TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD
( continued from page 9 ) ogy . When I asked him where he was from , he smiled and said , “ I will answer that with a riddle : I am from the city where a stroke patient with speech problems was able to fight against a doctor and win the Senate seat . I wondered whether that doc was a fake doctor .” I realized that he was talking about Dr . Oz . But before I could answer , he added , “ It ’ s also the city with the best medical museum in the USA .” That clue made it very clear : he was referring to Philadelphia , the City of Brotherly Love , and home to the Mutter Museum .
The museum is named for Thomas Dent Mutter , MD ( 1811 – 1859 ), a physician , professor and Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia . A fabulous book 2 by Aptowicz titled Dr . Mutter ’ s Marvels : A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine ( Penguin , 2014 ) provides many interesting anecdotes about Dr . Mutter . Born in 1810 , he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical college at the age of 20 and went to France for further training . He studied with many of the eminent Parisian surgeons including Dupuytren and learned the newly evolving techniques of reconstructive surgery . After his return to Philadelphia , he became keenly interested in helping those born with various deformities and others who developed disfiguring tumors . His swift and skillful performance of the successful repair of cleft lip and palate with several fellow surgeons and hundreds of students in the audience was considered a remarkable accomplishment . Dr . Mutter is also credited with actively promoting use of anesthesia and hygienic techniques during surgery . He was soon recruited as Professor of Surgery at the Jefferson Medical College . He was a beloved teacher and used a highly interactive style of teaching and supplemented his lectures with a myriad of specimens he amassed over 24 years . 3 In 1858 , he bequeathed his entire teaching collection of more than 1,700 objects and specimens to the College , along with a substantial endowment . The Mutter Museum opened in 1863 with these objects forming the core of the exhibits , and today , there are more than 25,000 objects in the collection .
Among the most impressive exhibits are the 139 human skulls collected by Viennese anatomist Jose Hyrtl , acquired by the museum in 1874 . Among the collection of articulated skeletons is the tallest known in the Americas ( 7 ’ 6 ’’). Even more interesting are the skeletons of Harry and Carol who suffered from an extremely rare disease , fibrodysplasia ossificans ( FOP ). An interesting tidbit is that Carol , a Philadelphian with FOP , had visited the Mutter Museum and wanted her skeleton to be hung next to Harry ’ s , whom she had not met while he was alive . Equally remarkable are the plaster cast and the conjoined liver specimen of Chang and Eng Bunker , the Siamese twins who travelled the U . S . as performers and died in 1874 . The “ soap lady ” is a body exhumed in 1875 and covered with a fatty substance called adipocere , a rare transformation . The giant colon is a remarkable specimen from 1892 of dried human large intestine which belonged to a man nicknamed “ Balloon Man ” and “ Human Windbag ” who suffered from Hirschsprung ’ s disease . The papier-mache eyeball model is an “ eye-catching ” exhibit and excites the lay public as well . Madame Dimanche who had a 25 cm horn growing from her forehead impressed the young Dr . Mutter while he was in Paris ; he brought over a wax replica which is a remarkable exhibit . The Chevalier Jackson collection exhibits 2,374 inhaled or swallowed foreign objects that Dr . Jackson , an otorhinolaryngologist from Philadelphia , removed during his long medical career . The huge collection of medical instruments portrays some of the important milestones in the evolution of surgical techniques . The most exciting object for me was the box with slides containing pieces of Albert Einstein ’ s brain .
It seems fitting to end with a quote from Dr . Mutter : “ This world is no place of rest , but for effort . Steady , continuous undeviating effort .” 2 It is a motto that he followed in his short life of 48 years , and the Mutter Museum is a reminder of his inspiring legacy for all .
References
W . Metzen / Classicstock / Getty Images
1
Dronkers NF et al . Paul Broca ’ s historic cases : high resolution MR imaging of the brains of Leborgne and Lelong . Brain 2007 ; 130 : 1432-1441
2
Aptowicz CO : Dr . Mitter ’ s Marvels : A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine . New York , Gotham Books , Penguin Publishing Group 2014
3
Schwartz AJ , Coleman ML , Moon JS . Thomas Dent Mutter : Exemplar of Expertise . Anesthesiology 2022 ; 137 ( 6 ): 666-672
Dr . Iyer practices at the Neurodiagnostic Center of Louisville and is a retired professor of neurology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine .
10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE