MUSSE

The Harry Brooks Allen Museum opened in 2004, more than a century after Sir Harry Brooks Allen was appointed Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy and Pathology in 1882, when he first articulated his vision for “the creation of a large and efficient Museum of Anatomy and Pathology in the Medical School”.

The Museum, on the 3rd floor of the Medical Building, contains both models and dissected specimens of human organs – some that were once healthy organs and others that present with a specific disease or condition.

The Museum is used principally by students from the Medicine, Science and Dental Science disciplines and is an important part of their learning. The Museum curator facilitates this by arranging the specimens to follow the curriculum of each course.

The total collection comprises more than 12,000 specimens, but at any one time only part of the collection is on display. The oldest human remains in the Museum date from 1910.

The collection is priceless. Specimens that used to be housed in the hospitals and the College of Surgeons have, over the years, all been donated to the University of Melbourne to form part of this collection.

There are wax models in the Museum from the 1800s, which came from Paris and Germany. These models are especially precious because so many of their counterparts in Europe were destroyed during the Second World War.

The Museum is often visited by high school students and students from other tertiary institutions, under the direction of the Museum curator. The curator is also responsible for maintaining the specimens.