A museum is a place to display items of historical, cultural, scientific, artistic significance… But sometimes, it is also a place to display parts of the human body.
Egyptian mummies are a prime example, but that’s not the only thing related to the human body on display.
Interestingly, each of these divisions has its own story to tell. They may simply be there because of the “owner’s” desire before “near the earth and far away”, they may also be robbed, even digging graves to steal.
The genius of physics Albert Einstein (Germany) himself, before his death, expressed his desire to be cremated, and certainly never wanted his brain to be removed from his head and displayed in a museum. some.
The jar contains part of Albert Einstein’s brain.
But when he died on April 18, 1955, a doctor Thomas Harvey “hugged” both his brain and his eyeballs fled, keeping for himself.
Surprisingly, even though Harvey was guilty of insulting corpses and stealing part of Einstein’s remains, Einstein’s family – and specifically his son – still chose to forgive to appease public opinion. This person allowed this doctor to keep the brain, only on the condition that Harvey was for scientific research purposes.
No longer having to go into hiding for the most monstrous theft, Harvey teamed up with Dr. Marta Keller. They proceeded to slice Einstein’s brain into 1,000 slices, dividing it to many researchers, including Dr. William Ehrich (USA), 46 slices.
After Ehrich’s death, his wife gave the 46 slices of the brain to Dr. Allen Steinberg. Steinberg again gave it to Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams. And Adams donated it all to a museum.
The box containing the brain slices of the scientific genius.
Later, through a collection effort, the US National Museum of Health and Medicine obtained nearly 350 slices of Einstein’s brain.
Unlike Einstein, Charles Babbage (UK) – the father of computer technology and the inventor of the first mechanical computer – wanted his brain to be removed from the skull and used for scientific research.
Charles Babbage’s brain.
In 1871, before his death, Babbage wrote a will to his son. He explicitly agreed to allow posterity to dissect his brain, “process it in any way”, as long as it “helps the understanding and benefit of mankind”.
As Babbage wished, his brain was removed from his skull and preserved. Currently, half of Babbage’s brain is located at the Science Museum, London. The other half belongs to the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Anatomy.
In the medical world, Antonio Scarpa (Italy) is an outstanding anatomist, but in real life he is considered an obnoxious conceited guy. No matter where she worked, Scarpa made more enemies than friends.
Having a personal vendetta, as soon as Scarpa died, his former assistant Carlo Beolchin cut off Scarpa’s head, thumb, index finger and urinary tract from the body.
Head of anatomist Antonio Scarpa.
Except for the head, most of the remaining parts of Scarpa are kept in an Italian museum. As for Scarpa’s head, for some reason, it suddenly disappeared. Strangely, after a few years of disappearance, it suddenly appeared and was displayed at the Story Museum of the University of Pavia.
Currently, this museum has also collected the remaining parts of Scarpa. But they only show the head, the rest are kept in storage.
Jeremy Bentham is an English philosopher, known for his eccentricity. Before his death, Bentham left a will asking to preserve the body so that he could still party and play with friends.
Bentham’s real head remains publicly available at the College London gallery.
As Bentham wanted, his body was embalmed, which is still on display at a College London museum. Only, the head of Bentham’s mummy was replaced by a head made of wax. The reason is that in the process of handling the mummy, people accidentally damaged it, so it was forced to cut it out.
Despite its horrors, Bentham’s real head remained public in the College London gallery until the 1990s. It was only after being stolen by a student that it was put in the archives and stored in the archives. always in there.
The defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815) was also the beginning of the end of Napoleon Bonaparte (France). First, he lost his throne. Next, he was exiled by the British to the island of St. Helena.
The specimen is said to be the “little boy” of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
At the island of St. Helena, in 1821 Napoleon died. After the autopsy, his penis was also amputated.
After several adventures, in 1927, “little Napoleon” was temporarily settled at the Museum of French Art, New York. In 1977, it was put up for auction, eventually in the hands of urologist John J. Lattimer.
The author of the immortal saying “The Earth rotates anyway” , Galileo Galilei died in 1642. In 1737, his remains were reburied. Taking advantage of the opportunity, some “fans” managed to steal 3 fingers, 1 tooth and 1 vertebra.
When the remains were reburied, some “fans” managed to steal 3 fingers, 1 tooth and 1 vertebra from him.
Somehow, the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy got a finger of Galileo. The other two fingers and the tooth went into the hands of a family.
Before long, both fingers and teeth were stolen. In 2009, they suddenly reappeared. E lost track again, the Italian Museum of the History of Science bought it outright, displayed it with the Galileo finger they had, and renamed it the Galileo Museum.
Only Galileo’s vertebra is now at the University of Padua.