![\"Image](\"http:\/\/static.atlasobscura.com\/images\/place\/urology-museum.8215.main.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A fascinating museum dedicated to the under-appreciated medical history of urology featuring some wince inducing devices<\/b><\/p>\n
Few people take the time to appreciate how far the medicine of urology has come, unless of course you are afflicted with Gallstones. (edit: kidney stones?)
\nIt wasn’t long a go that a gallstone was a life threatening affair. Among the historical figures who suffered from the painful bladder stones are Napoleon Bonaparte, Peter the Great, Louis XIV, Oliver Cromwell, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and famous diarist Samuel Pepys, who after surviving the operation to remove the stone (an operation that often killed those who underwent it) celebrated the occasion every year with a huge feast.
\nBenjamin Franklin fashioned a silver catheter for himself and his brother both of whom suffered from the stones. Such was the power of one who could successfully remove the stone that Fr\u00e8re Jacques Beaulieu – a famous French “lithotomist” or one who removed gallstones – name lives on in the French children’s song “Fr\u00e8re Jacques.” That’s right, “Fr\u00e8re Jacques” is quite possibly about a Renaissance era urologist.
\nIt was in fact a rich patient, Brady, a Gilded Age entrepreneur who funded the John Hopkins Brady Urological Institute after being successfully treated for gallstones. Today Gallstones are treated regularly and with little fanfare. With new techniques, surgery isn’t even necessary and the stones can be broken up with sound waves. The William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History located in the American Urological Association’s headquarters (which is still closely tied with the John Hopkins Brady Urological Institute) celebrates this and many other breakthroughs in urology.
\nStarted not by a doctor, but by William P. Didusch a medical illustrator who focused in urology, the museum contains most of Didusch’s original drawings, as well as an impressive instrument collection, with hundreds of scopes, most important among them the collection of nearly 600 cystoscopes.
\nThe Cystoscope, an instrument inserted into the urethra and used by urologists to see the inside of the bladder and urethra, was a revolution in Urology. It allowed doctors to diagnose patients without performing surgery to see what the problem was. However, it is not without some sympathetic wincing that one views the older, and larger of the Cystoscopes. The museum also keeps a collection of urology related historical medical texts, among them the pamphlet aptly and humorously named “Pisse-Prophet.”
\nBesides the cystoscopes, among the most curious items in the urological collection are walking canes to held catheters, a collection of more than 30 microscopes dating back to the 1700’s, and an enormous “pineapple sized” bladder stone.
\nThe museum has rotating exhibits which have included “Sexuality: Perception and Performance Throughout History” which displayed a jade phallus, anti-masturbation devices (a ring with spikes on the inside) and penile silicone implants from the 1980s, “Fad, Fraud, Future? Quackery and Nostrums in Urology” and currently “Remedies and Recipes” about historical treatments for urological ailments. Many of the items from past exhibits can still be seen on display.
\nIn case the museum really happens to catch your attention and you are qualified, you can join the staff as the museum is currently looking for a curator. Viewing the collection is free but by appointment only.<\/p>\n
Read more about Urology Museum on Atlas Obscura…<\/a><\/p>\n Category: Strange Science<\/a>, Medical Museums<\/a>, Unique Collections<\/a> Urology Museum A fascinating museum dedicated to the under-appreciated medical history of urology featuring some wince inducing devices Few people take the time to appreciate how far the medicine of urology has come, unless of course you are afflicted with Gallstones. (edit: kidney stones?) It wasn’t long a go that a gallstone was a life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3562,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Location: Linthicum Census Designated Place<\/a>, Maryland<\/a>, US<\/a>
Edited by: Dylan<\/a>
<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"