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.

    7/392 (page 3)
    PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. [1892.] The publication of a new edition of the Pathological Catalogue of the Museum of the Army Medical Department (at present at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, near Southampton), has become necessary chiefly because of the many changes and additions to the Museum since the completion of the last edition of its Catalogue in 1845; also on account of the losses of Preparations sustained by the removal of the Army Medical School and the Museum from Fort Pitt, Chatham, to Netley, in 1863; and also from further losses by destruction of Preparations during the fire which burned out four rooms occupied by surgeons on probation at Netley, in the vicinity of the Museum, necessitating the rapid removal of the Preparations from the shelves to a place of safety. An entirely new edition of the Catalogue has, therefore, been rendered necessary, in which all the additional Preparations in Morbid iVnatomy, accumulated since 1845, would be incorporated,in their proper places, in the several series; and in which such changes would be effected in the general arrangement of the Museum, as the advances in the science of pathology might suggest; and, in which the specific requirements of a teaching museum for the Army Medical School would also be kept in view, so as fully to illustrate the diseases of Armies, and especially such diseases as have been contracted in tropical and sub-tropical stations, and generally wherever soldiers are stationed. Anothei- object of the Editor, which has entailed much time and consideration, has been to simplify the method of numbering the several Preparations. Hitherto each Preparation has been marked by two numbers painted on the jar—one a number painted in red on the top covering of the jar, the other number was painted white on the upper edge and on the surface of the black varnish which cemented the cover of the Preparation, and thus it was liable to be obliterated whenever the varnish had to be renewed. This complicated method of numbering has now been got rid of entirely; and all the Preparations, old and new, described in this edition of the Catalogue are marked with one continuous series of black numbers on white labels, which have been painted close to the lower edge of each preparation jar.* * A list of the old and new numbers has been preserved in a separate MS. book, and is also recorded in blue pencil against the original record in the MS. Catalogue. (5692) A 2