Anomalies of the human body. Museum of anomalies of the human body

Artists and sculptors open the beauty of the human body to the world. Their works are attractive, wonderful, ideal. But what to do to those people who not only do not meet the recognized standards of beauty, but are so ugly externally that they are terrible to look at? The anomalies of the human body are appalling, and at the same time attracted. That is why the thematic exhibition of the St. Petersburg Wax Museum is very popular with viewers.

Kunstkammer and anomalies of the human body

In Russia, as is known, the first "cabinet of rarities", or simply Kunstkamera, was opened by Peter I. It is this museum that can be considered the first exhibition that showed a wide range of viewers the mutation and anomaly of a person. The anatomical section of the Kunstkamera became perhaps the most famous, because in it visitors could see not only a two-headed lamb, which in itself is already interesting, but also human babies, fused with bodies. In addition, there was a Cyclops child, a baby with a mermaid tail, and children who died after birth, with terribly mutilated heads.

Peter I was very interested in the anomalies of the human body and the reasons why all kinds of ugliness arise. The emperor conducted conversations with foreign anatomists, marveled at their stories and kept for years in transparent vessels exhibits, through the purchase of which, and replenished the collection of his Kunstkamera. And Peter the Great ordered wax copies of those rare freaks, which for various reasons could not get. And it was thanks to Peter that the art of creating wax figures came to Russia.

After the revolution, they forgot about this craft for a long time, and only at the end of the 20th century the craftsmen from the city of Lomonosov, that was under Peter, the art of creating realistic human figures from wax was revived.

Museums of wax figures

The most famous exhibition of wax figures is the Madame Tussauds. Expositions work all over the world and in some of them there are "cabinets of horrors" in which figures of really existing maniacs and murderers are presented.

In Russia, the most famous museum of wax figures in St. Petersburg. Just about him, and will go further, because the exhibition "Russian Panopticom: the catastrophe of the human body" we are particularly interesting.

What will surprise Russian Panopticom

This exhibition really both surprises, frightens, and confuses. The thing is that its exhibits are wax figures of people with the most real mutations and deviations. Represented here are the anomalies of the human body embodied by sculptors by the sculptors from the Guinness Book of Records.

The figures are realistic. These are the same people, only motionless, with a gaze fixed on one distant point. But the anatomical structure of these wax people is always unusual. Let's talk about the characters present at the exhibition and their pathologies in more detail.

Abnormal growth

As surprising as it may sound, the tallest man in the world is the Chinese Bao Xishun, whose height is 2.36 m. His parents are quite ordinary people: his father's height was 1.8 m and his mother 1.6 m. They are now Do not fully understand why their son was so "lucky".

Because of its growth, Bao Xishun could not find a life companion for a long time. He married only at 56 years old, and his chosen one was below him by as much as 70 cm. Recently a couple had a son, his height and weight so far correspond to the age norm.

Bao Xishun is listed in the Book of Records, and his figure, made of wax, is present in the museum of St. Petersburg. With her neighbor is the figure of the smallest woman, Paulina Masters, or Princess Pauline, as her friends and family called her.

By 18 years the girl had grown to 58 cm, her weight was 15 kg. She worked in a circus, where she showed the audience solo dance and acrobatic numbers. The audience was fascinated by the girl: in the arena she looked as if her small growth does not hinder her a bit, and the grace that filled Pauline's speeches was truly surprising. The girl was a real fashionista and had beautiful curvy shapes. They say that she did not have a rebuff from the fans. But her star rolled very early, Pauline died at the age of 19 from pneumonia.

Buster Symcus: outstanding weight

The thickest man in the world had a weight that exceeded a ton, and was from Texas. His motto was a simple phrase - to live to eat. Every day Buster's morning began with 40 pancakes and a jam of jam, and then the man went to a pair of dozens of meat steaks with vegetable garnish and his favorite sweets. He ate the whole day, because the absorption of food was his main occupation. And he could afford to live this way, because from parents Buster Simkus got a good inheritance.

In 2005, the most fat man in the world died. He was only 40 years old.

The famous four-eyed card cheater and the Cyclops man

Many anomalies of the human body are associated with an increase or decrease in the number of organs. And the organs of vision are not an exception.

So, John Stalker was known as the Four-Eyed Sharpie. He really had four eyes and earned a living as a card game. The organs of sight were located in pairs in pairs. It is interesting that Stalker could look at once in several directions.

A black Cyclope man Carlos Sieira had one eye, located directly above the bridge of the nose. The place where the eyes are usually located on the face, it was simply covered with leather. There were no problems with vision for a man, and one of his eyes could see well. Carlos led a solitary lifestyle, he was repeatedly offered to do a movie, but the Cyclope man did not give his consent. He lived 32 years.

A female pig and a mule woman

Do you remember the American comedy about the enchanted girl Penelope? So, this heroine had a real prototype - Miraida Portland. She was born in Holland with completely normal parents and had a pig's patch instead of a nose. Mother and father of Miraida were rich and could give their daughter a good upbringing and education. The girl got married and even gave birth to two healthy children. This is the case when the fairy tale about Penelope ended well.

Another woman, whose destiny has developed quite happily, despite her ugliness - female mule Grace McDunell. Her disease is known as the Sterge-Weber syndrome and is characterized by the pathological development of blood vessels and mental retardation. But in the case of Grace, there was a disruption in the facial structure, which was very rare with this syndrome. The mule woman married three times, and from her last marriage a normal child was born.

The museum keeper and other exhibits

The museum of anomalies of the human body among its exhibits also has one particular - the figure of the man-crab of Thomas Ignatiev. This man even during the times of Peter I worked as a living exhibit of the Kunstkamera and received quite good money for it - 100 rubles a month. The man-crab Foma was called because he had two long, fused fingers on his arms and legs, resembling claws.

In the museum there are other noteworthy exhibits: a woman with a huge silicone breast, a man without arms and legs, Siamese twins, a bearded woman and a man-bird. Also interesting is Edward Mordreyck, a musician with a good and evil face.

By the way, there is one legend about Edward. She is described in the "Freaks Show", the fourth season of the series "American Horror History." According to legend, Mordrake, accompanied by ghostly shadows, takes away sinful, desperate souls. But this happens only once a year, the night when the dead walk freely on the ground.

Learn about how people lived in the last century with physical disabilities, you can from the movie "Freaks" directed by Tod Browning. The tape tells about everyday life of a freak show, about the love, envy and hardships of everyday life, which fell to those who, by the will of fate, are different from ordinary people.

Anomalies of the human body are a heart-rending spectacle. But some people with physical deformities have lived a happy life. And perhaps many of us have something to learn from them.