Post book review on creating a cell line

This review of THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS hy Rebecca Skloot (Crown. 369 pp. $26) is fascinating. One knows cell lines exist, but one doesn't realize that they can be tracked back to a person.

Letter of the day: January 31 (2 of 2)

Notice that the Soldier's Home, now firmly in DC, wasn't quite there in 1887.

January 31, 1887

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 30th instant has been received. If you will have the kindness to send the man on a fair day, at an early opportunity, I shall be please to have a photograph taken of one side on an enlarged scale to show the supplementary nipple to better advantage.

Thanking you for your kind offer, I remain,
Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) John S. Billings
Surgeon U.S. Army
Curator Army Medical Museum

Byrne Major C.C.
Surgeon U.S. Army
Attending Surgeon Soldiers’ Home
Near Washington, D.C.

Letter of the day: January 31 (1 of 2)

January 31, 1887

Sir:

I am instructed by the Surgeon General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January 18th with the accompanying special surgical reports.

The bone specimen from the case of Pt. M.P. Johnson, 4th Cavalry, amputation on account of shot fracture of ankle joint, and the bullet and piece of exploded shell from the case of Pt. F.E. Sloat, 4th Cavalry, have also been received.

The Surgeon General desires me to thank you for these additions to the Museum collection.

Very truly yours,
(Signed) John S. Billings
Surgeon U.S. Army
Curator Army Medical Museum

Brown Captain Paul R.
Assistant Surgeon U.S. Army
Post Surgeon Fort Huachuca
Arizona Territory

WRAMC campus plan debate in Post

D.C. begins to plan redevelopment of Walter Reed campus
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 30, 2010

The article contains the intriguing "District officials said Thursday night that the September 2011 closing date had been pushed back, although it is not clear to when."

Smithsonian American Art Museum has a lovely blog

It's off-topic, but the Smithsonian American Art Museum has a lovely blog.

Letter of the day: January 30

I have no idea what "This spaa is also cribriform..." but that's what the letter says.

Surgeon General’s Office
Washington City D.C.
Jany 30th 1866

Sir,

About 12th September 1865, there was received from you, from Santa Fé, a cranium which has been given the number 4385, in the surgical section of the Army Medical Museum. The specimen shows a discolored surface of six inches by four over the superior anterior portion of the frontal bone. This spaa is also cribriform – No history accompanied the case, and it has been suggested it was one in which scalping had been practiced without immediately fatal results. You are earnestly desired to transmit such notes of the matter as you may possess.


Very respectfully,
Your obedt. servant,
By order of the Surgeon General
[George A. Otis]
Surgeon & Bvt. Lt. Col, U.S. Vols. Curator, A.M. Museum


Bvt Major H.E. Brown,
Assistant Surgeon U.S. Army at Hart’s Island, N.Y.H. [New York Harbor]
Care of Medl. Dir. Dept East, New York

Letter of the Day: January 29 (5 of 5)

Anyone know what Sour Ham is?

Swift and Company

Kansas City Stock Yards

Kansas City

Address All Mail To Station ‘A’

 

1/29/96.

 

Dr. Sternberg,

Bacterialogical (sic) Dept.,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Sir:-

 

Referring to our favor of recent date, we enclose herewith memorandum invoice covering 2 Sour Hams, shipped [to] you.

 

Will appreciate a copy of your report when completed on these two hams. Shipment made at the request of Dr. D. H. White.

 

Yours respectfully,

 

Swift and Company,

 

Per, JAH

 

Letter of the Day: January 29 (4 of 5)

Numbered Correspondence 1215

 

January 29, 1896

 

Mr. Wayland F. Reynolds,

Clarksburg, W. Va.

 

Dear Sir:

 

In answer to your letter of the 28^th inst., I would state that there is in this Museum a microscopic slide which contains the Lord’s prayer, 227 letters, in a space 1/294 x 1/441 of a square inch.

 

Very respectfully,

 

D.L. Huntington

Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

In charge of Museum and Library Division.

Letter of the Day: January 29 (3 of 5)

Dr. Fred Pettersen

 

Comfort, Texas.

January 29, 1881

 

Surgeon General, U.S.A.

Washington, D.C.

 

Sir:

 

By to-day’s mail I have forwarded a piece muscle (biceps) taken from a  girl aged 8, who died from trichinosis, the same is remarkably full with trichinae spiratis in the second stages.

 

Very respectfully

Your Obt. Servt.

Fred Pettersen

M.D.

Letter of the Day: January 29 (2 of 5)

Fort Larned, Kansas

Jan. 29 1878

 

Surgeon General

U.S. Army

 

Sir

 

I have the honor to enclose copy of receipt issued this day to me by Post Quartermaster for one box addressed to the Army Medical Museum.

 

The contents are,

 

1)      One Golden Eagle – shot near here Dec 2, 1877. I have roughly dressed it so as to leave the plumage on the skeleton, that the curator may use it as preferred, applying salt or alum.

2)      One skull & bal. [balance] of skeleton of a male Raccoon found dead here Dec 2, 1877.

3)      I also send in behalf of Asst. Surg. W.E. Whitehead the skin & extremities of one whooping crane (I believe) shot near here in fall of 1877 – arsenic and Plaster of Paris were used.

 

I am, Sir, with great respect

Your Obt Servt

Francis H. Atkins

A.A. Surgeon

U.S. Army

Letter of the Day: January 29 (1 of 5)

The photographs he refers to have not been catalogued and may no longer exist. Darn it.

 

County Clerk’s Office

John C. Johnston,

County Clerk

 

Newton, Kas. Jan 29, 1885

 

David Flynn

Army Medical Museum

Washington City DC

 

Dear Sir

 

If you remember I was in your Department last May (1884) and you had me photographed. I am the original of Cast No 1401 Shell wound in right side of my face, Battle of Spotsylvania CH [Court House] May 10 1864. You gave me several phots. But you said if I would write you would sand me some better ones when you had more leisure to get them up. If it is not asking too much I wish you would please send me ½ doz. of each side. I had both sides of my face taken etc.

 

Yours Truly

John C. Johnston

Newton PO

Harvey Co.

Kansas

 

[1 doz Photographs sent April 9, 1885]

New copy of South Africa's Adler Museum Bulletin has arrived

The world of medical museums is pretty small today, but there are still ones spread around the world. Our new copy of South Africa's Adler Museum Bulletin arrived today. Topics include disease detectives, British colonial nurses in Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War, world’s first in vitro fertilisation of a gestational surrogate mother and “Do museum objects speak for themselves?” among others.

Letter of the Day: January 28

Selected by Kathleen this time.

 

ND [immediately following letter of January 28 1864]

 

Specification of jars, for Army Medical Museum

 

Best pure glass, ground stoppers (extra with Emory) – stopper with glass knob, as in pattern. Each stopper to be provided with a hook inside. This hook to be attached as in figure 1, & not on the bottom of stopper as in sample, the object of the change to being to gain room for suspension of object. The mouths of the jars to be as wide as possible. In case it is not possible to make stoppers to the larger jars (24 in by 10 in; 18 in by 9 in; 16 in by 8 in) then these jars must be made as in figure 2, the top edge of the jar ground level so that a plate of glass or lead may be laid over it, & tied on with bladder.

 

The sizes and number of the jars required by the museum are as follows

 

12 jars 24 inches high by 10 inches wide

12 jars 18 inches high by 9 inches wide

48 jars 16 inches high by 8 inches wide

72 jars 12 inches high by 6 inches wide

72 jars 10 inches high by 4 inches wide

144 jars 7 inches high by 2 inches wide

---

360

 

Gentlemen, I desire to know the price per pound at which these jars can be delivered in Washington, and also the approximate number of pounds in all. As the funds at the command of the museum are somewhat limited the number of jars ordered must depend on this information. Is the government tax included in the prices as specified?

 

Yrs respectfully

 

JH Brinton

Surgeon, USA & Curator, A.M. Museum

 

Mssrs Muzzey & Munro

419 Commerce St.

Philadelphia, PA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archives staff member departs

Jasmine High has been managing the Medical Illustration Service Library since last April, and handling the quality assurance on our large scanning project. She’s leaving us for the Smithsonian’s Natural History museum and we’ll miss her.

 

Code of Public Local Laws, City of Baltimore, 1882

Article 4, Section 154 Laws of Maryland 1882, Chapter 166 Page 168

Any public officer of Baltimore City or Baltimore County having charge of or control over the bodies of deceased persons required to be buried at the public expense, or at the expense of any institution supported by said city or county, shall notify the chairman of the Anatomy Board, said board being composed of a demonstrator of Anatomy of each medical school in the State of Maryland, of the existence and possession of of such bodies, and shall give permission to said Anatomy Board through its chairman or to any physician or surgeon of the State of Maryland, upon his request made therefore, to take such bodies within forty-eight hours after death, to be given by him, used within the State for the advancement of Medical Science ...

"A Note on Experimental Cranioplasty"

This paper is pretty neat. Written by a military surgeon, Paul Wegeforth, from the Army Neuro-surgical Laboratory at John's Hopkins Medical School in 1919, it talks about reconstruction of the skull after traumatic injury on the battlefield. Some amazing, pioneering techniques.

Have you seen this man?

Have you seen this man? Found this image tucked in an envelope in the Carnegie Reprint collection. The name is tough to read and we don't seem to have any papers associated. But great picture. Its from a photography studio in Boston.

Med School

An anatomy class handbook and grade sheet from the University of Toronto, 1892. It's not shown here, but the only thing in bold inside the green-ish pamphlet is something like "No tobacco permitted in the dissection room." For anyone that has looked through Blast Book's Dissection pictures, Toronto seems pretty advanced in that respect.

From the HDAC reprint collection

Yes, the Alexander Graham Bell. Apparently he was into eugenics after realizing that children of deaf couples were more likely to be deaf too.
1914

Letter of the Day: January 27 UPDATED

 

Six months after the establishment of the Museum, Civil War hospital doctors were saving material for it.

 

U.S.A. General Hospital No. 1,

Frederick, MD., Jany 27 1863

 

Doctor.

 

I will endeavor to  pl[ea]s[e] also [illegible] to take Davis place & at any rate the specimens “shall be preserved”. Enclosed please find corrected bill.

 

Respectfully,

 

R.F. Weir

Asst Surgeon, USA

 

Dr. J.H. Brinton, USA

Surg. Gen’l Office

Washington, DC

 

Curiosity over this letter leads me to transcribe the earlier one:

 

U.S.A. General Hospital No. 1,

Frederick, MD., January 25 1863

 

Doctor.

 

Enclosed find your vouchers for expenditures for whiskey to preserve pathological specimens. Will you please have them settled as the money had been advanced by Dr. Davis who has recently left for England & me, heir to bones & [illegible – whiskey?] collections. When may we expect to see the new Catalogue[?]

 

Respectfully,

 

R.F. Weir

Asst Surgeon, USA

 

Dr. J.H. Brinton, USA

Surg. Gen’l Office

Washington, DC