Key Collection Page

Foreign Metal Objects

Our final “Object of the Week” in our Foreign Bodies series is a selection of ingested metal articles. These metal objects all come from one man who had swallowed them for a series of bets for money or alcoholic drinks. Whilst the man was in prison, he was treated for epigastric pains and acute indigestion. A scan of his stomach showed a large mass that had formed within it. This mass turned out to be the entire contents of this jar of nails, screws and other metal bits and pieces. There are 84 in total, weighing a combined weight of nearly 250g! Fortunately for the man, the objects were all removed without incident and without causing any further pain. You may notice that some of the objects are wrapped up in metal wire. This was to allow for easier ingestion.

Neanderthaloid Skull

In August, we are looking at different skulls in the museum collections as part of our on-going Object of the Week series. Our first object of the week is a Neanderthaloid skull. This skull was given to the College by David M. Greig, a former conservator of Surgeons’ Hall Museum, who obtained it from a “medical friend, who had inherited it without knowledge of its origin”. The skull was described as having Neanderthal characteristics, with features such as the low forehead and heavy brow ridge. The back of the skull was also described as protruding at the base. In 2008 part of the mystery of this skull was solved when it was sent away for radiocarbon dating; the results show that the skull is that of a much more modern human, dating from the mid-17th century, as opposed to being from a Neanderthal. Neanderthals are our closest extinct relatives, having died out around 28,000 years ago.

Artificial Cranial Deformation

This skull has what is known as artificial cranial deformation. This deformation is a type of body alteration in which a skull is intentionally modified or deformed. The skull comes from an indigenous South American Male. This type of alteration is carried out during infancy, by binding a flat board against the forehead and the back of the neck of the child. As the child grows, the skull grows in the direction of the binding, creating the deformation. Fortunately for the child the deformation of the skull in this way does not affect their mental capacity nor does it prevent physical growth. The jawbone and other facial bones were correctly formed on this skull, illustrating that there was no issues during skull development.

Syphilis

This week we feature a skull with Tertiary Syphilis. The stages of syphilis are characterised as Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Primary syphilis is characterised by a painless lesion, called a chancre, at the site of infection. These usually appear about 3-6 weeks after infection. If no treatment takes place, secondary syphilis would occur. Symptoms are flu-like, and can include rashes, aches and pains as well as fatigue. Again if this is left untreated, it can develop into tertiary syphilis. This stage can occur up to thirty years after the initial syphilis infection. At this point, the infection can spread to skin, the heart and bones. This specimen from the museum has a severe case of advanced tertiary syphilis. The skull was also used as part of Lydia Carline’s MSc in Forensic Art at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee. Lydia scanned the skull and took accurate measurements in order to produce the model depicted in this image.

Gorlin Goltz

This skull is known in the collection as the Gorlin Goltz skull, however it was not previously known by this. The skull was studied by David Grieg and he thought it to have some form of deformity due to a form of acromegaly, which is a condition in which too much growth hormone is produced. This can result in large, prominent facial features, as well as abnormally large hands and feet. In addition to this it was noted that there was damage to the lower jaw, thought to be caused by inflammation caused by decaying teeth. There were also multiple growths on the face of the patient which was attributed to a type of skin cancer known as Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC). However, recent x-rays of the lower jaw revealed that the damage to the lower jaw was probably due to multiple cysts unrelated to tooth decay. In the 1960’s, Gorlin and Goltz described a genetic abnormality which caused multiple jaw cysts and recurrent BCC’s, as well as other skeletal deformities. It would appear that this is in fact what was wrong with this patient at the time; however it would not have been possible to diagnose the patient with this problem due to the lack of medical knowledge at the time.