Silver Spring, Maryland: National Museum of Health and Medicine

National Museum of Health and Medicine: Got to touch a brain!

The museum will close its doors after April 3 and move to a new building in Silver Spring, Maryland, by the Autumn of 2011. At least that's the plan. The move will get the museum off of its current Army base and make it more accessible to the public. The museum's curators have pledged that its star exhibits, such as President Lincoln's death bullet and the amputated leg of Civil War General Sickles, will remain on display -- but something always gets lost or broken in a move, so if you want to see your favorite tumor or freak-in-a-jar, you'd better visit this week.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, DC, has added a small exhibit explaining how DNA testing was used to identify the occupant of the Tomb of the Vietnam Unknown.

There is one out of the way museum at the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital [RA: the National Museum of Health & Medicine,in Bethesda, MD]. It is a veterans or military hospital of sorts. The museum features medical oddities and photos. These include a cyclops baby, a flipper baby, a two-headed baby, a giant preserved Elephantitus testicle, a gangrenous foot, and much more! Plus it includes civil war photos with medicines first attempts at reconstructive surgery. Also, they had microscopes for viewing what deadly viruses and bacteria, such as the AIDS virus, look like. A bit out of the way, but definitely well worth the trip.