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Health and medicine

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Jenner’s medicine chest

This medicine chest, made in the 1780s, was owned by a doctor called Edward Jenner, who is famous as a pioneer of vaccination.

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Machine to measure brain waves

This machine, made in 1958, is an electroencephalograph (EEG) – a device that measures electrical activity in the brain.

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Packet of cigarettes

This is a packet of Gold Flake brand cigarettes, made some time between 1920 and 1950 by W D & H O (William Day and Henry Overton) Wills – one of the first companies to mass-produce cigarettes.

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Contraceptive cap

This rubber cap was made around 1920. When inserted into a woman’s vagina, it prevented sperm from reaching the uterus, and so prevented pregnancy.

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Lister’s Carbolic Spray

This device, used in operating theatres in the 1870s and 1880s, filled the air with a pungent, yellow mist of an antiseptic called carbolic acid.

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Medicine Buddha

This statue is of an ancient man called Bhaiṣajyaguru, also known as the Medicine Buddha – someone Buddhists believe can help reduce suffering.

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Baby Weighing Scales

These baby-weighing scales, made around 1900, were used by health visitors.

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Barber-surgeon’s chair

This chair was made about 200 years ago. It was owned by a barber (men’s and boys’ hairdresser), and customers would sit in it to have teeth extracted.

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Acupuncture Model

This is a wooden acupuncture model made in Japan in 1681.

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Antimosquito Spray

This spray can was used to help slow the spread of malaria, a life-threatening disease carried by mosquitoes.

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Amputation Saw

This saw was used to amputate (cut off) people’s arms or legs. It is about five hundred years old.

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