The Mütter Museum
Of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Reported May 26, 2003 et seq.
This is a trephine. Looks sort of like an old corkscrew, doesn't it? The handle and the shaft are familiar but the cutting edge is worlds away. "A trephination is used to make an intentional entry into the skull in order to allow instruments to elevate skull fragments and remove blood clots at the site of the injury. The trephine does not penetrate the brain, and the procedure is more superficial than it might appear."
The original Siamese Twins ... "A plaster cast of Cheng and Eng Bunker (1811 - 1874), the original; Siamese Twins, made after their autopsy was performed in the Mutter Museum by members of The College of Physicians. In the background are Chip, Battina and William Wegmen."
- "Rear view of Ectopagus with two heads, two arms and two necks (Dicephalus Dibrachius Tripus)."
- "Front view of conjoined twins fused at the head and throax (Cephalothoracopagus monosymmetros)."
- "Dried anatomical preparation of the pelvis and lower extremities."
- "Dried skeleton of a child showing veins and arteries."
- Lordosis (curvature of the lower spine).
- Multple Enchondroma in a Male: "Development began at 2 years old. Now affects every joint in his body. He is 20 years old, walks with crutches, wears home-made cloth shoes."
- "The woman is Madame Dimanche, or Widow Sunday. She lived in Paris around the beginning of the nineteenth century. The horn on her forehead attained a length of 9.8" by her eighty-second year, having begun to form six years earlier. It was successfully removed by Br. Joseph Souberbeille (1754 -1846), a noted French surgeon."
- "The arm: shows a horn (cornu cutaneum) growing from above the wrist."
"Private Harvey was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, by a fragment of a shell. The right eye was destroyed, the right superior maxilla was fractured, a fragment was chipped off the lower jaw and the right cheek was frightfully lacerated. A loss of substance of the cheek is still unrepaired, and liquid and saliva escape from it. There was a slight deafness and facial paralysis on the right side. Died reported from unknown causes December 9, 1869. Photographed on June 22, 1865; from a series of photographs taken at the Army Medical Museum to document treatment during and after the Civil War."
- "Successful reamputation in 1871 of William Cotter, age thirty-two, at right hip for osteomyelitis following prior amputation for musket ball injury in the lower third of the thigh received in front of Petersburg as a private if Company E, 9th New Hampshire Volunteers, in 1864."
- "First case of a triple amputation. James Buckner Luckie, M.D. (1833-1908), of Birmingham, Alabama, performed the first and second triple amputations in the United States."
- "Tumor in Maxillare Region, Possibly an Adenoma."
- "Three cases of Hip Joint Amputation."
Skull with facial nerves and eye modeled in wax, demonstrating the relationship of superficial facial nerves to the bony anatomy of the head. Made by Vasseur of Paris, ca. 1880.
- Original Siamese Twins after autopsy.
- Syphilitic leukoplakia of the tongue.
- Clubfoot skeleton
- Simms position for pelvic exam
- Face immersed in methyl salicylate and benzyl benzoate allowing vein visualization
- Hydrocephalic foetus
- Three foetal heads showing teeth development: 8 months, full term, six months
- Dry gangrine of the hand
- Cephalothoracopagus monosymmetros
- Section of head
- Twelve week foetus juxtaposed with lower jaw
- Skull with dry dahlias
- Foot typhus
- Paralytic deformity treated with artificial legs