The warning to all who are faint of heart and the interdiction to pregnant women and anyone under the age of 12 may be the most successful inadvertent marketing campaign for this little shop of horrors. This museum contains a vast collection of wax models, real body parts, sculptures, bottled fetuses, paintings and skeletal remains that have been collected, used and studied in the School of Medicine of Montpellier that has been operating since 1181 -- Europe's oldest continuous medical school.
There are wax models of diseases and ailments that are no longer seen, mummified body parts with all sorts of freakish ailments, preserved nervous systems and skeletons with amazing detail, lungs, hearts, feet, hands, skulls, leading up to the furthermost wall lined with glass fronted shelves full of ancient jars filled with all types of things that can go terribly wrong in the formation of a human being. I suppose this is to ensure that only the strongest of constitutions that can make it through all of the cases and shelves full of all sorts of freakish material get a glimpse of the sad results of a lack of prenatal care.
Once a year, all public museums are open to the public for free by the French government. More than 4,000 people waited over two hours to gawk at the freak show. Now you must endure a coma inducing tour of the lecture halls and offices of the medical school to reach this collection of body bits and pieces. It was so incredibly boring and long that my friend Sophie and I thought we had made a mistake and were not going to get to visit the only interesting part of the whole tour. The price you must pay to see the freak show is steep!!
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| A mummified spinal cord |
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| Early case of encephalitis |
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| Portrait gallery of the Directors of the School of Medicine |
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| The courtyard of the School of Medicine |
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| One of many cases of skeletons |
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| Paintings of diseases |
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| Mummified head with dissection of brain |
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| Paintings of afflictions |
