Exhibition on WWI's medical heroes

World War I medical heroes, and the wounds, bugs and diseases that plagued them, are given fresh attention in a new exhibition in Melbourne.

Compassion and Courage: Australian Doctors and Dentists in the Great War tells stories of medical innovation and bravery from the battlefield.

The Melbourne University exhibition pays tribute to the many alumni who went to war, both as medical professionals and soldiers.

The exhibition features letters, photographs, medals, maps and medical paraphernalia.

There are jars containing body parts brought back so that afflictions suffered on the front could be studied.

Photographs depict "plastic surgery being pioneered", as doctors experimented with different methods to rebuild faces.

The trenches were full of men with foot rot and diseases caused by fleas and lice.

Diseases killed as many soldiers as war wounds, so Melbourne University lecturer Charles Martin set up pathology labs at field hospitals, drastically reducing fatalities.

"On average soldiers were hospitalised five times during the war and usually only once with a war wound," Medical History Museum curator Jacky Healy told AAP on Thursday.

World War I saw new types of military conflict and weaponry, including trench warfare, machine guns and poisonous gas.

A Melbourne Uni team produced one of the first types of breathing apparatus to protect against gas attacks. It looks like a can of fly spray with a mouth piece and goggles.

It was sent to the front, and one now sits in a cabinet in the museum.

When the war began there were no dental services in the field.

But after Gallipoli it was realised there was a need for dentists, with many soldiers treated in hospital for mouth rot and dental issues.

A dental team at Gallipoli performed 180 fillings, 320 extractions and 60 denture repairs. By the end of the war they were recognised as an army corps in their own right.

But this was hard core dentistry, performed a kilometre away from the fighting on the front. One dentist was even struck by Turkish shrapnel while extracting a tooth.

The exhibition has a portable World War I dental chair that had been ordered from a catalogue at the time so the dentists could perform in the field.

The Melbourne University Medical History Museum has worked for more than a year to bring the collection together.

It is to open to the public from April 24.