More on Eakin's Gross Clinic

The NY Times ran a good article on what the restored painting and its exhibit are like -

Deft Surgery for a Painting Under the Scalpel
By KAREN ROSENBERG
Published: July 29, 2010
An exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows Thomas Eakins’s “Gross Clinic,” an 1875 masterpiece that has recently been restored.


In the article, Rosenberg discusses the paintings history especially the initial public hanging of it:

The current show’s first gallery contains photographs and ephemera from the Centennial Exhibition, a world’s fair that included the first historical survey of American art. Much of this material is filler. (Do we really need to see the shareholders’ certificate or Eakins’s exhibitor’s pass?) More to the point are the interior shots of the exhibition sites, which show how “The Gross Clinic” made its debut.

The selection committee found the painting too visceral for the main art show, a stuffy, salon-style affair in Memorial Hall, but with help from Dr. Gross, Eakins was able to display it in a model Army-post hospital elsewhere on the fairgrounds. Photographs show “The Gross Clinic” prominently featured at the end of a long row of beds, framed by dark curtains.

Here's a photograph of that "model Army-post hospital" which featured exhibits on military medicine, and was partially curated by Dr. J.J. Woodward.


1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA, Army Medical Department Exhibit - 001 Hospital front view


1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA, Army Medical Department Exhibit - 005 Hospital ward 1 from southern end. [Note the beds with mosquito netting, the enlargements of photomicrographs on the side walls and especially The Gross Clinic painting by Thomas Eakins on the far wall.

Anatomy exhibit at National Gallery of Art

This looks really interesting -

The Body Inside and Out: Anatomical Literature and Art Theory
Selections from the National Gallery of Art Library
July 24, 2010–January 23, 2011

Here's the info from their website and a link to the brochure:

The humanist movement of the Renaissance introduced new realms of possibility in the arts and the sciences, including the study of anatomy. Many artists witnessed or participated in dissections to gain a better understanding of the proportions and systems of the body. Artists and physicians also worked together and formed partnerships—Leonardo and Marcantonio della Torre, Michelangelo and Realdo Columbo, and perhaps most famously, Titian and Andreas Vesalius—where the artist's renderings of the anatomist's findings were reproduced and dispersed to a scattered audience through the relatively recent innovation of print.

This exhibition, featuring outstanding examples of anatomy-related material from the collection of rare books in the National Gallery of Art Library, offers a glimpse into the ways anatomical studies were made available to and used by artists from the 16th to the early 19th century. On view are detailed treatises on human proportion and beauty by artists and scholars including Albrecht Dürer and Juan de Arfe y Villafane; drawing and painting manuals by Leonardo, Jean Cousin, and others, which include chapters on proportion and anatomy; and adaptations of anatomical treatises tailored to the needs of working artists by Roger de Piles and Johann Daniel Preissler, among others.

Letter of the Day: August 5 (2 of 2) - malaria?

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1642

 

Office of R.H. Cooper,

City Clerk.

 

Palatka, Florida, Aug 5, 1896

 

The Curator Army Medical Museum

Washington DC

 

Dear Sir

 

The City Council of the City of Palatka desires to as-certain whether you subject a sample of water to an analytical or microscopic examination which will determine whether the water is the cause of a considerable amount of malarial sickness which is prevailing in our City at the present time.

 

If this can be done please inform me of the cost and the amount of water it will be necessary to transmit. The water in question is that which is used for drinking and general purposes throughout the City.

 

Yours respectfully

RH Cooper

Museum lunchtime talk today

Lunchtime Talk: Technology in Rehabilitation at the Military Advanced Training Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

When: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

What: Rehabilitation of Wounded Warriors is enhanced by state-of-the-art technology employed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Housed within the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC) is the Center for Performance and Clinical Research (CPCR). The CPCR consists of a Biomechanics Lab and a Virtual Environment Lab. The technology is used to provide objective information about how a patient walks, balances, and reacts. The team of care providers uses the data to design, modify, or assess rehabilitation programs.

Bring a lunch and listen to Barri L. Schnall discuss her experiences working with Wounded Warriors using these innovative technologies.

COST: FREE! Bring your lunch!

WHERE: Russell Auditorium, NMHM, Bldg. 54 on WRAMC.

Questions? Email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2673.

Letter of the Day: August 5 (1 of 2)

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 851

 

August 5, 1895

 

To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

Washington, D.C.

 

General:

 

I have the honor to inform you that the articles of equipment of the Sanitary Corps of the Spanish Army, presented to this office by the Spanish Government, have been received, thinking that you might wish to make a suitable acknowledgement either by letter or exchange.

 

The articles received are:

 

1 Ambulance Knapsack (Mochila de ambulancia.)

1 Ambulance Dressing Case (Bolsa de ambulancia.)

1 Field Litter (Camilla de Campana.)

1 Litter Bed (Camilla-litera.)

1 Chair for carrying wounded (Silla-sueca.)

 

The value of the outfit received, according to the Spanish catalogue, is 353.28 pesetas, or about $70.65.

 

Very respectfully,

J.S. Billings

Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

In charge of Army Medical Museum and Library.

Letter of the Day: August 4

Phila Aug 4^th 1863

 

Dr. Brinton

 

Dear Sir

 

Enclosed please find statement of account against the Medical Museum, if we should received the amount at the present time, it would be a great benefit, as business is very dull and we are obliged to pay accounts as they become due. We shall take it as a favor if you will have the account put in train for being paid.

 

Yours truly

 

James W. Queen & Co

Museum Lunchtime Talk, Thurs., 5 August, 12p-1pm: Rehabilitation Technologies at the MATC/WRAMC

Lunchtime Talk: Technology in Rehabilitation at the Military Advanced Training Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

When: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

What: Rehabilitation of Wounded Warriors is enhanced by state-of-the-art technology employed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Housed within the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC) is the Center for Performance and Clinical Research (CPCR). The CPCR consists of a Biomechanics Lab and a Virtual Environment Lab. The technology is used to provide objective information about how a patient walks, balances, and reacts. The team of care providers uses the data to design, modify, or assess rehabilitation programs.

Bring a lunch and listen to Barri L. Schnall discuss her experiences working with Wounded Warriors using these innovative technologies.

COST: FREE! Bring your lunch!

WHERE: Russell Auditorium, NMHM, Bldg. 54 on WRAMC.

Questions? Email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2673.

Letter of the Day: August 3 - Milan medical museum?

Washington August 3 1867

 

My dear Doctor

 

Among a large number of interesting Medical & Surgical works recently received by us from Milan was the enclosed little pamphlet which if you have not already seen it may interest you as begin on very small scale what you are doing on a very large. Please return when done with and oblige

 

Your truly

S.F. Baird

 

Dr. Otis USA

Army Med. Mus.

Wash.

Letter of the Day: August 2

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 74

 

August 2, 1894

 

Dr. S.P. Kramer,

Professor of Pathology,

University of Cincinnati,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Dear Sir:

 

In the absence of Dr. Billings who is in Europe, your letter of July 31^st has been referred to me for answer. An application has already been made by another party for the loan of the Kymograph, and this request is now awaiting the return of Surgeon General Sternberg to the city. The draughtsman of the Museum is at present on leave and will not return until September 1^st. If in the meanwhile, you will indicate explicitly what part or parts of the instrument you would like drawings made of I will gladly comply with your request as soon as our draughtsman returns.

 

Very truly ours,

Walter Reed

Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army

Curator Army Medical Museum.

Letter of the Day: August 1

Fort Union, N.M. August 1st 1867

Dear Doctor,

I received on my return your very kind letter dated July 10th, for which accept my thanks. I was with Genl. Getty at Nascruces (?) Ranch, some 50 miles from here, holding an Indian council of Utes + Apaches when an express brought news of the death of Dr. + Mrs. McGill and of the cholera in a Battalion of the 38th U.S. Inf. En route for N.M. and thus near Fort Syon some 250 miles from this post. The Genl, at my request gave me an order to prevent the spread of the disease and to care for those sick. I got safely at this camp near Iron Springs, C.T. riding night + day, found that the report of the deaths of poor McGill + wife was only too true. There had been 29 cases with 9 deaths, poor McGill’s being among the last. He lost his wife, carried her remains back over 30 miles to a Fort (Fort Paulford) to bury there, returning the command had moved on 20 miles, and he stayed with his escort at the camp of the day before. In the morning as the officer in charge of the party was about moving, he told him “he was sick, he thought he had the cholera, and that it would kill him to move him.”

The next day at illegible he was dead. He died, poor fellow in an army wagon with only his servant and a Sergt + 3 colored soldiers with him. His last words the Sergt. told me was “Bury me by my wife’s side.” He had lost all interest in life after the death of his wife and seemed glad to die. I have told you what I was able to collect while I remained with the command which was only a few days – only long enough to know its condition with enough to report the proper means to be taken to prevent the spread of the disease – or danger of contagion. Dr. Kimble as act asst surg is with it now. I saw while there a prolapsed anus which I think would measure 10 inches across. The mass would not go in a large hat. If possible I will make a cast of it and send it to you. I will send in a day or two some specimens put up in cotton and small bottles, by mail, and also the cases you desire. I am very busy having turned over to Dr. Peter, and getting ready to leave. Setting out +c I saw in a Washington Chronicle that my leave had been granted. If so I shall leave for France from New York in November. I have been thinking of resigning but not quite made up my mind. I have got many friends and some surgical influence in New York and Drs. Bush DuBuois Snidely + Matts all advise me to settle there at once and offer me on my fathers ack[nowledged?] many favors. Still life is short and I do not care to take the trouble of settling without my constitution gets somewhat illegible. Please excuse the illegible of the above. Drs. McKee, P?, Huntington, are well. On Sunday I am off on a trip of two or three hundred miles thro’ the mts to look at a copper mine + some gold diggings with Genl. Carlton and will illegible + put in quarantine the donkeys and then arrive illegible 20 miles of the post. Remember me to Dr. Crane, Woodward, illegible, Curtis and any other friends and believe me with kind regards

Yours Sincerely,
H.A. DuBois

Bvt. Lt. Col. Geo A. Otis
U.S.A.

PS If you have been abroad please give me your advice. I go for health and to study surgery, medicine, + chemistry. Would it not be well for me to get Dr. Barnes to give me a letter of introduction. Is such a thing usual. I forgot to say that the cholera stopped in the negro command just after crossing the Arkansas.

H.A.D.

Letter of the Day: July 31

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 836

Schulze-Berge & Koechl,
79 Murray Street, New York,
Importers and Sole Licenses for the United States For the Modern Medicinal Products
Of the Farbwerke, Vorm. Meister, Luciuss & Bruning,
Hoechst-on-the-Main, Germany.

DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXINE-“BEHRING.”

Dear Doctor:--

It will probably interest you to learn that the Serum department of the FARBWERKE vorm. MEISTER, LUCIUSS & BRUNING at Hoechst-on-the-Main, Germany, where the original DIPTHERIA ANTITOXINE of PROF. BEHRING is manufactured, is now and has been for some time, under the immediate supervision of the GERMAN GOVERNMENT. Each vial of the serum is not only tested and approved by PROFS. BEHRING and EHRLICH, but as a further guarantee of its reliability is also approved and passed by the government experts before it is put upon the market.

In order to be certain of obtaining the genuine “BEHRING” serum, it will be well to specify DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXINE-“BEHRING” and to observe that each vial bears the label herewith reproduced in fac-simile, which is printed in four different colors in order to distinguish the respective strengths.

Literature will be sent upon application to SCHULZE-BERGE & KOECHL,
Sole Licensees for the United States,
79 Murray Street, New York.

Undated but received July 31, 1895

Letter of the Day: July 30

Office of Geo. W. Knox

Storage Passenger, Freight, and Baggage Express.

Cor. 2d. & B Sts NW

Washington, D.C. July 30^th 1887

 

Surg: J. S. Billings USA

Washington D.C.

 

Sir,

 

Your letter of 28^th inst was received by me this A.M. upon my return to the city after an absence of two days.

 

Arrangements will be made to commence the work of moving to the new Army Med: Museum Bldg. on next Tuesday August 2^nd. My wagons will report for duty at 7 AM, as my understanding with Capt. Hoyt was for a full days work from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M.

 

Will confer with you in person next Monday to make final arrangements.

 

Respectfully +c

Geo. W. Knox

 

PR: NLM "Turning The Pages" Adds Richly Illustrated Japanese Manuscript

NLM "Turning The Pages" Adds Richly Illustrated Japanese Manuscript, Hanaoka Seishu's Influential Surgical Casebook

 

The National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library and an arm of the National Institutes of Health, announces the addition of Hanaoka Seishu's Surgical Casebook (http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/hanaoka/hanaoka.html) to its growing collection of virtual books and manuscripts available for thumbing through online via Turning the Pages (http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/intro.htm). The virtual volume is also available on kiosks in the Library's Visitor Center (Building 38A, first floor) and the History of Medicine Division Reading Room (Building 38, first floor), and marks the continued collaboration of the Library's Lister Hill Center and the History of Medicine Division.

 

The newest addition to Turning the Pages is a magnificently illustrated manuscript depicting the likenesses of the men and women who came to Hanaoka for treatment in early 19^th-century Japan. It is the first in the collection in which users will turn the pages according to Japanese custom, right to left.

 

 

Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835) was a pioneering Japanese surgeon who was the first to use general anesthesia to remove tumors from cancer patients. The images in the Surgical Casebook are colorful, often charming, and depict quite graphically the medical and surgical problem to be treated.

 

 

Hanaoka studied both traditional Chinese-style medicine and Western-style surgical techniques. At age 25, he took over the family business and began to practice an eclectic style of medicine that combined these two traditions. He was greatly concerned with his inability to treat cancer patients, and over a period of 20 years he developed an herbal concoction he called "mafutsusan," made up of several highly toxic plants. It did not include opium derivatives which European doctors were only beginning to identify as anesthetics. The narcotic effects of Hanaoka's anesthetic could last as long as 24 hours, allowing him to surgically remove many different kinds of tumors which previously had been inoperable.

 

 

Images from the manuscript were selected and curatorial text was written by Dr. Ann Jannetta, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Pittsburgh. The descriptive text can be viewed if one clicks the "T" in the upper left corner of the virtual book page.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/ttp_surgcasebk.html

 

 

Letter of the Day: July 29

Phil: 29.7.63

 

Mr: J. H. Brinton

 

Dir (sic) Sir

 

I send you by returning of mail the priese (sic, price) of Cartoon covord (sic, covered) with Paper as sample. The large size will by (sic, be) $2.00 your priese (sic, price), and the small 24x36 $1.20.

 

Respectfully

Yours trouly (sic)

Lo. Kaufz

 

The letter’s note for filing says it’s “relative to canvas covered with paper for artist”

 

Intern Project, Excitement, and Art

There is still a lot of work to be done in editing the “Exciting Intern Project”, mostly just adding additional pictures here and there or clarifying explanations. The Google Wiki that we are currently using to create the webpage does not let us play with the images as much as we would like and Liz is looking into a new host site that would provide more flexibility. With Rebecca back at home I will be taking on the transfer as a solo endeavor.

To break up my time working on the Project Liz gave me lecture on excitement written by Dr. Elizabeth Ramsey and a response from Dr. Donald Barron. The lecture talked about the excitement one experiences when they first see something that no one has ever seen before. Dr. Barron recalled images of “Bancroft’s description of the Balyiss and Starling, as excited as school boys when the first drops of bile began to flow after their injection of the extract of the duodenal mucosa”, and of his own excitement at learning of a motor neuron firing through the continuous stimulation of a current. I was glad to be reading about the excitement of others triggered by discoveries/details/things that others would A. be apathetic to or B. find disturbing. This is especially true since my friends are often amused by the “strange” things/concepts that excite me like the recent Neanderthal Genome Project. Ok, I “rewarded” myself for finishing finals (and not procrastinating by reading it early; although, it may have helped on one of my finals if I had) with the May 7th issue of Science on the Neanderthal Genome, so maybe it makes sense that they tease me.


Today Liz gave another lunch time Art lesson, this week drew prosthetics. Hopefully this time you can tell what it is, if not, it’s a prosthetic leg.

"Excitement" by Elizabeth Ramsey

Part of a lecture given at University of Vermont 1983,  Dr. Ramsey's observations about what research is and should be is something all researchers, no matter their field, could take to heart.

The Scientific method is so integral a part of our approach to science nowadays that we do not think of it very often.  It comprises, of course, the two complementary techniques of observation and experimentation and whenever we are confronted by a problem to be solved or a question to be answered, we automatically take hold of one or the other or both of those tools.  What we do not do is sit down and speculate what may be the answer or might be or would be logical if it were.  Nor do we consult ancient tomes by long dead "authorities" to find support and justification for our supposings.  Such arm chair research is an anathema to modern science.  What we want are facts; hard, objectively demonstrable facts.  And on the basis of them we achieve our triumph and excitement.

Letter of the Day: July 28

Fort Hamilton, N.Y.H.

28^th July, 1879

 

The Surgeon General,

U.S. Army,

Washington, D.C.

 

General:

 

 I have the honor respectfully to report that the following specimens were this day turned over by me to the Post Quartermaster for transportation to your office for the Army Medical Museum, namely:

 

Cholera morbus

No. 1. Heart from body of Pvt Maurice Ashe, C, 3d Artillery, showing advance fatty degeneration

No. 2. Tumor from mesentery, lying just below coeliaac axis, from same. Probably Scirrhus cancer.

 

Aneurism

No. 3. Aneurism of arch of aorta, rupturing into left bronchus, from body of Serg’t Edward Finley “L” 3d artillery.

No. 4 Upper lobe of left lung, from same, showing consolidation, with calcareous deposits.

 

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant.

J.C.G. Happersett

Surgeon, U.S. Army

Post Surgeon

 

Rec. Ack. And turned over to Dr. Woodward Aug. 2, 1879.

 

John's Last Blog - July 27

Over the course of this summer I have learned a lot while working at the Human Developmental Anatomy Center (HDAC). It has been an interesting experience working here as an intern; I have never before worked a 7-8 hour day with the exception of school. During my time here I was assigned a variety of projects. Some of the things I did were creating games relating to the topic of embryology, tying packages to ensure they would not come open when transferred, and in the spare time reading about embryology. One of the things I learned while doing all this is what embryology actually is - the study of the developmental process. I was able to learn things I never knew and things that were not taught in school. I appreciate the guidance of my mentor and her assistant along with the help provided from the other interns. Ultimately, I enjoyed working at HDAC and am saddened as this is my last day and last blog.

Letter of the Day: July 27 - early radiology?

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1622

 

July 27, 1896

 

Queen & Co., Inc.,

1010 Chestnut St.,

Philadelphia, Pa.

 

Gentlemen:

 

Please forward to the Army Medical Museum at your earliest convenience, with bill: 1 Fluorescent screen, 11” x 14”, (tungstate of calcium) for use in contact with plate for lessening time of exposure – the screen to be made as fine as possible to prevent granulation.

 

Very respectfully,

D.L. Huntington

Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

In charge of Museum and Library Division.

Letter of the Day: July 26

American Museum of Natural History,

Central Park, (77^th St. & 8^th Ave.)

New York, July 26 1880

 

Genl. Geo. A. Otis.

 

Esteemed Sir.

Will you have the kindness to send me a copy of the “List of Specimens in the Anatomical Section of the Army Medical Museum. 1880.” Prefer a copy bound in cloth.

 

I am Sir, with respect,

Very Truly Yours,

James Terry

 

Pl address corr above.