Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-11-07
The Horrors aud Chastity Attractions OF Museum.
kansas City Journal Letter.

One Of the most ghast!y sights in Munich
is TO hc witnessed in the Anatomical Muse
ur,, on Sciiller-strasse. 1t consists Of the
heads Of persorz 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 Il good many attractions,
but these heads are the great drawing. card.
Nothing s said about them in the guide
books and 50 the average tourist goes and
comes without the slightcstsuspicion that so
remarkable i. spectacle is TO be seen Tor
4 very snail fee. The heads in question
are Just inside of the door, to the right
a. YOU enter They are inclosed i'll rows
of glass jars filled with alcohol. There are
seven in Il single row which are made more
CONSPICUOUS than the rest, for the reason,
suppose, that they are souvenirs OF crlml-
nais who attempted some extraordinarily
aut;ucious thing, and therefore became speci.
ally celebrated. The eyes were all closed,
and the faces cXpresSiOnless. | looked in
vain for any that bespoke STILL by facial dis
tortiag, the agony Of dread which must have
inspired The victim as he approached the
instrument of his death. Not u few wore
mustaches, but none boards from which l
infer that i! is customary to shave the chin
before execution. The eyes of over half the
heads had been cut out.
An examination Of the places where the
neck had been severed revealed skllitul
work ol. the part Of the machine, as
rule. Some were as neatly cut as any ap.
pie that YOU have to divide with q friend.
~. Il Il L., ln14 80 an
with q short neck, as the amputation had
taken place so close 10 the chin as TO almost
pare off its under surface. \ few necks
were very ragged where the knife had
struck, as though the machine had bungled
-necesatating more than one stroke. The
heads Of prisoners executed in Bavaria are
thus publicly preserved, for the warning of
those WHO are disposed to be similarly law
less. and the bodies are turned over to the
medical students for dissection.
The anatomical collection contained many other
remarkable attractions There were shelves load
ed down with skulls and dried heads. The vari-
aus organs OF the body were preserved according
~ several methods, some specimens being pro
served in alcohol. others dried, picked, &c. The
otur was by no ni.aus savory, or else my magina-
tion is too vivid There were glass tanks filled
with alcoho! containing nearly full length sec.
1ioEs Of the body, sawed and split so as 10 Illus
q lie JIc luncI!OnS Ol all tHt Iidu bIsd
,, |ccc were dried bodies intact, huuE up as sEclc
o,. qsc usually hung There were also all sorts
'r"S y. CARNATIONS and munstrositics presented in
~ M nj glass rct0r;s The assortment OF in
r,ts .;t ~ extra number Of heads. arms or legs
was espccial comprehensive: a series OF elaS'
,,,h violent accidental deaths, as their
'.an,ss ~ - ar ,asnc1 ccuEtenances implied.
In fact thc mace -ss such repository of hor,
,ors HAN /, hurricd fro n it with feeling that
i,ni h""u roiinw;n, som,t invisible Mephistopheles
mto tho j., formal rcv;o,.s Iy special permit.