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 On January 20, 1998, I arrived at the Landesmuseum
für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim about 8:45 a.m. Hundreds of people were already
lined up to see the exhibit. So many people, in fact, wanted to see the mummies that the
Museum had to close its main door and reroute visitors through a basement entrance. And
even though the Museum was not supposed to open until 9 a.m., visitors were allowed to
enter early.
The exhibit (called Körperwelten in German) began with an
overview of mummification, especially as used for medical knowledge, but quickly focused
on the plasticene mummies (also used for medical knowledge) made by the Institute for
Plastination.
- The first plastic mummies were fairly easy to take.
A skeleton,
some bones, a dissected ear, and (most interesting) actual thin slices of bodies
(cross-sections) that allow a person to get an idea of what the hand (or foot or abdomen)
is made of, for example. Since they were placed between plastic, these cross-sections
looked like human slides for huge microscopes. This section contained many human body
parts removed from a body to show certain medical conditions: knees and hips that had had
metal joint replacements. Arms or legs (that had been removed from a body and plasticized)
clearly showed the muscles and ligaments. All very easy to take.
- A bit harder on the eyes were the mummies that
demonstrated the nervous system. Here all of the body had been removed, except for parts
of the skeleton and the nerves. These mummies had a "Goosebumps-cover" look:
skeletons with nerves jutting from the cheeks and jaws and spinal cords and fingers and
legs--along with nice views of exposed brain. In this part of the exhibit there were
also cross sections of brains, along with actual brains on display. Many of the cross
sections displayed diseased brains. Much harder to stomach.
- The next part dealt with the digestive tract--yes, many
miles of nice pink intestines--along with gall bladders, stomachs, livers.
And then
came the lungs, along with the hearts nestled between them. There were more aortas and
heart chambers than you would ever want to see in your life in the exhibit--plus skeleton
mummies that showed the major arteries and veins in bright red color.
- Then on display were the "Whole Body"
mummies, the part of the exhibit that has perhaps caused the most controversy. These
mummies have been "carved up" to show certain features of the human anatomy.
So one gentleman has had most of his skull as well as his
chest removed to give a better view of what lies inside the deep muscle layers. When you
see a mummy such as this, it only takes seconds for you to realize: this was once a real
live human being (who also gave his permission to be turned into a mummy!). Is this
something you would do?
And there was the man whose skin had been removed. He holds
it up--all of it (and there is a lot of skin, complete with what looked like calluses on
his feet), displaying his muscles and tendons. The skin, when removed looks like a
large deflated balloon (the color of a latex glove).
Not to forget the man whose face has been removed from his
skull and placed above it, so that his mouth is resting on his brain and beneath the brain
the skull has been sawed to show its different components--not for the faint-of-heart.
This is called "the Longitudinally Expanded Body."
And the man who was sawed in half, from the top of his head
down to his groin, and separated into two halves--with the inside organs placed between
the halves (kind of like an organ sandwich on human baguette). The exhibit refers to this
mummy as "the Laterally Expanded Body."
I was brave. I took my (then) seven-year-old son David with
me, and he was braver. He made it halfway through the exhibit before he asked to leave. We did--by walking
through the remainder of the exhibit to the exit. David stopped looking; I couldn't stop
looking. (And I must report that David did not suffer from the visit: no nightmares, no
haunting visions of skeletons with nerve endings protruding from the eye sockets....)
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