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Teaching and learning at UCL Pathology Museum

UCL Pathology Museum contributes to core courses in the UCL Medical School, and is used for cross-disciplinary teaching across the arts and sciences.

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Please note that these pages contain images of human remains. We acknowledge that it is likely that the people represented in our collections did not consent for their remains to be retained.

Placements at the Museum

We hear from two UCL students who undertook placements at the Pathology Museum as part of their research and study.


Documenting a collection of historic calculi

by Jaya Sepion-Earp, MA Museum Studies

As part of my MA in Museum Studies at UCL, I undertook a placement at the UCL Pathology Museum in the Royal Free Hospital. My project was to catalogue a collection of human and animal calculi (body stones: kidney, bladder, gallstones, hairballs and enteroliths) that had been in the Pathology Museum for decades, non-accessioned.

Jaya Sepion-Earp handling specimens and jars

The aim of my project was to create documentation for the calculi by gathering data on the physical specimens (all 88 of them!) and also doing research into their history in order to find any information available about their provenance and how they came to the Royal Free. This was in order to get them ready for accessioning into the Pathology Museum collection. Over the 20 days of my placement project, I achieved this goal – I documented the entire collection and created a physical archive, as well as a database, recording each specimen.

Firstly, I had to take each specimen out of its cupboard, measure it, and input all visual information about it into my Excel database, such as a physical description of the specimen itself and also the pot (jar) it was in, including any numbers or markings on the pot. Some specimens had more information on them than others – because some had inscriptions. Most of these inscriptions just said the surgeon’s name and the year, but some had more detail – such as MX.M.S.05, which had a very detailed inscription, a handwritten and typed version both attached to the specimen. This inscription would form the basis of my research into the entire collection.

The first case of Nephro-Lithotomy

My first instinct after reading the inscription was to research the surgeon, Mr Henry Morris. The British Association of Urological Surgeons confirmed that the operation performed to remove kidney stone MX.M.S.05 happened at Middlesex Hospital. Only 10 of the specimens (out of 88) have inscriptions which mention surgeons’ names. However, this was enough that after some research into these surgeons it became clear that they all worked at Middlesex Hospital.

The next step was to research Middlesex Hospital. Fortunately, this was simpler than I had expected due to a copy of the Descriptive Catalogue of the Pathological Museum of the Middlesex Hospital from 1884 being in the archive of the Pathology Museum. To my excitement, MX.M.S.05 was easily identifiable in the catalogue due to, once again, its extensive inscriptions. However, this was only the first discovery.

The next step was to look through the rest of the catalogue and see if the other specimens were recorded there. The catalogue lists an impressive 173 specimens of "Calculi and Other Concretions found in Various Organs". At first, this seemed overwhelming, especially because I myself do not have any specialist medical knowledge. However, some of the specimens in the collection are very distinctive looking, so I went through the catalogue trying to find them and identify them solely from the description.

I did not have to look very far before I made progress!

Pathology Museum item MX.X.75.1

I knew that specimen MX.X.75.1 was intestinal concretions due to the inscription found inside its pot, reading "Intestinal concretions composed of vegetable tissue. Presented by S.W. Sibley Esq.". Helpfully, the catalogue only had two entries for "Concretions Formed in the Stomach and Intestines". Entry number 9 read: "Numerous dark coloured roundish Concretions, from the size of a hemp seed to that of a pea. They are composed of vegetable tissue, spiral vessels, and small fibres resembling oat hairs. Passed with the faeces by a lady, aged 58. Presented by S. W. Sibley, Esq.". The overlapping details from the inscription and the entry confirmed this as a match. Perfect. However, the most exciting discovery was still to come.

During the data collecting process, I had been careful to record any further numbers on the pots that were not their matching ‘X’ numbers. Some had other numbers written on the inside of the lids in pencil, some had other numbers etched into the glass, and some – 17 to be exact – had numbers written on the outside of the pots in blue marker pen. MX.X.75.1 was one of them, and its blue number was 9.9, to go with entry number 9 in the Middlesex catalogue.

I immediately checked this with another blue numbered specimen, one without an inscription. The description matched! I went through all of the specimens with blue numbers and was very happy when I realised that they all corresponded with entries in the catalogue. This meant that for 17 of the specimens, I could record the descriptions from the catalogue and give them far more detailed documentation.

Calculi specimens on shelves

The Middlesex catalogue did not stop there. I counted the animal specimens in the collection – 20, four hairballs and 16 enteroliths. This matched the numbers in the catalogue, and one hairball has an inscription which conclusively proved it to be the same one. This made me feel relatively confident that the animal specimens are also documented in the catalogue, bringing the amount of represented specimens to 27 – approximately a third of the collection.

Over the course of my project, I have been fascinated, frustrated and fulfilled by my research into this collection. Perhaps one day someone will be able to do more research and find the historic documentation for the rest of the specimens that I was not able to, and will feel the same way! However, for now, producing new documentation and new records for this collection has felt like a step in the right direction for its future.


A wonderful research journey through overlooked bone specimens

by Shiori Adachi, MA Museum Studies

As part of my MA Museum Studies programme, I had a 20-day placement at the UCL Pathology Museum. The Museum houses 15 anatomical human skulls that have not previously been researched or accessioned. My mission was to research the origin and transfer history of these specimens for the first time. Starting the research, the Museum did not have any archives or records about the skulls. The only information was that they might have been transferred from the Ferens Institute at the Middlesex Hospital, a medical school for otolaryngology closed in the late 1990s. I therefore conducted the research from scratch using online resources and contacts with other museums. Here, I would like to share part of what I have undertaken and clarified through the project.

Sinus colours

Figure one: coloured parts indicated on one of the 15 skulls in the Pathology Museum.

All the 15 skulls contain one to six coloured areas, and I noticed that each colour represented the same part of the skull. I researched osteological names of these using Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual by William M. Bass (2005) with help from Liz Blanks, Curator of the Pathology Museum. It was eventually identified that green indicates the maxillary sinus, red the frontal sinus, yellow the superior concha, pink the middle concha, orange the inferior concha and blue the sphenoid sinus. It is thus likely that the skulls were used for educational purposes, especially for those who learned otolaryngology, adding to the credibility of the information that they were transferred from the Ferens Institute.

Connection with the Grant Museum of Zoology

I contacted the Grant Museum of Zoology which stores a lot of specimens from the collection of a laryngologist Sir Vector Negus (1887-1974), who was once director of the Ferens Institute. I was given special access to the 19 bisected animal facial bones, which helped me to investigate the skulls' characteristics and transfer history more deeply.

During the visit, I noticed that all the 19 specimens have coloured segments, which are the same colour codes as the ones in the Pathology Museum. I also found that the skulls from both museums have the labels coloured with green and shaped as rectangle with rounded corners.

Figure two: one of the bisected animal bones from the Negus Collection in the Grant Museum.

In fact, the Grant Museum holds the transfer record for these animal skulls, which clearly mentions that they were from the Negus Collection and were moved from the Ferens Institute to UCL in 1991. The Pathology Museum unfortunately does not have the transfer record for the human skulls, but based on the matching colour codes and labelling style, it is fair to assume that the Ferens Institute transferred them to UCL along with the animal bones as part of the same collection, which were eventually distributed between Museums.

Intriguing findings from the skull "19"

Of the 15 skulls, one skull marked number 19 on the mount was found to contain the statement "Made in Germany by A.&P. Seifert Berlin in NW.21" on the frontal bone, which seemed to be the address of the place of manufacture. Initially, "Seifert" appeared to be "Seipert" in the handwriting, which made me difficult to identify the address! It is likely that "A.&P. Seifert" is a name of the medical supply company that manufactured scientific preparations and models being distributed worldwide. The company was established by a preparator Adolf Seifert (1868-1934) and his brother Otto Seifert (1888-1959), but the exact open date is unknown. The information about the company is quite limited in English, but I could find some of their works online such as human mastoid bones prepared in the early 20th century and a wax model of a heart produced in the late 19th century. Hence, based on the Seifert brothers’ life dates and production dates of these objects, it is possible that the skulls were prepared between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I found it fascinating that the one small writing on the bone led me to pull out various information!

Figure three: address written on the skull '19'.

Moreover, Liz suggested during the observation that the teeth of the skull "19" are possibly made of wax. We could then find an anatomical skull that has gums made of wax in the Grant Museum database. The specimen was produced in 1890 by Maison Tramond in Paris, which was one of the largest suppliers of wax anatomical models and osteological specimens during the Victorian era. Pastor et al. say that a common practice in most countries at that time was to use organic items such as human teeth and hair for wax models, presenting their analysis of a Tramond’s wax model whose cranium was clearly of human bone. As these cases demonstrates, it seems that combining organic human tissue with wax elements was not rare in Europe at the time when the skull "19" was prepared.

Figure four: wax teeth of the skull ‘19’.

Figure five: the anatomical skull with wax gums from the Grant Museum.

In addition, the skull "19" was found to be paired with the skull "3" that also has wax teeth, which means that these two appear to be derived from the same person!

Figure six: the skull ‘19’ and the skull ‘3’ being paired.

 

Ending words

I believe that the project contributed to revealing the history of the 15 skulls in the Pathology Museum, which finally allowed them to be properly accessioned. In particular, repetitive observation enabled me to find out key elements that developed the research of the object biography, such as the coloured sinuses and the address written on the skull "19". The research outcomes are expected to be utilised for further study at the Museum and diverse educational purposes for UCL students, which could expand the possibility of the specimens as historical objects and educational materials.

References