Hunterian Museum, London
The anatomical-pathological collection of a man who changed surgery
Category Museums and Collections, Medical Museums
The Hunterian Museum has an amazing anatomy and pathology collection, amassed by John Hunter; anatomist, obstetrician, doctor, and dedicated collector of oddities. Hunter had a reputation as a bit of mad scientist, and the idiosyncratic collection reflects this. Among the best pieces in this fantastic museum are a series of life-size plaster casts showing a pregnant uterus and graceful examples of birth defects and infectious diseases done in wax.
One half of the brain of the famous mathematician Charles Babbage is on display (the other half is with his Difference Engine, at the London Science Museum).
Also in the collection are the Evelyn Tables, acquired from Italy in 1646 by John Evelyn, a prolific diarist best known for his detailed journals written during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The tables are wooden slabs of "mounted dry tissue" displaying veins and arteries from dissections, and are the earliest known anatomical preparations in Europe.
The surgical instruments carried by doomed Scottish explorer Mungo Park are also in the collection.
However the specimen with the most interesting story is the skeleton of 7'7" tall Charles Byrne, known as the Irish giant. Byrne had requested to be buried as sea to prevent just such a posthumous showing. Hunter, ever the determined doctor, managed to bribe the undertaker, purchased the giant's body, boiled off the flesh in a giant cauldron, and articulated the huge skeleton for display. In this case, Hunter definitely earned his mad scientist reputation.
John's older brother, also a noted physician, anatomist, and collector bequeathed his belongings to the University of Glasgow, Scotland, forming the basis for the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow.
Free guided tour of the Museum every Wednesday at 1pm. To book call 020 7869 6560.
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- Hours Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00am-5:00pm
- Address 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Royal College of Surgeons, London, WC2A 3PE
- Cost Free, donation of 3BP appreciated.
- http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/
- http://scientificfair.blogspot.com/2009/04/see-both-halves-of-babbages-brain-in.html
- <cite>The Knife man - The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery<cite>, Wendy Moore 2005
- Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Byrne_%28human_curiosity%29
- http://www.londonfreelist.com/details.asp?id=13888
The nearest Underground station is Holborn
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