Letter of the Day: April 6 (2 of 2)

The sketchbook Young provided is still in the Museum

 

Cincinnati Ohio

April 6 1866

 

Sir

 

Since I saw you last August, I have been very much engaged in arranging my business and getting settled again in civil life which together with a separation from my drawings and notes has prevented me from completing and forwarding the drawings of gunshot wounds for exchange for photographs of specimens in the A.M. Museum as agreed upon at that time. The original was sketched hurriedly, and at periods more or less separate, and it appeared at the time, I entered into the arrangement with you, a comparatively slight task to reproduce them. But when pressed with other affairs, I have found them more tegious [ie tedious]  than I had anticipated. The originals were necessarily rough but I thought at the time they generally gave fair representations of the subjects which they were intended to illustrate.  And now with better opportunities for more perfect finish, I have found it very difficult to depart from the original sketches in this respect and retain the true characteristics of the lesions that were presented in the rough originals.

 

I have selected injuries of the soft tissues, instead of those of the bones, as what I have of osseous structures, would be but a repetition of what you have such an abundance. The histories accompanying them are brief  from the character of the wounds, the short time we had them under our care, and the difficulty of hearing from them after leaving us. I also have been unfortunate in losing many of my notes of great interest to me upon many of the subjects. But I hope they will meet your anticipations.

 

Will you please be kind enough to inform me when and how if it be possible I can procure a catalogue of the A.M. Museum, also of the wood cuts, which, I understand are being prepared by the Dept. Having taken great interest in all matters of surgery during the war, I still feel a desire to procure all I can pertaining to it, that may reasonably come within my reach. And thanking your for the extreme kindness you have shown me heretofore I remain truly

 

Yours, most respectfully etc

 

D.S. Young, late,

Surge 21^st Regt, O.V.Vs [Ohio Veteran Volunteers]