Katya L.
Yelp
While I was hoping it would be more like the Mutter Museum, Surgeons Hall did not disappoint. Not for the weak of heart and stomach, the museum is chock full of old bones, pickled bits in jars, plaster & wax casts and a heaping dose of educational information to boot.
At the entrance, there's a dentistry room which isn't very gory at all - even I, who slips into a panic attack from just sitting in the dentists chair, managed to enjoy learning about the history of dentistry and looking at old tools, dentures and things. Once you're in the museum proper, you're presented with a wealth of information on the history of medicine in Scotland, and Edinburgh specifically. There's a bit on midwifery, the Burke & Hare section, some stuff about sports medicine that I skipped and a little about modern surgery, plastic and the like.
The best part is definitely in the back. There's a big section on Arthur Conan Doyle (Holmes & Watson and their real-life chirurgeon muses) and loads on war medicine. It's pretty incredible, and rather sobering, to see what a musket ball or a saber can do to the human body. I wish we had been allowed upstairs, as I could spot shelves and shelves of bones and jars, some amazing scoliosis-curved spines that weren't on display below and just loads of other disgusting and fascinating things.
Surgeons Hall Museum is a great place for those who are interested in anatomy and the history of medicine, but it's also good for those who just want to gape at oddities and be slightly grossed out. Watch out - you just might learn something in the process!