Letter of the Day: June 10

Numbered Correspondence: Curatorial Records 06760

Surgeon General's Office
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library
Corner of 7th and B Streets
Washington, June 10, 1903.

To the Surgeon General,
U.S. Army

Sir:

In accordance with letter dated Surgeon General's Office June 5, 1903 addressed to the Officer in Charge of the Medical Supply Depot, Washington, D.C. and accompanied by standard samples of bandages, etc., I have the honor to submit the following report of the result of an examination of the samples of sterility:

1. Sublimated gauze.
Portions placed in six bouillon tubes: all sterile.

2. Absorbent cotton.
Portions in sic bouillon tubes: 4 sterile; 2 contaminated.

3. Plain gauze.
Portions in six bouillon tubes: all contaminated.

4. Gauze bandages.
Portions from three bandages in thirteen bouillon tubes: 9 sterile; 4 contaminated.

Very respectfully,
Jams Carroll
1st Lieut. Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A.
Asst. Curator.

Letter of the Day: March 27

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 03781

Subject: Medical Department Equipment.

War Department,
Surgeon General's Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library
Corner of 7th and B Streets SW

Washington, March 27, 1899.

To the Surgeon General,
U.S. Army

General:

I have the honor to request that I be furnished, for deposit in the Army Medical Museum, with the following articles as now used by the Medical Department of the U.S. Army:

1 First aid packet
1 Field operating case
1 Medical chest
1 Surgical chest
1 Field desk, equipped.

It is not necessary that the bottles in the chest be filled, but they should have the proper labels.

Very respectfully,
Dallas Bache Col. & Asst. Surgeon General, U.S.A.
In charge of Museum and Library Division.

Letter of the day, April 6

Historical collections has informed us that the object is no longer in the Museum...
[#599]

April 6, [189]5

Dr. E.T. Duke,
Secretary of Health Board,
Cumberland, Md.

Dear Doctor:

I am instructed by the Surgeon General to acknowledge the receipt at the Army Medical Museum to-day, of a " vaccination scab protector " designed by you, and to thank you for this interesting addition to the Museum collection.

The specimen has been placed in the Miscellaneous Section and numbered 1975.

Very respectfully,
Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator.

Medical Design Excellence

Thirty-two winners in the 2009 Medical Design Excellence competition have been named.

My two faves are
1. The Medigenic infection control keyboard, manufactured and submitted by Esterline Advanced Input Systems (Coeur d’Alene, ID). The Medigenic infection control keyboard addresses studies showing hospital keyboards to be a source of bacterial cross-contamination. The keyboard helps monitor its own cleaning status. I remember swabbing keyboards with alcohol when I worked in in a medical library and it always kind of makes my skin crawl at the public library when I need to log on. Next thing Medigenic needs to work on is antibacterial mice. They have a high yuck factor too.




2. The Whiz Freedom hygienic urine director, manufactured and submitted by Jbol Ltd. (Oxford, United Kingdom). (Do ya love the name?) The Freedom hygienic urine director is a hydrophobic, antibacterial, and eco-friendly device that enables women to urinate standing or sitting, indoors or outdoors, without undressing. It is suitable for use by incontinent or mobility-impaired users. Ladies, wouldn't you find this eminently useful at least once in your life? Just put it in the trunk with the Send Help banner and the road flares.

If you've ever been a nursing mother....

you'll identify with this. Been there, been exhausted.

From the History of Medicine Museum in Paris.

Museo Storico Nazionale Dell Arte Sanitaria (I think this means something along the lines of Medical Museum), in Rome

A couple of years ago, when the dollar was still showing signs of life against the euro, my husband and I took a trip to Italy. While we were in Rome, we made a quick visit to the Museo Storico Nazionale Dell Arte Sanitaria. Being an American and therefore not speaking/reading/writing any language other than English made for an interesting visit in that in many cases I couldn't quite decipher the labels on the exhibits and to do a significant amount of guessing. Here's one I just didn't get at all, no matter the amount of puzzling over the label I did. My husband's take: a labor-inducing machine for those recalcitrant babies who don't want to ease on out on their own.