The Time I Got Lost in the Gordon Museum

I'll start off with a little cheer because I am finally caught up with my blog! Today was our first day of class in London after returning from Bournemouth. We were back in the Botany building of Regent's College, and today Dr. Fenton lectured about the Michigan State Forensic Anthropology Lab, blunt force trauma, and his own research on fracture initiation sites in infants and children. In the afternoon, we made the journey toward London Bridge and the King's College campus for our tour of the Gordon Museum. Similar to the Wellcome museum, the Gordon Museum houses a large collection of human tissue and organs. Unlike the Wellcome Museum, however, the Gordon Museum contains almost exclusively pathological specimens. While the Wellcome caters mostly to surgical students, the Gordon exists primarily to provide examples of various pathological conditions to physicians and medical students. One of its early functions was to introduce army doctors to the symptoms and signs of various tropical diseases. Another difference between the two museums is that the Gordon is considerably more massive than the Wellcome. The museum is set up in a kind of clover shape. Four circular balconied passageways loop in circles that meet in a middle spiraling staircase. These loops extend downwards three floors. Like the Wellcome, the specimens, suspended in their glass jars, are organized mainly anatomically. There is a section for central nervous system pathology, bone pathology, breast, endocrine, teeth, heart, etc. There were also special sections of forensic interest - poisonings, trauma, means of identification, and more. The most remarkable part of the Gordon Museum, apart from its sheer size, is the literature available on each of the specimens. Each glass jar is labeled only with a letter, signifying its category, and a number. These codes can then be looked up in large binders or on computers, and all the information available that is related to the particular case comes up. In addition to the clinical diagnoses and descriptions of pathologies, there is often a description of the patient's original complaint, the doctors' notes, and whether the patient lived or died. The specimens range from very old (1608 at the earliest) to very recent (about a month ago). While the older specimens don't exactly have the concern of patient confidentiality and thus may have a lot of personal information about the patients available, some of the newer specimens that were taken from live donors (for example, tumors or amputated limbs) are more cautious with their information. Some of the most interesting cases I saw today included bezoars - messes of non-food objects pulled from the stomachs of patients with the compulsion to eat hair, twigs, leaves, and even metal springs. I saw an encephalitic skull, several times normal size. I saw countless misaligned fractures, tumors, and infections. The effects of different kinds of poison was morbidly interesting, and made me want to avoid ever making any mortal enemies. Probably the most fascinating element within the museum, however, was the modern mummy. A few years ago, a man volunteered to be mummified after his death using techniques dating from ancient Egypt. His cloth-wrapped body lies within a glass box almost casually placed among the bookshelves. As the title of this post suggests, I did get lost in the Gordon Museum today. After several hours of contemplating the specimens, I had quite forgotten that we had entered through the curator's office on the second floor. I spent a good amount of time, then, at the end of my visit, wandering around the ground floor looking for the way out. It was actually quite disconcerting walking in circles as the historical portraits of pre-operative tumor patients leered down at me from the walls. Finally, though, I made it out and back onto the cold and rainy streets of London. Whew! Again, photos were not allowed in this museum, but I think it will be quite difficult to get some of the images of today out of my head. Links of the Day: The Gordon Museum of Pathology: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/gordon/index.aspx The Modern Mummy: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/gordon/news/mummy.aspx