In this blog post our Project Assistant, Danielle Dray, takes a look at the critical role women played in medical art. Medicine and surgery have traditionally been dominated by men. However, during the 20th century, women played a critical role in medical art, working side by side with surgeons to illustrate pioneering new techniques. The…
How the Burke and Hare murders led to the downfall of a fake anatomical science
In this blog our Senior Research Fellow, Professor Ken Donaldson, explores the impact the Burke and Hare murders had on phrenology. The story of Burke and Hare, who murdered 15 people in 1828 in Edinburgh’s is a well-known one. This blog describes how the bringing of Burke to justice, and his hanging, provided the opportunity…
Mercurial Anatomy
In this blog our Human Remains Conservator, Cat Irving, takes a look at how mercury has been used in anatomy and how it has been used to treat various ailments. Many different approaches have been used in making anatomical preparations in attempt to understand the human body. One of the most striking is the use…
Lung Cancer – progress towards ‘personalised medicine’.
In this blog, Professor William Wallace explores the different types of cancer that can occur in the lungs. This picture of a specimen within the pathology collection is of a left pneumonectomy (resection of the whole left lung) performed to treat a lung cancer. The primary tumour appears to be in the lower lobe of…
A Look Back at the Year
As we get ready to close our doors for the final time this year we’ve decided to take a little look back on the last year. The beginning of 2022 was filled with a little uncertainty as the pandemic continued and restrictions remained in place. However, we are absolutely delighted with how well the museum…
The astonishing benefits of death
In this blog our Senior Research Fellow, Professor Ken Donaldson, explains why cell death is important. Death is bad, right? Well, at the level of the tissues of the human body (and every other animal’s body) it’s the very opposite; cell death is absolutely necessary for normal bodily function. Billions of cells in your body…
‘A Character of No Ordinary Cast’: The Life and Work of John Alexander Schetky
Our Project Assistant, Danielle Dray, takes a look at the life and work of John Alexander Schetky. John Alexander Schetky was born in Edinburgh in 1785 to Hungarian parents. His father, Johann Georg Christoff, was a composer and musician, while his mother, Maria Anna Theresa, was an artist. It is therefore unsurprising that the arts…
The Anatomy Lab 