Letter of the Day: February 18

Fort Bridger Wyo.
February 18. [18]84.

To
Major D.L. Huntington.
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

I have this day mailed to you a microscopic specimen of some epidermas[sic] scales in a case I have diagnosed as chromophytosis.

This specimen was prepared after one application of chrysophanic acid and green soap according to Piffard in Wood's Library. I sought for the parasite withe[?] a 1/4 objective before any applications were made, but was unable to satisfy myself of its presence.

I regret that it did not occur to me to mount a slide before treatment was commenced. The slide is poorly mounted but represents the earliest specimen prepared.

To all appearances the disease which has existed since 1878 has entirely disappeared after five or six applications of the above treatment.

Will you have the kindness to forward me the results of your examination.

Very respectfully
Your obdt servt.
W.C. Shannon
Asst Surgeon, U.S.A
Post Surgeon

Folger Shakespeare Library's medical exhibit tour tomorrow

I saw this a couple of nights ago and it's an excellent exhibit. This bit is clipped from their e-newsletter.

Good for What Ails You Folger Exhibitions: Beyond Home Remedy   In an era before emergency rooms and HMOs, women offered vital medical care to their families and communities. This "kitchen physic" included dressing wounds, setting bones, delivering babies, administering medicine, and producing homemade remedies for a wide range of illnesses, including the much-dreaded plague. Beyond Home Remedy explores the broad scope of female medical practice in early modern England and America and sheds new light on women's contributions. through May 14 10am to 5pm, Monday–Saturday   Free Listen: Kitchen Physic Learn More: Plague Water Learn More: A Tudor Herbal     Personal Picks Folger Fridays: Exhibition Tour   Join Rebecca Laroche, curator of Beyond Home Remedy, for a personal tour of the exhibition, which features a broad range of items from ingredient samples for early modern medicines to Martha Washington's cookbook. "The exhibition cracks open our conventional sense of home remedies. We have countesses and duchesses and the serving women and everyone in between," she notes. Fri, Feb 18 7pm Meet at the First Folio display in the Great Hall.   Free About the Folger Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library is a major center for scholarly research; a lively venue for performances, readings, and exhibitions; and a national leader in humanities education.

Address: Folger Shakespeare Library 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 Get Directions Plan a Visit Public Hours: Monday through Saturday: 10am to 5pm Reading Room Hours: Monday through Friday: 8:45am to 4:45pm Saturday: 9am to 12pm and 1pm to 4:30pm Closed all Federal holidays.

Exhibit update. A single cell

(for those who haven't seen the exhibit, this is updated with new text written by the Human Developmental Anatomy Center staff, one of whom can be seen here).

NMHM joins History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is pleased to announce the latest release of its History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/consortium/index.html), a search-and-discovery tool for archival resources in the health sciences that are described by finding aids and held by various institutions throughout the United States. As with the initial release the new content crawled consists of finding aids delivered as EAD, PDF and HTML from a diverse institutional cohort. NLM is the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health.

 

The site now indexes over 1,600 finding aids from 12 institutions.

 

The new content contributors are:

• Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center, Archives and Special Collections
• Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Center for the History of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Boston Medical Library
• Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine
• University of Pennsylvania Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing
• Washington University, St. Louis School of Medicine
• Yale University Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

 

These institutions join the original consortium members:

• NLM History of Medicine Division
• Columbia University Health Sciences Library
• Medical Archives, Johns-Hopkins University Medical Institutions
• University of California-San Francisco
• University of Virginia Health Sciences Library
• Virginia Commonwealth University

 

For more information about the project or requests to join the Consortium, please contact John P. Rees, Archivist and Digital Resources Manager, NLM, at reesj@nlm.nih.gov.

 

 

Exhibit update. A single cell

So this is actually 2 years in the making 

it started as an concept to update the current exhibit

with some relevant current research on this old dusty

section of out of date cases cursed with this hospital blue 

color

i wind up using that to inspire a color pallette

its really a section of curiosities we have at the museum. 

skeletons, conjoined twins, cyclops baby and so

these specimens could and did serve as this section
of human dev anatomy

called a single cell...

but 

there was not much info, label text, which was fine, but no supporting

information, one of my colleagues, Emily Wilson, an anthropologist in the

human developmental anatomy section had a great research topic

that dealt with the limb development, and also co wrote other areas of the exhibit, these panels
contain her

research which I believe was presented at last years Mayo Clinics Symposium.

Congratulatons to her on a great job. Here Ms. Wilson (pictured below) is preparing
the specimens for redisplay in the exhibit.
hopefully
this redesign can elevate this exhibit to another level.
More to come...

Exhibit update. A single cell

Exhibit update a single cell

Today's Flickr photos have a common piece to them.

Besides being part of the New Contributed Photograph collection, there’s something in common with most of the pictures being sent up to our Flickr site today. Can you spot it?

Letter of the Day: February 17

Fort Shaw, M.T.

February 17^th 1868.

 

Sir;

 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated M.D.A. Dep’t of Dakota January 22d, 1868 stating it is the wish of the Surgeon General to secure for preservation in the army medical museum specimens of Indian Crania and Indian weapons and utensils as far as they can be procured of the different Indian Tribes; and giving directions ho these specimens are to be collected and forwarded +c.

 

In reference to which I would respectfully state that I shall willing lend my aid as far as possible in collecting specimens from the different Indian Tribes in this Territory.

 

There are no Indians residing within a radius of forty or fifty miles of this Post, the Sun River country being looked upon as neutral ground. Occasional parties of Bloods, Piegans, Pend D’Oreilles, Black Feet and other Tribes on hunting or horse stealing expeditions transverse this section of country but make no delay en route and seldom visit this Post. Nevertheless I shall not fail to avail myself of any means of communication with these Tribes with a view to secure specimens.

 

Actg. Asst. Surgeon Hitz has been furnished with an official copy of your communication and expresses his willingness to cooperate in securing these specimens.

 

Very Respectfully

Your ob’t. Servant

 

F.L. Town

Bre’t Lieut. Col. + Surgeon, U.S.A.

 

Surgeon Jno. E. Summers U.S.A.

Medical Director, Dept. of Dakota

St. Paul, Minn.

Yellow Fever and Walter Reed

This is the text for an exhibit at the Pentagon I did about two decades ago...

Yellow Fever and Walter Reed

Yellow fever is caused by a virus transmitted by a mosquito. This disease has menaced communities since before the founding of the United States. Yellow fever was first described by Joam Ferreyra Da Rosa in 1694. The origin of the term "yellow fever", however, is obscure. Some feel the name reflects the symptoms since the virus destroys liver cells and causes jaundice which is a yellowing of the skin and eyes. Others feel that the name refers to the yellow quarantine flag flown by ships carrying the disease, especially since the fever apparently travelled from Africa on slave ships which were notorious carriers of the fever.

Yellow fever has a wide variety of symptoms including headaches, backaches, nausea and fever. The most disturbing symptom is bloody vomiting which gave the disease the vivid name of "the black vomit". The disease has a fatality rate between 10 and 15% but is less virulent in children. Currently, the disease is incurable and attentive nursing and rest are the only treatments.

Walter Reed was born in Virginia in 1851. In 1869, Reed graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in medicine and studied at Bellevue Medical Hospital in New York. He joined the Army Medical Corps in 1875 and spent most of the next two decades at frontier posts. In 1893, Reed began serving as curator of the Army Medical Museum and professor of bacteriology and clinical microscopy at the Army Medical School. As part of the Surgeon General's Office staff in Washington, Reed was assigned to investigate typhoid fever in 1898 and then yellow fever a year later.

Reed was the first man to prove the mechanics of infection of yellow fever. Prior to his work, several novel ideas had been considered.

For instance, Benjamin Rush, the noted Philadelphia physician, believed the disease was caused by rotten coffee. Others held that "miasmas" or bad airs were the cause. However, throughout the century, glimpses of the true means of transmission had been noted. In 188 Dr. Josiah C. Nott of Alabama suggested that mosquitoes might be the vector or carrier of the disease. Carlos Juan Finlay of Cuba strongly advanced this idea although current theory held that "fomites" or household articles were somehow infected with the disease.

In 1899 during the wake of the Spanish-American War, Reed headed a team investigating the cause of yellow fever. The team, composed of Dr. James Carroll (also of the Army Medical Museum), Dr. Aristides Agramonte and Dr. Jesse Lazear, convened at Columbia Barracks near Havana, Cuba. Their first accomplishment was to quickly rule out a recently-proposed bacterial theory. Then, using volunteers, the team tested the fomite theory with articles fouled with the effusions from yellow fever victims. This theory, too, was proven wrong. After a prison outbreak when one prisoner was infected and died but the eight other prisoners were not infected, researchers could not suggest a method of transmission other than mosquitoes. Finlay had provided mosquitoes for testing and Dr. Lazear began experiments with them. By having a mosquito bite them, Lazear successfully infected Dr. Carroll and a volunteer soldier named Dean in August. Lazear may have been testing his theory on himself for he was infected and died on September 25, 1900. Lazear's notebooks enabled Reed to study the data Lazear compiled. Reed realized that the Aedes aegypti mosquito carried yellow fever but only under certain conditions. The mosquito must bite a yellow fever victim during the first three days of an attack, incubate the virus in its body for at least twelve days and then bite another person to pass on the disease. This discovery enabled the United States to essentially eradicate yellow fever within its borders after one last epidemic in New Orleans in 1905. The disease proved easy to conquer because the Aedes aegypti mosquito is an urban mosquito and breeds only in small pools of stagnant water such as fish ponds or even flower jars. Yellow fever is still prevalent in tropical climes due to both a different mosquito vector, the Haemagogus spegazzinii and the fact that jungle yellow fever, as it is occasionally known, can live in monkeys as well as human hosts.

Object List:

Two Reed medals (M-900 00682, ASTM medal; M-900 00683, Congressional medal) Text: Medals awarded to Walter Reed for his work on yellow fever by Congress and the American Society of Tropical Medicine. M-900 00683; M-900 00682.



Photo of Reed at 25 (NCP 876 Text: Reed at age 25. NCP #876



Sontag volunteers photo. Text: Soldiers who volunteered for yellow fever experiments. Sontag Collection.

Reed microscope (M-030 00420) Text: Microscope used by Reed. M-030 00420.

Mosquito drawing

Link Love from the Medical Heritage Library

NMHM, NCP 3280

For those of you who haven't heard, the Medical Heritage Library is a collaborative, digital curation project among some of the leading medical libraries, National Library of Medicine, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine (Harvard), The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library (Yale), The Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library (Columbia), and the New York Public Library. They "promote free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine."

A friend and colleague of mine works for the team at the MHL and we chat often about the unique world of medical archives. She gave us a shout-out today on their blog: Digital Connections: The Otis Historical Archives, highlighting some of her favorite images from the NMHM flickr site.

Letter of the Day: February 16

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 07315

War Department,
Office of the Surgeon General,
Army medical Museum and Library,
Washington

ARMY MEDICAL SCHOOL

February 16, 1904

To the Surgeon General,
U.S. Army

Sir:

I have the honor to request that two (2) hospital blankets be furnished for use in the X-ray room of the Army Medical School, to protect X-ray subjects against the cold atmosphere of the room.

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

Letter of the Day: February 15

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 05770

War Department
Surgeon General's Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library
Corner of 7th and B Streets SW
Washington,

February 15, 1902

Messers Eimer & Amend,
205-211 Third Ave.,
New York, N.Y.

Gentlemen:

Please forward at your earliest convenience, with bill, a "Complete Haemocytometer Set" of Dr. Oliver, referred to on page 31 of you pamphlet, "The Tintometer".

I hope you have received the Oliver's Haemoglobinometer set ion case returned to you on the 7th inst. for examination and repair, and that you will be able to return it at an early date.

Very respectfully,
Water Reed
Major & Surgeon, U.S. Army

Michelle and Megan

Hi guys! A lot has happened since we last posted on this site. We have been at the warehouse, and labeled jars and packaged dental models in preparation of HDACs new location. We also completed our research on eye development and eye anomalies. This past weekend, NMHM hosted a Valentine's Day program, which included a scavenger hunt, a lot of arts and crafts, and a heart dissection. It was very fun and everyone who came seemed to have had a great time! Currently, we're learning how to use NetObjects in order to create web pages. It's very interesting. We are about to start 3D modeling, which we are extremely excited about.

Letter of the Day: February 14

Cincinnati, Ohio
Feby 14th 1864

Sir:

After the Battle of Chickamauga and Mission Ridge [sic, Missionary Ridge] I collected quite an interesting number of osseus specimens intending to for[war]d them to Washington as soon as my report was ready to accompany them, but my regiment having reenlisted I sent them to this place intending to label them and send my report with them as I would have ample time to do so while here.

This however I understand has been frustrated by, the maliciousness of one of the Sanitary Com- Gentlemen who telegraphed to Nashville to have the box stopped. Amongst the specimens was a case-knife which had been driven thro [sic] the trochanter of a friend of his by a canister shot, which he wished to obtain for himself, this I refused him, hence his actions. I expended a great deal of labor on these specimens and would like to have has the opportunity of giving the history of them.

I understand the box has been sent to the Museum and if so if you will send them to me by Express I will label them properly and return them. If the have not reached you I will endeavor to trace them out.

The box was labeled Rev. Wm Hally, Cin'ti, Ohio who was the agent of Sanitary [Ohio] and a friend of mine.

Very respectfully
You Obt Sevt
A. McMahon
Surgeon 64th O[hio].V[olunteer].I[nfantry]

Surg. Brinton, U.S.A.
Washington,
D.C.

Der Mensch als Industriepalast. Reminds me of the David Macaulay exhibit

Letter of the Day: February 13

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 07319

War Department,
Office of the Surgeon General,
Army medical Museum and Library,
Washington

February 13, 1904

Capt. Harry M. Hallock
Asst. Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Fort Porter, N.Y.

Sir:

I have read with great interest your report of the finding of Taenia nana in your command and beg to congratulate you upon your painstaking work. You are almost the first in this country, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is about to issue a bulletin upon the subject, reporting five cases at the Government Insane Asylum. Perhaps you have a paper prepared for publication in one of the journals; I hope so because I would like to see you gain precedence.

I write especially to ask if you will do me the favor to send me some materials containing the ova for demonstration at the Army Medical school? If you could send me a significant number of worms to give each member of the class a specimen they would be greatly appreciated. I trust you may be able to send me some ova at least. May I suggest that you try to obtain them by washing the stool several times in a large quantity of water, pouring off the supernatant portion and retaining the sediment? In this way most of the fecal matter will be poured off while the worms and ova will sink to the bottom. Then preserve them in equal parts glycerine [sic], alcohol, and water.

Yours very truly,
James Carroll
1st Lieut. Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator, Army Medical Museum.

Letter of the Day: February 12

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 02038

February 12, 1897

Dr. E.T. Duke,
Cumberland, Md.

Dear Sir:

Referring to your letter of February 11th, I beg to state that the work of this department is confined to the bacteriological and pathological study of the tissues of the body, and hence, regret to say that this office cannot furnish the therapeutic advice called for.

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

The Met's following in our footsteps

Ok, maybe not, but this is an interesting article about Museums and technology.

 

February 11, 2011

The Met’s Virtual Expansion Plans

By RANDY KENNEDY

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/arts/design/12campbell.html