Hunterian Museum Research Articles

The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square & other Medical Marvels

For those interested in the anomalies of the human body Dr Bondeson's latest work offers many examples—a treasure trove of the morbid and unusual and, for the medically inclined, some intriguing case histories. Bondeson has written at least four other books on the bizarre, and the Pig-faced Lady is a tour de force—highly researched, well illustrated where possible and bringing to life the people affected. Was the early-nineteenth-century pig-faced lady in the title real or just a hoax? The author's meticulous research cannot find the answer. Her predecessor Tannakin Skinker from Holland, who made her first appearance in London in 1639 where she was hoping to find a husband, was much featured in ballads and songs but she too may have been more legend than fact. Similar stories are explored concerning hairy maidens, one of whom, Julia Pastrana, was reported in a Lancet of 1857. Conjoined twins are another area explored. Sometimes these were put on show to provide a living for themselves and their families; thus we have newspaper reports, advertisements and articles in medical journals to substantiate the claims for one body supporting two persons. Probably it is the story of Daniel Lambert from Leicestershire that will appeal most to the medical world—especially in the light of today's obsession with obesity. An entire chapter is devoted to the 'English fat man', illuminated by the author's own experiences as a senior registrar dealing with primary obesity. Bondeson also tells with enthusiasm the stories of two eighteenth-century giants, the Swede Daniel Cajanus and the Irishman Charles Byrne (whose skeleton is in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England). With clever marketing these men made substantial amounts of money by exploiting their extreme condition as showmen, though both contrived to lead relatively normal lives. Cajanus was a prudent intelligent man; Byrne's intellect was not helped by his habit of drinking at least one large bottle of gin or whisky every day. These chapters on the fat and tall are the most interesting and readable in the book; in his accounts of the King of Poland's Court Dwarf and the Sicilian Fairy (whose skeleton and clothes are likewise at the Royal College of Surgeons of England), Bondeson tells us more about the person behind the abnormality, and does so with great skill. The Dwarf does not emerge as an endearing character. The other medical marvels will await the reader to be amazed, repulsed or mildly amused; this is a book to dip into and some of the evidence to be taken lightly. If you are fascinated by congenital abnormalities you will be excited. If you are revolted by the whole scene, spare yourself a trip to the bookshop.

Stratigraphic range determination for Pseudoglyphea foersteri Feldmann, Crisp and Pirrie 2002, from the Jurassic of Raasay

Recently, a new species of glypheoid lobster was described from the Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) of Raasay, in the Inner Hebrides (Feldmann et al. 2002). The paper had no sooner appeared than one of us, RF, received correspondences from Dr. Crispin Little, University of Leeds, and another of us, DE, Northern Arizona University, United States, indicating that both had collected similar specimens about which nothing had been published. Unlike the specimen that formed the basis for the type description, collected by Glen Crisp from a block of Scalpa Sandstone incorporated in a landslide, the specimens collected by Little and Elliott were collected in place. Furthermore, the specimen collected by Elliott contains some morphological detail that was not preserved on the holotype specimen. Thus, the purpose of this note is to provide detailed stratigraphic context for the occurrence of Pseudoglyphea foersteri Feldmann, Crisp and Pirrie, 2002, expand the geographical and geological range of the species, and add to our understanding of the morphology of the species. Stratigraphical and geographical range The holotype specimen of Pseudoglyphea foersteri, BM(NH) IC 291, was collected from a dislodged block of material in landslide debris along the eastern coastline of Raasay, just north from Hallaig, National Grid Reference NG 5861 4030, Island of Raasay (Feldmann et al. 2002, p. 24) (Figs. 1 & 2). It should be noted that the catalogue number of the holotype was incorrectly assigned and, therefore, the number IC 117 is incorrectly given in the original description. The number IC 291 herein reflects . . . We thank Dr. Crispin Little, School of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, for contacting us with details of a specimen, presumed to be of the same species, and for providing details of the discovery and identification. Dr. Andrew Ross, Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum located the specimens discussed and provided a useful review of the manuscript. Specimens were photographed by Phil Crabb, also of The Natural History Museum. Dr. Neil D. L. Clark, Hunterian Museum, provided locality information and the loan of the specimen collected by Crispin Little. Assistance on drafting the line illustrations was provided by Trevor S. Elliott.

The John Quekett sections and the earliest pterosaur histological studies

Abstract In 1855, John Quekett, assistant curator to Richard Owen of the Hunterian Museum in London, published a catalogue of the museum’s thin-section specimens. Among them were 15 sections of pterosaur bone. These sections were cut from eight bones found in the Lower Chalk of Kent, the Wealden of Sussex and the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire, and are believed to be the first pterosaur bone thin sections to have been produced and described. Six of these thin sections survived the bombing of London during the Second World War, although the bones from which they were cut were destroyed. The sections were re-examined in early 2001 and photographed in plane and crossed polarized light for the first time. The histology of one thin section is inconsistent with a pterosaurian origin. This case highlights the value of bone palaeohistology as an aid in confirming the identity of incomplete remains.

CHRYSOMELIDAE (COLEOPTERA) TYPES IN THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

The 21 reported Chrysomelidae types in the Hunterian Museum were examined. Cassida quadripustulata Fabricius and Chrysomela morio Fabricius were not found in the collection. The specimens of Altica nigripes Fabricius, Chrysomela flavicornis Fabricius, and Cassida discoides Fabricius are not types. Chrysomela decimaculata Fabricius is a Coccinellidae; Chrysomela histris Fabricius is an Erotylidae. The syntypes of Altica anglica Fabricius appear to be lost. The 16 valid types are documented. Chrysomela clavata Fabricius is transfered to Anomoea and synonymized with A. laticlava (Forster).

Curiosa: a morbid anatomy lesson

A short history of the Hunterian Museum, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, London, UK, which will close for refurbishment at the end of January, 2002, and is expected to reopen in 2004.

Tetrapod trackways (Matthewichnus sp. and? Pseudobradypus sp.) from the Coal Measures (Carboniferous) of Central Scotland

Synopsis A Carboniferous sandstone slab containing two trackways from the Coal Measures of Scotland was donated to the Hunterian Museum in 1926. These trackways have never previously been described and consist of smaller Matthewichnus and larger ? Pseudobradypus tracks. This occurrence is one of only two known from the Carboniferous of Scotland in museum collections the other being in the collections of the Paisley Museum.

Cultural computing: exploiting interactive digital media

The Web site of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow had to respond to a number of imperatives. First and foremost, it was to make the collections available to schools in the most remote areas of Scotland as a complement to their curriculum. It then had to highlight an extremely diverse collection ranging from archaeology to zoology, with side trips including the voyages of Captain Cook and the house of world‐famous architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The solution was found by using a mix of interactive technologies in an innovative and imaginative way. James Devine is head of Education and Digital Media Resources at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. He has spearheaded a wide variety of innovative multimedia projects focused around the Hunterian collections, including an award‐winning Web site, and, with colleagues in the Computing Science Department, has developed new applications for leading‐edge technologies. More recently, he led field expeditions to Knossos in Crete to create Quick Time Virtual Reality tours of the Minoan palace complex on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Athens and the Greek Ministry of Culture. Ray Welland is head of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. His main research interest is in software engineering and, more particularly, in its application to the creation of large, multi‐authored Web sites.

The Giant, O'Brien

A new novel based on the true story of the 18th century Irish giant, Charles O'Brien, who was exhibited in London and eventually dissected by the surgeon Charles Hunter. His bones still hang in the Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Lost & Found: 237. Plant fossils from the Keele Formation, central England described by Emily Dix (1935)

See GCG 6(5): 207. Dr John Faithfull, Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, writes: The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow has large holdings of Emily Dix plant material, which was purchased from her in 1947-48. However, there is no Warwickshire material among the 600 or so catalogued specimens which are almost all from South Wales, or Holland, Belgium and Germany. Luckily, we recently uncovered two crates in our remote store which also contained Emily Dix Carboniferous plant material. These had never been opened and contained material wrapped in newspapers dating from 1947 and 1948. It is possible that these came via L.Hawkes at Bedford College. One of these crates contained duplicate material from South...

The life and times of James Jeffray, Regius Professor of Anatomy, University of Glasgow 1790-1848.

James Jeffray, Regius Professor of Anatomy at Glasgow University from 1790 -1848, worked at a time when the only legal support of material for dissection was the bodies of hanged criminals. The Napoleonic Wars created a large demand for anatomical teaching and Jeffray saw the height of the body-snatching era. At Glasgow University, Jeffray supervised the establishment of the Hunterian Museum, negotiated a separate Chair of Botany and was a prime mover in founding the Botanic Gardens. The fetal circulation was a special interest and he is remembered as the inventor of the chain saw, which he designed from a watch chain for use in excision of diseased joints in an effort to prevent amputation.

Book reviews: Rise and fall of the chief anatomist

Nicolaas A. Rupke, Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist . New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1994. Pp. 480, £35.00. ISBN 0 300 05820 9 Although the debates between Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley were the source of much satire and humour in the mid nineteenth century, an underlying bitterness fuelled much of that laughter. Richard Owen’s life, here presented by Nicolaas Rupke in a full-scale biography for the first time in this century, contains within it many of the elements of classical tragedy. He was in his youth a man of uncommon charm and ability, recognized as an important scientist in his early thirties, and rising to high position by the age of 35. As an assistant to the curator of the Hunterian Museum, William Clift, the young man married his boss’s daughter. In his forties and fifties, he was the museum man par excellence , the scientist who dined with dukes and princes, recipient of a grace-and-favour home near Richmond Park. Yet this man, a highly successful lecturer, began to lose his audience in the 1860s, and although he retained the support of his patrons was accused of intellectual dishonesty by his peers. The greatest tragedy was perhaps to outlive his fame. While retaining positions and accomplishing the building of the great new natural history branch of the British Museum, he had lost his central position in defining his own field, comparative anatomy. After his death, his grandson turned to his old enemy T.H. Huxley to evaluate the importance of Owen’s science.

20th Annual General Meeting

8th December 1993 at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. 19 members attended. 1. Apologies for absence Received from Diana Hawkes, Kate Pontin, Mick Stanley, Tom Sharpe, Peter Crowther, John Cooper, Roy Clements, Chris Collins, Steve McLean,RosinaDown, Gill Weightman, John Martin, Phil Doughty, Kenneth James, Kate Andrews, Mike Taylor, Andy Newman, Steve Tunnicliff, David Devenish, Hugh Ivimey-Cook and Rosemary Roden. 2. Minutes of the 19th Annual General Meeting 1992 An error was noted in point three of the minutes where, on the second line down, Mark Simmons needed to be replaced by Steve Thompson. After this one alteration the minutes were approved and signed by the Chairman as a true record. 3. Matters arising There were none. 4. Chairman's Report...

The Roman Temporary Camp at Dunning, Perthshire: Evidence from Two Recent Excavations

Recent years have seen excavation at two points on the perimeter of the Roman temporary camp at Dunning. The first excavation, in spring 1988, adjacent to the known northern entrance to the camp, was conducted by Dr Lawrence Keppie of the Hunterian Museum, on behalf of Historic Scotland, in advance of pipe-laying by British Gas Scotland. In autumn 1992 excavation of the western entrance to the Roman camp was directed by Andrew Dunwell of the Centre for Field Archaeology, in advance of a housing development by A. & J. Stephen (Builders) Ltd of Perth. The projects were funded by Historic Scotland and A. & J. Stephen (Builders) Ltd respectively.

David Ure and the first illustrations of British fossil Ostracoda

Abstract. 1993 is the bicenntenary of the publication of David Ure’s classic work, The History of Rutherglen and East-Kilbride, published with a view to promote the study of antiquity and natural history, and with it the start of studies in Britain of fossil ostracods. To commemorate this occasion, the 2nd. European Ostracodologists Meeting was held in the University of Glasgow July 23–27th, 1993.David Ure was born in 1750 the son of a weaver, a product of the Scottish enlightenment, who studied at Glagow Grammar School and then at the University of Glasgow. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1783, and soon after was appointed Assistant Minister at East Kilbride, where he remained for seven years. During this time he collected material for his great work which was published after he had left East Kilbride for Newcastle.David Ure’s book was financed by public subscription, and amongst the 700 subscribers can be found many Professors from the Scottish Universities as well as the eminent geologists James Hutton and John Playfair. This was the heroic age of geology, when careful observations were leading to an understanding of basic principles. David Ure is often regarded as the "Father of Scottish Palaeontology". His book contains the first illustrations of fossils from Scotland, and is fairly unique for the period because his specimens are still preserved in the collections of the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow and the City Museum and Art Gallery, Kelvingrove, Glasgow. The macrofossils are beautifully drawn, . . .

Carboniferous coprolitic bacteria from the Ardross Shrimp Bed, Fife

The Ardross Shrimp Bed of eastern Fife is well known as the type locality for the eumalacostracan crustacean, Crangopsis socialis (Salter 1861) (Schram 1979). Associated with this crustacean is a rather poorly preserved, although diverse, fish fauna, along with plants, brachiopods, bivalves and a few other arthropods (Peach 1902, White 1937), but hitherto, no conodonts. The fauna is typical of the low-energy restricted marine to brackish water deposits which are preserved intermittently throughout the Carboniferous in Scotland (Schram 1981, Schram 1983; Wood 1982; Briggs and Clarkson 1983, 1985a, b; Clarkson 1985a, b). Conodonts, while rare in these restricted environments, are not unknown, occasional complete conodont animals having been found at Muirhouse, near Edinburgh (Briggs et al. 1983; Aldridge et al. 1986; Aldridge 1987; Aldridge et al. 1988). As the environment of deposition is similar to that of other crustacean-bearing shales, it was likely that conodonts would eventually be found at the Ardross locality. However, if their discovery is not unexpected, their state of preservation is; the conodonts being present in what appears to be a bacteria-rich coprolite of a conodontophagous animal. This represents the first record of bacterial structures in a coprolite of a conodontophagous animal and the first conodonts recorded from the Ardross Shrimp Bed. Material The coprolite specimen (HM Y77a–c), which is held in the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow, is associated with two specimens of Crangopsis socialis on the same fragment of shale. A small fragment (HM Y77c) was prepared for scanning electron microscopy. Description The strand of . . .

Craniopagus parasiticus: Everard Home's Two-Headed Boy of Bengal and some other cases

Craniopagus parasiticus, or épicome, is a rare teratological type, of which only six cases have been recorded in the medical literature. It differs from craniopagus conjoined twins in that the body and limbs of the parasitic twin are underdeveloped, leaving in some cases only a parasitic head, inserted on the crown of the autositic twin. The first case of this malformation was Everard Home's famous Two-Headed Boy of Bengal, whose skull is preserved at the Hunterian Museum. In this historical review, Home's case is presented in some detail, and the later cases are used to explain further some of its particulars.

Manganese cemented Quaternary gravels: birnessite, lithiophorite and quenselite from an example in Wigtownshire

There are at least eleven recorded examples of manganese oxides cementing drift gravels in Scotland (Table 1). However, the mineralogy of these deposits has been largely neglected, the only study being that of Jones and Milne (1956) in Aberdeenshire. These authors discovered the mineral birnessite [(Ca, Na)Mn7O14·3H2O)], which is now known to be a common manganese mineral in modern soil horizons (McKenzie 1980). Literature accounts (Table 1) indicated that the most extensive exposures of managanese cements occurred at the Poltalloch and Luce Bay localities. The former site is no longer exposed, but samples were collected from Luce Bay. In addition, specimens from the two Loch Fyne sites were available in the Hunterian Museum collection and these were also examined to further delineate the mineralogy of the manganese cements. X-ray diffraction techniques (described below) demonstrated that the Loch Fyne cements are composed only of amorphous “wad”. Emphasis was therefore placed on the more extensive cements at Luce Bay. Morphology. The black manganese cement and staining at Luce Bay occur in an 8 m (25 ft) raised beach deposit which extends from Auchenmaig \[NX 233 518] to the Craignarget Burn [NX 261 511\] (Geikie 1878). The beach is composed of well rounded, pebble-sized clasts which show imbrication in places. The manganese oxides (recorded by Paterson–Nesbet 1959 and Yates 1966) are exposed in the section of the raised beach cut by the Craignarget Burn [NX 261 511]. They appear as distinct dark patches, up to 2 m above the stream bed, covering . . .

Sponsored Fossils

This article about the exhibition 'Mr Wood's Fossils' is based on one that appeared in the Summer 1986 issue of Scottish Museum News and is reproduced by permission of the Scottish Museums Council. A future article in Geol. Curator will bring the story of the exhibition up to date. A review of the exhibition's opening at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow appeared in Geol. Curator 4, p.502.

Now and Then: new series about geological sites of note

The idea for this series developed from an enquiry made some years ago by Ian Rolfe of the Hunterian Museum. He asked whether or not the unique source of Upper Carboniferous Arthropoda at Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale, would be a practical candidate for an NCC sponsored site clearance scheme. The bulk of the interesting fossil material was extracted from the site in the early years of this century but nothing was known (by Dr Rolfe or the writer) of Sparth's subsequent history.

Museum file 3: Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow

Geology TodayVolume 1, Issue 4 p. 125-127 Museum file 3: Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow First published: July 1985 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2451.1985.tb00307.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume1, Issue4July 1985Pages 125-127 RelatedInformation