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Old Operating Theatre
In this cobwebbed old operating theater, you can practically hear the screams of the unanestisized patientsHoused in the attic of St. Thomas Church, Britan's oldest surviving operating theater looks much as it might have in 1822. One surgeon who operated there described it thus: "the first two rows were occupied by the other dressers, and behind a second partition stood the pupils, packed like herrings in a barrel, but not so quiet."
The patient on the operating table would have been awake and staring right back at the surgeon, as anesthetic wasn't yet in use. Rather than anesthetics, patients were given the options of whiskey, opium, or being hit on the head with a mallet. Surgeons relied on swift amputation techniques, the faster you could remove a limb the better a surgeon you were.
Many patients died of infection and the old frock coats worn by surgeons during operations were, according to a contemporary, 'stiff and stinking with pus and blood.'
The museum was founded by one Richard Mead, a doctor of St Thomas, who had an interesting cure for venereal diseases: snail water anyone? The operating theater also has a collection of instruments for cupping, bleeding, and trepanning, or skull-drilling. Of interest in the attic is an old apothecary, formally known as the "Herb Garret".
It’s all up in the roof of a beautiful English Baroque church, complete with wooden spectator galleries. The oldest operating theatre in Europe, the entrance staircase itself it's worth the visit. This is the place to thank God for morphine.
Read more about Old Operating Theatre on Atlas Obscura...
Category: Pharmacy Museums, Medical Museums
Location: London, United Kingdom
Edited by: Dylan, Henry, Facebook_100000643055652
