor Hygiene, and Kalanchoè, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
On my leisurely walk through the old academic quarter of Groningen, I passed by the building erected in 1883 for the Laboratory of Hygienics once part of the pharmaceutical-medical department. It was built in 1883 and the main doorway boasts this rendition of the goddess of cleanliness and purity, Hygeia. The sculpture is by Emilius A.H. Bourgonjon (1841-1927), a Belgian who worked in The Netherlands.
The inset is of a wonderful Widow's Thrill, a Kalanchoè, that I saw in a shop more or less around the corner. Its whiteness symbol of purity. It's well known that astronauts and cosmonauts are subjected to dire hygienic norms on their flights. And, too, that those stays in far-off space can make one homesick. In 1979 Valery Ryumin (1939-) and Vladimir Lyakov (1941-2018) spent a long time in Salyut 6. Space loneliness weighed heavily on them, and to pick up their spirits a shipment of supplies from Earth also had a Kalanchoè plant. They were so thrilled by it that they named it 'Tree of Life'.