Surgeons' Hall
Encyclopedia
Surgeons' Hall in Edinburgh is the home of the Surgeons' Hall Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...
.
The museum is the major medical museum in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and is one of Edinburgh’s
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
main tourist attractions.
It is recognised as a collection of national significance by the Scottish Government.
Origins
The Museum at Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh dates from 1699 when the Incorporation of Edinburgh Surgeons announced that they were making a collection of ‘natural and artificial curiosities’. and advertised for these in the first edition of a local paper, the Edinburgh Gazette
Edinburgh Gazette
The Edinburgh Gazette, along with the London Gazette and the Belfast Gazette, is an official newspaper of the United Kingdom government...
. Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
, an early visitor in 1726, wrote in his Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain that the ‘chamber of rarities’ contained many curious things too numerous for him to describe. Much of this early collection was given to the University of Edinburgh in the 1760s.
19th century expansion
By the early years of the 19th Century, the Incorporation had received a Royal CharterRoyal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
to become the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The College saw its primary role as the teaching of anatomy and surgery, the training of surgeons, and examination of their acquired knowledge. Anatomy and pathology specimens were crucial to that function. The museum expanded dramatically with the acquisition of two large collections. John BarclayJohn Barclay (anatomist)
John Barclay (anatomist)
John Barclay FRSE FRCPE FRCSE FLS MWS was an eminent Scottish comparative anatomist, extra-mural teacher in anatomy, and director of the Highland Society of Scotland....
, a successful anatomy demonstrator in the extramural school of medicine donated his collection, while Sir Charles Bell, Professor of Surgery in the University of London and latterly in the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
sold his collection to the museum. These collections were much too large to be housed in the original 1697 Surgeons’ Hall, and so the surgeons commissioned the leading Edinburgh architect William Playfair
William Playfair
William Playfair was a Scottish engineer and political economist, the founder of graphical methods of statistics....
to build the present day Surgeons Hall, which opened in 1832. At first the entire upper floor of the building was devoted to the museum collections, which were open to the public and attracted large visitor numbers. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century the collection expanded as it became customary for surgeons and pathologists to donate not only specimens which they regarded as interesting or instructive, but surgical instruments and equipment. With the great scientific and technical advances of the time, the museum began to acquire anaesthetic equipment, histology slides, X-rays and photographs.
20th century developments
At the start of the 20th century the College’s need for a large meeting and ceremonial hall led to the conversion of about half of the museum space into what is now the main College hall. The 1907 minutes recorded the view that “it is essential to get rid of the Barclay collection which... has ceased to be of any value to the Fellows or to anyone visiting the museum.” This was overruled and the retained Barclay collection was relocated to a new home, created by the conversion and incorporation of an adjoining tenement building.Anatomical and pathological specimens in jars were seen as increasingly irrelevant as learning aids for trainee surgeons. The collections now began to focus on specialised areas, such as dentistry, histopathology, and radiology, whilst continuing the collection of surgical memorabilia - particularly instruments and equipment. In the 1950s much of the Barclay collection was given to other museums while other specimens were destroyed. For doctors the collections progressively became the realm of the researcher and the medical historian. While the museum had been open to the public since its earliest days, by the 1960s public access had become restricted to a few pre-booked tours.
Revival
In the latter decades of the 20th century the emphasis changed to make the collections more interesting to the lay public and more easily interpreted by them. In 1989 a grant from the Jules Thorn Charitable Trust resulted in a permanent exhibition entitled “500 Years of Surgery in Scotland”, which makes use of a wide variety of media including models, paintings, photographs, film loops, book, journal and newspaper displays and other memorabilia. This together with a regular series of temporary exhibitions and constant improvement of the interpretation has seen a progressive increase in visitor numbers.The museum buildings
The collections originally occupied the entire upper floor of Playfair’s Surgeons’ Hall, which was built to house them. About half of this floorspace was converted into the College main Hall in 1905, but the original Playfair pathology museum next to it retains the Playfair design, decor and display cabinets. A short display passageway connects this to the History of Surgery museum and the dental museum, which were originally part of the adjacent property at 9 Hill Square. The museum can be accessed both from within the College and by a separate doorway at 9 Hill Square.The Charles Bell collection
Charles BellCharles Bell
Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, neurologist and philosophical theologian.His three older brothers included John Bell , also a noted surgeon and writer; and the advocate George Joseph Bell .-Life:...
was born in Edinburgh in 1774. He enrolled as a medical undergraduate at the University and also attended anatomy classes at the School of Anatomy run by his elder brother John Bell
John Bell (surgeon)
John Bell was a Scottish anatomist and surgeon.Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland; an elder brother of Sir Charles Bell...
(1763–1820), whom he greatly admired and from whom he drew inspiration. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, but both he and his brother were snubbed by the Scottish surgical establishment – neither was given a post in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. While his elder brother remained in Scotland and, in a tempestuous career, became the foremost Scottish surgeon of his day, Charles left for London, aged 30, in 1804. There he bought the Great Windmill Street
Great Windmill Street
Great Windmill Street is a thoroughfare running north-south in Soho, London, England. It is dissected by Shaftesbury Avenue. The street took its name from the windmill on the site which was first recorded 1585 and was demolished during the 1690s...
Anatomy School where he established a reputation as a teacher of anatomy and surgery. He was appointed to the staff of the Middlesex Hospital and became professor of surgery. In London he amassed a museum of anatomical and pathology specimens which had grown to become one of the largest collections of its time. In 1825 he sold this collection to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for £3000 (£2.4 million in 2009). The collection was packed under the supervision of Professor Robert Knox
Robert Knox
Robert Knox was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist. He was the most popular lecturer in anatomy in Edinburgh before his involvement in the Burke and Hare body-snatching case. This ruined his career, and a later move to London did not improve matters...
, museum conservator at the Edinburgh College, and shipped to Leith, the port for Edinburgh. It formed the heart of the Playfair Museum collection when the Playfair building opened in 1828, and it remains on display to this day.
Charles Bell’s Corunna oil paintings
From an early age Bell showed artistic talents which were developed by lessons from the foremost Scottish painter David Allan. Throughout his life Bell put these skills to great use, personally illustrating his many textbooks. In 1809 he went to Portsmouth to help treat the casualties from the Battle of Corunna and there put his artistic abilities to great use. He produced a series of 15 oil paintings to illustrate the detail of the gunshots wounds suffered by the casualties. These paintings, on display in the museum, provide a valuable insight into the nature of early 19c gunshot wounds and their complications.The Barclay collection
John Barclay (1758–1826) had established an anatomy school in his house in Surgeon Square, next to the College of Surgeons. This was a great success and established his reputation as one of the most renowned anatomy teachers in Europe. His collection of some 2,500 specimens was donated to the museum, but by the 1950s most of this had been donated to other collections, leaving only an elephant skull, three human skeletons and a few other specimens.The Greig collection
This collection of some 250 skulls was donated to the museum by David Middleton Greig (1864–1936) who was conservator of the museum between 1920-36. Greig, a surgeon in Dundee, was an international authority on bone disease and abnormalities of the skull and, during his working life, had amassed a collection of some 200 skulls which he donated to the College. The clinical details of each case was recorded and supplemented wherever possible by drawings and photographs.The Menzies Campbell collection
John Menzies Campbell (1887–1974) was a Glasgow dentist and dental historian who amassed over his working lifetime a huge personal collection of specimens, instruments and paintings relating to the practice of dentistry. This was donated to the museum in 1964. Currently it is housed in a separate room as the Menzies Campbell dental collection.Casts and moulages
In the 19th and early 20th century wax and plaster casts or moulages showing abnormalities and diseases were widely used as teaching aids. The collection contains several of these casts, taken from tumours of the face and eye. There are casts showing foetal development and the anatomy and pathology of the intestine.The Burke and Hare connection
Robert Knox , the conservator of the Museum who organised and catalogued the Bell and Barclay collections, had established himself as a very successful teacher of anatomy in the extra-mural school in Surgeon Square. His anatomy classes were so popular that demand for bodies for anatomical dissection exceeded supply. Two Irishmen living in Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare, resorted to murdering victims to supply Knox’s anatomy school. Hare turned King’s evidence and Burke was tried, found guilty of murder and hanged. His body was dissected by Alexander Monro tertius, the University professor of anatomy, and the museum has on display two items from that notorious episode – Burke’s death mask and a pocket book made from his skin.The Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Joseph Bell connection
Joseph Bell (1837-1911)Joseph Bell
Joseph Bell, JP, DL, FRCS was a famous Scottish lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century. He is perhaps best known as an inspiration for the literary character Sherlock Holmes....
was an Edinburgh surgeon who was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh between 1887-89. He was a popular teacher noted for his diagnostic acumen, based on his powers of observation of meticulous detail, which were enhanced by his interest in the analysis of handwriting and of the origin of dialects. Among the medical students he taught was Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, whom Bell selected as his clerk, or assistant. Doyle, gave up medicine to become a writer, and, having achieved fame and wealth through the Sherlock Holmes stories, wrote to his former chief ”...it is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
Exhibitions
Recent Exhibitions have included:• Collected works of Michael Esson (artist in residence) 1993
• Art of Sir Ray Calne 1994
• Breast Cancer Care 1995
• Charles Bell: Surgeon, Physiologist, Artist, Author 1996
• Chloroform Sesquincentenary 1997
• Art of the Dentist 1997
• 50 Years of Surgery 1948-1998: Surgery in the NHS. 1998
• Henry Wade 1999
• Surgery Comes Clean: Life and Work of Joseph Lister 2002
• Audubon in Edinburgh 2003
• Scottish Women’s Hospitals 2005-2006
• Written on the Body 2008- 2009
• Sports and Exercise Medicine 2009-
• Surgeons At War 2010-
• The Real Sherlock Holmes 2011
• Skin Deep 2011
• Anatomy Acts (Scotland & Medicine)
• James Young Simpson and the discovery of Chloroform 2011
Outreach and Education
The museum appointed its first full-time education officer in 2006 and since that time has provided regular educational tours and workshops for school students and tours, lecture series and classes for the general public (see below for details).Volunteers
Every museum depends on the goodwill of a team of volunteers and Surgeons’ Hall Museum is no exception. Volunteers help in a variety of ways, from showing visitors round the museum, dealing with visitors’ questions, or behind the scenes helping with cataloguing, promotion and publicity. New volunteers are always welcomed.Research
Museum research involves identification and interpretation of individual objects. Recent research projects carried out in the Museum have included studies on genetic markers for disease, facial reconstruction from skulls in the Greig collection, and diagnosis of skeletal disease using MRI scanning.The collections today
The Museum is currently open to the public Monday – Friday, and, from April – October is also open on Saturdays & Sundays.As the museum is self-funding there is a small admission charge.
The museum collections are laid out as four permanent displays:
Surgeons' Hall Pathology Museum
Located in the Playfair Hall, this consists of pathology specimens, surgical instruments, casts and paintings.History of Surgery Museum (lower gallery)
This display traces the history of surgery, from the 16th century to the present day, with particular reference to Edinburgh’s contribution. There are display cabinets devoted to Robert Know, Joseph Lister and James Young Simpson.History of Surgery Museum (upper gallery)
This gallery contains a laparoscopic training unit, where visitors can test their surgical skills. There is a section on sports and exercise medicine and the gallery also houses temporary exhibitions (currently in 2011 “Sight for Scotland”)Dental Collection
The original Menzies Campbell collection has been expanded and includes dental instruments, artefacts, engravings and models as well as prints, paintings with dental themes.Today the museum, like most similar organisations, no longer collects anatomical or pathological specimens or indeed any specimens of human tissue. The emphasis now is on explaining to the general public surgical disease, how it was treated over the centuries and how it is treated today. Aids to interpretation now include videos, hands-on surgical simulators and touch screen displays. A programme of interpretation using QR readers for smartphones is about to be installed (2011)