Letter of the Day: September 30

Wash. D.C. Sept 30 80

Hon. Alexander Ramsey

Sec of War

 

Dear Sir

 

I have the honor herewith most respectfully to request that I may be transferred from my present position in the Record and Pension Division of the Surgeon General’s Office to some other employment under the War Department for the reason that I am afflicted with a very serious trouble in my eyes; which has now become so aggravated by the gas light under which I have to work as to threaten blindness.

 

Dr. Loring the occulist who has for some time been treating my eyes assures me that this work by gas light will eventually cause the loss of sight.

 

I forward with this his statement of the matter, and therefore request that you will have the kindness to cause my transfer to someplace where I will not have the difficulty of the gas light, or if possible to some position as messenger or the like. I was appointed upon the recommendation of the Maryland delegation + also f Mr. Pachico of Cal. Being gazette I believe to that state.

 

Very Respectfully,

Your Obt. Servant

Alfred de Ronceray

Letter of the Day: September 29

[There were so many bird collectors in the Army that there’s a book about them – Ornithologists of the United States Army Medical Corps by Hume]

 

Madisonville, Hamilton Co. Ohio

Sept. 29^th 1879

 

Dear Sir

 

I send you today, per Express (M+C. care of Adams) as directed, a box containing the following species of birds in the flesh, for the Army Medical Museum; (for skeletons).

 

Viz.-

Deudioeca castanea

Deudoieca blackburniae

Turdus swainsoni

Pyranga aestiva

Passerella iliaca

Aegialitis vociferous

 

Hoping that they may reach you in good order, I have the honor to be

Very respectfully yours

Frank W. Langdon

 

C.H. Crane

Asst. Surgeon General, U.S.A.

 

--

Received at A.M.M. Oct. 2, 1879, + turned over to Dr. Woodward, in charge of the Sec. of Comparative Anatomy.  Copy of this letter furnished Dr. Schafhirt Oct. 7 1879, by order of Mr. Myers.

Rules of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office

Rules of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office , printed on May 16, 1872 from OHA 323.

SGO Centennial 1876 calendar

Party like it’s 1876!

SGO Circular 2 (1867)

The Army Medical Museum begins collecting animal specimens, Indian culture and remains, and poisonous insects and reptiles, two years after the Civil War ends, and five years after the Museum’s founding.

 

Letter of the Day: September 28

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 193

 

Schering & Glatz,

Importers of

Drugs & Chemicals

No. 55 Maiden Lane.

New York, September 28, 1894

 

Dr. Walter Reed,

Major & Surgeon U.S. Army

Curator U.S. Army Medical Museum,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Doctor:-

 

We beg to own receipt of your valued favor of the 26^th. Inst., contents of which are noted with thanks.-

 

We now enclose invoice for 2 x 5 Gramme Vials DIPTHERIA ANTITOXINE SOLUTION for Immunization, which we forwarded by mail today and trust the same will reach you in good condition. We regret to say that we will probably not be able to furnish the Concentrated Solution until next November, while our stock of the Immunization Fluid is almost exhausted and we will likely be out of stock for a month or two.

 

We presume your article “The Germicidal Value of Trikresol” has not yet been published in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, as we have not yet received the separate copy which you were kind enough to promise us in your letter of July 23d.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Schering & Glatz

 

Enclosure: Invoice.

 

"Save the Date: Museum Program on Wounded Warrior Care at the MATC, 9/30, noon!"

SAVE THE DATE---Wounded Warrior Care at Walter Reed LUNCHTIME PROGRAM AT THE MEDICAL MUSEUM

What: Join physical therapists from Walter Reed’s Military Advanced Training Center for a panel discussion about their experiences with Wounded Warrior care and amputee rehabilitation. This program is being held in conjunction with “Wounded in Action: An Art Exhibition of Orthopaedic Advancements,” presented by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.   When: Thursday, September 30, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Bring your lunch!)   Where: Russell Auditorium, NMHM in Bldg. 54, WRAMC   Questions? Call (202) 782-2673

 

 

 

Letter of the Day: September 27

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 180

 

War Department,

Surgeon General’s Office,

U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,

Corner 7^th and B Streets S.W.,

Washington, D.C., September 27, 1894

 

To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

Washington, D.C.

 

General:

 

I have the honor to state that the following articles are required for immediate use at the Army Medical Museum, and would request authority to buy them as emergency purchases to be paid for from the Museum appropriation:

 

6 lbs. Acid, carbolic, pure, crystals, Estimated cost, 6.00

8 Oz. Celloidin, Schering’s,                        “              “       8.00

3 Small Files, for glass,                                “              “         .60

½ Ream Filtering Paper, imported        “              “      10.00

1 Gas Stove, 10”, with ring burner,      “               “        5.50

30 Yards Black Rubber Tubing,               “               “      18.00

2 lbs. Metallic Zinc, in sticks,                   “               “        1.50

1 Dozen Pencils, blue, for writing on glass,       “         2.00

1 Dozen Pinchcocks, for rubber tubing,              “         3.00

                                                                    Total             “       54.60

 

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed,

Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator Army Medical Museum.

Letter of the Day: September 26

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 932

Geo. G. Rambaud,
Superintendent
New York Biological and Vaccinal Institute.
Laboratory of Bovine Vaccine and of Biological Products.
(Pasteur Institute Building.)
New York, September 26, 1895

Dr. Walter Reed,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Doctor:

Dr. Gibier has transmitted to us your favor of the 25th in which you ask for information as to the use of our Tetanus Antitoxin.

In reply we beg to say that we are at present out of the directions for which you ask, but we will have some in a short time, and will be pleased to send you same.

Hoping this delay will not inconvenience you, we remain,

Yours respectfully,
New York Biological and Vaccinal Institute.
Per GGR

Letter of the Day: September 25

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 932

September 25, 1895

Dr. Paul Gibier,
Director Pasteur Institute,
1—7 W. 97th St.,
New York.

Dear Sir:

Will you favor me with your circular describing the dose necessary for administration on and the method of administration of your tetanus antitoxine. I have recently received a small quantity from the Post Surgeon at Plattsburg Barracks, which was left over in a case of lockjaw at that Post, and desire to have some definite information as to its dose, etc., should I be called upon to forward the antitoxine to another military post.

Please favor me with a prompt reply.

Very truly yours,
Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator.

Last day for the Museum's scanning contract

Today is the last day for the scanning contract that we were able to be on as part of the AFIP. As the dissolution of AFIP accelerates, the contract has also shrunken, and the possible last year of it is being used to scan as many accession record microfilms as possible. We didn’t quite finish all the parts of our projects, but we did a lot of work.

 

The work was done by a company that moved along from being Information Management Corporation, to National Interest Security Company, to currently being a division of IBM. Scores of people worked on this project, at AFIP and the Museum, in scanning labs in West Virginia, and in our warehouses in Maryland. I won’t try to list them because over almost a decade, I know I’d leave some important ones out. The project was complex and all of the images had to be catalogued before being scanned, because you need a computer record of the original to hook the scan up to. You can see some of the products on this blog, and thousands of them on the Flickr site. The Walter Reed history book used images catalogued and scanned for this, and the upcoming AFIP history will too.

 

This contract really did a lot for us over the years. Over 1.25 million scans of museum documents are now available electronically. It’s going to be a great resource.

 

Letter of the Day: September 24

Post Hospital,

Morris Island S.C.

Sept. 24, 1863

 

Dear Doctor:

 

I arrived here safely a week after I left W-.  Have a nice time of it here, between bomb shells + sea shells – the latter having the greater attraction.

 

I have the honor performing the duties of Medical Inspector of the Camp on the Island + have nothing more to do, except prescribe for the sick in Genl. Gilmore’s Band; so you see I have very little hard labor to perform. I am present, however, to assist Dr. Gross in his amputations.

 

Now about specimens – what am I to do for you? I can furnish any number of recent ones, both flesh and bone wounds, but will they be of any value to you? This is a God-forsaken place to get anything to put up preparations, and unless they are attended to at once, they become so offensive that we have to dispose of them. The wounds are all produced by Shell that we have to care for now + are therefore terrible. We had six cases last night from Ft. Gregg wounded by Moultrie guns. Three of them died. We average almost five cases of shell wounds daily from our men at work on the Forts + entrenchments.

 

We can give you no pathological specimens, for we ship all the cases that are likely to recover either to Beaufort or to Hilton Head Hospitals. I have a very fine specimen of a shell wound of the Cranium, which I have ready for you with the full history thereof.

 

Please let me know your desires and I shall do all for you I can. I have plenty of time and will be glad to do anything to further the object you have undertaken to accomplish. I am suffering from the cold this morning – it is quite chilly.

 

My pious regards to Dr. Dunston – say to him I have the Crab – a Side Wheeled” one – Tom Turtle I have not caught yet.

 

I will be glad to hear from you soon.

 

Truly yours [illegible]

H.K. Neff

 

To

Surgeon J. H. Brinton

Washington

 

Direct to Post Hospital Morris Island S.C.

 

Letter of the Day: September 23

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 199

 

324 Montgomery St.

Syracuse, N.Y.

Sept. 23. 1894

 

John S. Billings M.D.

Surgeon, U.S.A.

 

Dear Doctor:

 

Incidentally I learned while in London recently that the famous historical collections of microscopes collected by Mr. Crisp at a cost of about L20000, had been offered for sale for L10000. I at once through of the Army Medical Museum. For a short time this collection can be had whole. Presently, I understand, if not sold as a whole, it will be broken up for sale in parts to suit small purchasers. I have been informed, perhaps somewhat privately, that Mr. Crisp intended to present this collection to the Royal Microscopical Society, had the Government given that society permanent rooms in Burlington House. The society would have had no rent to pay and the collection would have belonged essentially to the Government. I am told Mr. Crisp has been so disappointed in the Government, in its want of hospitality – not giving the society rooms – that he probably would take delight in writing a stinging letter to the Authorities pointing to the collection in the hands of a foreign government as the result of Burlington House not being offered as a home to the R.M. Society.

 

Further information can be had from Mr. C. Lees Curties with Chas. Baker, optician, 244 High Holborn, London, S.W. England.

 

Sincerely Yours,

A. Clifford Mercer, Dr.

 

P.S. The writer was much interested in the photomicroscopic work of Dr. Woodward had has been a worker in the same line for 18 years, has visited the Army Museum, has met you personally (in Washington, 1885, at meeting of Am. Public Health Association)

A.C.M.

Boosts Personality

the ad says

"do your child a favor and start them on a strict regimen of sodas and other sugary carbonated beverages right now for a lifetime of guaranteed happiness"

More Weirdness

We probably, have one of these too. At least I thought I saw one at the storage facility.
It was expected "to cure illnesses of the head" though, it probably gave more than it cured.

Weirdness from the Turn of the Century

We have some earlier examples of this in our Historical Collection, I'll post some photos from the collection.

not only did it remove all dandruff, it took your hair and scalp too. If  I had one

of these I would wear it everyday. Until of course I got tased or arrested for being 

a crackpot.

Letter of the Day: September 22

Fort Hamilton N.Y.H.

Sept. 22. 1882

 

The Surgeon General U.S. Army,

Washington D.C.

 

Sir:

 

I have the honor to inform you that I have this day sent, by mail, to the Army Medical Museum, one half doz microscopic specimens, prepared by myself. I desire that they be examined and that I may be notified whether they are properly mounted. If they are found worthy of a place in the microscopic section of the Museum I would be glad to have them placed there.

 

I am Sir,

Very respectfully

Your obedient Servt.

H.G. Burton

Asst. Surgon

U.S. Army.

Two articles that raise interesting medical questions

Is it time to bring back 'old age' as a cause of death?

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 17, 2010; 2:59 PM

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091703823.html

 

 

Sickle cell testing of athletes stirs discrimination fears

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 20, 2010; 12:19 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/19/AR2010091904417.html