4 ms·

Surgery Museum Makes You Grateful for Any Modern Healthcare Whatsoever

11 points by edw519 17y ago

stevenbedrick 17y ago
Anybody who finds this stuff interesting should also check out the Hunterian Collection ( http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history/collections.html http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history/collections.html ) at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. In addition to the famous collection of anatomical preparations and specimens, the RCS museum features a fabulous collection of historic surgical instruments and artifacts, including a cringe-inducing lithotomy exhibit. Three cheers for for antisepsis, antibiotics, and anesthetic!
aarongough 17y ago
I don't know about you guys but just looking at these photos makes my blood run cold. Seeing old photos/paintings of surgery in progress is even worse. I think we've still got a long way to go in the medical sciences, but I'm sure as hell glad that I was born at least this far into the process!
kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
Watched a presentation on Civil War medicine and surgery and the most interesting aspect was how they did all kinds of things not knowing why they worked. They did use chemicals to sterilize, but had no idea about germs. They had various powders to put in wounds that did actually aid clotting or accelerate healing, but they didn't know why at the time. The survival rate was surprisingly high. You were dead for sure if you caught one in the guts, but otherwise they could do a lot. They could even do some basic brain surgery and fix your skull with a plate.
kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
On the iron lungs and the salk vaccine there is an interesting "conspiracy" theory I've seen. Incidence of polio correlates extremely well to production volumes of DDT and various insecticides. It's a startling chart. Production went way down and then so did polio. The exact mechanisms of the polio virus have allegedly never been all that well worked out. The efficacy of the salk vaccine might be a coincidence.
- kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
  Wouldn't mind an explanation on why this is down voted.
  - jerf 17y ago
    Amazing changes have been occurring virtually daily in the past couple of centuries. Conspiracy theories tying them together on the basis of mere correlation are profoundly uninteresting.
    - kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
      Strong correlations are very interesting very often. And this particular hypothesis is interesting well beyond correlation if you care to read into it. Be honest, the downvote was a close-minded reactionary impulse.
      - jerf 17y ago
        I didn't downvote it. I don't hit downvote very often. You provided no evidence that it was interesting, and such evidence would be offtopic anyhow.
tomjen2 17y ago
Just to compare it - does anybody have a link to some _modern_ surgery tools? Because, while cleaner, I don't think they would be less likely to let your blood run cold.

11 points by edw519 17y ago

Anybody who finds this stuff interesting should also check out the Hunterian Collection ( http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history/collections.html http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history/collections.html ) at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. In addition to the famous collection of anatomical preparations and specimens, the RCS museum features a fabulous collection of historic surgical instruments and artifacts, including a cringe-inducing lithotomy exhibit. Three cheers for for antisepsis, antibiotics, and anesthetic!

aarongough 17y ago

I don't know about you guys but just looking at these photos makes my blood run cold. Seeing old photos/paintings of surgery in progress is even worse. I think we've still got a long way to go in the medical sciences, but I'm sure as hell glad that I was born at least this far into the process!

kingkongreveng_ 17y ago

Watched a presentation on Civil War medicine and surgery and the most interesting aspect was how they did all kinds of things not knowing why they worked. They did use chemicals to sterilize, but had no idea about germs. They had various powders to put in wounds that did actually aid clotting or accelerate healing, but they didn't know why at the time. The survival rate was surprisingly high. You were dead for sure if you caught one in the guts, but otherwise they could do a lot. They could even do some basic brain surgery and fix your skull with a plate.

kingkongreveng_ 17y ago

On the iron lungs and the salk vaccine there is an interesting "conspiracy" theory I've seen. Incidence of polio correlates extremely well to production volumes of DDT and various insecticides. It's a startling chart. Production went way down and then so did polio. The exact mechanisms of the polio virus have allegedly never been all that well worked out. The efficacy of the salk vaccine might be a coincidence.

kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
Wouldn't mind an explanation on why this is down voted.
- jerf 17y ago
  Amazing changes have been occurring virtually daily in the past couple of centuries. Conspiracy theories tying them together on the basis of mere correlation are profoundly uninteresting.
  - kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
    Strong correlations are very interesting very often. And this particular hypothesis is interesting well beyond correlation if you care to read into it. Be honest, the downvote was a close-minded reactionary impulse.
    - jerf 17y ago
      I didn't downvote it. I don't hit downvote very often. You provided no evidence that it was interesting, and such evidence would be offtopic anyhow.

tomjen2 17y ago

Just to compare it - does anybody have a link to some _modern_ surgery tools? Because, while cleaner, I don't think they would be less likely to let your blood run cold.