Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Army Medical Department, Netley / by Sir William Aitken.

  • Aitken, William, 1825-1892.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Army Medical Department, Netley / by Sir William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    12/392 (page 8)
    PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. [1833.] With the opportunities which are afforded in the Army for forming a collection in Morbid Anatomy, it has been a subject of regret with many that nothing had for so long time been done towards effecting this; more especially as the post-mortem appearances of diseases comparatively of rare occurrence in civil life might have been preserved in such a Museum as that of the Arm}'. The earliest attempt at forming a collection was made at Portsmouth in the ye&r 1810, under the superintendence of the present Director-General, Sir James McGrigor, then Inspector of Hospitals. Some pathological Preparations were made at Ililsea Hospital, by the late W. W. Fraser, Esq., and by Dr. James Forbes, who successively were the Principal Medical Officers at Hilsea. Daring the years 1810 and 1811 perhaps fifty Preparations were put up at that place. After this nothing appears to have been done till 1816, when a commencement was made at the York Hospital, Chelsea, to which the Preparations at Portsmouth were removed; but almost every one of these were found to be in a decayed state. Small additions continued to be made to the Collection at the York Hospital until the establishment was removed to Chatham, where more space and better means of making Preparations were obtained, and it is but seventeen years ago (1816) that the forming a Collection can be said to have been seriously entered on at the only General Hospital that remained after the conclusion of the war. As soon, however, as the intention was made known to the Medical Officers of the Ai-my, they were not slow in contributing to it from all the foreign stations where British troops are quartered. But the difficulties were almost insurmountable at first; for, not only was it found almost im- possible to attempt to make and preserve Anatomical Preparations in tropical climates, even after they had the aid of that scientific chemist, Dr. John Davy, but great difficulty was experienced in conveying them to Britain and the expense of the whole fell on the Medical Officers, who generously defrayed everything relating to the Establishment, Government having done nothing towards it for several years. The devoted zeal of the Medical Officers led to perseverance through numberless difficulties, and at length placed the Museum of the Medical Department of the Army on a firm foundation. At its first foi-mation that able officer. Dr. James Forbes, was at the head of the Establishment of the General Hospital at Fort Pitt, and, but for his zeal, ability, and steady perseverance, the Museum must have fallen to the ground. Of th^ Officers then acting under Dr. Forbes was the