The State Library is taking visitors behind the curtain of Western medicine’s macabre history in a new immersive, if macabre, exhibition.
Senior Curator at the State Library, Elise Edmonds said the new exhibition Kill or Cure? A Taste of Medicine will be open until January next year, admitting ‘day patients’ into a hospital-like setting with 10 treatment rooms.
“Here, you’ll experience the dubious, dangerous and often deadly techniques used to diagnose and treat the sick and diseased from 15th to the 19th century,” Ms Edmonds said.
“The exhibition draws from over 60 rare books in the Library’s collection to reveal some of the powerful and enduring ideas from Western medicine that have since been debunked — from the influence of astrology and healing chants and prayers to more barbaric practices,” she said.
“Then there are the hero moments, of medical advances that we take for granted today.”
Ms Edmonds said visitors could take a seat in the waiting area where ABC health/science reporter, Tegan Taylor, would explain the four humours (from Ancient Greece through to the 19th century) which underpinned all medical thinking in leading a balanced, healthy life.
“If the body became sick or diseased, it was understood that their humours were out of balance (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm),” the Senior Curator said.
“This often resulted in a visit to the barber-surgeon for some bloodletting or leeching.”
She said that inside the Library’s treatment rooms people would meet the bloodletting man and learn how astrology was used to determine the right time to open a vein. Meanwhile in the ‘Pharmacy’ visitors could hear “quack” doctors spruiking dangerous cures from behind an interactive wall.
“Inside the ‘Operating Theatre’ you’ll see instruments that will make your skin crawl,” Ms Edmonds said.
“The operating table ‘installation’ brings to life the trauma of surgery pre-anaesthesia.”
She said some of the strangest thinking in the 16th and 17th centuries was reserved for women, “in the ‘Obstetrics’ room hear bemusing theories about the wandering womb, virgin’s disease and mysteries of menstruation.”
Further information on the State Library’s Kill or Cure? A Taste of Medicine exhibition can be accessed at this PS News link.
