INTERVIEW WITH RYAN MATTHEW COHN
By Charlie Hintz on November 22, 2013 Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum is offering the chance to help preserve the skulls from the 150+ year old Hyrtl collection. The collection, on display at the Mütter Museum,consists of 139 skulls collected by Viennese anatomist Joseph Hyrtl in the 1800s. Hyrtl was w orking to debunk p hrenology, a popular pseudoscience at the time that claimed mental processes were handled by separate organs making up the brain. He collected skulls from executions, suicides, and at least once hired grave robbers to gather specimens for his research. Though gruesome and barbaric by today’s standards, this now provides us the unique opportunity to adopt the skulls of prostitutes, robbers, gypsies, and people who gave up the ghost in bizarre ways, such as a man who died of “self-inflicted removal of testicles” and a tight rope walker who broke his neck. Hyrtl, whose collection may once have included the skull of Mozart, sold his skulls to the Mütter Museum in 1874. The collection is being damaged by the footsteps of visitors vibrating through the original cast iron mounts. You can adopt one of these skulls for $200, which helps pay for the initial cleaning, repair and remounting of your chosen skull. It will also get you a plaque with your name beside the skull for a year. Get more info and browse the skulls available for adoption here: http://www.collegeofphysicians.org/saveourskulls/
RYAN MATTHEW COHN THE BONE COLLECTOR
W
e find Ryan Matthew Cohn’s skeletal world extremely intriguing. Who wouldn’t, what with all those bones and that keen, stylish eye for all things archaic. So we thought we’d jump in a cab and head over to the ODDITIES star’s magnificent place in Greenpoint Brooklyn and snap some
pics of this sharply dressed gentleman. His apartment is like a museum with so many hauntingly quirky relics that are on display. After wrapping a fun afternoon of hanging out and shooting, he invited us to jump into his sleek black 1955 Thunderbird convertible for a quick spin in beautiful NYC
Rx: When we first met you some years back you were the bass player for the rock band The Stalkers? RYAN MATTHEW COHN: I was actually the g uitar player in the band. Rx: Weren’t you also a jewelry designer? RYAN MATTHEW COHN: Yes, I still do quite a lot of jewelry design. I started out as an assistant to the gentleman who was the very first jeweler to work with Ralph Lauren. I did a lot of designing and small runs for Polo, Ralph Lauren, RRL and other companies for some time. That lead to the opening of Against Nature Atelier which I co-founded. The skills I learned as a jewelry maker/metalsmith have been a great addition to my current profession as an osteologist. All my metalwork for the skulls I make is done by hand. A lot of great detail and intricacy is involved in the design of my creations.
Rx: And how did you get into bone collecting? RYAN MATTHEW COHN: Bone collecting came naturally to me as I have been collecting this subject matter since I was very young. I had a fascination with anatomy ever since I was a child and was originally interested in going to college for medical illustration. Somehow I got sidetracked, joined a band, and went on tour for a while. All the while I would pick up antiquities along the way. My c ollection comes from many years of obsessively striving to find new interesting things along my many travels. Rx: Did you ever think that you could make a living practicing your trade? RYAN MATTHEW COHN: I have always been the type of person to follow my dream and just do what I do whether that be on a professional level or doing things that bring me happiness. I have always had a good level of self-control and drive, but also the desire to learn everything that accompanies what I am doing at the time. I feel lucky.
INTERVEIW Rx: How did being cast on ODDITIES come about?
Rx: Do you get recognized on the street all the time?
RYAN MATTHEW COHN: Obscura (Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson) was approached by a production company called Leftfield, who are known for the show PAWN STARS. And they were interested in a show focused on our lives, business, and what we do. We basically sat in front of a camera andexplained what we do on a daily basis. We r eally never thought we would get a call back due to how niche this subject matter is.
RYAN MATTHEW COHN: I do find it funny enough. It happens a lot at restaurants. It’s always funny and a little awkward when you find candid pictures of yourself online that you never knew were taken.
Rx: You’ve obviously been catapulted into some kind of fame from being on television. What’s that like?
Rx: And lastly, we are so green with envy of your mint Thunderbird. Any plans on purchasing any more classic cars?
RYAN MATTHEW COHN: It’s interesting to say the least. I never strived to become a TV p ersonality; it just happened one day. I try and be nice and appreciative when people are interested in what I do.
Rx: With the overwhelming archive of bones, etc. that you have collected, would you ever have any interest in opening your own museum? RYAN MATTHEW COHN: I think a museum is definietly in the 5 year plan.
RYAN MATTHEW COHN: Ah, yes, the Famed 55 T-bird! I think I have my eyes set on a 1960 Jaguar xk-150. We’ll see. New York is not the best place for vintage cars.
Garry Stretch Tunner
A RARE SKIN DISORDER By JAY SCHADLER
“I’m built rather like a badly woven basket” Norwich, England, is home to rolling rivers, quaint streets and old churches, so it might be s urprising to learn that it’s also home to the Circus of H orrors. From the bearded lady to the elephant man, mysterious medical conditions have a long history of attracting audiences to a circus tent. And those days have not disappeared. The crowd lining up in a theater lobby for tonight’s performance proves the “freak show” is not a thing of the past. The Circus of Horrors is a touring extravaganza, packing the house wherever it goes. It features everything people don’t want to see but can’t stop looking at. The show includes all sorts of characters with all sorts of body piercings and tattoos. But the star of this show is 37-year-old Garry “Stretch” Turner, and his
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Turner suffers from an extreme case of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that can severely weaken a person’s joints, blood vessels and in T urner’s case, skin. The disorder, which most commonly attacks a person’s joints, a ffects about one in 10,000 people. However, the odds of Turner’s special variety of the disease are astronomical. The skin on Turner’s body is truly elastic. “If [you] … look at your own skin cells under a microscope, they’d be nice and round and lock in many places. … But my skin cells tend to be more jagged, and don’t fit together quite so well,” he said. “The best way to describe it is I’m built rather like a badly woven basket, if you can imagine that, which will pull apart.”Normal human body cells are held together by a kind of chemical glue called collagen, which keeps them tightly bound. But the collagen of someone with EDS is misshapen and loose, which, in the most extreme and rare circumstances,
Paper Thin Skin Backstage at the Circus of Horrors, Turner demonstrates how the skin on parts of his body can be pulled away. “There’s areas of skin, like on the belly, for instance, that will stretch a lot further,” he said. “It’s actually twice as thin as regular skin,” he continued. “Although you wouldn’t believe it to look at it … it is actually quite paper thin.” Turner’s condition was obvious from the day he was born. “The midwife said that I had very loose skin, and that was the only clue [my mother] remembers … I had loose skin.” Growing up, Turner loved sports, but injuries were constant until his condition was d iagnosed at age 13. “I used to get horrendous bruising when I used to take a knock, and a blood vessel would burst,” he said. “The blood would just keep pumping and pumping, and there’s no tension in the skin to hold the bleeding. The physicians just thought I was a hemophiliac.” Though Turner’s skin has made him oddly famous, his joints command his agonizing attention. From the moment he wakes up, he’s in pain. The EDS that loosens his skin also makes his joints excruciatingly frail, a condition
Making a Living Back at the Circus of Horrors, “Stretch” Turner uses his EDS to make a living. As for Turner, his doctors believe that, despite his curious condition, he is likely to live a normal life. Normal — as anyone in the circus will tell you — is a matter of interpretation, though. For more information on Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: Ehlers-Danlos Support Group
High Frequency Electric Medicine
A selection of images from High Frequency Electric Currents in Medicine and Dentistry (1910) by champion of electro-therapeutics Samuel Howard Monell, a physician who the American X-Ray J ournal cite, rather wonderfully, as having “done more for s tatic electricity than any other living man”. Although the use of electricity to treat physical ailments could be seen to stretch back to the when the ancient Greeks first used live electric fish to numb the body in pain, it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries – through the work of Luigi Galvani and Guillaume Duchenne – that the idea really took hold. that his high frequency
A History Of Snake Oil Salemen "Snake Oil S alesman." The phrase conjures up images of seedy profiteers t rying to e xploit an u nsuspecting public by selling it fake cures. In fact, the O xford E nglish D ictionary d efines snake oil as "a quack r emedy or p anacea." What the OED does not note, h owever, is that the history of snake oil is linked to an often f orgotten c hapter of Asian-American h istory.
Made from the oil of the Chinese w ater snake, which is rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation, snake oil in its original form was effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis.
Because the words "snake oil" are so evocative, it has been a favorite go-to phrase for politicians and lobbying groups on both sides of the aisle. Earlier this month, K entucky Sen. Mitch McConnell called his opponent in the Republican primary, Tea Party candidate Matt Bevin, a snake oil salesman in a campaign mailer. While campaigning for a second term last year, President Obama referred to the Romney-Ryan tax plan as "trickle-down snake oil" at a rally. In 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund took out full-page ads in The Washington Post to denounce then-President George W. Bush's plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling it "100 percent snake oil." But what, exactly, is snake oil? And why is peddling it such a terrible thing?
The 1800s saw thousands of Chinese workers arriving in the United States as indentured laborers to work on the Transcontinental Railroad. According to historian Richard White’s book Railroaded, about 180,000 Chinese immigrated to the United States between 1849 and 1882. The vast majority of the workers came from peasant families in southeastern China and were signed to contracts that ran up to five years for relatively low wages (compared with their white counterparts), wrote David Haward Bain in his book Empire Express. Among the items the Chinese railroad workers brought with them to the States were various medicines — including snake oil. Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, which is rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation, snake oil in its original form really was effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis.
The workers would rub the oil, used for centuries in China, on their joints after a long hard day at work. The story goes that the Chinese workers began sharing the oil with some American counterparts, who marveled at the effects. So how did a legitimate medicine become a symbol of fraud? The origins of snake oil as a derogatory phrase trace back to the latter half of the 19th century, which saw a d ramatic rise in the p opularity of “ patent medicines.” Often sold on the back pages of n ewspapers, these tonics promised to cure a wide variety of ailments including chronic pain, headaches, “female complaints” and kidney trouble. In time, all of these false “cures” began to be referred to as snake oil. As word of the healing p owers of Chinese snake oil grew, many Americans wondered how they could make their own snake oil here in the United States. Because there were no Chinese water snakes handy in the American West, many healers began using rattlesnakes to make their own versions of snake oil. This set the stage for entrepreneur Clark Stanley, aka The Rattlesnake King. In an 1897 pamphlet about S tanley’s life and exploits, the former cowboy claimed he had learned about the healing power of rattlesnake oil from Hopi medicine men.
He never publicly mentioned Chinese snake oil at all. Stanley created a huge stir at the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago when he took a live snake and sliced it open before a crowd of onlookers. There were two major problems with Stanley’s claim about his oil: First, rattlesnake oil was far less effective than the original Chinese snake oil it was trying to emulate. A 1989 letter to The Western Journal of Medicine from psychiatrist and researcher Richard Kunin revealed that the Chinese oil contained almost triple the amount of a vital acid as did rattlesnake oil. Secondly, Stanley’s Snake Oil didn’t contain any snake oil at all. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 sought to clamp down on the sale of patent medicines and it was that legislation that led to Stanley’s undoing. After seizing a shipment of Stanley’s Snake Oil in 1917, federal investigators found that it primarily contained mineral oil, a fatty oil believed to be beef fat, red pepper and turpentine. That’s right — Stanley’s signature product did not contain a drop of actual snake oil, and hundreds of consumers discovered they had been had. It was probably around then that snake oil became symbolic of fraud. Snake oil salesmen and traveling doctors became stock characters in American Westerns.
The first written usage of the phrase appeared in Stephen Vincent Benet’s epic 1927 poem John Brown’s Body, when the poet refers to “Crooked creatures of a thousand dubious trades ... sellers of snake-oil balm and lucky rings.” About 30 years later, playwright Eugene O’Neill referred to snake oil in his 1956 play The Iceman Cometh, when a character suggested that a rival was “standing on a street corner in hell right now, making suckers of the damned, telling them there’s nothing like snake oil for a bad burn.” Stanley did not dispute the charges.
How did a legitimate medicine become a symbol of fraud?