28 February 2006

25 Million Exhibits!

So besides tending to our troops Walter Reed is a repository for a massive collection of medical oddities, specimens and memorabilia.

That's pretty impressive. With the pending closure of Walter Reed, the new more modern facility they are constructing to tend to the troops will probably not be built to house these objects, I think a perfect place to move all these to would be Las Vegas. Plenty of room to build, plenty of curious people who could fund a research facility for better study of this treasure trove while providing education as well as satiating a desire to witness the macabre.

Oh and I can't not excerpt this bit from the AP article:

And there are exhibits that show -- sometimes in gruesome detail -- how the body functions in sickness and health. Besides gawking at the giant hair ball and swollen leg, visitors can see deformed fetuses, including a pair of conjoined twins floating in a small jar. There's also a skeleton, sitting in a rocking chair, of a man who had such severe arthritis that all his bones fused together.

"I was like, ewww!" said Kisses Martinez, a pathology student who visited the museum. "It opens up your eyes to a lot of things."

Only 1 percent of the museum's approximately 25 million artifacts are on display at any one time, Solomon said. In the past, many specimens were laid out for all to see _ often with little explanation. Now, however, the museum strives to provide context with story-driven exhibits.

Her name is Kisses?, and she's a pathology student, and she says, "I was like, ewww!". This does not compute. This frightens me. That's all.

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