Letter of the Day: November 8

Ira Harris General Hospital
Albany, N.Y., Nov. 8th, 1865

Sir:

I have the honor to state that I have this day forwarded to your address, for the Army Medical Museum, a box containing an album of photographs of morbid specimens + necrosed bones removed from patients treated in this hospital.

Attached to each specimen is a descriptive label upon a card.

The views in the album are taken from a collection of several hundred in my possession, being chiefly photographs of specimens in the Museum of the Albany Medical College, and in private collections.

Resp. Your Obdt. Servt.,

J.H. Armsby
Asst. Surg. U.S.V.,
in charge

[To] Brig. Gen. J.K. Barnes
Surgeon General U.S.A.
Washington, D.C.

Letter of the Day: November 7

Ft. Concho, Texas
Nov. 7. 76.

My dear Sir-

I deferred replying to yr. last kind letter until some explorations, which I have undertaken, were concluded. I had discovered a number of ancient Indian graves 30 miles from Concho. I regret to say they proved to be too ancient. The remains having mostly crumbled away. After several days hard + dangerous work, I was only rewarded with a few fragmentary specimens which I will forward on a future occasion.

However, this is only one point. I have ascertained numerous localities, at no great distances, where I have little doubt of being more amply repaid for my exertions. It necessarily occupies time, having to leave the post for a day or two, which is not always feasible. Before Spring I trust you will concede I have done well. I know of several murderer’s and outlaws’ graves + propose sending some of their calvaria.

I wd [would] not have thus forwarded the Apache skeleton, but that it was so perfect. I dreaded an accident. Moreover any other method in Texas is slow and not remarkably safe.

More anon from,
Yrs. ever most truly,
J.H.T. King.

Surg. Geo. A. Otis. U.S.A.

Letter of the Day: November 6

Washington, Nov. 6, 1875.

Dear Doctor

I spoke to you some time ago about making a selection of at least a single series of skulls, to represent the various tribes of aborigines of North America, for exhibition at the Centennial, either by the Army Medical Museum or by the National Museum.

I would like to hear from you to know whether you will make this display; as I consider it extremely important that the very large ethnological collection to be exhibited on that occasion, should be supplemented by the series in question.

We will gladly receive the specimens here, + be responsible for their safe return, + arrange to exhibit them under suitable circumstances, of course as the property of the Army Medical Museum.

Any other method will suit us equally well, only we hope the exhibition will be made. We are now unpacking a collection of about 300 crania from the vicinity of Santa Barbara + the adjacent islands – a most magnificent series of specimens, + we would be glad to have you come over + look at them + see whether you wish them turned over to the Army Medical Museum, + whether you have space for their accommodation. Many more are yet due.

Yours truly,
Spencer F Baird

Dr. Otis,
Army Medical Museum,
Washington, D.C.

Walter Reed medical center and Army Medical School cartoon

Reeve 43604

Army Medical School, Walter Reed Hospital, Officer of the Day. [Illustration. Cartoon.]

 

This cartoon is  almost incomprehensible to us now, so I’ll do a quick read of what I think it means. The Walter Reed medical center baby is trying to reach a toy labeled for the Army Medical School Officer of the Day – implying I think that the hospital base wanted administrative control over the medical school, which had moved onto the campus in 1907. The school eventually became the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and will be our neighbor when we move up to Forest Glen, Md next year.

Letter of the Day: November 5

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1171

 

Kansas City Medical College

Kansas City, MO., Nov 5” 1895

 

Dr Geo M Sternberg

Washington D.C.

 

Dear Sir:-

 

Your communication at hand I would have been willing to acted as partner in your laboratory but since thee is no opening of any kind, I can only thank you and say I am sorry.

 

I am now trying to investigate the cause of “hog hams souring” Swift + Co one of our packers looses (sic) about $8000\00 per annum and I am quite sure it is due to bacterial origin. I have worked two weeks without making much headway and have six weeks left until I make a report. If you will kindly express me any literature on the subject I will take excellent care thereof, and return at your pleasure + my expense.  Hoping you can help me I am yours very truly

 

WT White

17 + Bellview

K.C. Mo

Post on medic's gear

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/a-heavy-burden-graphic/index.html?sid=ST2010110104926

Letter of the Day: November 4 [Criminal edition, part 2]

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 01779

November 4, 1896

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

General:

The Museum has a specimen of excised testicle from a military convict, John J. Moore, who was admitted to the hospital at Alcatraz Island, California, November 25, 1892, with subacute orchitis; testicle excised December 7; Discharged from Hospital December 22, 1892.

It would be interesting in connection with the specimen to learn the history of the patient subsequent to his discharge from the Hospital on December 22, 1892, and I would therefore respectfully request that an inquiry be made at the Adjutant General’s Office for such late data as may be on record in the case of Moore.

Very respectfully,
D.L. Huntington

Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army
In charge of Museum and Library Division

Letter of the Day: November 4 [Criminal edition, part 1]

Headquarters, Post of Waco
Waco, Texas, November 4th 1869

My dear General:

General Reynolds and I arrived here safely last evening after a pleasant ride of two days, and today been busy in inspecting this post and enjoying the hospitalities of the citizens. We shall probably return to Austin day after tomorrow.

I write to ask you whether you would like to have me send to the Army Medical Museum, a novel specimen. It is the head of Bickerstaff, the most notorious of all Texan desperados. It is admirably preserved in alcohol, and can be sent to Washington in that state, if you desire. If you do not wish to preserve it in that state after arrival, you can have it dissected, and put the cranium in the museum as a typical representation of a Texas desperado. Bickerstaff, the head of an organized set of murders, was the terror of Northern Texas for a long time, successfully defying and eluding the civil and military authorities. His head was sent to this place for securing the reward for his capture.

Sincerely your friend,
Warren Webster
[To] Gen. C. H. Crane, &c. &c.

Letter of the Day: November 3

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 01782

Dr. H.L.E. Johnson
Washington, DC
Nov. 3rd, 1896

DR. Walter Reed,
Surgeon U.S. Army, Curator
Army Medical Museum

My Dear Dr. Reed:

I enclose the report which you sent me last Jany. [January] to call up the circumstances and also a similar specimen in alcohol, passed yesterday by the same patient. Would you kindly tell me the nature of this specimen. I operated upon this patient for appendicitis, evacuating a very large abscess, on the 28th. ult. I intend reading a paper on appendicitis at the Congress in Mexico, including this and other cases and if it is perfectly convenient to you and meets your approval, I wish to incorporate this last report in my paper. I expect to start for Mexico on Sunday the 8th. inst.

Thanking you for this and other favors,
I am,
Faithfully yours,

H.L.E. Johnson

(Dictated.)

Natural history of plague revealed

October 31, 2010

Europe's Plagues Came From China, Study Finds

By NICHOLAS WADE

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/health/01plague.html

Letter of the Day: November 2

War Department
Surgeon General's Office
Property Division
Washington, DC

November 2nd, 1885

Maj, J. S. Billings, Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator Army Medical Museum
Washington, DC

Major:

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th inst. forwarding two hundred and sixty (260) Esmarch's triangular bandages found in a storeroom at the Museum.

By order of the Surgeon General.

JH Baxter
Chief Medical Purveyor,
U.S.Army

Letter of the Day: November 1

Fort Ridgely, Minnesota,
November 1st 1862

Sir

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from the curator of the Army Medical Museum, under date of October 15th, 62, acknowledging the receipt of an Indian arrow head and requesting me to procure further specimens etc.

I have already collected some specimens referred to in his letter and shall continue to make further collections as opportunity shall present. Articles of Indian warfare (including both new and old shotguns), captured by our troops from the Indians, have been delivered at this Post and gone into the custody of the proper Army Officer, some of them, in my judgement, would be proper to be secured for the Army Medical Museum.

If you would obtain an order from the War-Department, directing the Commander of this post or other Officer in Charge of these "trophies," to allow me to select from them such articles as I might deem proper, for the purposes of sending them to the Army Medical Museum, I would with pleasure do so.

Very respectfully,
Your Obedient Servant,
Alfred Muller
Act. Asst. Surgeon

[To] Brig'd General Wm. A. Hammond
Surgeon General, U.S. Army
Washington, D.C.

Washington Post on military medicine advances

Another good article - Operation damage control
By David Brown
Washington Post October 30, 2010

Letter of the Day: October 31

Army Medical School
Royal Victoria Hospital,
Netley 31st Oct. 1865

To Surgeon General Barnes
United States Army

Dear General

I think I must be indebted to your consideration + kindness for a portfolio of 30 large illustrations, photographed at the Army Medical Museum at Washington, which I received a short time since by railway from Liverpool. The parcel did not contain a letter, + the cover simply bore the words “courtesy of Dr. Haight,’ to whom, no address being given, I have been unable to write my acknowledgements of its safe receipt. I have been greatly interested in the drawings – many of them illustrate cases of great scientific value as well as of great credit to the operator, while all of them are of subjects calculated to be useful as affording material for thought + instruction on military injuries. Your Museum must indeed be rich in specimens of the effects of gunshot wounds, judging from the examples photographed in the collection of drawings I have received. I thank you very sincerely for giving me the opportunity of seeing those which are now in my possession, + I feel that the profession at large in Europe is indebted to you for giving to it the means of studying some portions of your museum at Washington, by such photographs, notwithstanding the distance which divides us from it.

I take the opportunity by this communication of transmitting to you a report on the effect on health of the present system in England, + elsewhere in Europe, of carrying the knapsack, kit, and accoutrements by soldiers. The report, though printed, is not published, - a certain number of copies only being circulated among those who have been engaged in or connected with the enquiries to which the report refers. I should feel obliged if no public use of the report is made. I mean reference in public prints. I send it on account fo the importance of the questions involved, + in the belief that the questions are of such a nature that you will feel an interest in them. The recommendations of the Committee in p. 11 are to be carried out, + I hope that the trials may lead to much good.

I also enclose one or two reprints from the 5th Vol. of the Army Medical Reports. I hope you have also received the volume itself.

I am
Very faithfully yours
Tho. Longmore

Letter of the Day: October 30

Post Surgeon’s Office
Fort Laramie Wyo. Ter.
30th October 1879.

Dr. Doctor –

A specimen of the Canadian Porcupine, Hystrix Hudsonius of Brisson, an animal that is becoming rarer every year in this country, was procured near this post several days ago, and having been engaging in making skeletons for the past year, of birds and not a few animals, I prepared this animal for the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, and send it to you by this mail. I did not mount it, not having the conveniences and the liability of its being injured in that condition during its transportation, but have been careful to leave the following guides for the workman,

1. The vertebrae are on a string in their proper order:-
2. The ribs are sewed to paper to show their arrangement:-
3. The first rib of right side is left attached to its vertebra, so there will be no doubt as to its proper faces[?] and where ribs commence,
4. The carpus and four toes of right foot left sufficiently in site for a guide to put fellow of apposite side together, same for tarsus and five toes of right hind foot.
5. Patella of left side shows its position.
6. Caudal vertebrae left attached. By accident some of their haemal spines were removed but are sent in package.

I have on hand in addition 15 duplicate skeletons of birds, several specimens of morbid anatomy, united fractures, parasites, etc. and would be glad to learn in what manner they should be prepared in order that they would be considered most valuable and acceptable.

Very respectfully + sincerely yrs,
R.W. Shufeldt
1 Lt+ A. Surgeon U.S.A.
Post Surgeon

Lt. Col. Geo. A. Otis.
Med. Dept. U.S. Army.
Washington D.C.

Received by mail November 8, 1879., and ack. and turned over with copy of letter to Dr. Woodward same day as received.

Letter of the Day: October 29

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 00269

October 29, 1894

Mr. William Snowden,
1107 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Sir:

If you have an illustration or description of the Reeve's flexible stretcher, will you have the kindness to send me a copy.

This Museum has a number of stretchers of different patterns, and should you desire to donate a sample of the Reeve's stretcher I shall be pleased to place it on exhibition in this collection, giving you due credit as donor.

Very respectfully,

J.S. Billings
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army

Letter of the Day: October 28

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 00985

October 28, 1895

Dr. Charles G. Stone
Brightwood, D.C.

Dear Doctor:

About three weeks ago I sent a messenger, as requested by you, to procure water from Mrs. Page's well at Takoma Park. The water was received in two sterilized flasks, and brought at once to the Laboratory, where it was not only promptly plated, but ten different specimens of the water were subjected to Parietti's test for the typhoid organism. Since that time we have carefully followed out the identification of all colonies appearing; and I am compelled to report to you that this examination not only does not show the presence of any typhoid bacilli, but we have not perceived any colonies of colon bacilli.

Very respectfully,

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

DCist Photo of the Day - NMHM skeletons

http://dcist.com/2010/10/photo_of_the_day_october_27_2010.php


Though they certainly aren't spooky.

Letter of the Day: October 27

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1766

October 27, 1896

Captain W. C. Gorgas
Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army,
Fort Barrancas, Florida

Dear Doctor:

The sputa of the two patients, Mr. and Mrs. Diffin, forwarded by you on October 21st, has been received and examined, and tubercle bacilli found in both specimens.

Slides have been forwarded to you as requested, by mail, under separate cover.

Very sincerely yours,

Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator

Letter of the Day: October 26

Department of the Interior
Census Office
Washington, D.C.
October 26, 1891

Dear Sir:

In response to your verbal request, I beg leave to say that the figures given below, representing the total number of veterans returned to this office for the country at large, and for the states of Ohio and Massachusetts, are somewhat better than an approximation. For all practical purposes they are accurate, the actual number probably being slightly in the excess.

Veterans of Civil War returned for United States, 1,076,162
" " " " " " Ohio, 106,328
'' " " " " " Massachusetts, 39, 996

With reference to your inquiry as to what would be shown in regard to families and dwellings, I omitted to say that in addition to showing them in detail by wards of the one hundred and twenty-four (124) principal cities, --or down to the limit of twenty-five thousand (25,000),--and countries, they will be shown for the totals of cities of eight thousand (8,000) or more inhabitants. This is now the intention and the plan will not be altered materially.

For those cities which we are furnishing you population data by sanitary districts, do you wish the totals of families and dwellings for wards, or do you want them in the detail of size and number developed in the count?

Very respectfully,
Howard Sutherland
Chief of Fourth Division.

Dr. John S. Billings, U.S.A.,
Army and Medical Museum
Washington, D.C.