Two Very Unusual Medical Museums In Paris

There are two museums here in Paris that certainly are not run of the mill, and one of them, is certainly not for the faint of heart!  Both are fabulously interesting from a medically historic viewpoint and for those curious souls, who want a look back into the past!

I visited them both again this weekend in order to share with you a peak into the horrible illnesses that were commonplace, and treatment of the mentally ill. Health care was extremely challenged,  filled with dubious forms of treatment, but one museum demonstrated  ingenious ways of teaching doctors in training.

Le Musée des Moulages Dermatologique has to be the most splendid visual catalogization of skin diseases in the world!  It won’t take you long before you will want to get on your knees in gratitude for the miraculous discovery of penicillin that has led to modern day antibiotics.

I didn’t get as many photos as wanted, before I was told that they were not allowed, but what I did capture is painful enough for you to imagine the immense suffering these poor patients endured. The museum is quite large with cases of every skin disease on record in various stages of development and on various body parts.                   

The museum is within the campus of Hospital Saint Louis, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, which was built in 1616 to house and treat the thousands of bubonic plague patients that were overflowing Hôpital Dieu.

The museum was started in 1865 as a way of teaching dermatology to young resident doctors, first with water colours and drawings, but quickly expanded to wax mouldings of various skin diseases, that to this day remain extremely life like, as much as the wax figures in Musée Grevin. .

The collection is vast with over 4,000 mouldings,  the last made in 1958.  It was a first of its kind, making Hôpital Saint Louis famous world wide for dermatological diagnosis,  research and treatment.

Though photography and video now constitutes the main way of cataloging diseases, you will see superb photographic like figures of patients with lesions, and deformities rarely, if ever seen today, due to strives in modern medicine.

Each wax moulding was moulded from real patients, both adult and pediatric,  who displayed skin lesions, tumors, facial and limb disfigurements, caused by the multitudes of skin afflictions.  There are representations of the various stages of different diseases, from beginning to end stage.

The vast majority of them were made by Julles Baretta, starting in 1867, whose artistry is breathtaking in realism.  After moulding the wax to patients, he would then take notes to the exact colours noted and he faithfully reproduced exactly how they looked by painting.

Without a doubt, the most repulsive and hideous of disfigurements were caused by syphilis, seen above.  Mainly caught and spread by sexual contact, or congenitally, there were recurring outbreaks starting around 1495.

Tertiary syphilis or third stage caused in some patients huge bulbous tumours on the face and elsewhere, in addition to insanity or motor difficulties.  It also disintegrated and destroyed bone tissue, leaving some patients without a nose or jaws.

It wasn’t until 1838, that French physician Phillipe Ricord differentiated it from other diseases and described the three stages. It was treated mostly with mercury elixirs and ointments, then arsenic and mercury, and even inoculation of high fever producing malaria. .

These treatments were often deadly themselves, and never offered a cure. It wasn’t till 1913 that the Treponema Pallidum was found to the causative bacterium, and till 1943, that penicillin proved to finally cure those infected if given during the first two stages.

The horrific effects of latter stages of syphilis rare immaculately preserved and are of immense historical significance in medical science.  The same visual reproduction of leprosy, and end stage tuberculosis joint deformities, that you will not see today are also there.

Aside from the grotesque disfigurements, the saddest were the infantile patients who had congenital syphilis, born to syphilitic mothers.  I am sure that the majority of todays dermatologists have never seen in their practice , the sickening and tortuous late stages of skin diseases, that were then common day occurrences.

The other museum, Musée de Psychiatrie et Neuro Science is located within Hôpital Saint Anne in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.   Saint Anne’s is the largest psychiatric hospital in Paris and is a renown center of psychiatric and neurologic research, that I wrote about in a previous post.

There you will find the first  electroconvulsive machines used here, along with other medical objects and  instruments from the past.  Though this museum is small and certainly not as vast and complete as the main medical museum of Paris, currently closed for renovation, it nevertheless presents a window into some treatments from the past,

There are documents from the Saint Anne psychiatrist, co-researcher and developer of chlorpromazine, or Thorazine. Also on display are instruments that were used in lobotomies.

Painted tiles by patients from the past give an inside view into their interpretations of either their surroundings and some treatments.  All of these may not be a completely accurate depiction of the actual care,  but are nevertheless very interesting.

Some ancient psychiatric treatments can be said to have bordered on torture that were used to calm patients in full psychosis, delirium and or mania.  The one showing patients being hosed down with sprays of cold water or dropping them in water are examples.

It was the French physician, Dr. Philippe Pinel,  considered the father of modern psychiatry, who was the first to propose treating mentally ill patients in a humane manner, and who revolutionised psychiatric care in general.  Though he was one of the physicians at Saint Anne, he primarily oversaw care at Hôpital La Pitié Salpetriere.

The old fashioned camisole or straight jacket, seen in the photo was indeed more humane and effective in restraining an extremely agitated patient, than being chained before the days of antipsychotics and modern day calming agents, though some opiate preparations were used in psychiatric treatment.

An exhibition of paintings, in another setting, done by patients, I found interesting, in that despite cultural differences, many psychosis related by patients are universally the same.  Portrayals of being chased by demon, devils, and underground agents of doom and fear, like fiery dragons and the dead are very common agents of psychotic events.

The Saint Anne medical library is open to all and I found a treasure of old journals and as seen in the photo some books from 1500’s detailing psychosis as manifestations of sorcery and witchcraft and the proposed treatments. The fantastic Pinel book, which I read,  documents his observations and diagnosis that any psychiatric clinician would absolutely marvel in reading.

Tragically, some nurses and doctors, like the nurse seen in the photo were deported during the Nazi occupation of Paris.  Many risked their lives in hiding patients in the under ground quarries below the hospital.

Saint Anne was the first psychiatric hospital to also offer a library for patients.  In the past, books were considered not appropriate for them, out of fear that it could cause further agitation or add to delusional states.

It might be easy for us to laugh or snicker at treatments  used  many years ago, but I find it likewise as arrogant to think that all of our modern day explanations of diseases and treatments have the final say.   Hundred of years from now, some of our theories and treatment approaches may seem as inefficace and barbarous as we may find some from the past. 

Research in psychiatry, in comparison to other specialities is still young, and neurobiology and  neurophysiology even younger.  There are still many unknowns that persist to the complex causal factors of psychiatric illness and the best treatment modalities.

With the thousands of possible mutations of viral agents and bacteria, some playing out today, these museums remind us that we are almost as vulnerable as those pitiful patients whose suffering in wax is preserved for antiquity.

Food for thoughtful conjecture, is that as humanity continues to evolve technically and scientifically to the degree that we think we have it made,  so do agents of disease and prevailing doom, some known and I suspect many others, that we can’t even fathom yet. What do you think?