NMHM staff at American Association of the History for the Medicine meeting

Several of us will be attending the AAHM Annual Meeting this year:

James Curley, museum technician, historical collections - Vice-president of the Medical Museums Association

Alan Hawk, collections manager, historical collections

Michael Rhode, archivist - responder at MEMA Thurs afternoon session (I think) and speaking on "Cancer in Comics: No Laughing Matter" on May 1, Saturday, 2:15

Emily Wilson, museum technician, Human Developmental Anatomy collectiion - "The Monkey Colony at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Embryology" on May 1, Saturday, at 10:45.

Any readers of the blog planning on being there?

Letter of the Day: April 22 - buying the Gibson collection

Medical Director’s office

First Military District, State of Virginia,

Richmond, Va., April 22nd 1868

 

Dear Doctor

 

I bought the Gibson Collection this morn for $1015. I gave the 15 additional over the sum authorized by the S.G. because I did not want to lose the collection for such a small sum + rather than it should be lost to the Army Museum would give the extra amt. myself. When there was added a collection of 25 or 30 calculi not on the catalogue and which I knew you wanted very much – some being very valuable + rare.

 

Gross was prepared to go to 750 himself + 250 for another party if it had been sold by lot or specimens. I will make a formal report to the Surgeon General tomorrow.

 

I have not received the list promised by the S.G. of such specimens most wanted + the price annexed.

 

Will write you again in a few days.

 

Yours truly,

 

John H. Janeway

 

 

Medical illustration exhibit in Rosslyn, VA

This article, and the accompanying exhibit of course, features longtime friend of the museum, medical illustrator Marie Dauenheimer.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042002256.html

 

In gross anatomy, Howard U.'s Ashraf Aziz sees nothing but grace

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 21, 2010; C01

 

Marie noted of the show – “The show features the work of about 10 different artists, and the work was created from or inspired by my cadaver dissections at Howard University-the works are by myself, AiW faculty and students, John Yanson, Will Dickinson and Robert Liberace.”

 

The exhibit information is:

 

ANATOMICAL ART: DISSECTION TO ILLUSTRATION

WHERE Art Institute of Washington Gallery  (“Gallery 1820”)

1820 N. Fort Myer Drive, Street Level

Arlington, VA 22209

METRO Rosslyn (across street from rear entrance)

PARKING at meters: Free after 6:00pm.

 

 

Letter of the Day: April 21 - one half-barrel

U.S.A. General Hospital,

Beverly, N.J.,

April 21^st 1865

 

Sir,

 

I have the honor to transmit herewith Express Co.’s receipt for one half-barrel containing Anatomical Specimens. Reports of both cases (amputation at the hip joint) were forwarded several days ago with the Quarterly Report of Surgical Operations, in which the cases from whom the specimens were obtained are represented by Hospital Numbers 665 & 1955.

 

Very respectfully

Your Obdt Servt

C. Wagner,

Asst Surgeon USA

Comdg Hospital

 

To

Curator of the Army Med Museum

Surgeon General’s Office

Washington DC

Accession of the day, April 20

A.M.M. No. 10368
Pathological Section

Gawler, Albert

Washington, D.C.

April 20, 1892.

Head, neck and about ten feet of links of tapeworm, taenia mediocanellata. Passed by contributor after twice fasting 24 hours and after each fasting taking a medicine, the composition of which was not known to him. The head was passed after the second fasting.

Letter of the day, April 20

Fort Yellowstone, Wyoming
April 20, 1908.

The Curator,
Army Medical Museum
Washington, D.C.

Sir:-

I have the honor to report forwarding under separate cover, this date, a well preserved specimen of a common species of caterpillar passed in the stool of a healthy 13 months male child at this station on October 6, 1907.

Interest attaches chiefly to the fact that the worm was so little affected by the processes of digestion in transit, being only slightly decolorized and divested of its coat of hairs. It was flattened and slightly macerated when it appeared in the commode but at once was restored to its normal symmetry upon placing it in the alcohol preservative.

This is the second worm passed by the child, the first having been passed on October 5 but thrown away by the mother after exciting momentary curiosity. Upon passing the second the mother brought it to me for examination and advice.

The only noticeable effect upon the health of the child was a slight diarrhea and sufficient digestive disturbance to cause disinclination for food during the time the larvae were in the digestive tract, there being a speedy and permanent return to normal conditions following expulsion of worms.

Very respectfully,
J.M. Wheate
Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army

Letter of the Day: April 19 - photographer job?

Office Sergeant-at-Arms,

House of Representatives U.S.,

Washington, D.C., April 19, 1888

 

Dr. Billings –

 

Dear Sir –

 

Mr. E.J. Taylor, a photographer, is anxious to obtain the position Assistant Photographer in the Museum.

 

Mr. Taylor is recommended to me, by personal friends, as an expert in his profession, and if you can possibly help him I wish you would do so – I should be glad [to] hear from you as to the prospect of his success.

 

Respectfully,

 

W.H.F. Lee

Letter of the Day: April 18 - Birds?

Mearns House,
Highland Falls, N.Y.

Office of Edgar A. Mearns, M.D.
Wednesday, April 18th, 1883

Sir:

I am desirous of learning something of the character of Army Medical Museum, at Washington, D.C.

I am about to enter the service as Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army; and, as I have several thousands of bird-skins, birds’ eggs, reptiles, batrachians, fishes, mammals, a botanical collection, etc. in my collection, which I have gotten together with great expense and labor, I think some of making a donation to the Museum, but would like, first, to learn something of the Museum, its objects, the kind of objects which it desires, and the disposal made of them.

I have, also, a small series of Botanical specimens representing the plants useful in medicine and which have toxic effects, belonging to the Flora of this region.

Please inform me, and greatly oblige.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant
Edgar A. Mearns

To the Curator of the Army Medical Museum,
Washington, D.C.

Lungs from a cadaver respirating

Cadaver Lungs Still Breathing On Respirator - Watch more Funny Videos

Letter of the Day: April 17 - North Pole expedition

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1418

1st Endorsement.
War Department,
Surgeon General’s Office

April 17, 1896.

Respectfully referred to Lieut. Col. D. L. Huntington, Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army, in charge of Museum and Library Division, for his action, in connection with previous papers in the case.

Geo. M. Sternberg
Surgeon General, U.S. Army

--

To the Minister of the United States of America
Mr. Thomas S. Ferguson

Dear Sir!

In answer to your request for the particulars of the medical equipment of the “Andrees Polarexpedition 1896” I respectfully beg to communicate to you the following:

In furnishing this medical outfit I had to consider two circumstances.

First, -the extent of the whole must be as limited as possible. Secondly, - the packing must [be] strong enough to stand jolting and water. For this purpose, I suppose it would have been most practical to have india-rubber vessels, but such articles are not manufactured in Sweden, and it would be very difficult to order them from abroad.

It was also requested that no object of metal should be used, Mr. Andree desiring to avoid metals wherever possible.

On this account no comparison can be made with the very nice medicine cases, (of American and English manufacture) provided for instance by Mssrs Burroughs Welcome & Co, London which are so highly approved by Stanley and Dr. Parker.

All the pharmaceutical preparations are with two or three exceptions in a dry form such as gelatin and tabloids.

For drawing up the schedule care has been taken to provide for the diseases occurring in earlier Swedish expeditions to Polar regions.

The medicines which are in small doses, are made up in gelatine, a form of medicinal preparations, invented many years ago by General direktor Almen, and is of a very practical nature, as a cover the size of a common envelope, can hold many hundreds doses. They are used in Sweden for such preparations as laudanum, morphia, and quinine, they are usually kept in their coatings, in this case, they have been put into glass tubes.

The rest of the medicines are in tabloids previously mentioned and which are also manufactures in Sweden.

Tabloids containing poisonous drugs are in addition enveloped in very thin paper to prevent them getting broken, it being impossible to use such tabloids unless they are in a perfectly whole collection.

The method for preserving and packing the medicine is as follows.

The gelatives and tabloids are put into tubes of thick glass, with corks especially cutted and prepared to resist damp and water. The labels are also prepared in a similar manner.

Each label is also supplied with a number – which is also given in the little book containing a list of the medicines, - and also the name of the expedition, the name of preparation and the dose to be taken, and finally the names of the diseases for which it is used, which are also given in the book above mentioned, in alphabetical order together with short advice given by the physician as to their treatment and the medicine to be employed.

Each of the glass tubes is fitted into a wooden case (turned?) lined inside with india rubber and cotton wool, a band of india rubber being fixed outside and finally the outside of the case is marked with the same numbers as the glass tube, and is burnt into the wood.

By this arrangement the most important medicines can be carried without further trouble as regards packing, in the event of a journey by sleigh, when everything in the way of baggage must be reduced to a minimum.

The whole collection is then packed in an air and water tight box of wood and india rubber, stamped on the outside with the name “Polarexpedition Andrees 1896,” the word “medicine” and the weight.

Respecting the above mentioned catalogue I herewith beg to enclose a leaf as a typical example of the whole.*

I am Sir yours very respectfully

C.F. Lundberg
Examined Apothecary
Hopapotcket Lejonet

Stockholm 31 Mar 1896

*Filed in a separate envelope

Letter of the Day: April 16

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, D.C., April 16, 1885

 

Dear Sir:

 

We are in receipt every few days from various menageries and zoological gardens, of animals that have died of some disease; some of them sent with the understanding that a report will be made of the causes of death. Learning from you that you propose to make a collection of soft parts of animals for the purposes of comparative anatomical study, I beg to say that it will give me much pleasure to transfer the carcasses, as they come to hand, to the Army Medical Museum, if you will cause to be furnished on each occasion a report of the post mortem, for transmission to the donors. I understand that the Museum is making preparations for permanent presentations of specimens to illustrate the comparative anatomy of various organs, and in this event the National Museum will abandon its previous intention of making such collection; and will turn over a large amount of material already in store, as it is not desirable to have a duplicate.

 

Respectfully,

Spencer Baird

 

Dr. J. S. Billings,

Army Medical Museum,

Washington

Unexploded Ordinance In the Head

This happens often enough
see the full

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/15/unexploded.shell.head.afghanistan/index.html?hpt=T2

"The projectile was part of the bomb that went off," explained Maj. John Bini, who oversees all trauma care at Bagram. "People will pack just about anything in to these things: rocks, nails, screws, explosives."
Bini and his team immediately summoned an explosive ordnance disposal team to assess how risky it would be to conduct the surgery. The doctors needed to minimize the risk of setting off the ordinance.
They were told not to drop the explosive, prick it with a scalpel or let it be exposed to any electricity.
"We knew that any electrical current possibly could cause detonation."

Another rifle slipped from our grasp

Also sent to the Smithsonian in 1950.

Almost a dime a dozen

I just came across this record in our accession files:

Harper's Ferry and Whitney 54 caliber rifle, circa 1851. Heavy steel barrel; Muzzle loader; Fine barrel; Brass hands and mountings; Brass butt plate; Patch box or place cut in butt stock to hold cleaning rag or caps; Brass cover with spring; Percussion lock. Bannerman Purchase. Sent to Smithsonian Institution 09/06/1950.

It was bought in 1912 for $2.50.

Letter of the day, April 15

Balduin Lucké was a Philadelphia pathologist, a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, Deputy Curator of the Museum, and in charge of the Professional Service (primarily the pathological division) of the Museum/Army Institute of Pathology.

I thought this letter interesting from the scrap-metal-salvaging aspect during WW2, and funny because of  government paperwork requirements in the face of roadblocks as shown at the end of paragraph 2 and the beginning of paragraph 3.

We have some of Dr. Lucké's materials in our Registry of Noteworthy Research in Pathology collection.

The American College of Pathology
East University Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

April 15, 1944

Lt. Col. Balduin Lucké, M.C.
Army Medical Museum
7th St. and Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington 25, D.C.


Dear Colonel Lucké:

I am returning the letter from Major Pons, and Mrs. Weller joins me in thanking you for letting us see it.

We have noted that 1,050 reprints of your papers will be required. Do you wish the reprints of the two articles bound together?

We, of course, will wish to cooperate in respect to the preservation of the blocks for future use. We have been under considerable pressure to assure re-use of the metal as quickly as possible. There is a War Production Board order, under the title General Conservation Order M-99, covering this matter. As I understand it, we should be protected in the same manner when the issue is between two Government agencies as though we were dealing with a civilian. After the issue of General Conservation Order M-99, we withdrew the privilege of securing the blocks for a nominal fee to cover packing. On three occasions when re-use of the blocks seemed imminent, we have released them. The mechanism by which this is done is to file with us, in triplicate, a signed statement in the language which appears in fine print near the bottom of the middle column of the printed order which we are sending you herewith. One copy has to go to our engraver, one to our printer, and one copy is retained in our files.

Since it is almost impossible to secure additional copies of General Conservation Order M-99, and the one I am sending you is the only one which we have, I must ask you to return it at your early convenience. I will have to leave it to your judgment as to whether the statement which you submit should be signed by you or by General Love. Because of the large number of illustrations in your articles, the amount of metal is considerable and I fear that I am going to meet with some objection from our engraver, whom I believe to be under a quota in respect to the metal supplied him. This quota is influenced by the amount of salvaged metal which he can release. Therefore, any plan to retain these blocks should be well considered and readily defensible.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Carl V. Weller

CVW:DS
Enc., 2

Putting a face on it

I'm reviewing the first batch of Contributed Photographs to be uploaded to our database, and have started coming across photos of soldiers injured at Antietam and Gettysburg. It's not often we can put faces to the statistics of this war, but here's one example of a soldier injured at Gettysburg. This is what the record says:

Ludwig Kohn, private, Co. I, 214th Pa. Vols., aged 26, admitted to Harewood U.S.A. General Hospital, August 15, 1865, suffering from gunshot wound of chest, right side, ball fracturing third rib, transfixing chest, exit below scapulae same side. Wounded July 1, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa. On admission to this Hospital, the parts had nearly healed; but patient states that the wound soon after the injury became gangrenous with considerable sloughing of soft parts; spit blood at time, and that the wound was so painful as to deprive him of his night’s rest; could not lie on his back, but was obliged to sit up day and night. There is still a slight fistulous opening, but otherwise parts entirely healed; is in very good constitutional state, and is now awaiting his discharge from U.S. service.

Contributed by R.B. Bontecou

Letter of the Day: April 14

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 7438

 

April 14, 1904

 

Dr. S. S. Adams,

1 Dupont Circle,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Sir:

 

I am directed by the Surgeon General to express his thanks for the photograph of a case of thoracopagus received from you on the 14^th inst. It will be added to the collection with a properly inscribed card.

 

Very respectfully,

 

C.L. Heizmann

Col. Asst. Surgeon General, U.S.A.

In charge of Museum & Library Division

 

The photograph was Contributed Photograph 2583, but is now missing.

Letter and Photographs of the Day: April 13 addition

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 8202

April 13, 1905

Mr. J. E. Standley,
Colman Dock,
Seattle, Washington

Sir:

Your letter of the 4th inst. Addressed to the Smithsonian Institution, containing two photographs of Samoans showing elephantiasis and one of a Javanese woman with multiple fibrous tumors has been referred with the photographs to the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, for deposit in the Army Medical Museum.

The Surgeon General directs me to express his thanks to you for the photographs and to inform you that they will be added to the series of contributed photographs of this Museum.

Very respectfully,

C.L. Heizmann
Col. Asst. Surgeon General, U.S.A.
In charge of Museum & Library Division

These two pictures from Ye Old Curiosity Shop and Indian Curio of Colman Dock, Seattle, became CP 2593 and 2594.

Letter of the Day: April 13

813 North Charles St.

Baltimore

April 13/96

 

Dear Doctor Reed,

 

Many thanks for the monkeys which came through all right.

 

I enclose ck for $18.00.

 

I was so unfortunate as to lose one on the table and the other two were not over strong, but they managed to pull through a minor operation and are doing well now. Section of the corpus calllosium is rather too serious an operation unless an animal is in very good order and I shall have to keep that for animals in first class order. With many thanks for your courtesy & kindly interest

 

I remain

Very sincerely yours

E. Linden Mellus

 

 

#18.00 received from Dr. Reed

April 15, 1896

C.J. Meyers

Accession of the day, April 13

Photograph Number 304. Chronic Arthritis of the knee. The subject of this illustration, Amos S. Young, a resident of Poolsville, Maryland, age twenty - five years, and of strumous diathesis, states that he first noticed a swelling of the left knee - joint in the spring of 1868. The knee steadily increased in size, measuring twenty inches in circumference on April 13, 1871, at which time this photograph was taken at the Army Medical Museum.