A vehicle drives past an entrance to the Royal College of Surgeons, where the free Hunterian Museum is located. Part educational journey, part freak show, the museum showcases a bizarre but fascinating collection of human and animal specimens. (Sean Kimmons / S&S)
LONDON — Part educational journey, part freak show, the Hunterian Museum showcases a bizarre but fascinating collection of human and animal specimens.
The intent of this central London museum is to enlighten visitors, especially those in the medical field, on 400 years of medical history. Being a spectacle for the carnival-sideshow crowds isn’t the goal, but one can’t help wanting to dip into the museum to see its unusual sights.
Don’t expect any reptile man or bearded lady, though.
Visitors instead have the opportunity to roam the museum’s galleries where thousands of specimens are displayed, from human deformities and morbid processes to the skeleton of a 7-foot, 7-inch-tall man.
Many of the specimens were amassed by John Hunter, a British surgeon in the 1700s who is remembered as a founder of “scientific surgery,” according to the museum’s Web site.
In his work, Hunter sought to provide an experimental basis to surgical practice. His collection, later purchased by the British government, is a lasting record of his pioneering work. Nowadays, the Royal College of Surgeons exhibits the collection in this museum.
The collection, along with other exhibits, allows visitors to discover the art and science of surgery, the Web site added.
About 3,000 of Hunter’s specimens can be seen in the Crystal Gallery in the museum’s central atrium. Although very intriguing, a few people may cringe when viewing some specimens.
For example, the gallery’s morbid processes — human body parts affected by an array of causes of death — can be a tad unsettling. Samples include tumors, diseased flesh, gunshot wounds, aneurysms, amputation stumps and skulls eroded by syphilis.
Lifeless crustaceans, fish, reptiles and creepy crawler insects, such as a large, pregnant African scorpion, are found in the gallery as well.
Possibly the most interesting display is the gallery’s human fetuses presented in different developmental stages. A quintuplet set of hand-size fetuses delivered during a premature birth in 1786 are a few of them.
Nearby is a 9-pound tumor of the parotid gland, the body’s largest salivary gland. The tumor was removed by Hunter from a 37-year-old man in 1785.
A copy of Sir Isaac Newton’s death mask is also on view nearby. In front of Newton’s mask is another museum highlight, the giant skeleton of Charles Byrne, a 7-foot-7 Irishman who died in 1783. After his death, Hunter bought his body for 130 pounds and added it to his collection.
Past Byrne’s skeleton is a 25-year-old man’s skull that was grossly enlarged due to hydrocephalus, an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid within the cavities of the brain.
In a nearby back room, called the McRae Gallery, is an exhibit of human skulls and teeth. Next to that are slices of body parts from an orangutan, dog, rabbit, crocodile and other animals.
Just outside the gallery, visitors can get a close-up look at surgical tools used to cut, slice and pry open bodies.
Upstairs to the left, there are more surgical tools, as well as antique microscopes, a surgeon’s table and realistic wax models of human anatomy. This is followed by an exhibit on the evolution of plastic surgery.
It’s easy to waste away an hour or two admiring the museum’s peculiar exhibits not typically seen in other London museums. And with no charge for admission, the museum is well worth a trip for those looking to see what they’re really made of.
Getting there
The Hunterian Museum is inside the Royal College ofSurgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. (35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields). Access to the surgical museum’s fascinating and unusual specimens is free. Because of the museum’s graphic nature, photography is prohibited. For more information, see www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums
