Mobile Medical Museum

This past Thursday, August 26, I was able to experience visiting the Mobile Medical Museum. We were supplied with vast amounts of new and interesting information about modern medicine, antebellum medicinal practices, and other valuable information about how medicine was practiced throughout history in Alabama as well as the rest of the United States. Inside the museum, our tour guide told us some fascinating information about medical practices from the past. Most interestingly for me was when he told us about the very first Medical School in Alabama. It was built in the 1850s right here in Mobile. The building still stands today as Dunbar Middle School. Previous to the creation of schools such as this one, men interested in a career as a physician only needed a one year's apprenticeship with an "experienced" physician to be able to see and treat patients. Soon many scholars in the field saw a need for a much longer, more informative, more rigorous process to work in a such a high profile profession. Schools began to spread all over the nation, thus to the creation of Mobile's very own. Our tour guide also showed us some real human skulls and taught us about how we can determine the relative age of a person by their cranial suture. We were also shown a newborn's skull. He told us about how the skull was underdeveloped because a baby needs to have a thin and "flexible" skull in order to be pushed out of his/her mother's birth canal. In addition to the skulls we were shown two full human skeletons, a male and a female. Our tour guide taught us about how to differentiate the two based on the pelvis. The second most interesting thing we were shown was an iron lung. This large machine was to treat children with Polio in the 1900s. These children had paralyzed diaphragms as a result of that made it impossible for them to breathe properly. They would be put into these metal "tube-like" contraptions that would help them breathe for weeks at a time until their bodies could breathe on their own. During our trip, we also had two interactive activities. In the first, we got to wear glasses that simulated 4 different types of vision impairments. Watching my classmates struggle to see with these as well as trying them on for myself was quite amusing, but it really opened my eyes to see all the struggles many Americans face on the daily. We had a discussions where we talked about how we can make life much more inclusive for these people. These ideas included more descriptive speech and technology that can help guide people to do certain tasks. The second interactive activity we got to partake involved the pH scale. We tested the pH of blueberry soil, vinegar, and baking soda. To go along with this we had a discussion about why its important to eat a healthy and varied diet in order to balance our body's pH. The two volunteers who assisted us with our activities were also very kind to share with us some valuable information about college and how to pick a path that best suits our own needs. They encouraged us to "put in the work" in order to reap the rewards. They talked to us about how to get scholarships. There are so many out there if you're willing to look! They also told us to get involved at our school because there are great opportunities out there for us even if we aren't sure about them. They were very kind, helpful, and encouraging. The trip to the Museum was a great experience for me and I'd love to go back and explore it more!