Visit to the Wellcome Collection

After Wednesday’s class we visited the Wellcome Collection. I really enjoyed seeing the three dimensional displays because I was able to visualize what we had just discussed in class. During the visit we were instructed to focus on specific exhibits which would show us aspects of Victorian medicine and surgery.

The first exhibit I saw was of Mr. Gibson’s pharmacy in 1905. In class I was shocked to learn that there were little to no regulations on the production, distribution, or testing the efficacy of drugs. Mr. Gibson’s pharmacy opened in Hesham, Northumberland, in 1834 and when it closed in 1978, the Wellcome acquired the furniture and medical objects. This pharmacy was no exception, Mr. Gibson made many of the medicines he sold in his store as well as filling doctor’s prescriptions. In addition to filling prescriptions, the pharmacy performed eye tests, developed film, they referred to it as, “photographic publishers,” and, my favorite, sold wine. The pharmacy was so different from any I have ever seen and I was surprised how quickly things have changed in a little over 100 years after seeming to follow the same principles for a few thousand.

The second exhibit I saw was on of a sickroom in the 1870s. The sickroom revealed a lot about the underlying philosophy of Victorian medicine: a focus on palliative treatments as opposed to curing. The main reason for this mindset was there were few known medicines that cured disease. In the room was a wheelchair with two iron cranks so the invalid could move the chair backwards, forwards and to the left or right. The chair was really interesting because it looks like a modern wheelchair save for the hand cranks on the side. My favorite artifact in the room was a portable washstand for the invalid. It looked like almost any other washstand; however it would have been easier to move and it had a bidet in one of the cabinets. The washstand must have belonged to a wealthy person because I think only the upper class would have had access or known what a bidet was, especially since upper class British society incorporates aspects of upper class French society. From the second exhibition I saw a display showing an operation in 1895 of an amputation below the knee, a display showing what it would have been like to consult a doctor in 1900 and one showing electrotherapy from 1905.