Yesterday when I was
in Dundee I saw a brochure for the Surgeons Museum in Edinburgh- I’d seen a
piece on it in "Mysteries at the Museum" and had forgotten about
it. First I climbed Arthur's Seat again- every time is different.
This time I found a different path down and ended up way on the other side of
the hill at the bottom, with quite a long walk to my starting point but it was
a nicely-paved footpath and a beautiful day, so what did I care?
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| Another view of the ruins of St. Andrew's Chapel (likely built in the 14th Century). |
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| Ron on the site of the chapel, 2001. I left a few of his ashes in the spot. |
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| Bridges over the Firth of Forth way off in the distance. |
From there I headed
over to the museum. That was fantastic- on 3 floors, with tons of
pathological specimens. No photos allowed, unfortunately. Yes, I DO have weird interests. Just
among the bone specimens, I saw bones affected by ankylosis, ricketts, gout,
syphilis, arthritis and osteosarcoma as well as all types of trauma. They
had specimens from WW 1 and the Battle of Waterloo. What really struck me
was how much some of those people must have suffered before they died-
mastoiditis, dental abscesses that spread to the brain, fractures that were not
treated and healed at very odd angles.
The museum included the skeleton of one poor woman, who had lost 5
pregnancies due to conditions from her Vitamin D deficiency; her bones were
weak-looking and she was missing several teeth. The last child survived
after a C-section delivery, one of the earliest in Scotland, but the mother
died of blood loss. I was again grateful
for my phone; I used it to look up medical terms!
I’d picked up the
London Times that morning- I LOVE their Sunday edition. I was finally
able to settle in and enjoy it with my dinner.
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