New exhibition lifts the lid on medicine's gory past

The next time you hear someone hark on about the 'good old days', simply mention two words: 'early' and 'medicine'. Nothing divides the world of today from that of the pre-modern age than the incredible advances made in medicine and surgery seen in the past 200 years.

Before the modern era, to be seriously ill was to enter a world of almost unimaginable pain, misery and often grotesque medical ignorance. The diseases were bad enough, but the treatments were often far worse.

This terrifying era has been brought to life with a new online exhibition, courtesy of the Science Museum in London, in which more than 2,500 objects from medicine's dark past are on display.

The surgical instruments, documents, medical teaching aids and scientific equipment form part of the much larger collection amassed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), a vast array of objects dating from antiquity to the 20th century.

They include everything from an anti-masturbation device and amputation knives to an iron lung and a domestic enema machine.


"The Wax Vanitas was an educational work of art designed to remind us that human life is perilously short. This example shows a decaying human head, with a skull and worms feeding off the flesh. The other side shows the face during life. The idea was to hammer home the message that death comes all too soon to each and every one of us. This is similar to memento mori gravestones of the era depicting skulls, hourglasses and scythes"
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