Science History Institute
The first museum we went to in Philadelphia today was the Science History Institute, which showed a lot of the developments that led to the technology that we have today. It showed how scientific equipment, and things we use in our everyday lives, like lightbulbs and computer chips, evolved over time since their invention. The main attraction in the center of the museum was a large interactive table. They had objects that, when placed on the table, would provide information about their developments and impacts. One example was a flip-flop, which showed how rubber developed over time from getting them from trees to creating synthetic and cheaper rubber. They had a lot of things to keep us busy like scavenger hunts with rewards like stickers, slap bracelets, magnetic toys, and a puzzle that a lot of people ended up working on.
Mutter Museum
After lunch, we went to the next attraction of the day, the Mutter Museum. This was a museum of human anatomy, which taught us a lot about the human body and diseases of the human body. They had lots of very interesting objects in the museum including thin slivers of Albert Einstein’s brain and the cancer tumor from President Grover Cleveland.
Skin and Madame Dimanch
At the Mutter Museum, we learned about how a few skin conditions affected people. Our guide told us that many wax figures were made to show these skin diseases for the medical students of the 19th century. Along with learning about skin diseases, we also learned about one particular French woman named Madame Dimanche, or Widow Sunday, who had a 10-inch horn growing out of her head. The cutaneous horns were due to an unusual keratinous skin tumor that made a “horn,” made out of the same thing your fingernails are made of. Because it is made out of the same material that your fingernails are made of, it wouldn’t hurt to get cut off. The reason she didn’t get it cut off was that doctors were considered unsanitary, making most people at the time afraid of them. Despite her fear she eventually did get it cut off by the French surgeon, Joseph Souberbeille. It was successful and would not grow back to 10 inches again, but with the knowledge doctors had at the time, Joseph Souberbeille could not completely remove the tumor.
Growth Abnormalities
While discussing growth abnormalities we learned about Robert Wadlow who grew to be 8 feet tall and a female with dwarfism who died from birth complications because of her abnormal pelvis bone. Robert Wadlow, also known as the Gentle Giant, was taller than basketball player Yao Ming. Wadlow suffered from hypertrophy of the pituitary gland, which is what caused him to grow to his immense height. Although it might sound cool to be this tall, it led to many developmental problems resulting in his bones being brittle. In his later years, he was either bedridden or had leg braces because his legs struggled to carry his weight.
Siamese Twins Chang and Eng
We also learned about a pair of conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker. Conjoined twins are identical twins who don’t fully split and are connected. In their case, they were connected by their livers and some skin that could have been easily cut off with modern science. In 1824, Robert Hunter, a Scottish merchant, saw the two playing in the water in Siam, where they were born (now called Thailand) and arranged to bring the twins to the United States. In 1829, when they were 18, Chang and Eng came to the United States and began being exhibited to the public. After about 10 years of traveling and touring, they settled down in North Carolina and eventually got married. Chang married Adelaide Yates, and Eng married Sarah Yates, and combined, they had 21 kids. At 62, they both died when Chang passed away in the middle of the night and Eng died only 3 hours later from blood clotting.