Anneliese Milk, 'Mystery and Music in the Anatomy Museum'

Mystery and music in the anatomy museum Anneliese Milk Jauntily posed on a wooden baluster, amount of mobility, traversing the limbs encased in fish scales. While the small, rickety skeleton holds a distance between the cathedral’s gate this half-human, half-fish creature recorder in both hands, head tilted and wherever it was he laid his head is a mythological construct, it finds to one side as though anticipating at night. a counterpart in the rare congenital the merry jig he is about to play. The poignant narrative of the disorder, sirenomelia. Named after He is something of an anomaly skeleton proffers a voice after death: the mythical Greek sirens and sitting in a display case in the Harry a sense of agency for the perpetually commonly referred to as ‘mermaid Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy silenced. At the same time, it syndrome’, sirenomelia is a gross and Pathology at the University of gives one an opportunity to reflect malformation of the lower limbs, and Melbourne. A pathological specimen, upon one’s own corporeality, in the is associated with severe anomalies it’s true, and yet one brimming memento mori tradition. Beseeching including renal agenesis (undeveloped with a perverse humour as he clasps us to remember that we too must die, kidneys), and urogenital and the wooden recorder between the the Latin dictum resounds in this gastrointestinal defects.4 carefully articulated bones of his peculiar specimen—the articulated Since sirenomelia was first fingers. skeleton forever poised to play on the described in 1542,5 there have been He was a beggar, we have been instrument he was said to have played several permutations of the disorder told, who played his recorder at the in life. recorded. Yet as we will see, the two gates of Notre Dame Cathedral But what if the recorder player femurs and single lower leg exhibited in Paris,1 probably during the never existed, and his personal in this skeleton are not a combination French Revolution.2 Living until narrative was conceived by a that has been encountered before approximately 18 years of age, he preparator as part of a sales pitch along the spectrum of sirenomelia. was apparently well known to the or private amusement? Was he just people of Paris. 3And yet it would not another anonymous corpse dragged The professor have been his music that captured out of the River Seine? And was his The University of Melbourne was their attention, but rather the single, left leg damaged or missing, inspiring already in its eighth year by the time symmetrical lower leg that had the preparator to construct the it employed 38-year-old George supported him from birth. unusual pathology we see before us? Britton Halford as its first professor Evoking the curved tail of the Consider the teratological of anatomy, physiology and pathology mythical mermaid, the skeleton’s woodcut illustrations of Ulisse in 1862. Described as ‘one of the lower limbs comprise two apparently Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum historia most distinguished experimental normal femurs (thigh bones) joined cum Paralipomenis historiae physiologists of the day’,6 Halford by a single patella (kneecap) which, omnium animalium of 1642, where had been physician at the Royal in turn, connects one tibia and fibula imagination and pathology collide. Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, (shinbones) and right foot. With Amongst Aldrovandi’s ‘monsters’ can London; lecturer in anatomy at the the aid of crutches, one supposes, be found the mermaid and merman, Grosvenor Place School of Medicine; he would have achieved a certain with their characteristic fused lower and he also ran a private practice. Anneliese Milk, ‘Mystery and music in the anatomy museum’ 3 Skeleton with rickets and unusual pathology of the lower limbs, preparation attributed to Jean-Joseph Sue père, Paris, late 18th century; bone, wood, wire, paint, resin and horsehair; 80.0 × 41.5 × 32.5 cm. Accession no. 531-008091, purchased 1862, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne. Following Halford’s appointment, Frenchmen’.10 According to Halford’s of a disappointment in terms of his the University of Melbourne sent notes, Raginel & Co. bought the limited output, and had a ‘research him a cheque for £500 to buy books skeleton for him in Paris, and told reputation less than stellar’.15 for a library and specimens for the him it was a preparation by the For reasons unknown, it was not establishment of a museum.7 Halford French surgeon Dr Jean-Joseph until 1868 that Halford brought the and his family arrived in Melbourne Sue fils (1760–1830).11 Surely this skeleton of the recorder player to the on 23 December 1862. Among the detail would have resonated with the attention of the public, presenting a specimens he brought with him professor, adding value and credibility talk to the Royal Society of Victoria, was the mysterious skeleton of the to the unusual specimen. which formed the basis of his essay, recorder player. Sue’s illustrious career included ‘On a remarkable, symmetrically Although the receipt has not roles as médecin-en-chef of the deformed skeleton’. Although he survived, we know from Halford’s Imperial Guard from 1800; expressed unequivocal interest in writings that he bought the skeleton professor of anatomy at the School the skeleton, his understanding of in 1862 through the osteology and of Fine Arts, Paris, from 1819; and its pathology was limited, following medical equipment suppliers Messrs membership of the Académie de unsuccessful attempts to locate a Raginel & Co. in London. The firm’s Médecine from 1821.12 He was also similar example in other anatomical advertisements, often distinguished the father of the popular novelist collections before leaving England. by an illustration of an articulated Eugène Sue. He was descended from ‘Short of sawing through and spoiling skeleton, appeared regularly in a long line of eminent surgeons: his the preparation’, he wrote, ‘I have reputable medical publications. father was Dr Jean-Joseph Sue père examined it as thoroughly as possible, Boasting fine-quality French human (1710–1792), professor of anatomy and see no reason to believe it other osteology, one advertisement from at the Royal Academy of Painting than a natural deformity, and not an 1857 explains that all of Raginel’s and Sculpture, Paris, who ‘made a artificially prepared specimen’.16 pieces were ‘prepared in [the firm’s] large collection of anatomical and Halford attributed the general Dissection-room of Paris, by scientific pathological specimens, which his son deformity of the skeleton to rickets men’.8 Another proudly announces afterwards continued’,13 although it of childhood (which the individual the firm’s patronage by the Royal was destroyed by fire in 1830.14 had outgrown), citing ‘the compressed College of Surgeons.9 In April 1863 Halford announced thorax, curved spine, diminutive In the 19th century it was illegal his intention to devote ‘the best years pelvis and curved extremities’ as to keep an Englishman’s bones. As of his life to the promulgation and evidence of this. Halford reasoned a result, skeletons were sought from teaching of the sciences of anatomy that the individual most likely France, and came at a reasonable and physiology’. It was his ambition relied on crutches to move around, price. An 1876 article in the British that ‘the medical school of Victoria evidenced by the forward curve of Medical Journal quipped that ‘the should be second to none in Europe’. the fibula and tibia, and by what foundation of every man’s knowledge Yet despite this clarity of vision, he interpreted as ‘large muscular of the human frame is gained from Halford would prove to be somewhat impressions on the bowed humeri’.17 4 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 14, June 2014 Is it possible that Halford was so immersed in the prescribed narrative of the skeleton, that he detected trauma otherwise imperceptible? In his presentation to the Royal Society, Halford reiterated the skeleton’s captivating biography, and anticipated the interest, particularly internationally, it would garner. The presentation was widely reported in Australian newspapers, revealing additional details surrounding the purchase of the skeleton, as well as further biographical speculation, not included in Halford’s published paper. The Ballarat Star reported that Halford ‘had been assured (the skeleton) was put up by Sue, the father of Eugène Sue, the French author’, and that it had been hidden away during the elder Sue’s political troubles, ‘and ultimately fell into the hands of a poor servant girl’.18 A case of sirenomelia? Although Halford was unable to find a specimen exhibiting a similar pathology, he expressed a general interest in deformity and found value pathology of the skeleton. In Vrolik’s lower extremity’.19 Front and rear in Willem Vrolik’s teratology atlas atlas, there are entries on sirenomelia, views of the skeleton of a miscarried of 1849, Tabulae ad illustrandam which is arguably the congenital foetus bear, at first glance, a striking embryogenesin hominis et mammalium, disorder most closely related to resemblance to the Halford skeleton tam naturalem quam abnormem. As the Halford skeleton’s pathology. with its single, symmetrical leg. But indicated by the brevity of Halford’s Plate 64 presents a discussion on the illustration has only one femur, essay, he resisted speculation and Monopodia sireniform, described by one tibia and two toes. Moreover, did not give a name to the peculiar Vrolik as the ‘existence of only one this foetus did not survive birth, Anneliese Milk, ‘Mystery and music in the anatomy museum’ 5 due to severe visceral anomalies. Sirenomelia has also been features of the disorder, which can The Halford skeleton lived until classified into three types according include, but are not limited to, approximately 18, suggesting he did to the number of feet.

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