BETA
Chapter 1
The visionary behind the cabinet
Chapter 2
Legends of the display cases
Chapter 3
Secrets of the skull and brain
Chapter 4
Ethics of the dead
YOUR GOAL
Master of The Mutter Museum
Ch 3 · Secrets of the skull and brain
misslily Match skulls to their medical mysteries to discover how bones tell a person's life story.
misslily The Hyrtl Skull Collection
We read the writing on the bone—(on the bone!)—the mind was never carved in stone—(never in stone!)
misslily A unique display of thousands of swallowed objects highlights a doctor's life-saving innovations.
misslily Joseph Hyrtl gathered 139 human skulls to prove that head shape does not determine intelligence or personality.
Fun Fact
Einstein's brain: Pathologist Thomas Harvey kept Einstein's brain in a cider box under a beer cooler for years before it was studied.
Glossary
phrenology (noun)
A pseudoscience involving the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl collected 139 skulls, acquired in 1874, to disprove this flawed theory.
A pseudoscience involving the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl collected 139 skulls, acquired in 1874, to disprove this flawed theory.
Gossip
Would you want your brain sliced and studied by scientists after you pass away?
Quiz
What 19th-century pseudoscience did Joseph Hyrtl's skull collection help disprove?
Quiz
What specialty did Dr. Chevalier Jackson practice to save people from swallowed objects?
Quiz
In what year was the rare, complete human nervous system dissection at the museum completed?