Weekly Demonstrations...

Speed Surgery - Surgery in the 19th Century

Every Saturday 2.00pm*

A surgical demonstration presented within the original architecture of the old operating theatre of St. Thomas�s Hospital of 1822. Before the advent of anaesthesia, an operation had to be swift. Without hand-washing or antiseptics, the chance of later infection was high.

Herbs, the Garret and the Old Operating Theatre

Every Sunday 2.00pm*

In the past, medicines were made from plants, animals and even precious stones.
Learn how 'drugs' such as foxglove, myrrh and unicorn horns were used.
Examine real herbs in the attic space, originally used by the apothecary of St Thomas' Hospital.

MAY

MUSEUMS AT NIGHT 2013

Friday 17 May 2013

6pm, 7pm, 8pm 

SURGERY BY GASLIGHT & OTHER MEDICAL TALES

Experience the fear and the emotion of a patient in the 19th century - come and have your leg amputated in the oldest surviving operating theatre in England. When the light gets dim ... the surgery comes alive!   Family friendly

Booking Essential

Wednesday 29 May 2013, start 6.30pm

The Pathologists'

Hunt for the Hidden Killer

The dose taken is often all that separates a useful medicine from a deadly poison. Before the days of clinical trials and accurate laboratory tests, poisoning was a common cause of death. Poisons were sometimes taken in the mistaken belief that they would cure disease or were administered secretly by a third party with more sinister motives. A third category of poisoning became common in the nineteenth century - accidental poisoning by objects in the home. A new middle class emerged following the industrial revolution, with a large number of people having disposable income and opportunities for leisure activities for the first time. People decorated their homes and themselves with brightly coloured textiles but  there was deadly poison in their new wallpapers and pretty dresses. Find out more about one of the hidden killers in the Victorian home from pathologist Dr Suzy Lishman. With the help of a live model, Dr Lishman will describe what an autopsy involves and what signs the pathologist would look for to diagnose death from poisoning.

JUNE

Wed 19th and Thu 20th June at 6.30

"DELIRIUM"

It is estimated that up to 80% of people being treated in intensive care experience delirium; the bulk of these will hallucinate.

Delirium is a series of songs about hallucinations in intensive care, written by Victoria Hume and based on interviews with people who have been through this extraordinary experience, and with the staff who care for them.

-- £10 including refreshments
booking is essential- for booking and ticketing information contact info@victoriahume.com

SEPTEMBER

Thu 12th Sept
time & additional details coming soon

'Bad Deaths’ in Victorian Britain: What about pain?

The Victorian imagination was replete with references to death and dying. What was a ‘bad death’ according to the Victorians? How did it differ from a ‘good death’? These and other questions will be explored through a consideration of Victorian visual representations of death. This lecture will look at the troubling issues surrounding dissection, suicide and infanticide, before examining the complex relationship between pain and bad deaths during the nineteenth century. Chronic illness will be addressed along with the role of the hospital and hospice. The potential consolations of pain relief and religion will also be considered. Finally, contemporary ideas surrounding bad deaths will be discussed in relation to their Victorian antecedents: what constitutes a bad death today? And are our attitudes so very different from those of our nineteenth century forebears?

This lecture will be given by Dr Carmen Mangion, an author, researcher and cultural and social historian at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Halloween Events & More...

Surgical Horrors:

The Operated Body in Horror Film and Literature

Thursday 31 October, 6.30-8.30

by Professor Ian Conrich and Professor Justin R. Edwards

Tickets: £10, to include refreshments. Guests are asked to arrive between 6 and 6.30; the illustrated talk will start promptly at 6.30.

Severed arms, sawn off legs, brain surgery and sutured organs have been important sources of popular horror fiction for over 200 years. From Frankenstein and Dr Moreau to Reanimator and The Human Centipede, surgical horrors continue to fascinate us with freakish operations and corporeal spectacles. This special Halloween event stitches together a grotesque body of texts to explore a grisly tradition of the operated body in film and literature through film clips, props & more...

Professor Ian Conrich is a Fellow in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre, at the University of Essex, and a Professor of Film and Visual Culture at the University of Derby. He is the author or editor of eighteen books including Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema (2009), The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror (2005), and Locating Horror: Space and Place in the Horror Film (forthcoming).

Justin D Edwards is Research Professor of English at the University of Surrey. He is the author or editor of numerous books including Grotesque (2012), Pop Goth: Gothic in Contemporary Popular Culture (2012), Gothic Canada: Reading the Spectre of a National Literature (2005), and Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic (2003).