Letter of the Day: June 22 (2 of 2) - leprosy? again

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 746

Ohio State Board of Health.
Office of the Secretary.
Columbus, Ohio, June 22nd, 1895

Major Walter Reed,
Surgeon, U.S.A., & Curator of U.S.A. Museum,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:-

We have two cases of supposed leprosy in this State. A specimen from one case was sent to the Marine Hospital Service some time ago, and was examined by Dr. Rosenau, who gave it as his opinion that the cases were not leprosy. Since that time the cases were presented to a meeting of the Ohio State Medical Society, and the correctness of the diagnosis of Dr. Rosenau was questioned. The material was referred to this Board for further investigation. I wrote to Dr. Sternberg in regard to the matter some time ago, and in reply he stated that it would be impossible for him to make a personal investigation of the matter but that he would refer my communication to you, who would be glad, he thought, to examine the specimen, and he said, “who is entirely competent to give you an opinion in the matter”.

I should be very glad if it would be possible for you to make this examination, and should be pleased to hear from you in regard to it.

Yours very truly,
C.O. Probst
Secretary.

Letter of the Day: June 22 (1 of 2) - hermaphrodite pig

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 745

June 22, 1895

D. I. Fort, Esq.,
Raleigh, N.C.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of June 17th, addressed to Dr. John S. Billings, U.S. Army, has been referred to me for reply.

The chances are so very much against your pig being a true hermaphrodite, that we do not feel that the Museum can offer more than $10 for the animal. If you desire to dispose of it at this price, you can either ship it to us by express alive, addressed “Army Medical Museum, Cor. 7th and B Sts., S.W., Washington, D.C., “ or you could kill the animal, and pack it at once in sawdust, and ship it to us by express, charges to be paid at this end of the line.

Be kind enough to acknowledge the receipt of this letter.

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

HDAC intern Rebecca's Post for 6/21 "Teratology"

The other day at lunch everyone was talking about weddings and Mike, the museum archivist, asked me if I planned on getting married anytime soon. My answer was a definitive “No!” because I’m only 20 and I still have a lot of schooling ahead of me. If anything, my interning here has only reinforced that answer.
Getting married leads to having kids, and do you know how many things can go wrong with an embryo? Anyone who has seen the “From a Single Cell” exhibit in the museum can attest to the multitude of abnormalities that can emerge during development. Looking through the teratology files – teratology is the study of developmental abnormalities – in HDAC to research pathologies for my project certainly doesn’t help either.
Abnormalities range from the nonfatal or easily-corrected, like polydactyly, to the always fatal or severely malformed, like “acardiac monsters,” in which at least one monozygotic twin is missing entire organ systems and body parts. I can’t imagine the devastation of a mother who is told she is carrying a “monster.”
Many congenital defects are brought on by environmental stimuli, like fetal alcohol syndrome or limb deformities caused by drugs such as thalomide. Many more, however, are hereditary. I’ve seen many pictures of genetically inherited anomalies, such as icthyosis, the excessive keratinization of the skin, causing scaly or cracked skin, and anencephaly, the improper closing of the neural tube or absence of the skull, causing brain exposure to amniotic fluid. This picture is an X-ray of a baby with sirenomelia from the early 20th century; there is also a fetal sirenomelia specimen on the museum floor. The legs are fused together because abnormal umbilical cord vessels deprive the lower body of blood during development.
Any parents concerned that their daughters aren’t ready to have children should just point them in the direction of a teratology collection. If I hadn’t been telling my mother for years now that she would have to wait a long time for grandchildren, she would probably receive the news after my internship here. Better yet, I’ll probably just adopt.

Letter of the Day: June 21 - Civil War

Huntingdon, Penna
June 21st 1864

Dear Doctor;

I arrived home from Beaufort, S.C. on Saturday last, sick. I had intended coming through your place on my way, but when I arrived at N.Y. I did not feel able. Before leaving B- I sent you by Express a keg of specimens, a receipt for which you will find enclosed. They are not very valuable, but I did the best I could. I lost a number on Morris Island for want of liquor, before I rec.d the cask you sent. You will find Dr. Buckman’s papers enclosed, giving a history of his cases. The others have no particular history to be given more than what is on the tabs. Dr. Ramsey had a resection of head of humerus which I intended to send, but he said he was going to Washington himself and I gave it to him to hand to you, a week or more before I left. I hope you got it. I lost at Port Royal a box of miscellaneous articles, a portion of which I had intended for you. I think they were stolen. I shall write to Dr. Allen and request him to look after them for me. They were left in care of the proprietor of the hotel there when I left Morris Island, but when called for, could not be found.

Today or tomorrow, I shall send to the Surgeon Genl’s Office, my invoices, receipts and Returns of Hospital Property, +c together with pay accounts. If your time will permit, will you be kind enough to ask the Clark to push them through as soon as possible. I am not able to leave the house or I would go and make you a visit. My right lung is troubling me very much, but since I am in the North, I have improved greatly. I had an attack of congestion of the lungs in B-. Should I recover my usual health, I think I will try the army a while longer. I shall send you whatever of interest I may find.

Very Respectfully Your [illegible]
H.K. Neff

To
Surg. Jno. H. Brinton
Washington, D.C.

Letter of the day, June 20

The photo to the right is from our Medical Illustration Service Library and has the caption "Colonel Frank M. Townsend, USAF, Medical Corps, deputy director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, examines the bullet that killed Lincoln and the probe used in treating him. On the desk is a vial containing Lincoln's skull fragments. The bullet and probe used by surgeons attending President Lincoln were given to the Institute's Medical Museum by the Lincoln Museum." MIS 05-6595-7. I remember cataloging this image so it was pretty neat to find the letter transferring the objects.

United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service

National Capital Parks

Washington 25, D.C.

June 20, 1956

Miss Helen Purtle

Assistant Curator, Medical Museum

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

Department of Defense

Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Miss Purtle:

Several weeks ago you made an oral request for the transfer of the bullet which killed Abraham Lincoln, together with the metal probe and six pieces of bone extracted from his skull, from the Lincoln Museum to the Medical Museum.

Since these objects, transferred to the Lincoln Museum from the Judge Advocate General's Office, War Department, on February 5, 1940, have never been displayed at the Lincoln Museum, a memorandum recommending this transfer was sent to the Director, National Park Service from this office on April 30, 1956. Permission for the transfer of these objects to the Medical Museum was granted by Associate Director E.T. Scoyen in his Memorandum to the Superintendent on June 8, 1956.

A representative of this office will make arrangements for the transfer of these objects to the Medical Museum. When these objects are received, please sign the three copies of the enclosed property forms, retain one copy for your records, and return two copies to this office in order to complete the records of the transfer.

Sincerely yours,

[signed] Edward J. Kelly

Superintendent

Letter of the Day: June 19

Post Hospital,
Depot General Recruiting Service,
Columbus Barracks, O. June 19, 1879.

Surgeon General, U.S.A.

Sir:

I have the honor to report that I am preparing for shipment by express, four jars of specimens (pathological) that surgeon Woodward told me, when here recently, would be acceptable at the Army Med. Museum. The largest specimen (cancer of internal organs) needs some change in preservation fluid, (smelling a little), or I would not send them on in advance of their histories: these latter I hope to send in a few days. The jars have new labels to identify their contents.

Very respectfully,
Your Ob’t Ser’t.
C.B. White
Surgoen, U.S.A.

Four new pictures up on Flickr

I put about 10 new pictures up on Flickr in the past few days.

Letter of the Day: June 18

[Donor relations and stealing a march on another Museum – nothing changed in 100 years.]

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 742

June 18, 1895

Clarence B. Moore, Esq.,
1321 Locust St.,
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Sir:

I am directed by the Surgeon General to acknowledge the receipt by express of several long bones, showing well developed platycnemia and other pathological changes, and to thank you for this addition to the Museum collection.

With regard to the Philadelphia specimens mentioned in your favor of June 16th, I beg to state that we will be pleased to receive and to put on exhibition any specimens which you may think deserving of permanent preservation. Please have the specimens carefully packed and turned over to Adams Express addressed “Army Medical Museum, Cor. 7th and B Sts., S.W., Washington, D.C.” express charges to be paid here.

Very sincerely yours,
Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator

Letter of the Day: June 17 - Wheeler survey

United States Engineer Office,
Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian,
P.O. Lock Box 93.
Washington, D.C., June 17, 1874

Bvt. Lt. Col. Geo. A. Otis
Curator Army med. Museum,
Washington

Sir:

By direction of Lieut. G.M. Wheeler in charge of the Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys west of the 100th Meridian I have the honor to forward as a donation to the Army Medical Museum the following specimens:

1 Skeleton of wild Turkey Meliagris var mexicanus No x 4
1 Pathological specimen fract. of leg of M.M.
1 skull monkey macacus cynomolgus from Dr. Yarrow
1 Bottle containing 15 bird crania presented by Dr. yarrow
1 Cranium Picus Columbianus No 892
1 Skeleton Massena’s quail Cyrtonyx Massena No 996
1 Skull of Gray Rabbit Lepus sylvaticus
3 Skulls Navajo Indians {1085, 1086, 11087 [Anatomical Section]
1 Skull Apache ? Indian {1088 [Anatomical Section]
1 Skull of Black Bear Ursus americanus no. R.O. 82
1 Skull of Black Bear Ursus americanus young
1 Sternum of Swainson’s hawk Buteo swainsoni No. 877
1 Sternum Prairie Falcon Falco polyagous No. 64
1 Sternum American Avocet Recurvirostra Americana No 39,
1 Sternum Red Breasted Teal Anas cyanoptera No. 417

It is hoped that these specimens may prove of some little value to the museum under your charge. Please acknowledge the receipt of the specimens.

Very respectfully Your obdt Servnt.
H.C. Yarrow
Surgeon, Nat. Expd.

New NLM digital text site: Physicians' Lives in the Shenandoah Valley

 

The History of Medicine Division's Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program (AMMP) is pleased to announce the launch of a new digital texts site "Physicians' Lives in the Shenandoah Valley," (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/digicolls/henkel/index.html) a collection of 828 letters dating between 1786-1907. It is drawn from the Henkel Family Letters collection covering more than a century of life in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

 

The Henkel family settled in New Market, Virginia in 1790. Generations of fathers and sons studied medicine. Over the course of their careers, these physicians ministered to their community, tended to their countrymen on the battlefield, and testified in the nation's courts of law.  The letters of the Henkel family richly document the daily life of men in medicine in the nineteenth century and reveal the challenges of the profession as well as the rewards and responsibilities. Their writings colorfully represent the range of events in everyday life, from the minute details of local issues to the national crisis of the Civil War. The missives convey the concerns and characters of the authors, vividly illustrating the writers' personalities, and their experiences as physicians.

 

The site contains the complete collection of transcribed letters alongside images of the originals. Curators normalized the majority of place names, general subject terms, and MeSH terms (Medical Subject Headings) to aid searching and browsing. The original spellings are enhanced by pop-up window links that display the normalized phrase. All spellings and verbiage are those of the original writers; no editorial interventions were made, although some layouts differ to enhance readability.

 

This site marks AMMP's first XML encoded text collection using the DLXS software. The encoded texts conform to the TEI Level 4 (Text Encoding Initiative) specifications.

 

Project Conception, Transcriptions/Scanning, Content Development: Jim Labosier

Technical Coordinator, Site Design, and Development: John Rees

 

Letter of the Day - June 16 (3 of 3) - hairballs

[Andrea of our public programs staff is fascinated by hairballs and selected this letter.]

 

Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, D.C., June 16, 1880

 

Dr. Geo. A. Otis,

Curator, Army Medical Museum,

Washington, D.C.

 

Sir:

                In accordance with the agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and the Army Medical Museum, I take pleasure in sending you a ball of hair from a cow’s stomach, presented to the Institution by Thomas T. Crosson of Livingston, Texas.

 

Very respectfully,

Spencer Baird

Secretary

 

A copy of the above given to Dr. Schafhirt with the spec. June 18, 1880.

Specimen Received June 17, and ack. June 18, 1880. Letter 5616.

Letter of the Day: June 16 (2 of 3)

Jacksonville, Fla
June 16, 1895

Army Medical Museum.

Gentlemen,

I sent you by express yesterday a box of long bones – examples of platycnemia and pathological specimens – from the mounds of Florida. They were taken out in my immediate presence and are exactly labeled.

I have in Philadelphia a considerable collection of pathological specimens also made in my immediate presence. I think they would be more in place with you than where they are at present and I believe I could induce the present possessors to relinquish them.

I would not care to do this, however, unless you have space in the museum to place them – or the most interesting among them – on exhibition. Kindly drop me a line at your convenience to 1321 Locust St., Philadelphia, and oblige

Yours very truly
Clarence B. Moore

Bones received June 18, 1895

Letter of the Day: June 16 (1 of 3) - Paget on Medical Museums

1 Harewood Place
Hanover Square, W.

London, June 16, 1888

My dear Dr. Billings

I enclose some more of the answers to your questions and a few more, probably, will come in and shall be sent to you at once.

I will gladly write what I think on the subjects mentioned in your last letter / May 20th / but it must be admitted that on nearly all points that which may be deemed best for London may not be so for Washington. This is, certainly, try in reference to your first question. Here, we have our British Museum, which, in its Natural History Departments, corresponds with your National Museum, and we have our Museum of the College of Surgeons which, although it may be classed as a Medical Museum, yet has illustrations of Comparative Anatomy & Physiology in their widest range in the collections combining them both would doubtless have the glory of being more nearly perfect than either alone can be; and there would be some utility in this; but I think it is, on the whole, much more useful to have the two; for they are two miles apart; they are chiefly studied by two different classes of persons; their mutual friendly rivalry is generally beneficial; and, the College’s Museum being independent of Government support, insures a larger total expenditure for scientific purposes than the Government might be disposed to grant. Similarly, there are, I think, great advantages in our having for the promotion of Botany not only the collections of the British Museum but those of the Linnaean Society in which are included those of Linnaeus himself.

I should not think thus if our two museums were, like yours, only 150 yards apart and if both were wholly or in any considerable degree dependent on the Government. I should think that in your Medical Museum it would suffice if Comparative Anatomy were illustrated to the fullest range of what may reasonably be deemed its near relations with human anatomy, physiology and morphology. The Museums of our universities and chief medical schools have their sections in Comparative Anatomy and Physiology on this plan; but yours would, of course be larger; and in estimating for it what might be deemed the reasonable range of Comparative Anatomy I would exceed rather than fall short. There is no harm in the overlapping of museums or of the several divisions of any one; duplicates are far less troublesome than defects are; students should not be obliged to go from one museum to another for the illustrations of any but the most difficult subjects.

For these reasons I think that though your Medical Museum should have by far the larger number of specimens of Vertebrate Embryology, yet the Natural History Museum should have many (?); and if they were duplicates of your ones it would not do harm.

About Anthropometry – except in so far as it is concerned with specimens that may be put in a museum, I cannot express an opinion. I have never considered it or seen it tried; but it would be admirable it if led to the abolition of measurements by the sizes of eggs, oranges, nuts, horse-beans etc, which abound in what out to be accurate descriptions.

As to “what a Medical Museum should show to the unprofessional public” I think as might safely be determined by the range of the best popular lectures given from time to time; - excluding all things genital or relating to them and all, or nearly all, things pathological of which the chief interest is personal; but not excluding “wonders,” such as skeletons of giants, dwarfs, + the life, or the effects of an accident, for thinking of wonders often leads to more useful thinking about common things.

Then, lastly, as to Instruments with the names of those to whom they belonged, I am very glad that you mention them for you thus give me an opportunity of offering something to your Museum and which I take with even more pleasure, an opportunity of giving some evidence of my great regard for yourself. I will send you a lancet which belonged to John Hunter [815 Misc. Sect.]. It was given to me by Mr. Clift who was his secretary and the first conservator of his Museum and who marked his name on it. And with it will be an Assalini’s artery-forceps [816 Misc. Sect.] , said to be the first ever made in England. It was given to me by Mr. Wardrop, whose works on the Eye and other subjects will be known to you as he was, probably, the first who used the instrument in England, and I never knew it to fail; and even now, when it is more than 70 years old, it is perfectly fit for use.

Pray accept them, and with them my sincere wishes that you and all your work may enjoy complete prosperity.

Always truly yours,
James Paget.

Let me also be remembered very kindly to Mrs. Billings [over]
I do not know when Assalini’s forceps was first described but in his Annals di Chirgia, ? 1812 he speaks at p. 69 of “suis finzetta a doppi usaini?” and a form of it is figured in pl. viii figs 10, described at p. 173.

[Instruments received July 2, 1888. A.M.M. Nos. 815 & 816 Miscellaneous Section]

Rebecca's Post - June 15, 2010

As a new intern at the Human Developmental Anatomy Center, I have been asked to blog weekly about my experiences here. I am an undergraduate at NYU studying physical anthropology, but embryology is pretty new to me. I guess you’ll learn along with me through these blog entries (or at least see some cool pictures from my scanning adventures).

Well, it seems like I have been glued to this chair next to the scanner for a while now. I scan old crinkly acetate models from sun up to sun down (I hyperbolize as well). Usually, it’s not so bad because most of the stuff is really interesting and it’s incredible to handle original models from the 1920s.

Take this scan, for example; it was in a small box labeled only “Tadpole Ears, Streeter, 1920.” Tadpole ears?! At first I thought George Streeter had just pulled a fast one on me, mixing tadpole ears in with collections of human embryos and research on rhesus monkeys, but then I realized it did make sense after all to include tadpoles in a study on development. I continued to scan, appreciative of the great lengths to which scientists went so many years ago in order to understand human development.

As I continued to scan, however, my attention drifted elsewhere and I began to see angry clowns in every slide. This tadpole looks horrifyingly similar to the killer clown in the movie “It,” don’t you think?

Pictures are still going up on Flickr

While we haven't been linking to them as often, the Archives is still posting pictures on the Museum's Flickr site and we put up two images of Civil War soldiers yesterday. Stop in and check them out - 930,000* other viewers can't be wrong.

*but I can - it's 971,000 viewers as of today. 5 new pictures for this afternoon too.

Letter of the Day: June 15 - census questions

Museum curator John Shaw Billings also did a lot of work on the US Census, directing the medical parts of it.

1811 Spruce Street

My dear Dr. Billings,

For my Address next May, as President of the Climatological Society I propose to give a discussion of phthisis in Pennsylvania, considered statistically and in reference to race, occupation and topography.

Will you kindly inform me, though I fear I should not trouble you with this question, what is the present status of the volume of vital statistics and the Statistical Atlas of the Census of 1880.

Have they been published or if not can you tell me when it will be likely that they will be published.

Yours truly,
William Pepper
6-15-85

Pages 128-135 of Table XIII Census Rep sent June 20.

Museum staff on WNYC's Radiolab show

The brief visit to the medical museum is online now and can be listened to at the following link:

Famous Tumors
May 7 2010

To start, Robert tries to touch--literally touch--the tumor that killed President Ulysses S. Grant. But will its keepers (Dr. Adrianne Noe and Brian Spatola) let him?

Letter of the Day: June 14

June 14, 1880

Sir:

I have to acknowledge your communication of the 12th inst., and to return to you the specimen of the foetal calf accompanying it, you were good enough to forward to the Army Medical Museum, but which is not regarded as a desirable acquisition for the section of comparative anatomy of the Museum.

I am Sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant
George A. Otis
Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator Army Med. Museum

Stabler, James R.
Department of Agriculture

The NY Times as a history of medicine primer

A front page article on the current state of military medical evacuation -

As Afghan Fighting Expands, U.S. Medics Plunge In
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: June 12, 2010
Nearly nine years into the Afghan war, the pace for air crews that retrieve the wounded has become pitched.

an obituary dealing with 20th century neurology -

Fred Plum, Neurologist Who Helped Coin ‘Persistent Vegetative State,’ Dies at 86
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Published: June 11, 2010
Dr. Plum’s influential research improved the diagnosis and treatment of patients who lose consciousness from head injuries, strokes, metabolic disorders and drug overdoses.

The country's last tuberculosis sanitarium -

In Florida, a Lifeline to Patients With TB
By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 12, 2010
Sixty years after it opened for tuberculosis patients, A.G. Holley State Hospital in Florida is both a paragon of globalized public health and a health care anachronism.

And the difficulties of genomic medicine ten years later -

A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: June 12, 2010
The primary goal of the $3 billion Human Genome Project — to ferret out the genetic roots of common diseases and generate treatments — remains largely elusive.

Letter of the Day: June 13

June 13, 1881

Sir:-

I am instructed by the Surgeon General to acknowledge the safe reception on the 10th inst. of the section of skull in the case of a negro named Wood. It was forwarded by Surgeon G. Perin, U.S. Army Medical Director, Dept. of Dakota, and will be placed in the Surgical Section of the Army Med. Museum and numbered 7073. The specimen will be credited to you in the Museum Catalogue, and the Surgeon General requests me to thank you for this contribution to the collection.

Very respectfully,
Your obt. servt.
D. L. Huntington
Surgeon, U.S.A.

Mattocks, Dr. B.
St. Paul, Minn.
(Thru the Med. Director
Dept. of Dakota,
Fort Snelling, Minn.)