TRAVELOGUE
Edinburgh’s Medical History Museums Stories not taught in medical school
By Ann Gerhardt, MD AFTER ENDURING THE mandatory tourist throng at Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle, wander on over to the quiet, but fascinating, Surgeons’ Hall Museums at the University of Edinburgh. The one building houses the History of Surgery Museum, the Dental Collection and the Wohl Pathology Museum. The Surgeon’s History Museum describes the evolution of surgery from the time of the Barber-Surgeons of Edinburgh, which was incorporated as a craft guild in 1505. Barber-Surgeons must have wielded significant influence, since they could cut people, were
exempt from the military AND had the exclusive right to make whiskey. In 1722, surgeons and barbers went their separate ways and during the 18th century, dental, ophthalmologic, psychiatric and midwifery specialties appeared. The English/Scots contributed quite a lot to the field of anesthesia. Though Raymond Lullus first put chickens to sleep in 1275 with his “sweet vitriol” (ether), it wasn’t used in dental surgery until 1842 and in major surgeries until 1847. Joseph Priestley discovered nitrous oxide in 1772 and, in 1799, chemist Humphry Davy devised a way for it to be inhaled by humans. These discoveries paved the way for laughing gas parties and ether frolics in the early 1800s, decades before its widespread use by doctors. Hippocrates said that, “war is the only proper school for surgery,” and a significant section of the museum provides the evidence. Scottish obstetrician James Simpson was the first to use chloroform as general anesthesia in 1847, but it was not used extensively until the Crimean War. Louis Pasteur demonstrated that microbes cause disease, and Joseph Lister proved that carbolic acid could prevent infection in 1867, leading to anti-sepsis procedures used by surgeons during the Boer War (1899-1902). A back corner of the museum is devoted to the history of acquiring corpses for dissection. Two notorious Irishmen, William Burke and William Hare, sold the body of an old man who owed them money to Robert Knox’s anatomy school to cover the debt. They then committed 15 murders, “earning” 6 to 8 pounds per body. When they were caught, Hare squealed September/October 2016
At left is the Wohl Pathology Museum gallery.
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