The Scent of Anatomy
Well, it mid-February now, and I’m enjoying seeing the buds start to appear in the garden. The last month has been a bit manic, with lots of new and exciting things happening.
The first one is that I’m now spending my Fridays through in Glasgow with the Hunterian’s anatomy and pathology collection. This was my first museum home and it’s great to be back. This is different to the Hunterian in London, which reopened following a long refurbishment last year. That collection started with the preparations of John Hunter, whereas the collection in Glasgow is based on that of his older brother William. Both Hunters were born in East Kilbride, and William attended Glasgow University to study divinity. He side-stepped into medicine, and eventually ended up in London where he opened up an anatomy school where he taught according to the ‘Paris Manner’ – students could dissect themselves rather than simply watch someone else do it. This isn’t what he’d seen at the big dissection theatre at the Jardin du Roi, however, but what he’d observed in the hospitals of Paris. He developed a collection of anatomical preparations to assist with his teaching. These were wet preparations preserved in alcohol, tissue injected with mercury to highlight the lymphatic vessels and aid his elucidation of their function (and led to a feud with Alexander Monro, Secundus in Edinburgh), as well as a whole range of macerated bones. As a surgeon, he specialised in obstetrics and attended Queen Charlotte. This made him a man of wealth and fame, and as a bachelor he spent his money on acquiring a great ‘Gentlemen’s collection’ – including art, coins and natural history. At Hunter’s death, he bequeathed his collections to his Alma Mater in Glasgow, along with money to turn it into a public museum. The Hunterian Museum opened to the public in 1807.
I came there in 2002. While the Museum had gone from strength to strength, enhancing Hunter’s original collection, the anatomy and pathology collections had been a bit neglected. The pathology collection was largely ignored at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and while the anatomy collection was well-used by the Anatomy Department, it was certainly lacking TLC. I was brought in to catalogue and conserve the collection, eventually moving the pathology collection to a purpose built store in the anatomy department in 2013. Even after starting to work at Surgeons’ Hall in 2015, I have went back to the Hunterian for a variety of small projects, usually involving genomic sampling of the collection. It’s good to be back there one day a week, on a conservation project that will probably take about two years to complete. Having become so used to working in the labs at Surgeons’ Hall, it’s taken a little while to get back into the swing of a different – considerably smaller – space, but it’s such a wonderful collection to work with. There’s something just about the smell of the anatomy department that feels wonderfully familiar.
It's busy times at Surgeons’ Hall too. Our new Director, Chanté, started in the middle of January, after Chris Henry’s retirement last year, and it will be very interesting to see what new directions she will take us in. In the SH conservation labs I’ve been working on a lot of breast tissue. As a surgical museum, we have a large collection of tumours that have been removed through mastectomy, and it’s fascinating to see the way this contributes to the understanding breast cancer. In terms of preservation, because it tends to be tissue that has a high fat content, it often requires a little bit more work – fat can often leach out, which can turn into fatty acids that can degrade the tissue, and can just make it harder to see the details. I’ve also written about Charles Bell’s famous painting of opisthotonos – You can read the blog post here:
https://surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2024/01/18/tetanus-at-the-battlefield/
I’ve also revisited the Royal College of Physicians current exhibition – After Life: A History of Death. I went along to the opening night, but it was difficult to see anything properly as it was so busy. It was good to go back and have the whole place to myself. It’s a small exhibition, but there are some fascinating things in there.
I’ve also been setting up some events for 2024, and next week there’s an opportunity to hear me chat with Dr Matt Lodder about tattoo history as part of Surgeons’ Hall’s Dissecting the Author series of events. It’s online on Thursday 22nd February, and you can get tickets here if you’re interested.
https://shop.museum.rcsed.ac.uk/products/dissecting-the-author-matt-lodder-painted-people
I’m very much looking forward to this – I had a great time when Matt visited our collection last year, and it will be great to show some of the preserved tattoos we have which aren’t usually seen by the public.
After that I’m going to be talking about Parasites for our lunchtime talks but that’s already sold out! I’m also very excited to be doing an event for the wonderful Arnos Vale Cemetery in June. This is another online one, and I’m going to be talking about the history of the Dance Macabre. I do love a good Dance of Death… I’ve made many a detour while driving to go and visit one, and often they’ve been a destination in themselves. Glasgow University also has an amazing archive – the Gemmell Collection – which was donated by a doctor who shared my fascination, and I’ve spent a lot of time in their special collections looking through it. If you want to come and hear more…
https://arnosvale.org.uk/a-brief-history-of-danse-macabre-online-talk/
In July I’ll be in Lauriston Castle discussing the macabre side of medicine in nineteenth-century Edinburgh. This is particularly fabulous because, while I’ve been in the grounds many many times, and enjoyed a range of snacks from Mimi’s café there, I’ve never been inside the castle itself – because I’ve always had a beagle with me. The grounds are wonderful though, especially the Japanese Garden in spring when the blossoms are open.
https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/bringing-bodies-body-snatching-murder-and-anatomy-nineteenth-century-edinburgh
And on the subject of beagle walking, the best news is Maisie. We had a bit of a scare a few weeks ago when giving her a tummy rub and found a lump just under her diaphragm, about the size of a walnut. After she had her spleen and its sarcoma removed last year, we immediately thought this would be a metastasis, so we took her straight to the vet. It turns out to be a lipoma – and ultrasound showed that there hasn’t been any sign of spread to her lymphnodes. And while we are very happy with this, Maisie wasn’t happy about missing breakfast to get her scan – or about her shaved side.