14 minute read
Anatomy
from The List 763
The National Museum Of Scotland’s latest exhibition pokes around in Edinburgh’s anatomical past. Megan Merino gingerly draws back a mortcloth on the ethical complexities of medical advancement
It may now be internationally known for its annual arts celebrations, but back in the late 18th century, Edinburgh was world-famous for a very different type of theatre. The city’s medical school was a renowned destination for aspiring doctors to learn their craft, with many going on to make signifi cant contributions in the world of surgery and anatomical study. The National Museum Of Scotland’s new exhibition, Anatom y: A M atter O f D eath And Life, explores the relationship between society, poverty, ethics and science over a 500-year period, highlighting the capital’s position as a pioneering centre of modern medicine and how it earned this status.
‘The study of anatomy at that time (and now) was considered important for the education of medical practitioners, surgeons and physicians,’ explains
Dr Tacye Phillipson, the museum’s Senior Curator Of Science who was heavily involved in curating the exhibition. ‘However, this work relied on the dissection of bodies, the sourcing of which was often controversial and distressing. Anatomists could only get the quantity of bodies they wanted through dehumanising the dead and fi nancing a murky industry. urder was a particularly shocking consequence of this, with people killed for the sale price of their bodies.’ She is, of course, referencing the infamous 1828 Burke and Hare murders, where 16 people were killed so their bodies could be sold to Dr Robert Knox, a hitherto distinguished anatomy lecturer in Edinburgh, for seven to ten pounds a pop.
The circumstances that gave rise to Burke and Hare’s nefarious actions are explored in this exhibition through some of the intriguing objects designed to stop resurrectionists from bodysnatching. These include a curious coffi n collar handed in to the museum 120 years ago by an unknown source, and a kg iron mortsafe that would have housed an entire coffi n. The latter ended up being the trickiest item to prepare for display. ‘It has required trigonometry, model making and lots of head scratching!’ insists Diana de
Bellaigue, the museum’s Artefact Conservator.
Handling such sensitive material wasn’t just physically taxing; ensuring it was displayed in an ethical manner was a central challenge for the curators.
‘The whole of the exhibition covers such powerful topics that don’t need added sensationalism,’ says Phillipson. ‘We stuck to what could be supported by evidence, and especially where we could reveal the story through real objects.’
As a prime example, William Burke’s full skeleton is the only semblance of human remains on display. ‘Human remains have their own strong impact and ethical considerations, especially the remains of people whose bodies were probably dug up by grave robbers,’ continues Phillipson. ‘By limiting our display of actual human remains to Burke’s skeleton (and a note written in his blood), we anticipate that this will be particularly thought-provoking and impactful for our visitors. It should lead some to think about exactly this question of displaying such historic anatomical specimens.’ Elsewhere, dissections of specimens and references to the human body are e plored through animal bones, anatomical fi gures, and sketches by eonardo da inci and other uropean artists. ‘I hope the story people will fi nd in all this THE BODIES
BRING UP
THE BODIES
A bone to pick
From tiny coffins to touring rhinos, here are some more enticing objects in Anatomy: A Matter Of Death And Life
CLARA THE RHINOCEROS
In 18th-century Europe, rhinos had a mythical status. So when a Dutch captain brought one back from India in 1741, Miss Clara made quite the name for herself among artists and scientists alike. She features in the background of a sketch by German anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, drawn in 1747 while Clara was touring around central Europe.
SEDAN CHAIR
This very high-status sedan chair was used to carry Professor Of Midwifery Alexander Hamilton through the smelly streets of Edinburgh so he could tend to his patients. This was a common form of people-powered transportation among the wealthy, with carrier ranks located around the city.
SILK ROBES
A set of beautiful red silk robes worn by the judge who gave William Burke his death sentence have been loaned to the exhibition from Kelburn Castle. If you look closely enough you can spot ink stains on the sleeves.
ARTHUR’S SEAT COFFINS
Perhaps the most mysterious of the objects on display here are a set of model coffins found on Arthur’s Seat in 1836. No one knows why they were placed there or who made them, but they’ve been one of the most popular items in the museum’s collection for some time. is the contrast between the clean elegance of lines in anatomical drawings and the scientific knowledge,’ e plains hillipson, ‘as well as the realms of social and physical unpleasantness which were necessary to achieve that end.’
A more sociological look at how people dealt with illness is the focus of a charms and amulets display, highlighting some of the alternative healing methods adopted when medical intervention wasn’t available. ‘These show just how prevalent the use of charms were in every corner of cotland,’ says r Ailsa utton, the musem’s Assistant Curator, odern And Contemporary istory. ‘ ost of them had specific uses. or instance, a touch piece was handed out by sovereigns and the ueen for a very specific type of tuberculosis called scrofula.’ ther objects include a rattle made of geese windpipe that was used for healing whooping cough and a recipe book compiled by a housewife. ‘ n one page you could get a recipe for lemon sponge and then on the facing page there would be a remedy for curing convulsions . . . so it really does cover all bases,’ utton jokes.
Thought-provoking uestions raised by the e hibition range from how far medical practices have come since the th century to how many of our societal rituals around death have been influenced by this history. ‘ any more deaths are now handled in hospitals and funeral homes rather than at home with arrangements made within the community,’ says hillipson. ‘And the fact that your body can be useful after death, from organ donation to training doctors, has become a more familiar idea.’
As a society we may be more familiar with donating our organs to science, but with longer life e pectancy and less infant mortality, we are surely far less intimate with death in its truest sense than ever before.
Anatomy: A Matter Of Death And Life, National Museum Of Scotland, Edinburgh, Saturday 2 July–Sunday 30 October.
Body of evidence: (previous page) William Burke’s skeleton; Arthur’s Seat coffins; (clockwise from below) private sedan chair; illustration of William Burke’s execution; The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr Willem Röell by Cornelis Troost (1728); group of charms to cure ailments
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Everyone’s connected in the incestuous world of the music biz. Join us as we discover how a handful of acts at this year’s CONNECT festival are related. WARNING: tenuous links ahead
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Who share four letters of their name with Scottish post-punk veterans Idlewild, who’ll play their album The Remote Part in full at CONNECT . . .
Aiming to galvanise the proletariat with accessible punk tunes are IDLES . . .
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. . . while pretend siblings The Chemical Brothers are famous for their hit track ‘Galvanise’…
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Also of Scottish descent is Hamish Hawk, who shares similarly avian-themed names with rock acts Geese and JealousOfTheBirds . . .
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Both John Grant and SelfEsteem have migrated from successful bands to become solo artists, Grant from The Czars and Self Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor from Slow Club.
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GLASGOW FOOD AND DRINK FESTIVALS
While many turn to the capital for summer festivities, there are plenty of food and drink events happening on the other side of the country. Glasgow has nabbed the biggest beer festival in the country (from Edinburgh of all places) with the Glasgow Craft Beer Festival (Friday 8 & Saturday 9 July) at SWG3 featuring hundreds of beers owing freely. The ticket price includes all samples, plus live music, DJs and local food courtesy of toasties from Babos, pizzas from Beirm and burgers from El Perro Negro. If cider is more your thing, check out the touring Sausage And Cider Fest (Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 July) at the Briggait, with UK brews being joined by gourmet bangers. Later in the summer, Rouken Glen Park will host the city’s rst Foodies Festival (Friday 12–Sunday 14 August), with top local chefs, TV stars and artisan producers dishing up food, drink, live music and more. (Jay Thundercliffe) EAT DRINK SHOP
PICTURE: LASSE BERGQVIST
BRAISE NEW WORLD
As the hospitality industry continues to adjust to a tricky post-pandemic and Brexit reality, Suzy Pope looks at how restaurants are trying to lure staff back with more appealing work conditions
In April 2020, just under 1.65 million staff in the hospitality industry were furloughed, and when the kitchens opened again after the latest lockdown, they didn’t all come flooding back. ong hours and a high-stress environment are no secret in the restaurant business. hen forced to find alternative employment over lockdown, it seems former kitchen staff discovered the appeal of a 35-hour week ending at 5pm every day. Now the industry must make some big changes to entice staff back.
A handful of chefs and restaurateurs across cotland have been trying to redress the work life balance that e isted before the pandemic. In , aul edgwood of edgwood The estaurant on dinburgh’s oyal ile witnessed the toll which 60 to 80-hour working weeks took on his staff and decided something had to change. He introduced a four-day working week for all his staff, but retained the same wages as a five-day working week. ‘I realised that if we started treating our staff the best, we were getting the best out of them.’ dinburgh chefs aul Kitching and tuart alston subse uently introduced a four-day working week in but were met with a backlash from others in the hospitality industry. It wasn’t a model that could work for every business and some smaller restaurants closed down weeks after trying to implement the same fle ible working system. o, the years before covid failed to trigger a big industry-wide shift in working hours to avoid burnout, stress and high staff turnover. ut the post-pandemic and re it-based labour shortage means restaurants are now having to offer a more enticing, fle ible working system to attract the limited number of available employees. eter cKenna of The annet in lasgow introduced a four-day working week for his staff in 2021, citing immigration restrictions and the post-lockdown labour shortage as direct reasons. ‘There’s a bidding war for chefs at the moment,’ edgwood confirms. Anyone with e perience doesn’t have to go through an agency, ‘they just need to post on social media that they’re a chef looking for work and folk will come snapping’, forcing a wage rise in the industry overall. edgwood welcomes this change. ‘The wage rise is a good thing; it will eventually encourage people back into the industry, and maybe encourage them to stay.’ e’re already seeing a rise in menu prices to cover costs and it’s clear that as well as seeing shorter opening hours, the customer will be footing the bill for some of those inflationary pressures facing the industry.
In , when edgwood introduced his fourday working week, hospitality was moving towards a better work life balance at glacial pace, and it seemed that punishing work hours, staff fatigue and high turnover were set to be the norm for the foreseeable. ut the current labour shortage might just accelerate that change, perhaps a surprising positive in an otherwise challenging time.
Edinburgh Food Festival, the capital’s largest free-entry food gathering, is back and bigger than ever. Taking over Assembly George Square Gardens, the festival runs for an epic ten days (Friday 22–Sunday 31 July), showcasing the best of Scottish produce, with lots of workshops, chef demos and local vendors manning street food and market stalls full of culinary delights.
The irrepressible Tony Singh MBE is back with a new gig at Edinburgh’s Bonnie & Wild marketplace. His Radge Chaat venture, focusing on Indian street food, joins a bustling food hall including Creel Caught, east PIZZAS, Joelato and El Perro Negro. Over on South Bridge, Britain’s Top Takeaways contender Ikigai have opened a second spot dishing up their ramen and other Japanese treats.
Glasgow’s recent seafood dining renaissance (Crabshakk Botanics, Kelp, The Fat Lobster, Shucks) continues with the arrival of Scamp, in the old Charcoals spot in the city centre, where the folks behind well-regarded Eighty Eight and Hooligan are dishing up a small-plates offering. Also opened over in Finnieston is Sano, a Neapolitan-style pizza place which already has two branches in their Dublin hometown.
Finally, raise your beer glasses to the Caledonian Brewery. Amid micro and macro breweries popping up, owners Heineken have announced that Edinburgh’s last major brewery is to shut down. Production at the famous brewery stretches back to 1869 and plans are afoot to keep their brews (including Deuchars IPA) in the country, with Greene King taking over production at the Belhaven brewery in Dunbar.
side dishes
Tony Singh (left) of Radge Chaat
street food
We choose a street and tell you where to eat. David Kirkwood takes a stroll along Glasgow’s Duke Street and discovers a globetrotting range of dining options
