I’m always feeling a bit peaked when I climb up Ladder Street (located next to Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road) to the Museum of Medical Sciences, but then I look at some of the museum’s exhibit–like the old dentist’s chair and equipment, the X-ray of a bound foot, and the forceps once used in difficult childbirth–and I feel like a wimp. The museum is located in the former Pathological Institute, which was founded after the colony’s worst outbreak of bubonic plague in 1894; 2,552 people died within 4 months (the mortality rate was 95%).

The museum provides a fascinating look at the historical development of medical science in Hong Kong. A reconstructed laboratory shows how doctors studied bacteria and diagnosed disease; nearby is an old autopsy room. Exhibitions explore the development of dentistry and radiology, ancient methods used to relieve pain, and differences between Western and traditional Chinese medicine.