[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]