Letter of the Day: August 21

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 875

Grass Lake, Mich., Aug. 21, 95

Dear Doctor:

Your letter at hand, contents noted. Replying to same will state, These babies stand me a great many dollars, and the alcohol I have used and jar alone stands me over $25.00. They could not be any better preserved and they are very handsome babies. I claim them to differ from any on record. These babies I can present to a great many museums but they stand me to (sic) much money to do that. I have also had offers from museums, but they are all too small. By the way, the offers were all larger than yours. It would be impossible for me to set a price on these babies, but I know what they stand me, and I know they differ from all monstrosities on record. I feel that they ought to be worth what they stand me, and a great deal more. Hoping to hear from you soon, and trusting that we will be able to deal.

Yours Sincerely

Dr Lee, Jr.

Letter of the Day: August 20

Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

P.O. Address, National Military Home., Ohio, Aug 20^th, 1883

 

Friend Billings

D. Sir

 

As our fraternal friend Dr. Otis has left us and I am not acquainted with the med. Officers in charge of the Med. Museum and as pathological specimens of interest are not infrequent here I expected to see you at the Cleveland Meeting and if the specimens are wanted at the Med. Museum I would try to get them to you.

 

Are they out of Sulphuric Acid in Egypt or why do they let so many die of cholera?

 

Yours respect.

H.A. Stephens

 

Dr. J.S. Billings

Surg. Gen. Office

Wash D.C.

Bringing it all back home

One of today's Flickr posts is a shot from our backyard, so to speak.


Cp 3160 Post hospital, Fort Myer, Virginia.

This was in Arlington, VA. I'm sure the building is gone now though.

Letter of the Day: August 19

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 875

August 19, 1895

Dr Lee, Jr.
The Lake House,
Grass Lake, Mich.


Dear Doctor:

In answer to your letter of the 17th inst., in regard to the girl babies connected at sternum by bony union, I would say that such specimens are usually presented to this Museum, and only exceptionally purchased by it.

If the specimen is in perfect condition, and has been preserved in alcohol, I would be willing to give $20.00 for the same; if dry, it is not wanted.

If you will forward it on approval, you may box it carefully, marked Army Medical Museum, Cor. 7th and B Sts., S.W., Washington, D.C., and send by Adams Express, which has authority to receive and forward the box and collect freight charges here.

Very respectfully,

J. S. Billings
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Army Medical Museum and Library.

Letter of the Day: August 18

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 8573

 

War Department,

Office of the Surgeon General,

Army Medical Museum and Library,

Washington

 

August 18, 1905.

 

Major Ogden Rafferty,

Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Fort Monroe, Va.

 

Sir:

 

I have the honor to report the following as result of the bacteriological examination of four samples of water forwarded by you August 1, 1905, and received at this laboratory on the following day:

 

Sample A. Creek water, brought in claret wine cask, from New Market Creek, Hampton, Va.

 

Numerical count 459 bacteria per c.c.

1 c.c. of this water was added to each of 10 glucose bouillon fermentation tubes with the result that all of them contained gas on the third day of incubation. The amount varied from 20% to 60%.

 

Sample B. New Market Creek water, after treatment by electrolysis.

 

Numerical count 6491 bacteria per c.c.

Of ten fermentation tubes receiving each  1 c.c. o this water, five contained gas on the third day of incubation, the amount varying from 109% to 85%.

 

Sample C. Creek water, mixed with a typhoid culture and subjected to electrolysis for five minutes.

 

Numerical count 23141 bacteria per c.c.

All of the glucose bouillon fermentation tubes charged with 1 c.c. of this water, contained gas on the second day, varying in amount from 55% to 95%. No typhoid bacilli were recovered from this water after inoculating large flasks of sterile bouillon and then using the method of Conradi and Drigalski four days later.

 

Sample D. The same as sample C. strained through a layer of absorbent cotton.

 

Numerical count 18616 bacteria per c.c.

The ten fermentation tubes, charged in the usual way with 1 c.c. of this water, all contained gas on the second day of incubation. On the fourth day the amount of gas present ranged from 30% to 75%. All attempts to recover typhoid bacilli from this water resulted in failure.

 

REMARKS: The failure to recover typhoid bacilli is probably due to the well-established fact that this organism usually disappears from water containing ordinary bacteria within three or four days.

 

“A” is quite turbid, is tinted red and gives off the aroma of wine.

 

“B” shows a faint tint, contains a moderate amount of coagulum.

 

“C” is the most turbid of the set.

 

“D” contains a moderate amount of coagulum, but is perhaps the clearest of the four. It is possible that the tannin, or other substance in “A” has inhibited multiplication of the bacteria present in that sample.

 

“B” contained about one-third as many bacteria as “D”, and nearly four times as many as “C”. From the bacteriological standpoint “B” is the least objectionable of the four waters; whether this is due to the mode of treatment or some other cause cannot be well determined without an intimate knowledge of the details of the manipulations. Neither of the samples can be regarded as a good potable water.

 

Very respectfully,

James Carroll

1st Lieut., Asst. Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator, Army Medical Museum

 

Rare pictures of Japanese WW2 POW camps

A couple of rare pictures of Japanese WW2 POW camps for Allied soldiers are up on our Flickr site now - here's one of them - Camp Rules for Tsumori Prison Camp, Osaka, Japan



and Fire fighting apparatus, Yodogawa Prison Camp.



We have plenty more of these if there's any interest.

Letter of the Day: August 17

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 875

 

The Lake House

B. Teufel, Proprietor.

Grass Lake, Mich., Aug. 17 1895

 

Dr. Jno. S. Billings

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Doctor

 

I have a monstrosity, which would add greatly to your selection and which I claim to differ from any on record, and which I wish to sell.  These are two perfectly form[ed] girl babes connected at Sternum by bony union only. Weith 15#, two (2) heads, four (4) arms – four (4) limbs and every thing usual, except connection. They are nicely preserved, and very handsome.

 

If you wish a better description I refer you to Dr. Martau (Prof. dis. of women) at Ann  Arbor. Hoping that the Museum is in need of such and trusting that I may hear from you in a few days,

 

I remain,

Dr Lee, Jr.

Letter of the Day: August 16 - purchasing the Gibson collection

Richmond Va

Aug 16^th 1868

 

Dear Otis

 

Yours of the 14^th was received yesterday + I saw Dr. Williams as requested + will have the [accounts? ] made out tomorrow + sent on as requested. Was it Baxter or who in the devil was it that sent me under the frank of Senator Yates that resolution concerning the appropriation forbidding the S.G. to use any more money? I think if it was Mr B that he out to be fixed + I would be the one to do it if I could get a chance at him. I am on the track of some fossils, which I hope to get for you disentered (sic, disinterred) at Manchester some time since. If I can succeed in getting them they will be a prize for you in the way of exchange if for no other use. I only hope that I can get them.

 

I am still gunning after that spec[imen] of regeneration of Mt Culp bones – and on a new track just now. A “little brief authority” I think will fetch it, together with #40 or #50, more I can not tell you at present for fear that I might fail.

 

By the way before I forget it can I have some more of my pics printed at my expense if so I would like 1 doz of the large + 3 doz of the small recollect I want to pay for them. I wish that I had some news to tell you but have not.

 

Yours truly,

 

Janeway

Letter of the Day: August 15

Shelton, Hanley, Staff. [United Kingdom]

Aug. 15, 1875

My dear Sir,

A long time is elapsed since I wrote you last, above a year now, and it is still longer since I received your polite letter on the subject of the craniological collection of your museum.

I have wondered whether the Congress had authorized the publication of the second Catalogue of Crania, which you told me you had prepared. I think you told me that the only reason for the delay of this important publication arose from the indifference of the Chairman of the Committee to which this subject was referred. I trust this strange and culpable indifference has at last been overcome, and that your Catalogue is now printed, or at least on the press. Pray tell me it is.

I some time since decided to put my “Supplement” to the press, and the whole is now printed except the preface and title page. The printers, who have a great deal of very important work to do, have delayed the compile thus for a long time, but I think it will soon be ready for distribution. It will contain some short account of about 300 skeletons and skulls which have been added to my collection since my “Thesaurus” was issued. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the additions consists of a fine skeleton of a Tasmanian man. This is now an extinct race, at least there is only one woman living. This skeleton struck me as so important an acquitision that I was induced to write a short memoir upon it, which was printed in English in the Transactions of the Dutch Society of Sciences of Haarlem for 1874. I am sorry to say that I have not a copy to send you, but you will find my memoir, entitled “On the Osseology and Peculiarities of the Tasmanians, a race of man recently become extinct,” if you refer to any of the Libraries in Washington which exchange with the Haarlem Society.

(Examining?) the recent accessions to my Collection I am sorry to say that there are no skulls of the Tribes of North America.

I regret that death should have deprived the world of Profs. Agassiz and Jeffreys (sic Jeffries) Wyman, both most excellent men. The latter was a good craniologist and would have done much for our Science had he lived longer.

I remain, yours faithfully,
J. Barnard Davis

Geo A. Otis, Esq.

Letter of the Day: August 14

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 94

Specimens from Dr. R. B. Bontecou.

August 14, 1894

To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
Washington, D.C.

General:

Referring to the letter of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, of Troy, N.Y., dated August 8, 1894, herewith returned, I beg to report that the vials containing the so-called parasites have been received at the Museum, and the specimens have been subjected to careful examination. As I was unable myself to come to any conclusion concerning the nature of the specimens, I referred the matter to Dr. Stiles of the Department of Agriculture. I am to-day in receipt of a letter from Mr. Albert Hassall, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, who informs me that, with the help of Mr. Smith of the Division of Vegetable Pathology, he has determined that the so-called parasites consist of vegetable tissue, and that they are without doubt, seed of some kind. Transverse sections of the specimen show clearly a dicotyledonous arrangement, but owing to their altered condition it is impossible to say what seeds they really are.

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed
Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army.

Forest Glen featured by Washington Examiner

The Forest Glen was featured by the Washington Examiner yesterday, but surprisingly they didn't mention the big new tourist attraction moving in - our museum in 2011. The building is starting to rise on a former parking lot.

Letter of the Day: August 13

Fort Riley, Kansas.

August 13^th 1874

 

Ass’t Surg. Geo. A. Otis U.S.A.

 

Dear Sir,

 

On the 27^th day of June last, Major Compton 6^th U.S. Cavalry engaged in a fight with a band of the Kiowa Indians about forty miles south from Fort Dodge. Several Indians were killed in the engagement. I succeeded in procuring the skulls and a greater portion of the skeletons of two noted warriors slain. One, in particular, known in the tribe as “Cunning Jim”, a most notorious horse thief and desperado generally.

 

Do you receive such specimens into the museum? And if so, shall I ship by express? I made a special trip, sometime ago, to what was once called “Sheridan” then the terminus of the K.P.R.R. and not far from Ft. Wallace to obtain the remaining cervical vertebrae of the body from which I obtained the double Axis I forwarded you over a year ago but was unable to find the grave by reason of the head boards having been burned and carried away by hunters for fuel.

 

Do you also receive into the Museum such specimens as I enclose samples of  - I mean fossil remains of any or all kinds of animals?  No. 688 Sec. VI

 

Doctor I have another matter to broach which, perhaps, might better be done in another communication but I trust you will pardon me if it is too unofficious or asking too much trouble at your hands.

 

The Hospital Steward on duty at the Post, John McKenzie, is anxious to return East on duty, on account of his wife’s rapidly failing health since their arrival at this Post. Mrs. McKenzie is certainly and surely declining – the cause is obscure. I cannot think that it is a disease of nostalgia – although she is constantly entreating to return to their eastern home. From a robust woman, the patient has become so emaciated as to excite the comments of all. I suspicion incipient phthisis [ie tuberculosis] as there is a slight “hacking” cough, a result, however, I imagine, of some other more serious difficulty. The Steward has been in the service over thirteen years, and as the request is made at my hands, solely on account of his family, I have determined to present the case to you – feeling that your influence might procure him the consideration asked for. He is, moreover, an invaluable man in the Corps, and unless the change can be made for him he will be forced – although loathe to do so – to resign his position. If you will lend your influence towards consummating the change of station requested, I will consider it most decidedly, a personal favor as I esteem the Steward highly.

 

With Respect,

Yours Sincerely,

M.M. Shearer

A.A. Surg. U.S.A.

Museum open for business on Friday, Aug 13

Yesterday's power failure was apparently caused by the utility, so we've got lights today and will be open as usual at 10 AM. The Archives is closing at noon because I'll be speaking on the museum at the Society of American Archivist's Government Records section.

Museum branding project preliminary sketches

very enthusiastic about the opportunity to work on this project,  

please leave comments. arigato

Aug 12: Museum closed this afternoon

A bad early morning thunderstorm flooded parts of the building, including the entrance to the archives, but thanks to my co-workers, nothing was damaged as they moved books out of the way. No important collections were ever in danger. At lunchtime the power went out, and the building was closed for the day. Hopefully we'll be open again tomorrow.

Letter of the Day: August 12

REEVE 001551-1 Anatomy, comparative. Opossum skeleton, Australian, front view. [Bones.]

United States National Museum
Washington, D.C.
Aug 12/85.

Dear Sir.

I trust that you will kindly overlook the delay in calling for the balance of skeletons transferred from the Army Medical Museum to the U.S. National Museum. This delay arose from several causes, the principal being lack of accommodation – until recently at the U.S.N.M. Then too I have but one assistant to do all the osteological work and the arranging of specimens in the Museum. Trusting that I may have caused no serious inconvenience I remain

Very respectfully

Frederic A. Lucas.
Ass’t. Dep’t. Comparative Anatomy

W. Matthews M.D.
Asss’t Surgeon U.S.A.




REEVE 001561-1 Anatomy, comparative. Ornithorynchus, duck-bill mole, side view.
[Bones.]



REEVE 01558-1 Anatomy, comparative. Salamander from Japan, sirboldia maxima[?], side
view. [Bones.]

"Faber Hour" Weekly Drop-In Sketching Sessions

 “Faber Hour” Weekly Drop-In Sketching Sessions

 

When: Every Thursday in August and September, beginning Thursday, August 12, 2010 (tomorrow!)

Time: 3:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.

 

Cost: Free!

 

Where:

The National Museum of Health and Medicine

6900 Georgia Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20307

 

What: Join the National Museum of Health and Medicine each week for “Faber Hour.” Hermann Faber was an Army Medical Museum illustrator during and after the Civil War and is widely known for his meticulous anatomical sketches. “Faber Hours” are drop-in sessions for persons interested in spending directed attention on anatomical, historical or art objects in the Museum. “Faber Hours” will be led by a Museum staffer with a background in medical illustration. Free, no reservations necessary. Bring a small sketchbook and pencils.

 

 

NMHM  is located in Building 54 on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Limited visitor parking is available in the driveway in front of the museum. Additional free parking is available throughout the campus on weekends. Adults are required to present photo ID to gain entry to Walter Reed.

 

For more information about this program, visit www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum or call 202-782-2673. For specific information about directions and parking, visit www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/about/directions.html.

 

NMHM on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MedicalMuseum

NMHM on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MedicalMuseum

 

 

 

A blast from the (recent) past: Windows 1996

It’s been a while since I last wrote. I have been working on creating a different layout for the Awesome (or was it Exciting?) Intern Project. The computer that we have running the web site program runs on Windows 1996. That took me back a few years. Fourteen I believe – pause and take a short trip down memory lane.

Back to the topic at hand: The Awesomely-Exciting Intern Project. The project is going well, it seems like every thing that I am currently doing is related more to the design of our site (and how to manipulate the program used to create it) than the information on it. But I like designing and fiddling with programs, so its fun. The most challenging part since Rebecca left has been figuring out the new program. I think the buttons gave me the most trouble. All I wanted to do was make a back and forward button to make the site cyclical, or at least add another “table of contents-like button menu” (which I eventually did figure out how to do). But before I figured it out, I had tried the “just-copy-and-paste-pages-in-attempts-to-make-links-to-everywhere-that-the-page-should-be-linked-to” method (this method does not work). I was tempted to give up on the program and just write a (very) basic HTML coding for the site, and no, I didn’t consider looking at the giant user’s manual Liz gave me. Where would the fun have been in that? My next challenge will be figuring out how to get rid of the blue background on some of images we are using with Photoshop.

I usually have an image. I can’t show you the site so far and Liz has moved her Wednesday Lunch Time Art to Thursday afternoons, but I do have the organic structure of Vitamin A that I drew. That doesn’t really count does it?

Letter of the Day: August 11

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 99

 

August 11, 1894

 

Dr. Wm. C. Woodward,

Health Officer, District of Columbia,

Washington, D.C.

 

Sir:

 

I beg to report that a careful bacteriological examination has been made in the Laboratory of this Museum of a sample of water received on Monday, August 6^th, from the well corner of Sixth and O Streets, N.W.

 

All plates made from this water contain numerous colonies of faecal bacteria. Two of the organisms have been carefully worked out, and one is identified as the Bacillus Coli Communis, -- the other as Lactia Aerogenes.

 

As the result of the bacteriological examination I am of the opinion that this water is of bad quality.

 

It is probable that a further report will be submitted concerning this water during the coming week.

 

Very respectfully,

 

Walter Reed

Major and Surgeon, U. S. Army,

Curator Army Medical Museum.

Letter of the Day: August 10

Fort Brady, Mich.

Augt. 10^th. 1875.

 

My dear Doctor,

 

Having returned from the cruise which I had determined upon making when I last addressed you - I hasten to give the result of my labors. I left on one of the Canadian Steamers on Thursday, the 1^st Inst., for Killarney, 150 miles from Ft. Brady on the north shore of Lake Huron. I there hired a Mackinac boat + two men + started for my hunting ground – an island called “Dead Island”, 45 miles East of Killarney, near the north of French River, in the extreme north east of Lake Huron. I reached Dead Island at 9 a.m. on the 3^rd, after an exciting sail of 18 hrs. from Killarney – the coast is rocky + dangerous, +, as there are no lighthouses, the nocturnal portion of our journey was somewhat hazardous. The rocks extend many miles into the Lake, some just under water, + it is difficult to keep clear of them, with a small open sailboat. We had many narrow escapes, + if any accident had occurred, help is so remote that one wd [ie would] surely starve on one of these barren rocks before being discovered. However my men proved themselves skillful sailors, + we suffered no serious mishap.

 

I then commenced my explorations. Dead Island is situated 8 miles east of the north of French River, + about 2 miles from the mainland. It consists of one huge granite rock, flat + irregular in shape, being perhaps 3/2 of a mile across it, covered here + there with spruce + some underbrush – tamarack +c: it is rather pretty but a very lonely spot being seldom visited even by the Indians, + far removed from any line of travel.

 

The place where the Indians are buried is on the north east side, of the island, on an elevated ridge of rock – their remains have been collected together, covered with birch-bark, + then small rocks heaped on the birch-bark. These small rocks I am sure had never been disturbed, for they were moss-grown + every thing indicated they had thus lain for ages – or rather years. I removed the stones with my own hands (my men were so superstitious that I cd [ie could] not induce them to assist me) + discovered any quantity of minute fragments of bones (human) – too small I am sorry to say to be of any value – there was not a perfect skull – time + the elements had almost made an end of them. I gathered two parietal bones – one frontal - + one half of the vault of a cranium, which is fractured near the parietal eminence + looks like a wound from a tomahawk. I also secured a few other bones, a knife, two old iron pots, + a small glass vial, marked “King’s Essence Peppermint” on the glass – apparently showing that event took place during the reign of an English King. This vial doubtless fell into Indian hands from some Hudson’s Bay Co. Post.

 

I was fearfully disappointed in not obtaining more bones, having heard accts. Which justified me in supposing that I might almost fill my boat. It was very interesting examining the place, but you can imagine my feelings after getting nothing at the end of such a long journey.

 

I had a tedious sail back to Killarney, head-winds +c. 90 miles in an open boat on these waters is quite enough for one trip.

 

I have many more places to examine thoroughly + trust that I will, before the close of the season, make a good bone-harvest even yet.

 

Will you please tell me if there are any birch-bark curiosities in the Museum. I wd [ie would] like to send a few specimens of our Indian work here, if there are none.

 

Yrs. Faithfully,

J.T.H. King

 

P.S. I will send which bones I now have immediately.

 

Dr. G. A. Otis

U.S. Army