Surgical Internet at a Glance: Volume III Jeff Allen, MD, Louisville, Kentucky

T he International Museum of Surgical Science is sponsored by the International College of Surgeons and is located in Chicago, Illinois. The museum

“portrays many of the personalities, failures, and break- throughs that have shaped modem surgery.” It houses more than 7,000 surgery-related objects, including rare manu- scripts and works of art. The museum is open daily except Monday and has a suggested donation of $2.00 in return for admission. The museum is located at 1524 North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and the phone number is (312)642-6502. If one is unable to travel to Chicago, he or she may visit the museum in cyberspacmz. The address on the world wide web is http://www.imss.org and there is no admission charge.

The bibliography section of the museLm’s web page lists books in print whose content is centered on the history of surgery. Also in the bibliography are books directed at patients who are scheduled to have surgery. Other web pages with a medical history theme are also listed as links under this category.

A mission statement, contact information, and museum information are also listed on the pzge. However, the unique cornerstone of this web page !s the “Interactive Antique Illness.” In this simulation, the museum visitor, aka web surfer, becomes the main character in a story set in the rural United States in the 1800s. Tl-.e surfer, it appears, is experiencing abdominal pain and .s seeking medical attention.

From this point forward, the visitor begins making fasci- nating binary decisions about his or her treatment. The first choice is to either find a doctor or head for the local drugstore where a pharmacist will be the primary care provider. I f one opts for a medical doctor, it is made known that there are only two doctors in town. They are Dr. Jebidiah Smith, whose family has lived in the town since it was founded and who studied with tEle famous Dr. Ben- jamin Rush in Philadelphia, and Dr. Francois Reaucoup, an immigrant from France who obtained t-:aining at the H&e1 Dieu in Paris.

At this point, some glossary information is obtained by clicking on the H&e1 Dieu and Dr. Bfmjamin Rush. This

Am J Surg. 1998;175:433 Address correspondence to Jeff Allen, MD, 1114 Everett Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40204.

E-mail address: jeffa@iglou.com

background information is included to help the visitor make an educated decision on his or her medical care. “The H&e1 Dieu was not a hotel. It was the oldest hospital in Paris and dated back to about the 1200s. In the late 1700s and early 1800s it was considered the foremost hospital in Paris. Under the direction of Pierre-Joseph Desault (1744-1795), medical students there began to learn at the bedsides of actual patients instead of entirely in formal lecture halls.” Dr. Rush, on the other hand, was “perhaps the most respected figure in early American med- icine. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was friends with George Washington, Thomas Jeffer- son, and Benjamin Franklin. He believed that disease was caused by ‘morbid excitement caused by capillary tension.’ Among Rush’s most common treatments were bloodlet- ting, purging, blistering, and prescribing calomel.”

Regardless of which doctor is chosen, more decisions follow, including whether to have surgery to remove a bladder stone or take oil of turpentine to dissolve the stone. A bladder stone, it appears, is the likely source of the visitor’s abdominal pain. Having followed both routes, it is noteworthy that doctors in the 1700s discovered that blad- der stones dissolved when placed in turpentine; however, renal toxicity developed. As well, more than one form of surgery was available to treat the stones. Choosing the wrong surgeon or type of operative procedure is a lethal mistake. To complete the journey here would rob the visitor of the page’s charisma.

The museum web page, especially the “Interactive An- tique Illness” section, is good fun. It is a popular web page with over 106,000 people who have survived the illness simulation and over 150,000 who have died as of February 1998. This underlines its appropriateness since many re- ports of the era record a greater than 50% death rate from the limited diagnostic and therapeutic modalities available in the 19th century.

The page is definitely worth a visit at httpdwww. imss.org. The curator of the online museum may be reached by e-mail at info@imss.org.

Next month: http://www.laparoscopy.com

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