The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library
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Patient, 10 days post-lobotomy
No full textOne of Walter Freeman’s lobotomy patients 10 days after lobotomy, from Psychosurgery; intelligence, emotion and social behavior following prefrontal lobotomy for mental disorders, by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts.Title supplied by cataloge
Autopsy photo of brain post prefrontal lobotomy.
No full textImage from the Operative Notes on [name redacted]. In this autopsy brain section, holes in either side of the central brain are from prefrontal lobotomy.Title supplied by cataloge
Child Skull with Recessed Adult Teeth
No full textEvery child’s jaws are packed with teeth, but we don’t think about them until they start to “erupt” in the gums. This skull belonged to a child who died from unknown causes, but his or her tooth development was perfectly normal. A skillful anatomist carefully cut away the outer bone layers of the jaws to show the adult teeth hidden below the primary teeth (also called baby or deciduous teeth).
The child had already lost most of his or her upper primary teeth, but the adult ones had not yet erupted. Most of the lower primary teeth are still in place, with the adult teeth embedded near the base of the jaw. In the painful teething process, primary teeth start to break through the gums when babies are about 6 to 10 months old. Shedding primary teeth, which begins around age 7, hurts much less.
The anatomist also pared away the compact bone on the outer layers of this skull to show the less dense, spongy bone, known as diploë, beneath. This layer reduces the weight of the skull while still protecting the brain. Below the diploë is another, thinner layer of compact bone
Illustration of ventral hernia
No full textIllustration by Alfred Fernberg of a ventral hernia from Hernias by Alfred Herbert Iason. Ventral hernias occur in the abdominal wall. Untreated, they can lead to deadly complications.Title supplied by cataloge
Cornu Cutaneum (Human Horn)
No full textThis dried specimen from the Mütter Museum collection was removed from a 70-year-old woman. It was her second horn growth, and she had it for seven years before it was removed. It is 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) long and was donated to the Museum in the 1940s.
Cornu cutaneum growths, or cutaneuous horns, look similar to animal horns, but they have a different composition. They are compacted keratin protrusions of lesions that most often occur on areas of the body commonly exposed to the sun, like the face, hands, and forearms. About 60% of the reported cases of cutaneous horns lesions are benign. Women over 50 years of age who have had long-term sun exposure and sunburns are more likely to have these growths than men.
The earliest well-documented case of a human cutaneous horn dates to 1588 and was that of Margaret Gryffith, an elderly Welsh woman. Another famous case is that of 17th-century Englishwoman Mary Davis, an aging widow who had horns on the back of her scalp. She was exhibited in London as a natural wonder. The Mütter’s own well-known wax model of Madame Dimanche, sculpted from life, shows the face of an elderly woman with a large horn protruding from the top of her forehead and hanging down in front of her face. Her horn measured nearly 25 centimeters (10 inches) long.
Human and horns share a twisted history. In mythology and folklore, horned humans represent devils, demons, and other nefarious creatures. It is easy to imagine that the strange sight of horns on a human could inspire such stories
Pamphlet on the Branston High Frequency Violet Ray Generator
No full textA pamphlet advertising the Branston High Frequency Violet Ray Generator and its various forms and usesTitle supplied by cataloge
Surgical repair of hernia, 1938
No full textIllustration of a surgical repair of an abdominal hernia from Hernia; anatomy, etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, prognosis, and the operative and injection treatment, by Leigh F. Watson, 1938.Title supplied by cataloge
Syphilis Wrecks Marriage
No full textAn advertisement by the U.S. Public Health Service from a Vol. 7 No. 4 of the Journal of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama (1937) encouraging testing for syphilis prior to marriage.Title supplied by cataloge
Chevalier Jackson demonstrating Michelle the Choking Doll
No full textA picture of Chevalier Jackson “operating” on Michelle the Choking Doll, used to demonstate his techniques in laryngeal surgery for the removal of foreign bodies. Composite image taken from his 1937 text The larynx and its diseases.Title supplied by cataloge
