The Oldest Operating Theatre in London.
- Totally worth a visit. My favorite story: a surgeon asked to be buried in his clothing when he died. The authorities did not respect his wishes, and when undressed for the casket, they found he was a woman. Served an entire career as a surgeon, in an age when women were not allowed to be physicians or surgeons.
- The theatre, here, lit only by skylight, with a steeply graded theater so all could see down into the body of the patient undergoing surgery. Survival rates were typically 30%, death usually from exsanguination or more likely infection, in the days before germ theory.
- Too many other stories and artifacts to recount. See if you can.
The Cholera pump!
- A reproduction of the original pump in London that ended up being the source of a major cholera epidemic. This is the spot of the birth of epidemiology, with the key insight by Dr. John Snow.
- At the time, cholera was a deadly disease, but unknown what caused it and how it was transmitted. Many thought it was due to bad smells called “miasma.”
- The book “The Ghost Map” if you haven’t read it, is a riveting account.
- It all happened here, and John Snow plotted the graph and realized all the deaths centered geographically on this one pump.
- Perhaps cholera was not airborne, but carried in the water from the pump!
- He came, removed the pump handle AND THE PANDEMIC STOPPED.
I guess I’m just a fan-boy of medical history.
