Virtual Tour of the Maude Abbott Medical Museum

[Music] welcome my name is rick fraser and i'm standing at the entrance to one of the oldest teaching units in mcgill university faculty of medicine in montreal canada what i'd like to do in the next 15 or so minutes is tell you a little bit of the history of this unit and take you on a tour of its current version the mod abbott medical museum or as we affectionately call it today the man the museum is located in mcgill's strathcona anatomy and dentistry building on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange among indigenous peoples including the sane and ishinabek nations mcgill honors recognizes and respects these nations as the traditional stewards of the lands and waters on which we meet today [Music] so the museum is named after maude abbott whose portrait you see here a remarkable woman who was born in 1869 in a small town in rural eastern quebec refused entry into mcgill medical school because of her female gender she obtained a medical degree from bishops college and after a brief period of additional study in practice became curator of the mcgill medical museum in 1900 despite the difficulties related to being a woman in a male-dominated professional environment she succeeded in establishing the museum as one of the best in north america and it's for this reason that the mam is named after her built in 1909 the strathcona building contains many interesting decorative features such as intricate terra cotta carved moldings a set of three stained glass windows dedicated to mcgill physicians who were part of the third canadian general hospital in world war one and a luxurious student reading room because of the importance of museum teaching in the early 1900s medical curriculum the building included space for a museum in a large cross-shaped area the museum occupied three floors of this space and surrounded a large central atrium which was spanned above by a beautiful stained glass window allowing ample illumination today the museum is found on the third floor of this space [Music] the museum itself began in the early 19th century when the precursor of the mcgill faculty of medicine was established by four young montreal physicians two of the objects they acquired for teaching at the time a skeleton mounted by john stevenson in 1826 and the home's heart are still in the museum today andrew holmes acquired the heart in 1822 during the autopsy of a young man he was treating for heart failure and who unfortunately died the heart was unusual by having a single ventricle instead of the normal two and holmes kept it for teaching in his newly founded school it has taught many students since then the museum developed into a valuable aid for teaching anatomy and pathology during the 19th century and came into particular prominence after 1900 when maude abbott became curator of its pathology component however advancements in teaching aids such as lantern and crotachrome slides increasing student enrollment and the need for experimental laboratory space led to decreased use of both anatomy and pathology components of the museum over the remaining part of the century to a point where they were almost unused by the year 2000 renewed interest in the museum's collections in the early 2000s led to an increased appreciation of their value and the university officially established the mod abbott medical museum in 2012 it moved into the space occupied by abbott's former museum in 2015. i would now like to take you on a brief tour of the museum as it exists today its main display room showcases several collections one of them on this wall consists of several cabinets that contain skeletal specimens that were used for teaching anatomy this is an example of an exploding skull also known as a boschen skull after the french anatomist of the mid-19th century who developed the technique of mounting its bones this technique involved isolating each bone and placing them on separate metal rods so that they could be moved independently enabling the student to acquire a better grasp of how they fit together to form the complete skull next to the anatomy wall is a cabinet dedicated to pathology in what you can see many specimens that illustrate disease such as it might have appeared in the early 20th century or in fact as it might be seen today here for example our lungs from a young boy who inhaled a peanut that lodged in the lower part of his windpipe or trachea and caused suffocation such an event unfortunately still happens today and we use specimens such as this to illustrate potential household hazards another specimen this one of the brain also shows an example of serious disease here you can see a large blood clot which has compressed the left cerebral hemisphere to such an extent that it caused death such bleeding usually occurs following severe trauma to the side of the head such as might occur in a biking or skiing accident once again we use specimens such as this as teaching aids in this case to stress the use of a helmet in potentially dangerous sporting activities the museum has two cabinets dedicated to mcgill physicians one that showcases the works of abbott and the second to another well-known mcgill physician sir william olsler osler became a professor at mcgill in 1872 and performed almost 800 autopsies at the montreal general hospital between 1876 and 1884 he donated many specimens from these to the medical museum a selection of those that remain can be seen in this cabinet over the years abbott also collected many specimens particularly those related to congenital cardiovascular disease and a selection of those can be seen in this cabinet here this is an example of a hole in the heart technically called an atrial septal defect through which blood can flow abnormally from the left to the right side of the heart another specimen shows a more serious abnormality transposition of the great arteries in which the aorta connects to the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery to the left a situation opposite the normal and usually associated with death in infancy unless surgically corrected the cabinets next to abbotts which you see here contain a variety of anatomical models mostly purchased in the early 1900s for use in anatomical teaching these include wax models such as this face that shows the hereditary disease ichthyosis made in the 1800s by the famous french moulages to jules beretta and this embryo in an early stage of intrauterine development made by adolf ziegler other materials include papier-mache as in this model faced by lugia zoo which was constructed of numerous pieces that could be taken apart and put back together like a three-dimensional puzzle more modern material such as plastic can be seen in these recently manufactured 3d models in addition to the objects themselves the museum has a number of features that enable the visitor to learn more about specific ones these include tablets that have explanatory videos and other graphic displays where one can learn about topics such as how bodies have been and are now acquired for anatomical teaching some tablets also have links to the museum's website that enable the visitor to enlarge and read detailed descriptions about a specimen here for example is an abbott specimen from a young boy that shows multiple rhabdomyomas a rare heart tumor sometimes seen in the hereditary disease tuberous sclerosis a labeled specimen can easily be enlarged to better show the abnormalities [Music] the same thing can be done via qr codes in an exhibit on congenital anomalies that has been used by medical students as part of their embryology teaching for example in this specimen of a kidney that has two urine collecting pelvices and ureters instead of the normal one the mission of the mam is to collect preserve conduct research on and teach with material objects pertaining to the history of medicine and the miguel faculty of medicine it's associated teaching hospitals and quebec society at large since its reestablishment in 2012 the museum has acquired many non-biological objects related to this mission a display of some of these can be seen in a newly acquired cabinet we developed as part of the museum's 10th anniversary celebrations this contains 16 mini exhibits each consisting of objects donated or used by miguel faculty medical graduates researchers or teachers in the 10 years since the man was named here is an example of one such object that was used for research it is a pilot's helmet with an attached camera and specially constructed periscope used to study eye movements during flight it was employed by dr melville jones in the aviation medical research unit established at mcgill in 1960. this is a younger inhaler named after the german inventor who developed it around 1880. it was the first device to use the blow-over technique by which air was delivered by a hand-pumped rubber bellows into a glass jar containing liquid anesthetic the anesthetic containing air was propelled via an exit tube to the face mask over the patient a somewhat more primitive way of delivering a sleep-inducing drug was by dropping it from a glass clasp onto masks covered with cloth such as these early 1900 versions yet another cabinet contains a variety of model dolls from the former montreal homeopathic hospital showing nursing costumes dating from the origin of the hospital in 1894 to the mid-1950s a second soon-to-open exhibit is concerned with pulmonary disease caused by the inhalation of inorganic dust it showcases a number of minerals such as these silica-containing rocks that you see here as well as the types of diseases that the inhalation of the dust can cause this is a paper-mounted slice of lung that dates from the early 1950s obtained by a technique developed by the welsh physician jethro goff it consists of an actual piece of extremely thin lung in which areas of scarring caused by inhaled silica can be clearly seen methods of diagnosing the disease by radiologic imaging and by measurements of pulmonary function taken for example with this collins or spirometer from the early 1960s can also be seen before concluding our brief tour of the museum i'd like to mention a few displays that we are currently developing that will be available for viewing in person or online in the near future these include a series of mini exhibits located in now unused fire nooks located throughout the strathcona building the project helped in part by the office of sustainability at mcgill each nook will contain a reproduction of an etching or painting from a famous anatomical text coupled with corresponding specimens from the museum we will also be opening a virtual museum room containing manipulable images of osler's collection of vascular aneurysms as part of a research project involving 3d scanning of specimens contained in the museum's glass containers this concludes our brief tour of the mod abbott medical museum and some of the material that it contains you can view more such material on a number of virtual exhibits via the mam website and i look forward to meeting each of you in person to see the exhibits live in conclusion i'd like to thank our many donors for your support both of funds and of material objects without these we would not be able to do what we're doing at the man to preserve our mission of education research and teaching thank you [Music]

Channel: McGill University

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Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022