The Doctor Who Shocked Victorian Britain
5/21/202642 min
What lurks behind the door of Dr. Kahn's Grand Anatomical Museum in Victorian London?
Step inside and find out what shocked the public (and medical establishment) of the 19th century Britain so much, that it was eventually forced to close.
To take you there today, Anthony is joined by guest co-host Cat Irving, Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh.
Edited by Anna Brant and Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
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First 90 secondsAnthony Delaney· Host0:00
[gentle music] Rotting flesh, blackened limbs, genitals ravaged by disease. Behind a discrete doorway on Victorian London's Oxford Street, visitors stepped into a world of wax. Glass cases revealed bodies frozen in decay, skin blistered, eyes hollow, limbs contorted by disease, but it would all end in scandal for Dr. Khan and his museum. But was this a place of medicine or of theater? A moral lesson or an attraction built on fear and shame? As respectable gentlemen filed past these grotesque displays, they're forced to confront not only the fragility of the body, but the uneasy question: is this education or exploitation? [tense music] After Dark listeners and viewers, we are going to take you right to the heart of 315 Oxford Street. It's the middle of the 19th century. You're going to be immersed