uppercase F

Yuck August 20, 2008

Yet again I completely overestimated my ability to tolerate ickiness. Today I decided that I should go to the Wellcome Collection to check out their exhibit on London’s skeletal remains. As expected it was completely morbid and extremely interesting. They are displaying the remains of about 30 Londoners, mostly from the medieval times, and explaining how their socio-economic status led to the state of their bones. It included the skeletons of infants with smallpox, prostitutes with syphilis, and bricklayers with osteoporosis. It only got slightly disturbing when I read about the skeletons that were removed from a mass grave at Spitalfields Market, which used to be a medieval hospital. This market is right next door to where I’ve been working all summer, and somewhere I frequent regularly.

I then checked out their permanent exhibit, which I figured would be a little less intense. Sir Henry Wellcome was what you’d call a medicine man, and collected lots of medical gadgets. For some reason though, he also had an impressive collection of medieval torture devises (?). I was enjoying myself, looking at all the gizmos, when I turned around and was face to face with the mummified body of a man in the fetal position, his arms and legs tied together and his mouth open. I actually screamed. In a museum. And then I left.