The World's Largest Colon

Last summer, my friend Tea and I took a day trip to the Muetter Museum in Philadelphia, PA. The Muetter Museum is one of the country's premiere medical museums, and retains the Victorian aesthetic of the collection's founding in 1858. Among other things, the Museum houses a cast of Chang and Ang, the famous Siamese twins; more antique speculums than I've ever seen in one place; and this:



The world's largest colon.

It's really hard to get a sense of scale of the thing...but it is enormous. 40lbs when it was extracted. Unsurprisingly, its original owner died on the can.

The museum sells picture postcards of the thing, but at the time I was just too repulsed to buy one. Seriously...it gives me pre-vomit spit just thinking about it. But I've since realized that a photo would have come in handy--it is just impossible to communicate the sheer size of this colon.


Apart from the colon, my trip to the museum put me in mind of another exhibit I saw a few years ago: Body Worlds II, the original human-specimen, traveling anatomy exhibit created by mad scientist cum artist Gunther von Hagens.

I noticed a few interesting things about this medical museum on wheels.

First of all, the specimens were predominantly male. Out of perhaps 30 specimens, 4 were female. I have some theories on this, but that's a scandal for another post. The few female specimens that were included in the show were posed doing things typically thought of as feminine, such as ballet.

The display of the female reproductive organs was separated from the rest of the exhibit, closed off behind a special curtain. There was a prominently displayed sign with a warning, letting us know that the contents of this room might offend some visitors, and assuring us that any fetuses displayed came from antique collections. The vagina room was decidedly empty of visitors.

Another interesting quirk of the exhibit was that all the specimens were anonymous. No name or identifying information was provided alongside the corpse

I feel that this exhibit, intended for the market, strove to be inoffensive. And as a result, came across as a little sexist, and also prevented me from relating to any of the specimans displayed as human

In contrast, Mutter Museum had uteruses abound, and more fetuses than you could shake a stick at. They also had an exhibit of over a hundred skulls, acquired specifically because each specimen was logged with the name, race, occupation, age at death, and cause of death. Fascinating.

I’m not entire certain how to reflect on that. How has the Muetter Museum escaped the mobs of protesters that have apparently plagued Body Worlds? Or did Body Worlds attempt to placate the masses before they even arrived?

Sneaking behind a curtain at Body Worlds to see a dissected vagina made me feel...ashamed. As though my ability to bare children was a disgrace to society. The Muetter Museum conveyed a different message with its jars and jars of fetuses with birth defects. Firstly, a new found fear of ectopic pregnancy. But it also brought a humanness to its specimens, something that allowed me to relate to the material on a deeper level. And to achieve that, it seems to be as simple as giving a skull a name.


The Muetter Museum Website

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