Bodies: The Exhibition

About 1,000 people attended Saturday’s grand opening of a new museum in Washington that includes the 40 dead bodies on display. “Bodies: The Exhibition,” is a museum that preserves the remains of humans and a few animals so that people can learn more about their inner workings.

All the bodies are from Dalian Medical University Plastination Laboratories in China . It’s not until put through a lengthy process that they’re ready to be displayed at

After death, the corpses are first put through the standard procedure of morticians. Then it is dissected to get the parts that the museum would like to display. Those parts are then dropped in acetone to dehydrate it. Last, it is bathed in silicone or polymer, which turned the acetone into gas and forces it out of the body, hardening the specimen.

Bodies displays many aspects of the human anatomy such major organs, the respiratory system, muscular system, skeletal system, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and common diseases.

Of course, these things could be shown with mannequins and photos, but Dr. Ray Glover, chief medical director of the museum said, “seeing promotes understanding, and understanding promotes the most practical kind of education possible.”

Mary Flannigan said she thought Bodies would ease her into the experience. “As I entered the first room, they only had a couple bones in displays,” she said. “Then I turned around and saw a dead person at the other end of the room. Oh geese, I thought.”

Flannigan was not the only squeamish person upon arrival.

“I thought ‘where’s my barf bag’ when I bought my ticket,” Laura Weidenbach said.

Weidenbach was quick to get over her worries and enjoyed most of the experience. “I didn’t like seeing the lung with emphysema,” she said. “I almost threw my cigarettes out.”

At 3 p.m. on opening day, inside the see-through box next to the diseased lung was already five packs of cigarettes people had chosen to put in the slot.

Outside of a room near the end of the exhibit is a sign showing a bypass for those who don’t

want to see the fetus displays. Though nearly no one heeded the warning, many found themselves rushing out of the room.

“I read the sign but thought I could handle it,” Flannigan said. “Once I saw the little babies, I ran to the next rooms.” The room shows early stages of development, from two weeks until birth.

The only other area that people scurried from was a room that has a man’s entire skin blanketed on a table.

“I was standing at the outside of the room looking at the skeleton holding hands with the muscle man when I heard someone say ‘Oh, that’s sick’ as they left the room,” Weidenbach said. “I had to see what it was.”

For the inquisitive viewers, “Bodies” has medical professionals in every room to answer questions. “They range from RNs to medical assistants and doctors,” one museum employee said. There are also security guards in the rooms to make sure no one photographs or touches the displays.

There is an exception. A doctor had a box with a hart and some brains in it for people to hold. He said that they feel much harder than non-preserved organs. He also had a chimpanzee brain.

Information is also posted around the displays for people to read about them. For a few extra dollars, you can get a handheld audio device to listen to the facts so you don’t have to read them. It works like a cellular telephone and you enter in the number of the display as you reach it and it plays the audio clip.

The Washington museum is the sixth to stage the exhibit. Other locations are in Durham , Las Vegas , Amsterdam , Seattle , and New York , with another soon to open in Pittsburgh .

Though she was squeamish before seeing “Bodies,” Flannigan left excited and with a new insight on life and death.

“Wow, I never knew how much stuff there is inside me,” she said. “I always thought there was a little breathing room in there.”