Just a few days ago, the temperature was hovering at 100°F and the humidity was locked inside the old Tuberculosis hospital building, making the boards on the windows swell and peel. My flashlight scanned the darkness of the ward and caught something glimmering in the middle of the long, narrow room. I walked up, wiping the steady stream of salty sweat that was not refreshing in any way. Two large glass jars were mounted upon a wooden base, along with two manometers (used to measure pressure). One of the bottles still had a cap, where nozzles were located to hook various tubes into. It was also filled with a yellow fluid. Intrigued, I brought the apparatus into the shaft of sunlight that streamed in from a window whose board had fallen off.

Most of the canvas straps still clung tightly to their large tubs which lined the basement room, despite the excessive sagging from thirty-seven years of disuse. Diffused rays of sunlight danced along the row of mummified bathtubs, yellowed with time and blackened with mold. A strange breeze wafted in from the dark, tiled morgue down the hall. There was no other place I wanted to be.

Another one of those things slipped by me and I hadn't thought of it until today - The Lobotomist, part of the American Experience series by PBS. It was aired on January 21, 2008, and documents the life of Walter Freeman - once described as the "Henry Ford of lobotomy." Starting with his early career at St Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington D.C., the video follows his medical career as he "improved" upon Antônio Egas Moniz's method of the lobotomy. The quotes are to emphasize the differing point of view held between disapproving medical professionals, fervent followers of his method, and mixed blessings from lobotomized patients and their families. The documentary pulls all these perspectives in this well-produced documentary that I enjoyed watching (finally).