With forceps, saws, giant syringes, electric shock therapy machines and a ventilator for the paralysed resembling a coffin, it seems like a right house of horrors.
But the instruments at the new medical museum at Kiwi North were all used by doctors and surgeons in practice over the last century.
"People like the gory bits," said Kiwi North director Stewart Bowden. "They are things you'll never see in everyday life."
It's the collection of local Dr John Swinney, started in 1975 when he asked the Whangarei Hospital board to run old or obsolete equipment by him before getting rid of it.
"From the doctor's point of view things are improving all the time and John didn't like them throwing the older stuff away," said Mr Bowden.