The Osceola times., 1884-11-29
4 STUDY OF HEADS.
The Horrors and CHASTITY Attractions Of
an Anatomical Museum.

an Anatomical Museum.
One Of the most ghastly sights in
Munich is to be witnessed in the An
atomical Museum, on Schiller Strasse.
1t consists of the heads of persons who
have been guillotined in Bavaria for a
good many years back.
dropped into the museum yesterday
and paid for my prurient curiosity by
the loss of my appetite for the rest of
the day. The museum contains good
many attractions, but these heads are
the great drawing card. Nothing is
said about them in the guide books, and
so the average tourist goes and comes
without the slightest suspicion that so
remarkable a spectacle is to be seen for
very small fee. The heads in question
are Just inside of the door, to the righ.
as you enter. They are inclosed in rows
of glass jars filled with alcohol. There
are seven in a single row which are
made more conspicuous than the rest for
the reason, suppose, that they are SOU
venirs of criminals who attempted some
extraordinarily audacious thing, and
therefore became specially celebrated.
The ewes we're all closed and the faces
expressionless. looked in vain for any
that bespoke, Ill, by facial distortion,
the agony Of Gread which must have in
spired the victim as he approached the
instrument of his death. Not few wore
mustaches, but none boards from which
infer that it is customary to shave the
chin before the execution. The eyes of
over half the dead had been cut out.
An examination of the places where
| the neck had been severed revealed
skilliul work on the part of the machine,
~ rule. Some were as nearly cut a.
an, apple that YOU halve TO ivide with
friend. One head had evidently be-
| longed 20 a man with a short neck, as
| the amputa ion had taken place so close
to the chin as to almost pane off Its un-
| der surface. \ lew necks were very
ragged where the knife had struck, az
though the machine had bungled-ne-
cessitating more than one stroke. The
heads of prisoners executed in Bavaria
are thus publicly preserved for the warn.
ing of those VINO are disposed 10 be
similarly lawless, and the bodies are
turned over to the medical students for
| dissection.
The anatomical collection contained
many other remarkable attractions
! There were shelves loaded down with
| skulls and dried heads. The various
organs of the body were preserved ao
cording to several methods, some speci
mems being preserved in alcohol, others
dried, picked, etc. The odor was by nc
means savory, or else my imagination is
too vivid. There were glass tanks filled
with alcohol containing nearly full length
sections of the body, sawed and split e
as to illustrate the functions of all the
myriad organs. There were dried bodie.
intact, hung up as skeletons are usually
hung. There were also all sorts of NAL
formations and monstrosities presented
In bottles and glass retorts. Tie assort
ment oi infants with an extra number o
heads, arms, or legs was especiall, com
| pfeherslve. \ serits of glass Jars con
tainci heads of individuals who La,
evidently met with violent Academia
deaths, as their cracked skulls or mashe,
countenance implied.
In fact, the place was such repositc
nv Of horrors that ! hurried from it witt
a feeling that | had been following som,
invisible Mephistopheles into the infer
nal regions permit.