1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: Since the mid twentieth century, Albert Einstein's name has become 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: synonymous with genius. The German born physicists created the theory 8 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: of general relativity, which changed humanity's understanding of time and space. 9 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: Einstein is considered to be one of the most influential 10 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: thinkers of all time. He reached a level of celebrity 11 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: that few scientists ever do. But as he got older, 12 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: all Einstein really wanted was to be left alone. When 13 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: discussing his last wishes with his family, he told them, 14 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:07,960 Speaker 1: and I quote, I want to be cremated so people 15 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: won't come to worship my bones. Einstein request suddenly became 16 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: a very important issue. In April of nineteen fifty five, 17 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: at seventy six years old, he suffered an aneurysm and 18 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: died in New Jersey's Princeton Hospital. His family wasn't there 19 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,400 Speaker 1: at the time, so the pathologist on duty, doctor Thomas Harvey, 20 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,880 Speaker 1: went forward with the hospital's normal protocol for autopsy and 21 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: the remains. But this was not your average autopsy. This 22 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 1: was Albert Einstein. Starstruck and apparently not thinking straight, doctor 23 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:41,679 Speaker 1: Harvey did something unimaginable. Rather than focus on Einstein's arteries, 24 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: you know, the actual cause of his death, Doctor Harvey 25 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: cut opened the Nobel Prize winning scientist's skull and took 26 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: his brain. Apparently not satisfied with the gray matter, He 27 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: also cut out Einstein's eyeballs. Doctor Harvey later claimed that 28 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: all of this was for purely scientific purposes, but that 29 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: explanation didn't really add up with his behavior. You see, 30 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: he sent Einstein's eyes off to the late physicist eye 31 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: doctor Henry Abrams, who reportedly just kept them. As for 32 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: the brain, Harvey stored it in a jar and refused 33 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: to give it back to the hospital. Doctor Harvey, once 34 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: a respected pathologist, had become a body snatcher. Einstein's relatives 35 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 1: didn't learn about his missing organs until two days later, 36 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: when the rest of his body had been cremated. His 37 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: son Hans was furious. Of course, this was a total 38 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: violation of his father's wishes. But somehow doctor Harvey got 39 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: in touch with Hans and explained that he wanted to 40 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: study Einstein's brain in the name of science. Seeing as 41 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: the pathologist already had the brain and wasn't going to 42 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 1: part with it willingly, Hans gave his reluctant blessing. With that, 43 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: doctor Harvey took Einstein's gray matter to the University of Philadelphia. 44 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: He and other neuropathologists cut it into hundreds of block 45 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,359 Speaker 1: shaped pieces plus thousands of ultra thin cross sections. They 46 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,360 Speaker 1: were then sent to experts all over the country for study. 47 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 1: Over the following years, information about the great physicist's mind 48 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: was published. One study said that he might have had 49 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,120 Speaker 1: more glial cells than the average person. Glial cells, by 50 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,359 Speaker 1: the way connect and support neurons, so put simply, an 51 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: excess amount might have made Einstein smarter, but that's not proven, 52 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: and a lot of experts think this study should have 53 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: been deemed inconclusive. Another study claimed that the part of 54 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: Einstein's brain responsible for visual thinking was wider than normal. 55 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,679 Speaker 1: Yet another positive that Einstein had an extra ridge in 56 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:34,280 Speaker 1: his mid frontal lobe, which might have given him a 57 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: better than average memory. But Annadouty, a forensic anthropologist, points 58 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: out the flaws in any modern post mortem brain study. 59 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: According to her and I quote, there's a night and 60 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: day difference between a living brain and a dead brain. 61 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: A living brain has infinite amounts of things you can 62 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: study and learn. It is pretty finite in what you 63 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: can learn from a dead brain. Ultimately, studying Einstein's brain 64 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: in this way is kind of futile. The idea that 65 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: his genius can somehow be reduced to glial cells and 66 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,680 Speaker 1: extra ridges ignores the stuff that can't be quantified, like 67 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: his childhood experiences, his capacity for creativity, his work ethic, 68 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: and countless other factors. Even neurologists agree that intelligence is 69 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 1: not simply a matter of physiology, so the roots of 70 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 1: brilliance remain something of a mystery. But that doesn't mean 71 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: that people aren't fascinated by the idea of actually seeing 72 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: the mind of a genius. These days, the majority of 73 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: Einstein's brain is stored and displayed at Philadelphia's Moodor Museum 74 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 1: of Pathology. It's one of their main attractions, actually, which Einstein, 75 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: who explicitly asked people not to flock to his dead 76 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: body probably would have hated. And as for doctor Thomas Harvey, 77 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: that decision to steal Einstein's brain pretty much ruined his career. 78 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: He was fired from his job at Princeton Hospital, his 79 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,360 Speaker 1: wife divorced him, he lost his medical license. Years later, 80 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: it came out that he was still hiding pieces of 81 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 1: Einstein's brain in his own house, which sounds horrible and 82 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: it is. But the eyeballs are an even creepier story. 83 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: As far as anyone knows, they're still in the hands 84 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: of Einstein's old eye doctor. Rumor has it that they're 85 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:13,720 Speaker 1: stored in a safe deposit box somewhere in New York 86 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,720 Speaker 1: or New Jersey. And that's an image I just can't 87 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,480 Speaker 1: get out of my head, Albert Einstein's eyes staring at 88 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: the dark walls of a metal box for all of eternity. 89 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: Can I be honest for a second. I don't like needles. 90 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:44,799 Speaker 1: The doctor's office makes me nervous. The idea of undergoing 91 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:49,200 Speaker 1: major surgery, especially something like brain surgery, absolutely terrifies me. 92 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: I know a lot of my fear is unfounded, of course, 93 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:55,480 Speaker 1: after all, neuroscience has advanced by leaps and bounds over 94 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: the last century alone. Much of that is thanks to 95 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: one man too, doctor Harvey Kushi, also known as the 96 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:05,040 Speaker 1: father of neurosurgery, the first person to ever successfully remove 97 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: a brain tumor. Doctor Cushing was a brilliant artist, researcher, 98 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: and scientist, not to mention an avid collector of human organs, 99 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: but we'll get to that part in a minute. Doctor 100 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 1: Cushing's greatest contribution to medicine may have been his use 101 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: of the Bovy technique. You see, prior to the nineteen twenties, 102 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:26,280 Speaker 1: one of the biggest obstacles in neurosurgery, or any type 103 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: of surgery for that matter, was bleeding. The minute a 104 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:32,880 Speaker 1: doctor made an incision. Blood loss became a significant concern. 105 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: Although tourniquets and rudimentary cauterization techniques did exist, they weren't 106 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: always fool proof. That's why in nineteen twenty William T. 107 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: Bovie created the aptly named Bovy Tool. It was essentially 108 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: a pen with a superheated electrical tip. It could create 109 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: an incision while simultaneously cauterizing the wound. Doctor Cushing was 110 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:55,039 Speaker 1: the first person to use the Bov tool during brain 111 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: surgery back in nineteen twenty six, and almost immediately it 112 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,719 Speaker 1: brought survival rates up from about twenty percent to over 113 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: ninety percent Before doctor Cushing, having your skull cracked open 114 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: was almost a guaranteed death sentence. And while I won't 115 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: argue that neurosurgery isn't scary, doctor Cushing made it a 116 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: lot less dangerous. On top of this, he was a 117 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 1: tireless researcher and record keeper. He saw thousands of patients 118 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: throughout his lifetime, many of whom had neurological disorders that 119 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: had never been named or even studied before. Doctor Cushing 120 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: kept detailed notes and also took photos of his patients 121 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: before and after surgery to document their symptoms, and if 122 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: the patient was suffering from something that doctor Cushing believed 123 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: would prove terminal, he often got their permission to study 124 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: their brain after they died. And this is how doctor 125 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: Harvey ended up with a collection of over five hundred 126 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 1: preserved human brains. Remember, genius rarely comes without a side 127 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: of madness stored in glass jars and displayed in his office. 128 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: Doctor Cushing was the proud owner of women's brains, men's brains, 129 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: children's brains. There were brains racked with tumors and others 130 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: afflicted by mysterious, unnamed diseases. He even had a few 131 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: skeletons which belonged to people who'd lived with various neurological conditions. 132 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 1: When doctor Cushing died in nineteen thirty nine, his family 133 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: was faced with a question that few of us will 134 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: ever have to ask, what do we do with this 135 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: giant collection of brains and bones? And ultimately they decided 136 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,920 Speaker 1: to donate them all to Yale University, where doctor Cushing 137 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:26,320 Speaker 1: had received his undergraduate degree. For the next few decades, 138 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,120 Speaker 1: this collection helped up and coming neurosurgeons learn and expand 139 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: upon doctor Cushing's work, but as the field of neuroscience advanced, 140 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: the specimens became less and less useful. In nineteen seventy nine, 141 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 1: doctor Cushing's entire collection was relegated to a basement beneath 142 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: one of Yale's medical school dorms, where it would remain 143 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,800 Speaker 1: untouched for nearly twenty years. Then, in the nineteen nineties, 144 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,560 Speaker 1: some medical students discovered the locked basement door. It wasn't 145 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,199 Speaker 1: too hard to break in using a screwdriver, and when 146 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 1: they walked into the dark room, they were struck with 147 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: the scent of formaldehyde and then they saw hundreds of 148 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,200 Speaker 1: brains floating in glass jars, all stacked on dusty shelves. 149 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:09,679 Speaker 1: Sneaking into this room became a sort of rite of 150 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,959 Speaker 1: passage for Yale medical students. Being among the brains was 151 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 1: equal parts disturbing and inspiring, somehow magical and perverse at 152 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 1: the same time. It was, as one student put it later, 153 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: and I quote, like a shop of horrors. The overwhelming 154 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,200 Speaker 1: atmosphere was that you're in a place that maybe you 155 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:31,559 Speaker 1: shouldn't be in, which, yeah, they did literally break in, 156 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: so they were not supposed to be there. But as 157 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,200 Speaker 1: Yale administrators realized the hidden nature of the collection only 158 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: added to its allure, they started thinking about bringing doctor 159 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 1: Cushing's brains back into the light. In twenty ten, they 160 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:46,959 Speaker 1: moved the collection into a different basement below one of 161 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: Yale's libraries. These days, the room is known as the 162 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: Cushing Center, and it's a museum where the late doctor's 163 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,680 Speaker 1: curious collection is displayed for all the public to see. 164 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: Oh and there's one more interesting item in the collect 165 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,440 Speaker 1: Doctor Harvey Cushing just so happened to be friends with 166 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,079 Speaker 1: Ivan Pavlov, you know, the guy that came up with 167 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,839 Speaker 1: the famous Pavlov's dog experiment. One day, while the two 168 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,840 Speaker 1: scientists were hanging out, doctor Cushing showed Pavlov the Bobie tool, 169 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: the electrical cauterizing pen that I talked about earlier. Pavlov 170 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: used the tool to write his name on a piece 171 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:24,080 Speaker 1: of steak. Ever, the collector, Doctor Cushing, took that steak 172 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:27,440 Speaker 1: and stuck it inside a jar with some formaldehyde, and 173 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: so Pavlov's preserved signature is still on the meat, which 174 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 1: is now housed in Yale's Cushing collection. So if you're 175 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: ever in the area, stop by to take a look 176 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: at what might just be the world's most curious cutlet. 177 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 178 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 179 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 180 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky and partnership 181 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 182 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, 183 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,199 Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore 184 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,120 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.