A Repository for Bottled Monsters: Thomas McMillin

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Letters of the Day: February 3

This is the first set of letters from a collection donated to the Museum, rather than being the conduct of Museum business. The three come from this collection:

OHA 228

* McMillin Letters, 1865-1866
* .1 cubic foot, .1 box.
* No finding aid, arranged, inactive, unrestricted.
* Tissue and letterbook copies of letters sent by Thomas McMillin in his position of assistant medical purveyor in New York City.

I wonder how you lose 336 ounces of chloroform?

Medical Purveyor's Office

New York

Feb. 3 1866

Sir;

An invoice addressed to Mr. George Wright late Medical Storekeeper at this Depot ha been received. I have to inform you that the instruments etc have never been received. As the invoice is dated Dec. 1^st, I presume they have been lost in transportation.

Very respectfully,

Your Obt Servt.

[Sig.] Thos. McMillin

Asst. Surg. USA and Asst Medical Purveyor

Dr. Thos. F. Perley

Late Surg. USA

Portland, ME

Medical Purveyor's Office

New York

Feb. 3 1866

Sir;

You will please send an Invoice of thirty four (34) cases Hospital and Medical Supplies received at this Depot as now has been received Case no. 30. Said to contain 336 oz [zuici?] Chlor. Liq. [chloroform liquid] has not been received. I cannot receipt you for the Bedsteads mentioned in your letter of Feb. 1^st; as all Bedsteads received, were accredited to Dr. Orton late asst. Surg. USA.

Respectfully,

Your Obt Servt.

[Sig.] Thos. McMillin

Asst. Surg. USA and Asst Medical Purveyor

Dr. J. W. Merrain

Act Asst. Surg USA

Fort Schuyler, NYH [New York Harbor]

Medical Purveyor's Office

New York

Feby. 3 1866

Sir

The receipts for Medical and hospital property issued you together with the endorsement that the Hypodermic Syringe was missing has been received.

Will you please to inform me if you saw the box unpacked, and know from personal observation that the instrument was not received.

I am Sir Very Respectfully,

Your Obedient Servant

[Signed] Thos. McMillin

Asst. Surg. USA and Asst Medical Purveyor

C. H. King.

A.A. Surg. USA

Fort Trumbull, Conn

Who are we?

Mike Rhode was the chief archivist of the Museum from 1989-2011, and is the founder of this blog. I maintain an interest in the course of the museum, and will be posting relevant information.

The Army Medical Museum was founded in 1862 during the American Civil War. After World War II, a parent-child relationship was inverted and the Museum became part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Since then, the Museum has moved around Washington, stopping for years in Ford's Theatre, and on the National Mall where the building it shared with the National Library of Medicine once stood, until it was demolished in 1968 for the Hirshhorn Museum. For 35 years it was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and now is in Silver Spring, MD.

So what about that blog name?

It's historical. I found it in a quote from one of the former curators. World War II confirmed the Army Medical Museum's primary role in pathology consultation. James Ash, the curator during the war and a pathologist, noted, "Shortly after the last war, more concerted efforts were instituted to concentrate in the Army Medical Museum the significant pathologic material occurring in Army installations." He closed with the complaint, "We still suffer under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public, but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General."

After the war, it evolved into the tri-service Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

A Repository for Bottled Monsters

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Letters of the Day: February 3

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