A tale of the city OR time-travelling in the history of Pathology in London

2012 is the National Pathology Year and the Royal College of Pathologists is suggesting a tour of places in London that are of major importance in the history of Pathology. The tour includes the Fleming and the Hunterian Museums, the Royal College of Pathology (duh!), passing by the plaque of Prof Cedric Keith Simpson, famous for "carrying out more post mortem examinations than anyone else in the world" and entering the National Portrait Gallery to admire the portraits of Sir Edward Abraham, Dame Barbara Evelyn Clayton, Sir Joseph Lister and many more.

Inspired by this tour, I embarked on a slightly altered pathology-in-the-capital expedition.

I started from the Old Operating Theater Museum in London Bridge. The entire museum is at the roof of St Thomas church, built in 1703, which was then part of St Thomas' hospital. At that time, the rich people would get treated at home and only the poor people would seek medical treatment at the hospitals. The surgeons of early 19th century would perform amputations, removal of bladder stones or small operations in the human skulls (tephinations). However, anesthetics and antiseptic conditions were introduced quite later, in 1846 and 1865 respectively, so I can only imagine how a surgery would be before that.

Picture of how an operation used to be before anesthetics, amputation saws and bandages.

The operating theater in the museum is the oldest surviving in Europe, built in 1822.

The operating theater. Picture taken from the museum's website.

Apart from the theater, you can also see a collection of surgical objects and an apothecary of the medications that were used at that time.

The museum has the coolest entrance (see picture below) and the steepest staircase I've ever seen and it's definitely worth the visit.

The next destination was quite different. The well-hidden Florence Nightingale museum is dedicated to the life of the famous nurse, or the "Lady with the Lamp" as she has been called but also tries to give a broader description of the condition of the hospitals at that time.

Bed book by Susan Stockwell. A ghostly mattress formed by pages from Nightingale''s own book, notes on nursing, her biographies as well as hospital litterature.

The museum is a very pleasant space and by involving interactive media is trying to help us understand what the life of this amazing woman involved.

We peeped through small holes.

Tried to imagine what we would do if we were Florence Nightingale (not very successfully..)

Heard the story of the Crimean War from its heroes and used very cool audio.

My tour ended at the John Snow pub.

-Wait...wait...Do you mean this Jon Snow?

-Noo..I mean this John Snow

The famous physician who traced the source of the most intense cholera outbreak in Victorian London and is considered to be one of the fathers of modern epidemiology. He analysed the geography of water supply and mortality patterns in Soho. He noticed that nearly 500 people infected by cholera were living in houses within a few blocks of a single water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick and Lexington Street). This pump drew water from the heavily contaminated urban stretch of the Thames as well as a nearby well. John Snow associated the pump with the cholera outbreak and the pump handle was removed soon after. The pump used to be at the side entrance of the John Snow pub.

I have to say that his pathology-in-the-town tour was really enjoyable as it introduced me to all these people who helped to change the history of medicine and to a time when receiving medical treatment was a luxury.

Super-mice!

Once upon a time...there was Wolverine...

He could climb...

he could run...

 and you couldn't hurt him because he would heal fast.

But now Wolverine is scared...he is scared of the Kemp’s spiny mice.

Because the Kemp’s spiny mice..


can climb...

can run...

and certainly can heal very fast.

Ashley Seifert and his collaborators at the University of Florida, USA, have shown that two species of African spiny mouse (Acomys kempi and Acomys percivali) are the only mammals known to date that are capable of skin autotomy. That means that these animals can easily shed their skin, usually as a self-defense mechanism trying to elude a predator, and their skin can re-grow later.

In their experiments, the skin of the mice would tear very easily under low tension and hair follicle would regenerate fast in the wounds. What is even more interesting is that the Acomys mice were shown to be able to heal ear holes, where the hair follicles, sebaceous glands, skin and cartilage would be completely regenerated.


If I was Wolverine I would have lost my sleep by now as a new super-hero is discovered!

Further reading: 
Ashley W. Seifert, Stephen G. Kiama, Megan G. Seifert, Jacob R. Goheen, Todd M. Palmer, Malcolm Maden. 2012. Skin shedding and tissue regeneration in African spiny mice (Acomys). Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11499

Taming steam power

This post is about a completely different subject than what we normally write. You see, neither me nor ec892894 and sc3439 know much about engineering but we attempted to write a post to honor Thomas Newcomen and his engine that contributed significantly to the industrial progress of the last 300 years. 

300 years ago the first steam engine was installed at a coalmine at Dudley Castle in Staffordshire, UK.

  

The engine could pump 45 liters of water a minute from a depth of 50 meters and, by pumping away dangerous levels of water, enabled mining at greater depths and made coal cheaper and more available. This invention kick-started the industrial revolution in Britain.

 At the late seventeenth century the standard methods to remove the water from the mines was manual pumping or horses hauling buckets on a rope. At the same time, several people were experimenting with steam power and vacuums. In the late 1670s, the French Denis Papin invented a “steam digester”, an early form of pressure cooker. Twenty years later, he built a model of the first steam piston engine. Meanwhile, English military engineer Thomas Savery invented a primitive form of steam engine for pumping water. However, it presented a lot of problems and could draw water only from 9 meters deep.

Thomas Newcomen, an English blacksmith from Dartmouth, was influenced by both inventors and, with his partner John Calley, started experimenting on building an effective steam engine for raising water from deep mines.

He devised a model of an atmospheric engine, which employed both low-pressure steam and atmospheric pressure. In his system, a boiler produced steam which drove a piston upward. A valve then sealed the piston chamber from the boiler and cold water was pumped into the piston chamber that condensed the steam, dropped the pressure and pulled the piston back down. The vertical motion of the piston moved a beam which pivoted on a central fulcrum, with the other side of the beam being attached to a chain that went down into the mine to the water pump.The beam was heavier on the main pump side with gravity pulling down that side of the beam. Once the piston was pulled down, the valve was reopened and the process repeated. It was the first practical engine to use a piston in a cylinder. A very good animation of Newman's engine can be found here.

Diagram of a Newcomen's engine. The picture was taken from www.wikipedia.com

Thomas Newcomen died on August 5, 1729, in London. However, Newcomen's engine was used to drain mines for many years. It was later modified, around 1769, by James Watt, a Scottish inventor and engineer, who created a steam condenser that increased the efficiency of the engine. Despite Watt's improvements, Common Engines (as they were called) remained in use for a considerable time. Finally, the Watt engine almost entirely replaced the Newcomen engine by 1790.

In July, several events are being organised in Devon to celebrate the 300 anniversary of the first steam engine.