A Museum with Guts

The 18th century surgeon John Hunter had an unusual hobby. While other Georgian gents were happy hoarding rare books or colonial curiosities, the Scottish-born doc was amassing a grisly assortment of pickled human and animal parts with the aim of advancing the limited medical knowledge of the age. His collection of more than 3,000 anatomical and pathological specimensfrom bone tumors to bumblebee headsforms the core collection of London's Hunterian Museum in Holborn, which reopened in February after a two-year, $6 million refurbishment.

The museum, owned and operated by the Royal College of Surgeons, isn't for the weak of...

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