On Wednesday I went to the Thackray Museum in Leeds with my mum. It was very exciting, we went on the train and got a taxi!
Once we got there and had bought our tickets we began our journey through time. We began in Leeds in 1842, in a dark and smelly street. This exhibition was set up to show you the living conditions of the poorer people in society. You got to choose a character to follow (we just chose to follow them all) and found out where they lived and what their job was. There was someone for everyone, a baby right through to an old lady. Once you had found out what ailment they had, it was time to find a treatment for them. The next part of the gallery had several sections such as a quack doctor, family, a homeopath and a chemist. The idea was to read about each treatment and discover whether your character could afford the treatment or not. I was very surprised to find how expensive the quack doctor was; 1shilling for each treatment. Considering some people only had 2shillings to spend on treatment, that's quite a lot!
There were lots of cabinets and drawers filled with lotions and potions at the chemist.
The homeopath toolkit was very similar to those you might find today.
The next area explained a lot of the discoveries made during this time period, such as the discovery of bacteria, the concept of immunisation and antiseptics. After this, we were quite hungry. Thankfully the cafe was on the way to the next area. We stopped for some lunch (the food at the cafe comes highly recommended).
A short video began the exploration into how surgery has evolved over the years. The film spoke of a young girl that had to have her leg amputated. The surgery was brutal, she had no anaesthetics and was strapped down onto a table. Needless to say, surviving surgery was a lot rarer than it is now.
A surgeons toolkit looked more like a D.I.Y. kit, however many of the tools look quite similar to those used by surgeons now.
We are lucky to have anaesthetics nowadays. It means that we can survive surgery and not feel any pain during the operation.
The last section we went through explained how dangerous it was back in the Victorian times to have a baby. Women were expected to stay in bed for two weeks after having the baby. Now, they are encouraged to get up as soon as possible. Developments in technology such as ultrasound have meant that earlier checks can be made on the baby and more mothers and babies can survive.
I think that was the last part we went through, aside from going past a couple of mirrors telling you that your body is amazing!
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