Army Medical Museum

“ By the end of Major Calender's second tour of duty as Curator of the Museum, in 1929, the original ophthalmic registry had accumulated 2,000 registered cases, while the two tumor registries had about 200 each. The registries, in Major Callender's opinion, were well established and had "reached that stage of development and activity which makes necessary more professional, technical and clerical work that can be given by the Army Medical Museum." ”

“ As Colonel Ash said, the organization "suffered under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General." ”

“ Nearly two years ago Congress authorized a new building to replace the present antiquated Army Medical Museum, erected in 1887. Economy of a glaringly penny-wise pound-foolish variety has heretofore blocked action under this authorization. ”

“ Such a center, the Committee reported, was an "urgent and immediate" need, due to the "comprehensive and global nature of modern military medicine" if the Medical Department was "to fulfill its mission of protection and care of troops, to keep pace with worldwide developments of significance to military medicine and to maintain a productive relationship with the medical profession at large * * *. The Army Institute of Pathology and medical museum are presently housed in an antiquated building which seriously limits the important functions of this institution. ”

“ The success attained by the three registries already in operation when the American Registry was formed, had "been obtained in spite of a minimum of publicity effort because there has been insufficient personnel at the Army Medical Museum to conduct larger collections. As the registries have become better known, the 'follow-up' work alone is more than can be handled adequately in the time of the Museum personnel available for it." ”

“ The Registry was fortunate both in its professional sponsorship and in the Army personnel with which it had to deal. Surgeon General Ireland and Curator Callender were of one mind in feeling that the Medical Museum should, as Major Callender put it, "become a live activity in pathology in addition to its function of collecting, studying and reporting on the injuries and diseases of armed conflict." ”

“ It is the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Washington. This magnificent collection, illustrating not only every possible variety of gunshot and arrow injury, but also those diseases which are more fatal than the bullet to an army in the field or in camp, has under the able superintendence of Surgeon General Barnes, and of Drs. Otis and Woodward, been most admirably arranged and catalogued * * *. Many of the specimens in this Museum are quite unique * * *. ”

“ A succession of epidemics, both at home and in the AEF, and the care of the wounded in the AEF overtaxed the laboratory forces and left "neither time nor force to collect suitable pathological specimens and preserve them according to modern methods." Furthermore, Dr. Ewing said, the "number of men in the American medical profession trained in the methods of the pathological laboratory, and especially in the methods of museum preparation, proved to be extremely small, and few of these were available to the army." ”

“ The output of the Museum's staff of artists found use in the program of medical instruction of officers and men in the training camps, in the shape of lantern slides, for projection on the screen, to illustrate lectures on medical topics. Through these lectures, declared Major Shufeldt, the fitness and health of the army was "vastly improved." ”

“ Other activities of the Museum personnel included the handling of the tissues and histories of all cases of tumor or suspected tumor in the Army, and the review of the protocols of all Army necropsies, numbering about 800 a year. 4 [4] With a staff of but one medical officer, two medical technicians, one stenographer, and one typist, it was obvious that additional help must be had if the registries were to realize their full potential. ”

“ Item M 941 K. Consult Curator Army Medical Museum. 48 [48]
It was the end of August before the unit asked for could be assembled and dispatched overseas, but by the middle of September, two groups sent from the United States arrived in France. Captain Ross and seven photographers reported to the headquarters of the Division of Laboratories, then at Dijon, and Lieutenant Schwarz, Lt. W. H. French, and Miss Allen, illustrators and modelers, who had come over attached to Base Hospital No. 115, were sta- tioned at the hospital center in Vichy. ”

“ Billings started microscope collection; first 17 arrived in Museum.
1885 25 March: Site for new building (fifth home) selected.
1887 9 November: Museum moved into "new red brick," its fifth home.
1892 12 April: Congress recognized scientific status of Museum.
1893 24 June: Army Medical School established in Museum building by Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg. ”

“ Plans 2 and 3 would have little effect upon costs, while plan 4 would mean that additional help from some source would be required, if exhibitions of preventive medicine and hygiene were to be done by the Museum.
"The Army has had the only national museum worthy of the name in the United States * * *" Major Callender wrote, which "is one of our most valuable contacts with the civilian profession." Under Army control the facilities of the Museum had been offered "to other government services which might and should be interested in studying, particularly human pathology." ”

“ Dr. Charles H. Mayo of Rochester, Minn., said in addressing the Surgery Section of the American Medical Association, the officers in charge of the Museum had, over the years, "accomplished much," maintaining a record of the "progress of medicine of past ages" and accumulating "many valuable historical specimens," while materials accumulated during the war would "make the collection modern, and one of the best in the world." ”

“ These profound studies, so essential to the welfare of our people, are carried on under the fostering care of our National Medical Museum, whose library, now the first in the world, and whose not less admirable collection of military pathology are placed at the disposal of all investigators. ”

“ Because Army medical personnel are so mobile and are therefore subject to infection with diseases to which they are not accustomed, he added, "medical museums are absolutely necessary" for the education of medical officers in dealing with unfamiliar diseases. ”

“ Increasingly, he added, contributions were being received from practitioners in civil life, as the "facilities afforded by the Museum for the permanent preservation of pathological specimens, and of the records connected with them, are more and more appreciated" — a trend which Billings sought to strengthen by his earnest appeals for cooperation from all medical men, civilian as well as military. ”