Vrolic Medical Museum: Fascination and Sadness

The Vrolic Medical Museum is a vast collection of medical specimens collected primarily by Dr. Anton Vrolic in the 1900s. The museum is part of the vast Amsterdam Medical Facility that serves as the primary hospital and medical center for the city of Amsterdam.

While housing a large number of medical specimens, by far the largest portion of the museum is focused on preserved fetuses of babies born (or nearly born) with horrendous physical malformations. There are babies with twisted limbs, grossly expanded hydrocephalic skulls, external organ growth and various permutations of undivided twins.

There were also certain samples that basically defy description, aside from saying that they resembled a human only so far as there had recognizable flesh, and the semblance of other features. Essentially, these were monsters and though fascinating from a purely medical oddity point of view, it is hard to ignore the devastating effect that giving birth to such a child would have on the mother and father, and the physicians, nurses and any other attendees.

Was Dr. Vrolic a ghoul for collecting these specific types of specimens, or was he driven by pure scientific curiosity for the ways that the human form can go tragically wrong in its earliest development? Am I a ghoul for been drawn on in looking at these specimens, despite my visceral and emotional revulsion?

Perhaps the answer is yes to all these questions.