A bench? A pedestal? This clunky piece of furniture is a kind of medical lazy Susan — a rotating examination table from the leprosy colony on the island of Culion in the Philippines. Children born and raised within the colony, which opened in 1906, were regularly placed on this table and examined from almost every angle for suspicious lesions and numb patches of skin that might indicate an active leprosy infection. This exam was known as a “reconoser,” according to Dr. Arturo C. Cunanan, who waxes rather nostalgically about the routine in a recent Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation/World Health Organization newsletter.

 I just learned a new word –”spermcasting”–in this fascinating story in Science News, “Finally, the truth about barnacle sex”. 

How do you move a collection of preserved human fetuses, hairballs, and Lincoln skull fragments? With TLC and a wistful sigh as one of my favorite haunts, the quirky and informative National Museum of Health and Medicine, closes its location at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, on Sunday, April 3.

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