A wooden operating table stands in the middle of the room, just as it would have done 180 years ago, a box of sawdust beneath to soak up the blood from patients undergoing surgery before the days of anaesthetics. The agony they endured is evident in the teeth marks on the leather covering of a 19th-century biting stick, which was held over the patient's mouth to restrain them. Near the operating table hang "bloodstained" garments, a horrifying reminder that surgeons once worked in old frock coats said to be "stiff and stinking with pus and blood".

Those days are recalled at the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret, hidden away in the attic of St Thomas Church, Southwark, London. Visitors to the museum first enter the 300-year-old herb garret. Bunches of dried herbs hang from the oak beams, the scent conjuring up the days when the apothecary of St Thomas' Hospital, originally next to the church, cured medicinal herbs here. The operating theatre was installed in 1822 and linked to female wards on the other side of the wall.

A collection of grisly surgical instruments provides another chilling reminder of life before modern medicine. The centuries-old quest for better health is charted in fascinating detail in medical museums all over Britain. The most extensive collection is probably in the Wellcome Museum of the History of Medicine at the Science Museum, London, where thousands of exhibits trace the development of medicine from neolithic times. But a number of smaller museums also celebrates the achievements of the medical pioneers. Among them is the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum at St Mary's Hospital, London. Fleming's lab looks just as it did in 1928 when he discovered penicillin. Displays and a video explain its development to fight infection and how it became a vital secret weapon for the Allies during the Second World War.

The original petri dish and penicillin mould are held at the British Library but part of the first culture can be seen at the Army Medical Services Museum in Aldershot.

Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination against smallpox is celebrated at the museum bearing his name in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. Computer games and interactive exhibits explain how the immune systems works. One of the most popular is the thymus game in which the players become the immune system, identifying defective T-cells and destroying them with a satisfying pop.

Hunter House, home of brothers John and William Hunter, the eminent 18th century surgeons, has been converted into a multimedia experience depicting their lives. CD-Rom terminals allow visitors to the museum in East Kilbride to explore the body. Imaginative interactive displays at the Thackray Museum, Leeds, illustrate how people's lives have changed over the past 150 years thanks to improvements in medicine and public health. You can experience life in the Victorian slums of Leeds, test your skill as a surgeon, try on an "empathy belly" to feel what it is like to be pregnant and even pretend to be a pea travelling through the digestive system. The focus is on eyes at the British Optical Association Museum in London (by appointment only). A contact lens worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film The Beach to give him a bloodshot look can be seen alongside 17th-century pebble glasses with crystal lenses and examples of the first contacts from the Thirties. These were made from moulds of plaster of Paris which was actually poured into the eyes. It turns out that another Leonardo -da Vinci -sketched forms of contact lenses in 1508.

While you are looking around you can also try out different spectacle frames and lenses and take the opportunity to test your eyesight.

- Weir's Guide to Medical Museums in Britain, RSM Press, (published 1996) Pounds 15

www.thegarret.org.uk

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

www.st-marys.nhs.uk/about/fleming_museum.htm

www.jennermuseum.com

www.thackraymuseum.org

www.college-optometrists.org

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