Surgeon's Hall Museum-Laura Mersman

Today we decided to get lost one more time Edinburgh, and after a bit of misdirection from strangers we made our way to the Surgeons’ Hall Museum: History of Surgery. We walked through it at our own pace, observing worldwide and national accomplishments that had been made in the area of medicine through the years. The history of medicine in Scotland began with information on James IV, who apparently had an interest in remedies and minor procedures and experimented with blood-letting. History went on to describe the early surgeons as doubling as barbers and specializing mainly in blood letting. They also spoke of the apothecaries and their role in prescribing and dosing the medicine and how often they messed up.
I found the experimentation that lead up to the discovery of chloroform anesthesia interesting, James Simpson, the man who discovered it, perfected the dosage and strength by testing it on himself and his friends after he invited them over for dinner parties. The display talked about how dangerous this was for him and his friends, but lucky for them it all worked out okay!
They had a large display on Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and how his character was modeled after Dr. Joseph Bell, a professor of clinical surgery at Edinburgh University. There were actual letters in the display that showed the exchange between Doyle and Bell describing how closely Doyle thought the character resembled Dr. Bell. Conon Doyle had worked with Dr. Bell when he was a young medical student, so this is where he was able to model Dr. Bell. I thought this was kind of neat and an interesting tie to Scotland.
They showed many displays of the older tools used such as the trepanation drill, amputation knives, and the tools used for an old Chinese technique of cupping. Those were pretty unpleasant looking and definitely lead me to have a greater appreciation for modern medicine. There were many displays depicting earlier research on preserved body parts, models of the veins, and military wounds found in bones. One not so pleasant, but famous one, was of John Barclay’s anatomy specimens that he once used for teaching of a baby- it showed only the bones and veins—eek!!
I think everyone found something of interest in this museum, the upper level covered sports injuries as well as modern sports and health concerns in Scotland. It was also the level of modern medicine, and there was an engaging display on keyhole surgery which happened to have been developed in Scotland. It also contained an interactive part that was set up to mock keyhole surgery with the camera screen and probes, and some of the girls raced to see who could remove the blockage first- there is always fun to be found, even in a museum full of preserved body parts!
We read about the Scottish Hunter Brothers and their accomplishments in the areas of medicine prior to coming to the museum and were surprised to see no mention of them. William Hunter is attributed to having been one of the first to delve into the studies of ob/gyn and make midwifery a division of medicine. His brother John Hunter was also well known for his studies on anatomy, and he did very well in the areas of surgery, later being appointed surgeon to King George III. Dr. Long said maybe they predated the museum, or according to what I just looked up on the very reliable Wikipedia they may have been murderers or body-snatchers, so maybe they just didn’t make the cut J
Tomorrow will be our final exam and our last day in Edinburgh. It seems crazy that we have already been here 15 days! I will miss this city very much as it has quickly become home, and such a place of excitement and adventures! I have really enjoyed learning the history of this city (not something I ever pictured myself saying), and I think understanding the significance behind everything from the street names to the country’s flower has made staying here even more significant for me. However, there’s really no time to dwell because soon we will be off to the beautiful Highlands and the busy hub of Glasgow, and I’m sure many adventures will await us there!!!