Okay, not really. I have spent most of my recent Friday's enjoying the wonderful Robert Lloyd Parry (of Nunkie theatre) performing readings of H. G. Well's short stories of science fiction. His one-man performance of The Time Machine was stunning (and I was close enough to the stage to smell the cucumber!), and it is always a pleasure to see what he is up to.
This time it was merrily combined with a reason to visit the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. It houses some marvellous globes of the planets of our solar system, as well as a copy of a Harrison Clock (H3 I believe) that will be familiar to anyone who got hooked on the book "Longitude".
However, this is all just a long preamble to introduce the Whipple's anatomy model collection. As well as the much larger than life frog, a smaller than life human, and a true to life jigsaw brain, there is this lovely looking fellow.
Dr. Auzoux's papier-mâché model of the facial nerves, housed at the Whipple Museum, Cambridge.
Aside from the very lovely strings showing nerves, I particularly enjoy the detail in showing how the nose flesh hangs on the skull, and the eye with its muscle attachments.
Dr. Auzoux's papier-mâché models are a lovely way to share the beauties of dissection, without the rot and the smell. Our own little anatomical venuses on my doorstep. I really don't go to this museum often enough, but it is open basically only during the working week (12:30-4:30, Monday to Friday). So this little gem so often is overlooked.
Fortunately I have (fingers crossed) just applied to become a museum tracker, which will give me ample excuse to sit around the museum looking at the treasures, and seeing what other people enjoy there too.