Hunterian Museum

As I mentioned in my top five curious destinations post, the Hunterian Museum was one of the places that I definitely wanted to visit while here in London. I started to get a little nervous because we only have a few days left in the trip and we have a jam-packed schedule. After one foiled attempt to visit the museum (rookie mistake- I went on a Monday and it is only open Tuesday-Saturday), I finally made it there today! I dragged Jen and Sarah, my two brave companions, along with me. They are also writing awesome blogs that you should check out: Jen's Blog Sarah's Blog.

To briefly recount, the Hunterian Museum is at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. This museum is based on the collection of John Hunter, an anatomist, obstetrician, and doctor who lived from 1728-1739. Hunter collected over 3,500 anatomical preparations (skeletons and the like), fossils, paintings, and drawings. The private collection was purchased by the British government and donated to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1799. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures, but you can see them at the Hunterian Museum's Official Website.

The majority of the specimens in the museum were anatomical preparations of organs preserved in jars. The collection came from all parts of the animal kingdom including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates, and all types of body systems including skeletal, nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, and reproductive systems. Hunter dissected anything and everything that he could get his hands on.

Many of the preparations fell under the category of “morbid anatomy” which demonstrated instances of pathology and disease such as tumors, aneurisms, wounds, fractures, parasites, infections, and malformations. These morbid anatomy collections were used for scientific discovery as well as student instruction.

The collection also contained curiosities such as Charles Babbage’s brain, and skeletons of extinct animals including the Dodo Bird and the Tasmanian Tiger. The museum is also home to the skeleton of an 18^th century “Irish Giant” named Charles Byrne. Byrne had a condition called pituitary gigantism, which causes an over production of the human growth hormone. The condition resulted in Byrne growing to the height of 7’7” tall, which was extremely rare in the 18^th century, especially for an Irishman. Before his death, Byrne actually paid to have his body buried as sea, but Hunter really wanted to acquire the skeleton and managed to do just that for the sum of 130 pounds.

Hunter also received many specimens as gifts, and many items were also left over from surgeries that Hunter had performed, such as the removal of tumors. This made me wonder what really happened to my wisdom teeth after I had them removed…

By now you may be wondering why I was interested in visiting such an obscure museum. I think it is a fascinating piece of history and I am very interested in how far medicine has come since the time of John Hunter. Though some people may be disgusted and disturbed by looking at preserved anatomical specimens, we owe our lives to people who are fascinated and intrigued by such morbid things. Without the curiosity of scientists like Hunter, we would all still be dying of highly curable and preventable ailments. I am very grateful to live in the age of modern medicine. So I believe we owe a big thank you to Hunter and all of the other strange geniuses of the world.