Catalogue of the Army Medical Museum, Surgeon General's Office, Washington, D.C.

  • Army Medical Museum (U.S.)
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Catalogue of the Army Medical Museum, Surgeon General's Office, Washington, D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ARMJT MEDICAL MUSEUM, SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., January 10, 1863. General : In obedience to your order of December 15, 1862, I Lave the honor to submit the following report of the condition of the Army Medical Museum on January 1, 1863: This Museum was established, in pursuance of your orders, in the month of August last. All of the contained specimens have been collected since that time, and their number is being daily augmented. The collection at present consists of thirteen hundred and forty-nine objects. Of these, nine hundred and eighty-five are surgical specimens, one hundred and six are medical, and one hundred and thirty-three are missiles, which, for the most part, have been extracted from the hody. This latter class includes round and conical bullets, shot, grape, canister, fragments of shell, arrows, arrow-heads, etc. Not the least Interesting portion of the cabinet is a series of projectiles for small arms, field and heavy guns; and also a complete set of the bayonets now in use in our own and foreign services. For this valuable collection, prepared at the Washington arsenal, under the supervision of Lieut. Col. Geo. D. Ramsay, U. S A., the Museum is indebted to the Ord- nance Department of the Army. Every object in the Museum has been appropriately and permanently mounted—the dried preparations on stands, and the wet ones in glass anatom- ical jars, of the most approved patterns, and constructed for the purpose. Every specimen bears a label, on w^ich is inscribed its Catalogue number and the name and rank of the medical officer from whom received. In the accompanying Catalogue—prepared by Assistant Surgeon William Moss, IT. S. V., Assistant Curator of the collection—the Museum number of every object is given, and its character is briefly described. The name of the medical officer contributing it will be found on the same line in a separate column. As the value of all pathological preparations depends, to a great extent, upon the completeness of their history, strenuous efforts have been made to procure an accurate surgical and medical account of every case from which a specimen has been taken. I regret to state that, in many instances, the desired success has not been obtained. In order that this evil may, as far as possible, bo remedied, the number of every specimen in the Catalogue for which a sufficient history has been received has been marked with an asterisk. For all others, neither history nor description have as yet been furnished. It is hoped that medical officers, recognizing the objects contributed by them, will exert themselves at once to remedy this deficiency. In presenting to you. General, this catalogue, you will please remember that it is offered simply as a numerical list of the objects in the Army Medical Museum. No attempt has as yet been made to classify the various injuries.