July 1-Cierra Sauls

Today was a bit more relaxed than most days. We had class at 11:00a.m. instead of 9:00a.m., which was great because it gave me some time to add some more information to my travel brochure that is due Thursday. After class Colin, Amanda, Dr. Long, and I went to the Surgeon’s Hall Museum. It was definitely way more than what I was expecting! There were statues, surgical instruments, and documents all relating to history and uprising of surgical procedures in Scotland.

When I walked in the first display I saw was of King James IV. Turns out that he stands apart from other Scottish Kings because he actually practiced surgery, which was not noted in our books that we read for class so I found that interesting. Gilbert Primrose, a prestigious surgeon that in fact was appointed as King James VI’s surgeon, aided to in the murder of Queen Mary’s secretary Riccio. As if Queen Mary is not controversial enough, I got gossip from a museum on a suspect in a murder! During the rise of surgical practices professors needed a way to teach their students how to perform certain procedures, but the laws of church did not allow them to have cadavers (dead bodies) in the classroom. But in order for the students to have a full understanding cadavers were necessary, so what they did was have the cadaver on a table that could rotate and whenever someone of the church was coming in the school or class the professor would flip the table over and it would be as if nothing was ever there! When Dr. Long explained that to me I first thought of how grateful I am to have the opportunities I have in the classroom, but then I wondered how much further would medicine and surgical practices be today had the church not held them back.

The first level of the museum went in chronological order by years and as each surgeon began to do new and different types of surgery. The lower level had many preserved skulls, muscles, blood vessels, hearts and aortas. I saw some feet in separate jars that showed the effects of gangrene, it was not pretty. Long was actually getting grossed out! They also had a big slap of human skin in a container, the skin had a large tattoo on it and it looked like a tattoo that you would see on anybody alive today. It wasn’t even wrinkled, it look un-aged. On the top level there were modern surgical practices and I was able to do a “practice surgery”. There was thin forceps forced inside a thick layer of synthetic skin and there was also a long tube inside the skin that had a little camera at the end that showed exactly what was happening on a screen above me. I used the forceps to pick up sugar cubes and lifesavers, by looking at the screen to know my direction. The task was not easy to accomplish because I had to do things backwards. I enjoyed my visit to the museum; it as well as other museums we have seen in Scotland and France have sparked my curiosity in museums. I plan to visit some of the museums in my hometown of Wichita, Ks when I return to the states because we have so many and I think I have only been to three of them. There is such an appreciation that comes from the presence of a museum that is not felt when you hear or learn about the certain topics in the classroom, on the television, or even in a book. Museums can bring it all to life.