Perhaps your travels are taking you abroad this summer. And you’re still looking for those unusual medical museums. I have more suggestions for you.

More years ago than I want to admit, I was a hippie with a backpack, hitchhiking around Europe. Even then, I wanted to be a doctor and was interested in medical history. Among many places I saw, the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret in London was memorable. The oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe, it is tucked up in an attic space at what is now St. Thomas’ church. This garret was once used to dry and store herbs for patients’ medicines, and in 1822, an operating theatre was installed. In the late 1800s the hospital moved, and this space was forgotten about, and eventually boarded up. Rediscovered in the 1950s, it is now a fascinating museum. Be ready to wind up the spiral staircase to the attic space, see the tiered area for medical students to observe operations, and look at surgical instruments of the period. Check their schedule, they have a variety of interesting tours and demonstrations. https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

I must mention the Hunterian Museum, named after the famous surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793). The museum includes over 2,000 anatomical preparations from Hunter’s original collection, alongside instruments, equipment, models, paintings, and archival material, which trace the history of surgery from ancient times to the latest robot-assisted operations. This place is not for the squeamish as it includes lots of human remains, but they are treated respectfully and sensitively. I think this is one of London’s don’t miss museums. https://hunterianmuseum.org/

While you’re in London, have a quick visit to the four-acre Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London for its apprentices to study medicinal plants and their uses. The plant collection is focused entirely on medicinal, herbal, and useful plants. Check out their event schedule; they have everything from a medicinal trees tour to chocolate making workshops. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

On the other end of the spectrum, don’t miss the creepy and fascinating, and yes, a little bit scary Poison Garden, billed as the deadliest garden in the world. South of Edinburgh you’ll find Alnwick Garden, lovely extensive gardens worthy of a whole day’s attention. Within this larger garden, behind black iron gates with skull and crossbones, only open on guided tours, you’ll find around one hundred toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. The tour guides will warn you against smelling, touching, or tasting any plants, and will delight you with their knowledge about the ways these plants are dangerous. The appropriately macabre gift shop now offers their own Poison Garden Gin and Vodka. Drinks, anyone?? https://www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/

While in Paris, visit the Pasteur Museum, located within the Institut Pasteur. It is like stepping back in time to visit with Louis Pasteur, since the museum is housed in the apartment where he spent the final years of his life. Here, you will find original furniture and personal belongings that paint a vivid picture of his life. The museum includes the meticulously restored laboratory, scientific Instruments he used, and exhibits on pasteurization and vaccines. Beneath the museum, Pasteur and his wife are buried in an ornate crypt.https://www.pasteur.fr/en/institut-pasteur/museum

You cannot leave Paris without paying homage to the other famous Parisian, Marie Curie. The small museum in the Curie Pavilion of the Institut du Radium in Paris is not far from the Sorbonne. It includes Curie’s original laboratory and office as well as lab and research equipment used during her later years. In 1981, the lab was decontaminated (including removing lots of radioactive dirt from the courtyard) and expanded with more exhibition rooms. It continues today as a fascinating museum (perfectly safe to visit!). https://musee.curie.fr/

Are you spending time in Italy? See the anatomical theater at the University of Padua’s Palazzo del Bo. It’s the oldest surviving dissection arena in the world. This 16th-century inscription remains visible: “Hic locus ubi mors east gaudet succurrere vitae,” or “This is a place where the dead are pleased to help the living.” The oval theatre had room for three hundred observers, but it is tiny, tight, and cramped. Giants of anatomy, including Fabricius and Vesalius, spent time here. There were always rumors there was a trap door to drop cadavers directly into the river; I want to believe this but there is no evidence this ever happened, and the river is several blocks away. Darn! A room alongside the theater displays historic surgical tools. There are tours in English. Nearby, you’ll find the chair and lectern of University of Padua’s greatest lecturer, Galileo, still in their place. The architecture is amazing! This anatomical theatre is small; I recommend this for only the most hard-core medical historians. https://medicine.museum/museum/5-bo-palace-padua

Amsterdam’s Micropia Museum is billed as “the only museum dedicated to microbes on the planet”. Very interactive, this small museum is all about microbes and the role they play in daily life and disease. You’ll see beautiful glass art germs, look in microscopes, meet the microbiologist of the week and learn what they do, see the giant tardigrade as well as the real tiny ones, and watch scientists in a working laboratory. My favorite review said, “The nerd in me loved every moment!” https://www.artis.nl/en/artis-micropia

Do you plan to go to Barcelona to see Sagrada Familia? If so, you can see another architectural wonder a ten-minute walk away. The Hospital of Sant Pau de Barcelona, an exuberant symbol of the Art Nouveau movement that flourished in Barcelona in the early 20th century, is an interesting mix of medieval and Moorish-influenced architecture. It was designed by famed Catalan modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Gaudi, who designed Sagrada Familia, was his student. What makes the site so special is not just its aesthetic appearance. Yes, all the different areas are decorated with bright mosaics and sculptures (created by the most famous artists of the period), but what is most arresting is the concept that it promotes: that the beauty and light in a place can improve the patients’ well-being. It has been meticulously restored and is a UNESCO world heritage site. The original buildings are open to the public and posted signs show you the sightseeing route to follow. Your visit will include an exhibit on the hospital over the years, a pavilion to show how the hospital operated in the 1920-30s, tunnels connecting buildings and the beautifully decorated administrative building. There are also guided tours which I recommend. https://santpaubarcelona.org/en/

Cape Town, South Africa was the site of the world’s first human heart transplant performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard in 1967. The Heart of Cape Town Museum is laid out in the Old Main Building of the Groote Schuur Hospital in the original rooms where the first heart transplant surgery occurred. The two-hour guided tour tells and shows you the fascinating and very emotional stories of the donor, recipient and medical team involved. Call before you go; you can only see this by signing up for the tour. I missed this when I was in Cape Town a few years ago; it was closed due to Covid. And I had just finished reading a biography of Dr Barnard in preparation. Darn! https://heartofcapetown.co.za/

Just recommended to me by a colleague, Hong Kong’s Museum of Medical Sciences is in a beautiful Edwardian brick building built in 1906. Over 20,000 people died between 1896 and 1920, when Bubonic Plague repeatedly swept through Hong Kong. This museum, then a bacteriology research lab and a pathology institute right at the epicenter of the outbreak, has fascinating displays on Plague research (lots of rat collection and dissection) during the Plague years. There are also exhibits on tuberculosis treatment, foot binding, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, and much more. Looks so interesting! https://www.hkmms.org.hk/en/home/

Where else are you planning to go? Are there other little-known medical museums you want to tell me about? Keep your eyes out; they are everywhere!