01 April 2015

Exploring art and medicine - Gordon Pathology Museum

The museum is near London Bridge station, in Guy's campus, King's College London -
On the way, busts of some medical greats -
No photography in the museum, which consists of four connected rooms, each with two tiers of galleries round which are stored specimens in jars. Below are study spaces with tables and computers and meeting spaces - and the Towne collection of wax models of normal anatomy, which we focused on.

Joseph Towne (1806-1879) was taken on to the staff of Guy's Hospital as wax modeller in 1825, having presented a scale-model of a wax skeleton, made without having seen a real one. The models are amazing - this one was made for the Great Exhibition in 1851 and is still in use - as we arrived, several students were clustered around its case, deep in discussion -
I was interested in three feet, showing various layers of tendons and muscles - those closest to the surface are in the middle, next layer on the right, closest to bone on the left - hardly an accurate drawing, but so interesting to think of "all that" going on underfoot -
 My other drawing  was two views of a "section of a thorax at the level of the heart", an interesting view of how the organs fit into the body -

Leaving the building, the inevitable view of the Shard -
and other reflective buildings -
Today is the last class of the series, at the Old Operating Theatre, also near London Bridge.

1 comment:

Kasandra said...
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