Welcome back everyone - I hope youre not eating right now because were about to get real gory.
My name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Scary Preserved Body Parts.
Why were they preserved?
Different reasons.
Should they have been preserved?
Ehhh, Ill let you guys decide.
Its gonna get really weird.
Starting off at number 10 we have Galileo's Finger.
Galileo is one of the most famous scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific
revolution.
He died in 1642.
95 years later, someone removed his middle finger and put it in a jar - here it is.
How gruesome does that look.
This was seen as generally OK back then and even as a way of respecting Galileo, who was
quickly becoming an icon in the western world.
These days, tourists can find the finger in the Florence History of Science Museum.
Next up at number 9 we have Einsteins brain.
People often talk about how Einstein was one of the most intelligent people to ever live.
Within hours of him dying, his brain was removed so that scientists could study it and perhaps
discover insights in to what made him such a genius.
They were beginning to get somewhere - some differences had been noticed but then, it
went missing - presumed stolen.
It was rediscovered in 1978 and now is held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine
in Washington D.C.
Moving on to number 8 we have Buddhas Tooth.
The Buddha was probably one of the most famous people to ever live, his teachings and life
inspired the major world religion of Buddhism.
After he died in 483 BC, his body was cremated on a funeral pyre.
The fire consumed everything except for one of his canine teeth.
It became a cherished relic over the next few thousand years - there was even a war
fought over it at one point.
The preserved tooth now sits in the Temple of The Sacred Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka.
It was named that after they put the tooth there, not before, obviously.
At number 7 now we have the Pregnant Mother.
This isnt so much of a body part as it is two bodies but I thought Id put it on the
list.
Gunther von Hagens is the man responsible for developing a preservation technique known
as -plastination- whereby the skin is peeled off a dead body and everything underneath
is preserved by replacing bodily fluids with a special plastic material.
Thats what he did for one of his most controversial works on the remains of this pregnant mother
and her unborn fetus.
He said his exhibitions have helped the public to understand the human body on a deeper level
and to educate them to what goes on below the skin.
Others have said its sensationalist or even disrespectful.
What do you guys think?
Next up at number 6 we have Dan Sickles Leg.
Major General Dan Sickle was a commander in the Union army during the American civil war.
During the battle of Gettysburg, he took a cannonball to the leg which shattered the
bone in two.
He had his leg amputated later that afternoon.
He sent it to the Army Surgeon General for his display of body parts alongside the weapons
that caused them.
Major General Sickles shattered leg made a fine but gruesome edition to the collection
and is still on display to this day …
Next up at number 5 we have The Childs Arm.
This one comes from Frederik Ruysch - a Dutch artist in the 17th century who liked to display
human bodies in a way that crossed both science and art.
One of his most famous pieces included this - the preserved arm of a child connected with
the dura mater above it.
He mainly used alcohol to achieve preservation.
Much of his work can now be fund in a Russian collection to this day.
Coming in at number 4 we have the 9 ft Colon.
This one is not for the faint hearted.
Its a 9ft long colon - Im not kidding.
It belonged to a 29 year old man who died in 1982 from a condition known as Hirchsprungs
disease.
It made him very constipated - sometimes he would go weeks without any bowel movements.
He died on the toilet from extreme constipation and scientists preserved his colon which contained
more than 40 pounds of feces at the time of his death.
His colon was the filled with straw and put on display where it was measured to be over
9ft long.
Next up at number 3 we have Rasputins Penis.
Im not even sure if were allowed to show you this one - that will be up to the editor but
you may be now looking at the blurry image of Grigori Rasputins penis.
He was a famous Russian mystic and adviser to Tsar Nicholas II.
He was murdered in 1916 and supposedly castrated.
There were rumours of his penis being lost and found for a while - some have claimed
that this latest claim is a sea cucumber or a horse penis.
The Russian museum where it is housed keeps it behind a special red curtain and you have
to hit a little button to pull the curtains back.
Its all very strange.
Next up at number 2 we have Jeremy Benthams Head.
When this English philosopher died in 1832 - he left a request in his will - that his
body be preserved like this.
Well, not his whole body.
His skeleton is there underneath the clothes and is filled out with straw but his head
was mummified using an ancient technique from native New Zealanders.
The problem was, it didnt go so well.
His head looked terrifying and not very well preserved at all.
So, they replaced the head with a wax replica and kept the real one nearby.
For a while it was kept right in front on the ground like this.
Somehow this makes it at least twice as creepy.
And finally at number 1 we have the Murderers Head.
This is the preserved head of Diogo Alves - a Portugese serial killer and the last man
to be hanged in the country.
He was finally caught after he and his gang murdered over 70 poor people.
After the hanging, some local scientists asked for his head so that they could study it.
They believed that studying the shapes of people skulls could lead to you to understand
how their brain worked - and they wanted to understand this serial killer.
Modern science rejects this idea but still, Diogos head was handed down through the years
and is still perfectly preserved to this day.
Well guys, those were some creepy body parts that probably shouldnt be kicking around to
this day - what do you think?
Gross?
Interesting?
Both?
Let me know - Im Danny Burke, thanks as always for watching guys and Ill see you all in the
next video.