The Hunterian Museum, Holborn

Our last VisitKX event - Culture and Enterprise: Made for each other? (Friday 20th November) - was held at the Hunterian Museum. The museum is tucked away inside the The Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn and proved to be a fascinating location to the delegates at the event and to the CreateKX staff!

In 1799 the government purchased the collection of the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-1793). It was placed in the care of the Company (later the Royal College) of Surgeons. Hunter's collection of around 15,000 specimens and preparations formed the nucleus of one of the greatest museums of comparative anatomy, pathology, osteology and natural history in the world. The Hunterian Collection today contains approximately 3,500 specimens and preparations from John Hunter's original collection.

The Huntarian Museum is a quirky little museum and isn't for everybody. If glistening jars of preserved innards make you queasy, or you feel a funny turn coming on at the sight of blood, it may not be for you. However, if you are at all interested in science, medicine or the history of medicine, it's a delight and gives a real appreciation for how far medicine has come.

It was also a pleasant suprise to find that the museum has an interactive and new media section in the upstairs gallery. Although, again, the videos of various operations in full colour may not be wise watching for the more sensetive visitor. The current exhibition is called 'Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots'. Patrons are invited to enter the world of medical robots where surgeons can operate without even touching their patients. Mini-robots creep, crawl and swim around your body, diagnosing disease and performing vital surgery.

This is a small museum with a huge collection, and I think it is really worth the effort of seeking it out. Their website is also worth a look and provides an in depth history to the museum and it's founder, as well as a virtual tour tool and a lecture archive from past events.

Hunterian Museum @ The Royal College of Surgeons

35 - 43 Lincoln's Inn Fields

London WC2A 3PE

T - 020 7405 3474
W - www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/galleries

Open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.00pm

Free and open to all

Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots

Qvist gallery

Until Wednesday 23 December 2009