Letter of the Day: June 4 (3 of 3)

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 702

Boeckmann’s Sterilizer, etc.

June 4, 1895

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

General:

Referring to your letter of June 3, 1895, I beg to state that the Boeckmann’s Steam Sterilizer and metal box for sterilizing catgut was received by me on June 8, 1894. I would further state that, as far as the records of this office show or as my recollection bears me out, no report was requested concerning the merits of this sterilizer. Since the date of its receipt, however, it has been in constant use in the Laboratory of the Army Medical School, and has given complete satisfaction. The inventor’s effort to supply an inexpensive sterilizer for saturated steaming, low over-steam, appears to have been perfectly realized in this apparatus. I first saw it in St. Paul, in the spring of 1893, and was at that time favorably impressed with its superiority as a steam sterilizer. I have not tried the sterilization of catgut since its receipt at the Laboratory, but will do so at once if this is desired.

I very much regret that I should have been under the impression that no report was required concerning the merits of this apparatus.

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