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

Our Public Affairs Specialist's Dad works at National Archives

Melissa J. Brachfeld is the Museum's Public Affairs Specialist, and her father is in the business too, and featured in this article, as is my old friend Mitch Yockelson -


Guardians of the nation's attic
The National Archives keeps watch over 10 billion historical records. And its treasure hunting team keeps watch over collector shows and EBay for the scraps of valuable history that have been stolen.
By Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times
August 8, 2010

WAMU's Metro Connection on museum exhibit

Wounded in Action: Art at Walter Reed
August 6, 2010

Two new art shows have opened at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C. and at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. It's all part of a traveling exhibit called 'Wounded In Action' put on by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Ginger Moored reports...

The Wounded in Action art exhibit is on display at Walter Reed and the University of Maryland in Baltimore through November 11th.

Letter of the Day: August 9 (2 of 2)

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 88

 

August 9, 1864

 

WJ McGee,

Ethnologist-in-charge,

Smithsonian Institution,

Bureau of Ethnology,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Sir:

 

Your letter of August 8^th, addressed to Dr. Billings, now in Europe, has been referred to me for reply.

 

We will be pleased to receive the triple trephined skull referred to for deposit in the Army Medical Museum, and would state that the specimen will be at your service at any time for further examination.

 

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed

Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator Army Medical Museum

 

 

Letter of the Day: August 8 ( 2 of 2)

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 88

 

Smithsonian Institution

Bureau of Ethnology

Washington, D.C., August 8, 1894.

 

Dear Sir:

 

Your inquiry of the 14^th ultimo concerning the triple-trephined skull found near Cuzco by Dr Maneul A. Muniz and designated by him for presentation to the Army Medical Museum has been received. This skull, together with other specimens in the Muniz collection, remains in the Bureau pending the receipt from Dr Muniz of photographs of drawings of certain other trephined crania in Cuzco; when it is the purpose to prepare a detailed description of the entire collection for publication in one of our annual reports. Until advices are received from Dr. Muniz, it is inexpedient to fix a date for the final disposition of the collection; but should you feel anxious to have this specimen at an early date, I will undertake to put it in your hands by the end of the present month with no condition than that you will afford facilities for further examination in the Museum should occasion arise.

 

Yours with respect,

WJ McGee

Ethnologist-in-charge.

 

Dr. J.S. Billings,

Deputy Surgeon General,

U.S. Army.

Letter of the Day: August 9 (1 of 2)

 

Camp Letterman

Gen’l Hospital

Near Gettysburg, Pa.

Aug. 9^th/65

 

Dear Doctor,

 

I have numerous specimens for you – have put them in ale barrels with some whisky + chlorinated soda upon them + have buried barrels and all in the ground. What shall I do with them? We will have more every day for a month to come.

 

Truly yours

H.K. Neff

Surgeon 3^rd Div.

Gen’l. Hos.

 

To Surgeon Brinton

Washington

Letter of the Day: August 8 (1 of 2)

The life of a crack Civil War surgeon was less glamorous after the war.
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 94

Copy

82 Fourth St.
Troy, N.Y.,
August 8, 1894

Surgeon General, U.S. Army.

Sir:

Pardon the liberty taken in sending you by mail this day, a small package directed to Museum of Surgeon General’s Office, containing four small phials of a strange parasite, great numbers of which have been voided from the bowel of a young lady patient whom I was attending for injury to the spine. Bloody and slimy evacuations occurred, presumably from having much of berries. Oil and terebinthin was administered for some days; masses of transparent jelly was voided, and in a few days these bodies were voided with each evacuation, but more especially after taking turpentine and oil. The patient is about twenty years old, of small, slim stature, and light weight; there is no abdominal tumor, distention or pain, but a feeling of fullness and oppression in the left hypochondrium. The nervous system is much upset. Flushings alternated with cold clammy extremities and frequent paroxysms of voluntary respiration; for the past five days since some calomel and santonin was administered for a few nights no perfect specimens have been voided; but the jelly like substance with fragments of the spiders continue to be voided. When the objects were first voided before the administration of the santonin they were noticed to move, and the appendages which had for some time while in water a tremulous, vibrating movement.

If consistent please inform me what the animal is. I am unable to find in the books any description of them, and greatly oblige,

Your obedient servant,
R. B. Bontecou, M.D.

The original of the above letter was sent informally to Surgeon Walter Reed U.S.A. by Surgeon Charles Smart, U.S.A. by direction of the Surgeon General, with the request that an examination be made of the parasite.

J. F. Longhean

Letter of the Day: August 7

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1642

August 7, 1896

R. H. Cooper, Esq,
City Clerk,
Palatka, Florida

Dear Sir:

Your letter of August 5th inquiring in regard to an examination of the water used for drinking purposes, etc., at Palatka, is received.

We will endeavor to make the desired examination, and inform you of the result.

Please forward to the Army Medical Museum about a gallon of the water referred to. It had better be sent in a glass demijohn which has previously been thoroughly cleaned, rinsed with boiled water and then with alcohol, the latter being allowed to evaporate. The water should flow directly into the demijohn from the source of supply in order to avoid contamination from any substance whatever. The cork stopper should be charred in the flame. The sample should be sent at once by express in order that it may reach here as soon as possible.

Respectfully,
D.L. Huntington
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Museum and Library Division

Letter of the Day: August 6

Fort Custer, M.T. [Montana Territory]

Aug. 6^th, 1880.

 

Major G. A. Otis,

Surgeon, U.S.A.

 

My dear Sir;

 

I have just received your “List of the Specimens in the Anatomical Section of the U.S. Army Medical Museum.” I notice on p. 118 that the Museum has only two crania of Crow Indians.

 

I think I can obtain a number of specimens of this tribe for you, and also one or two complete skeletons. 

 

If you will send me, from time to time, similar catalogues you may publish, I will gladly supply any deficiencies in my power.

 

Besides the skeletons of mammals and birds sent you recently from Fort Shaw, I have already a number of species new to the collection, that I have obtained in this locality, but as I am constantly adding to them I will not forward them at present.

 

I am, Sir,

Very truly yours,

James C. Merrill

Capt. + Ass’t. Surg. U.S.A.

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.

Who is Walter Reed?

Walter Reed was born in Virginia in 1851.  In 1869, after a year of medical school, Reed graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in medicine. He then 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, but did post-graduate education at Johns Hopkins and other places.  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 spent the war studying typhoid fever.  In 1899 during the wake of the Spanish-American War, Reed and Dr. James Carroll (also of the Army Medical Museum) investigated the bacteria thought to cause the disease and concluded that it did not.  In May 1900, Reed headed the Yellow Fever Board, investigating the cause of the fever.  The team, including Reed and Carroll also included Dr. Jesse Lazear and Cuban-born probably-immune Dr. Aristides Agramonte.  The men who all knew each other convened at Columbia Barracks near Havana, Cuba.  Their first accomplishment was to again rule out the recently-proposed bacterial theory. After a prison outbreak when one prisoner was infected and died but the eight other prisoners were not infected, Reed suggested a method of transmission by mosquitoes, which were already known to transmit malaria.  Finlay was contacted and provided mosquitoes for testing and Dr. Lazear, who had previously worked with mosquitoes, began experiments in a lab at the Barracks with them while Reed returned to Washington to finish the Typhoid Board's report.  Since no animals were known to get the fever, the Yellow Fever Board concluded that the ethical experiment would be to try to infect themselves. By having a mosquito bite them, Lazear successfully infected Dr. Carroll and a volunteer soldier named Pvt. William Dean in August.  Lazear though may also have been testing himself for he was infected and died on September 25, 1900.  He had reported being bitten by accident in Havana, but his notes implied he might have experimented on himself; Reed was not sure if Lazear was infected accidentally or purposefully, but accepted the accidental theory.  Lazear's notebooks enabled Reed to study the data Lazear compiled when he returned from the States.  Transmission by mosquito was obvious to the Board at that point and Reed reported that they were the cause in October - after 5 months of work, not a year as stated in the movie.  The Washington Post called the hypothesis "the silliest beyond compare," but in November, Camp Lazear was established as a quarantine site to prove the theory beyond a doubt.    Fourteen American soldiers volunteered and recent Spanish immigrants were hired using the first "informed consent" form.  Private John Kissinger was the first to get the fever, and Charles Sontag, the last. No one in the experiment died, Spanish or American. Congress eventually authorized gold medals for the American volunteers.   Using volunteers, the team also tested the fomite theory with articles fouled with the effusions from yellow fever victims including the dead men's clothes (although they were allowed to eat outside).  This theory was proven wrong - "burst like a bubble" in Reed's words.

 

            Reed realized that the Aedes aegypti  mosquito (which has been renamed three times) carried yellow fever but only under certain conditions.  The female 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.  Reed's team was the first to prove the mechanics of infection of yellow fever.  Since there was no cure or vaccine, soldiers continued to die from the disease, but Gorgas' mosquito control efforts meant by the summer of 1901, Havana was free of yellow fever.  This discovery enabled the United States to essentially eradicate yellow fever within its borders after one last epidemic in New Orleans in 1905.  In Panama, William Gorgas was able to suppress the disease so the Panama Canal could be built, although he was able to use methods such as oiling water so the mosquitoes suffocated. 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.  Although a vaccine was developed in the 1930s, yellow fever is still prevalent in tropical climes due to both a different mosquito vector and the fact that jungle yellow fever, as it is occasionally known, can live in monkeys as well as human hosts.

 

Reed died in 1902, of appendicitis, at Washington Barracks hospital, now on Fort McNair in the District. The hospital named in his honor opened in 1909, and the Museum he headed is open to the public on its grounds until the hospital closes and the Museum moves in 2011.

 

 

 

Letter of the Day: July 25

Nunda, N.Y. July 25 /85
Hon. Geo A Otis
Asst Surgeon USA

My dear Sir

Please send me four sep slips of the printed history of my wound. I refer to Nos. 167, 168, 169, 170 + 186 – my photographs in your Department. You promised me them.

Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant,
Rowland Ward
Nunda N.Y.

Here's the photographs and printed history that Ward referred to:









ROWLAND WARD 12 YEARS AFTER HIS INJURY. (CP 1150)

Surgical Photos
SP #
167-170, 186

Title (Caption)
CASE OF CHEILOPLASTY.

Name
WARD, ROLAND

Rank
PVT

Company
E

Regiment
4

State
NY

MOS
HEAVY ARTILLERY

Doctor
McKEE, J.C.

Battle
REAM'S STATION

Additional Photos In Series
SP 167-170; CP 1145-50

Comments
CP 1145 SAYS THE BATTLE WAS WELDON RAILROAD.

MSHWR
SURG I, P. 373.

Date of Injury
25 AUG 1864

Galileo's bones go on display

A Museum Display of Galileo Has a Saintly Feel
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: July 22, 2010

A Florence museum, renamed for Galileo, is exhibiting newly recovered bits of his body as if they were the relics of an actual saint.

Dengue fever, mosquito-borne disease, found in US first time since 1934

Dengue Fever? What About It, Key West Says
By DENISE GRADY and CATHARINE SKIPP
Published: July 23, 2010
Floridians are unsettled by the disease’s impact, and the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicized it.

Letter of the day, July 24

We still have this painting in our collection, although it's been on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Art. Which might give you the idea it's probably worth more than $350.00.

Army Medical Museum
War Department
Washington, D.C.

July 24, 1936.

MEMORANDUM for the Executive Office, S.G.O.:

1. You will note from the attached letter that the Museum has been left a legacy consisting of a portrait of the first curator, Dr. John H. Brinton, Surgeon, U.S. Volunteers. It is very appropriate that this portrait should hang in the Museum and we will be very glad to receive it. Such a portrait is of great sentimental value to the Museum but it probably would have little monetary value in the open market, although it is valued at $350.00 in the letter.

2. An opinion is desired from the Judge-Advocate General's Department as to our legal right to accept this legacy and as to whether or not the Museum would be required to pay the Pennsylvania inheritance tax.

[signed] Hugh R. Gilmore, Jr.
Captain, Medical Corps, U.S.A.
Acting Curator

HRG/M
(Encl.)

Who is George Otis?

Dr. George Otis must be regarded as one of the mainstays of the Museum. He served for 17 years until his early death at 50 in 1881. Under his direction, the second, much larger Catalogue of the Army Medical Museum and the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion were published, as well as many shorter monographs. Over 100 years after his death, Otis has become something of a cipher. His personal life is hard to trace. He married Pauline Baury in 1850. They had three children, Agnes Pauline, Anna Maria, and Alfred Louis, but only the girls seem to have survived to adulthood. His wife apparently died as well, since in 1869 he married Genevieve Poe and later disinherited her for abandonment. Thousands of pages of his official correspondence exist, but the formal style of the nineteenth century gives little feeling for the man. We can turn instead to his friends. Otis is described by his colleague J.J. Woodward as, "Hesitating, often embarrassed in his manner in ordinary conversation, especially with strangers, he became eloquent when warmed by the discussion of any topic in which he took interest." Otis was born in Boston on November 12, 1830. His father died before his first birthday and his mother returned with her son to her native Virginia. Otis had an undistinguished career at Princeton, preferring to read French literature instead of the assigned material. He returned to Virginia and privately studied in Richmond. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in April, 1851. He spent the rest of that year and the next studying in Paris. A coup d'etat gave him the opportunity to begin a first-hand study of military medicine. He returned to Virginia in spring 1852 and the next year began the Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal. The Journal, in competition with the Stethoscope, was not a financial success. Otis sold a partial interest to Dr. James McCaw and moved to Springfield, Massachusetts but maintained his connection as corresponding editor. McCaw later became known for his organization of Chimbarozo Hospital in Richmond for the Confederacy. Otis enlisted as a surgeon in the 27th Massachusetts Volunteers to particpate in the war. He moved over to the regular army as the war continued and joined the Museum staff in 1864.

Otis wrote the first two volumes of the Surgical Section of the Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion as well as curating the collection of bones. He also oversaw the Division of Surgical Records. Otis supervised or created four photographic collections, the Surgical, Medical, Microscopical and Anatomical, which loosely paralleled the arrangement of the Museum. The Medical Series photographs, a very small run, consists of now little-used pictures of colons made by Woodward, who during the war was looking for physical clues to the cause of disease, especially the "alvine fluxes" or dysentery and diarrhea. Woodward also took thousands of Microscopical Series photographs in which he experimented with photomicrographs using artificial lights and specialized stains. Otis's Anatomical Series photographs compared skulls of aboriginal people throughout the world. This work stemmed from an arrangement with Secretary Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, under which the Army Medical Museum became the government's home for human anthropological remains while the Smithsonian handled cultural remains. Otis had plans for a larger publication (probably like the Surgical Photographs) and began compiling a checklist of the specimens which was published for the 1876 Centennial. The Army was not interested in funding this project though, and most of the photographs and remains were returned to the Smithsonian some years after Otis's death. Otis was also an accomplished surgeon and performed the difficult amputation at the hipjoint on Julius Fabry, removing the infected remains of his femur. Fabry survived for many years after the second operation.

Otis stayed with the Museum through a stroke in 1877 until his death in 1881. He continued working on Museum projects even after the stroke made him an invalid.

Letter of the Day: July 23

Surgeon General’s Office

Washington City, D.C.

July 23d 1866

 

Prof. H.L. Smith

 

Dear Sir,

 

Yours of the 19^th came duly to hand and I thank you very much for the growing slides. They are very ingenious and I shall value them the more as being your work. You know that the whole energy of the microscopic labor under my direction is directed towards Pathology and I only turned to the Diatomacea as test objects in developing the photographic process which we are using with the most complete success on the tissues. Still as I feel we have mastered the whole matter of microphotography, I should be glad to photograph a few more diatoms by way of showing those who are not interested in Pathology how good and reliable our process is and of inducing them to use it also. Should you therefore care to take the trouble of sending us a few specimens of carefully selected single diatoms for the Museum, we would in the course of the summer and fall undertake their photography, and cheerfully furnish you copies of our results. I think Wales really a clever young man. He has made me a number of pieces of apparatus, which with rare exceptions have given perfect satisfaction. His photographic 4/10, 1/8 and amplified leave little to be desired further. I have just received from him a 1/5 for photography, which however I have not tried. All of these lenses are made on Rutherford’s formula and can only be satisfactorily used for vision when illuminated with violet light. He is now making me a 1/16 on the same principle, from which I expect great things. He has improved enormously since I first knew him.  In fact in /62 I saw lenses of his in the hands of various parties and regarded them as very inferior. It was not until 1864 that he began to make work of the highest class and I do not think that at present he would claim even to have made a 1/16 of the best quality. Barnard objects to his 4/10 that it is really a ¼ and so perhaps it is, but it is the habit of nearly all opticians to misstate the power of their lenses and I find his run quite parallel in nomenclature to those of Smith + Beck and other English opticians.

 

I am, Sincerely,

signedd. J.J. Woodward

Bvt. Maj. and Ass’t. Surg. U.S.A.

 

Letter of the Day: July 22

 

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1604

 

July 22, 1896

 

Sister Beatrice,

Superioress,

Providence Hospital,

Washington, D.C.

 

Sister Beatrice:

 

I return herewith four of the registers showing admissions etc., to Providence Hospital under your charge. The other two, being those at present in use at the Hospital, I returned yesterday by messenger, as I feared their retention by me might inconvenience you. I hope they reached you safely.

 

Please accept my sincere thanks for your kindness in permitting me the use of these records, which will, I hope, be of some service to me in an investigation regarding malarial fever at Fort Myer, Va., and Washington Barracks, D.C., which the Surgeon General has directed me to make.

 

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed

Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator.