!!!The first copies of Endurance and Suffering can be found through the Sehen und Lesen on-line catalog, and typing in keyword "Endurance" in the search box!!! »»
Happily, there are four versions of John Wood's book, including a soft cover trade edition which will leverage up the gravitas of any poor scholar-poet's book shelf. And for the scholar-of-means who is reading this, the limited edition version of Endurance and Suffering is an investment that will reward your intellect and your legacy. No other booksellers have the book yet, but when they do, the ISBN numbers are as follows:
- ISBN 978-3-936165-49-4 — Soft cover (Bestellnummer: 41814).
- ISBN 978-3-936165-48-7 — Half-linen (Bestellnummer: 41813).
- ISBN 978-3-936165-47-0 — Signed and numbered, art-leather (Bestellnummer: 41812).
- ISBN 978-3-936165-72-2 — Signed and numbered, full caravan goatskin (Bestellnummer: 41609).
Scholars, artists and physicians who come to browse these pages are all invited to read Natasha Christia's sensitive interview with John Wood in the latest issue of Eyemazing, journal of the photographic arts. Here is the first line of the interview followed by a link to the Eyemazing website:
"Imagination, the longing of a life to be, the bursting of stories that were never meant to unfold in the places we inhabit and in the paths we cross... continued »»
Enter the website and then click on the thumbnail image of a nun to bring up a thumbnail table of contents. The article is linked to the last thumbnail on the second row.
Estella Ramirez's January 22 interview with John can be found in the online journal, Front Porch »» ; published by Texas State University-San Marcos.
Cataloged the eminent Jewish dermatologist, Heinrich Köbner. He established the first research facility for dermatology in Germany.
Finished cataloging Recklinghausen.
Began cataloging a monograph by the brilliant Recklinghausen.
Revised the Ferran description.
Finished work on the Ferran description.....for now and until the Spanish comes easier.
Began researching and cataloging Ferran's monograph on inoculation for cholera. It is an important document by a Spanish physician who had strong claims to the discovery of a vaccine against this disease and yet, there is no copy in the Surgeon General index and only 1 copy listed on worldcat. Strange.
Second paper by W. W. Keen, published in the Review. This completes the cataloging of all 48 articles that appeared in that journal.
Note to self :
PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE LARYNX. — We have had an opportunity of seeing Professor Czermak's photographs of the larynx and posterior nares. They are no less remarkable as giving perfectly distinct pictures of the glottis, the superior and inferior vocal cords and ventricles of Morgagni, than they are curious as the first and only photographs of the organ of voice. They give a striking proof of the advantages of sight gained by Professor Czermak's invention. On the 29th ult. Professor Czermak demonstrated the use of his instrument on several patients at the Great Northern Hospital. In one case the laryngoscope detected the existence of a constriction of the pharynx above the larynx, originating in cicatrisation and contraction of an old ulceration. This condition had not been previously diagnosed, as the patient, although labouring under partial loss of the soft palate and uvula, and suffering from complete aphonia and chronic sore- throat, had never complained of difficulty in deglutition. — THE MEDICAL TIMES AND GAZETTE, June 7, 1862, page 604.
Still another fatty tumor paper published in the Review. One more paper to go.
Finlayson claims that he took the first photograph of acromegaly in this paper.
Keen's plastic operation for protruding ears.
Interesting case of a gun shot wound to the head.
Another fatty tumor report in the Review.
Extroversion of the bladder by Maury.
Rupture of the bladder by Mears.
A third paper written by Samuel W. Gross and published in the "Review." He reports the surgical intervention in a case of traumatic aneurism of the carotid artery.
A paper by Dr. James R. Wood of Bellevue on a fatal case of elephantiasis. This document is important, not only because of the stature of Dr. Wood as the co-founder of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, but also because of the paucity of his published works.
A second paper by Andrews, published in the Review.
Scholar readers of this thread ought to check out Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's talk on the two personalities of the human brain. It is the first inkling of what is becoming a transformative shift in how we structure and communicate information within our schools and institutions. The video is about 20 minutes in length and takes a few moments to load. The opening seconds are loud so if you use external speakers, turn down the sound. Here is the link : »»
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. »»
A second paper by Duhring, published in the Review.
Encephaloid tumor of the hip capsule.
A second paper by Sayre, published in the Review.
Diverting from the Review to update the description of Barwell's monograph on orthopedic treatment of club-foot. Included four jpegs of the plates.
Beecher's second paper contributed to the Photographic review.
Updated Damon's monograph on leukemia. Included a jpeg of one of the plates.
Added an article by C. E. Webster on Applications of photography in surgery published in "The Photographic News." From that same journal comes these snippets:
Medical Photographs.—Dr. Richer and M. A. Londe have produced some remarkable medical photographs by the photo-electric apparatus previously described—the same subject having been reproduced successively at regular intervals, more or less frequent, at the will of the operator. — page 23.
PHOTOGRAPHY AS A MEANS OF OBTAINING PATHOLOGICAL RECORDS. — From the other side of the Atlantic we receive the following of the pen of Dr. A. L. Cory : - " As to the use of photographic outfits in medicine, I would say I find mine a great benefit. I have used it in cases of skin diseases, small-pox, spina befida, &c., and can see now where I should have kept photos of many cases if I had possessed it before. While in charge of Lake health department I took frequent copies of small-pox cases. It is so little trouble to keep the plate-holder filled and the camera in one corner of the consultation room. A photo of any case can be had at a minute's notice, the plate to be developed when convenient. I frequently take mine in the buggy when called to a case I think may be interesting, and use it if opportunity offers. Nothing that I know of offers us so easy and accurate a method of recording interesting cases." — page 399.
To the surprise of all, photography has quite failed in endeavoring to represent cutaneous diseases. It has been now pretty thoroughly tried, and the result is most unsatisfactory. We must agree with a shrewd observer and truthful recorder, Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, that without color the photograph shows little or nothing of the disease ; and if hand coloring is put on, you at once destroy the special value of a photograph, its absolute accuracy as to detail. The test is this : Can you say what the disease is from the photograph without the name attached to it ? We have repeatedly failed. Moreover, to a large number of those published the real name of the disease photographed is not appended, but some other one. Hence photographs of cutaneous diseases have not been received with any great favor by professed dermatologists. As placards they, of course, serve a special purpose for both artist and doctor. — B. Joy Jeffries, Diseases of the Skin: The Recent Advances in Their Pathology and Treatment. Boston: Moore, 1871 ; page 76.
Townsend's second paper in the Photographic Review. This time his subject is an extraordinary hernia in a 40 year-old vagrant which began at infancy.
Small paper on hypertrophic diseases of the clitoris by an obscure Philadelphia physician.
A second paper by Samuel Weissell Gross, son of Samuel David Gross.
Extirpation of the thyroid. This was still a novel procedure in 1872, the first report for total thyroidectomy was written by Paul August Sick in 1867.
Paper on an adipose tumor over the sternocleidomastoideus.
Paper on genital warts.
Paper on aneurism in the abdominal aorta.
Another patient of Dr. Addinell Hewson with an epithelioma attacking the face. This time, however, the treatments with poltices of ferruginous clay were not successful and the patient died.
A short paper by S. D. Gross on deformity of the leg from a necrotic tibia.
This is perhaps the most important photograph published in the Review.
Dr. Maury, the physician photographer and editor of the Photographic review, lectured on the venereal diseases at Jefferson Medical College and helped establish the adjunct teaching hospital of that great institution. Today's link is his paper on a syphilitic gumma of the skull.
Elephantiasis græcorum, the title of this paper, is the antiquated term for leprosy.
As to the propriety of an operation in this case there can be but little doubt, as his general condition is excellent ; while as to the necessity, his comfort, happiness, and usefulness appear to be as much marred by this burden as was Bunyan's hero when he made his pilgrimage for relief.
Bladder polyps.
A misdiagnosis by a master!
Another photographic illustrated medical monograph by the physician photographer of Earth as a topical application in surgery.
A bicephalic monster which was on exhibition at Simpson's Museum and Menagerie in Philadelphia during the summer of 1871.
The science of American teratology began in Philadelphia with this paper by Pancoast on the pygopagus twins Millie and Chrissie Smith. The girls astonished the medical elite of Philadelphia with their quick intelligence and musical talent. The following quatrains were written by Christina:
'Tis not modest of one's self to speak;
But, daily scanned from head to feet,
I freely talk of everything,
Sometimes to persons wondering.
Some persons say I must be two,
The doctors say this is not true;
Some cry out humbug till they see,
When they say--great mystery!
Two heads, four arms, four feet,
All in one perfect body meet;
I am most wonderfully made
All scientific men have said.
None like me since the days of Eve--
None such, perhaps, will ever live--
If marvel to myself am I,
Why not to all who pass me by?
I'm happy, quite, because content,
For some wise purpose I was sent;
My maker knows what he has done,
Whether I'm created two or one.
The following poem, translated from the Hungarian, was written by an unknown physician
after his examination of the pygopagus twins, Helen and Judith:
Two sisters wonderful to behold, who have thus grown as one,
That naught their bodies can divide, no power beneath the sun.
The town of Szoenii gave them birth, hard by far-famed Komorn,
Which noble fort may all the arts of Turkish sultans scorn.
Lucina, woman's gentle friend, did Helen first receive ;
And Judith, when three hours had passed, her mother's womb did leave.
One urine passage serves for both ; — one anus, so they tell ;
The other parts their numbers keep, and serve their owners well.
Their parents poor did send them forth, the world to travel through,
That this great wonder of the age should not be hid from view.
The inner parts concealed do lie hid from our eyes, alas !
But all the body here you view erect in solid brass. — from: Gould and Pyle.
April 1.
When God plays the April fool:
V. Dr Byrom Bramwell showed (1.) PHOTOGRAPHS OF A CASE OF CYCLOPEAN MONSTROSITY. He met with it many years ago, when in general practice. The patient had borne five healthy children previously. Her sixth pregnancy terminated at the end of the seventh month, with twins. One child was naturally formed ; the other was the monster. The child was well formed otherwise. Dr Bramwell had unfortunately no opportunity of making a dissection. The child lived a quarter of an hour.
Began cataloging this paper by Sir Byrom Bramwell on intracranial aneurism. Bramwell was an accomplished artist and many of his texts are illustrated by drawings from his own hand:
The lithographs of naked-eye objects, represent with few exceptions the hearts of patients who have been under my own care during life, and with whose clinical histories I am intimately acquainted. The microscopical lithographs are, with two exceptions, copied from sections made by myself. In order to ensure absolute accuracy of representation, the naked- eye specimens were first photographed and then drawn under my immediate personal supervision, while the microscopical objects have been placed directly on the stone from my own drawings. — preface to Diseases of the Heart and Thoracic Aorta. New York: Appleton, 1884.
Believing that one great secret of all successful teaching is to teach by the eye as well as by the ear, I am in the habit of copiously illustrating my lectures by diagrams, drawings, and microscopical preparations. The diagrams and drawings are introduced into the text in the form of woodcuts, the microscopical sections are represented in colors. The chromo-lithographs are all drawn by myself, first with the camera lucida, and then in lithograph chalk ; they are with two exceptions ( figures 56 and 151, which are copied from Oharcot) representations of my own sections. — preface to, Diseases of the Spinal Cord. New York: Wood, 1886 (2nd ed.).
Von jeher pflege ich meine Vorlesungen reichlich durch Zeichnungen und Demonstration mikroskopischer Präparate zu erläutern, weil ich dafürhalte, eines der grossen Geheimnisse des erfolgreichen Unterrichtes liege darin, eben sowohl durch das Auge als durch das Ohr zu belehren. Diese Zeichnungen sind in der Gestalt von Holzschnitten in den Text des Buches aufgenommen; die mikroskopischen Präparate auf farbigen Tafeln wiedergegeben. Die Chromolithographien habe ich selbst — mit der Camera lucida und darauf mit der lithographischen Kreide — entworfen, mit Ausnahme der nach Charcot copirten Figuren 56 und 136, sind es Darstellungen meiner eigenen Präparate. — preface to German edition, Diseases of the Spinal Cord. Wien: Toeplitz & Deuticke, 1883.
Report on malformation of the fingers and toes by a prominent American surgeon who invented surgical instruments still in use today.
Todays' date is linked to a report on elephantiasis by Henry D. Ingraham of Buffalo whose obituary is posted below. Curiously, I found a similar image of elephantiasis reproduced on page 212 of the journal, Progressive medicine, (volume iv., 1907). The contributor's name is given as C[harles]. B. Ingraham of Johns Hopkins, but no relationship could be found with the Buffalo Ingrahams.
Dr. HENRY D. INGRAHAM died at his home in Buffalo, May 23, 1904, after a prolonged illness, aged 62 years. He was a native of New Hampshire, but his youth and early manhood were spent in the neighborhood of Arcade, .N. Y., where he was educated at the common schools and at the Arcade Seminary. For a time he taught in the common schools, and in 1863 began the study of medicine in the office of the late Dr. Lucius Peck, of Arcade. He attended medical lectures at the University of Buffalo, and graduated from that institution February 21, 1866.
Dr. Ingraham began the practice of medicine at East Randolph, N. Y., but soon settled at Kennedy, N. Y., where he associated himself with the late Dr. William Smith. He established there a large and lucrative practice, remaining until 1880, when he removed to Jamestown, N. Y., but after a few months decided to locate at Buffalo. He came here in 1881, and this city has since been the scene of his activities until his death. He developed a special liking for gynecological surgery and, while never entirely relinquishing family practice, he came to be recognised as one of the leading gynecologists, and in this department of practice he won the confidence and following of a large professional circle.
In 1883, Dr. Ingraham was one of the active organisers of the medical department of Niagara University, and until its union with the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 1898, he was its professor of gynecology and pediatrics. In the upbuilding of the department, he was an important factor. From 1898 to 1902, he was clinical professor of gynecology and diseases of children of the University of Buffalo. In 1883, he was appointed gynecologist to the Buffalo Hospital of the Sisters of Charity. Besides serving this institution most creditably as its gynecologist, he did much to advance its interests by supervising the erection of the new wing and other additions to the hospital, by cooperating with its authorities in many of the minor details of administration, and by aiding the establishment of the training school for nurses. After severing his connection with the Sisters' Hospital he became the gynecologist to the Riverside Hospital, continuing as such until his death. He was also one of the gynecologists to the Erie County Hospital from the time of its organisation until his death.
In medical societies he was active and influential. He was a member of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, of the American Medical Association and also of the state, county and city organisations. In 1902, he was chairman of the section of gynecology and obstetrics of the Buffalo Academy of Medicine, and at the time of his death president of the Medical Union of Buffalo.
Dr. Ingraham was not a prolific writer, but he found time to publish occasional papers in the BUFFALO MEDICAL JOURNAL, the American Journal of Obstetrics and some other medical journals. No man of character and ability can live and work in a community for a quarter of a century without leaving his impress upon it, this being especially true of the successful physician, and such was Dr. Ingraham.
He is survived by a wife and step-daughter, by three sisters, and by several nieces and nephews, among the latter of whom is Dr. Henry C. Buswell of this city. A. A. H. — pp. 835-836 Buffalo Medical Journal, 1904.
Report from a surgeon who recruited and commanded in service of the Confederate army. His uniform can be found here »»
March 29.
BERLIN, Oct 3rd, 1890. The steady increase of the collateral branches, and the ever expanding utilization of physical forces, is gradually changing the character of medicine from a speculative to an exact and applied science. Photography, the latest handmaid of medicine, appears destined to play a vital ro1e in diagnosis, particularly in the zymotic diseases. Both in the Charité and the Clinicum it has been customary for some time to photograph patients with the view of thus securing typical aspects of affections, which might act as guides in future diagnosis. A few weeks ago a lady was admitted to the Charit6 for some uterine trouble and, as usual, was photographed. Imagine the surprise of the medical photographer when the portrait showed globular red spots disseminated all over the face. A picture taken on the following day presented a well defined eruption that after a week's time, became a clear case of small-pox. It is superfluous to dwell on the importance of the matter, and the only question presenting in this connection is whether it should not be obligatory, or if it is not at least desirable, to photograph every hospital patient at the time of admission. The Military Medical Academy will in future include photography in its curriculum of instruction. — page 490, The Medical Age: A Semi-monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1890.
Whoever visits Virchow of late is treated to the sight of a photograph of the "Hippocrates Tree," i. e., the tree under which Hippocrates delivered the first lecture on medicine. The growth stands in the market place of the Island of Kos, and as Hippocrates lived in 460-377 B.C., is 2,350 years old. Allow me to add here that the Father of Medicine died at Larissa, honored like a God, but poor as a church-mouse, for nearly all of his doctor bills remained unpaid. — page 491, The Medical Age: A Semi-monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1890.
Dr. W. F. Martin presented photographs illustrating the folio wing case: A boy 16 years, first came under treatment in June, 1890, suffering from alpecia areata, over a considerable space. — page 543, The Medical Age: A Semi-monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1890.
Here is an operation for soft tumor on the neck, reported by Joseph Pancoast, father of William H. Pancoast. Both father and son contributed to the Photographic Review. A woodcut of the photograph illustrating William Pancoast's first article is now posted and linked here: Horny tumors/ »»
March 28.
Dr Draper observed, that if a piece of metal, a shilling for example, or even a wafer, is laid upon a cool surface of glass or polished metal, and the glass or metal breathed upon, then, if the shilling is tossed from the surface, and the vapour dried up spontaneously, a spectral image of the shilling will be seen by breathing again upon the surface ; the vapour depositing itself in a different manner upon the part previously protected by the shilling.* More recently, Professor Draper has shown, that this spectral image could be revived during a period of several months of the cold weather in the winter of 1840-1 ; but he has stated that he cannot find the reason of this result, though he regards it as analogous to the deposition of mercurial vapour in the Daguerreotype. — Daguerre (1843), The Edinburgh review or critical journal: History and Practice of Photogenic Drawing, or the true Principles of the Daguerreotype, page 340.
[footnote] Dr. Keith has brought home with him from the Holy Land, about thirty Daguerreotypes of its most interesting scenery, executed by his son, Dr. George Keith, and which are now engraving for publication. Since this note was printed, we have received, and now have before us, fourteen of these beautifnl engravings, representing Mount Zion, Tyre, Petra, Hebron, Askelon, Gerash, Cesaræa, Ashdod, and other interesting places. — page 248, The Eclectic Magazine, 1847.
A paper on a child with inherited syphilis written by a physician who was so consumed by work, that he died at the age of 33.
March 27.
At the November meeting of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Dr. Weir Mitchell presented to the College some very interesting Harvey memorials which he collected during his recent visit to England and to the grave of Harvey, in the village church at Hempstead about seven miles from Saffron Walden in the county of Essex. In his visit to Hempstead Dr. Mitchell was accompanied by Dr. Benj. W. Richardson, of London, who has been principally instrumental in recalling to public notice the tomb of the great anatomist.
Dr. Richardson in early life (1847) was assistant to the surgeon at Saffron Walden, and while attending a neighbouring cottager's wife in her accouchement her husband entertained him with an interesting story of the chapel and vault of the "great Dr. Harvey." It gradually dawned upon Dr. Richardson that the Harvey referred to must be the discoverer of the circulation of blood, and on further inquiry this proved to be the fact. Up to that time the Harvey vault had not been visited by men of science within the memory of any of the surrounding inhabitants, and it had been long neglected and had fallen sadly out of repair. The villagers knew that Dr. Harvey was a celebrated man, who belonged to a distinguished county family, and had made some great discovery, but they did not know what it was. Dr. Richardson subsequently visited the vault and through his influence it was repaired and public attention called to the resting-place of the remains of the great Harvey.
In 1878, Dr. Richardson, with a photographer, made a visit to Harvey's tomb at Hempstead, and took a series of six photographs, copies of which Dr. Mitchell procured, had framed, and with fac-simile tracings of the inscription on the monument and on the sarcophagus of Harvey presented to the College. Two of these photographs represent different views of the exterior of the church, which dates back to the reign of Henry the Seventh, and one of its interior with the Harvey chapel, a handsome little annex over the Harvey family vault in the northeast corner of the church. Two others represent the front and profile view of the marble tablets or monument containing the bust of Harvey which is erected in the church. The ornamentation of the tablet is bold and effective, and below the bust is a lengthy and appropriate Latin inscription, a fac-simile copy of which Dr. Mitchell obtained by rubbing on tracing paper. A careful study of this bust which Dr. Richardson made in connection with Mr. Woolner, a sculptor and Royal Academician, led him to the belief that it was copied from a cast made after death, and that it was done with true artistic delineation, but that all that he was obliged to add to make up the bust as it stands, as for instance the ears, hair, drapery, etc., is of the worst possible quality.
The concluding photograph of the series is a view of the vault and of the sarcophagus containing the remains of Harvey which was obtained by the aid of the magnesium light. The leaden case or sarcophagus is represented as roughly shaped in the form of the body. The head has the rude, outline of a face with mouth, nose, and eyes ; the body is long and tapering towards the feet. The breast plate is broad and the inscription on it is in raised letters : " Docter William Harvey decesed the 3 of Ivne 1657, aged 79 years," a fac-simile copy of which Dr. Mitchell obtained by rubbing.
In accepting the gift of these interesting Harvey memorials the College voted its thanks to Dr. Mitchell.
— pp. 761-762, The Medical News and Abstract ; Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1880.
Finished work on the paper by WW Keen and Thomson.
Began work on a paper by WW Keen and Thomson on a patient with gunshot wound to the head.
Report on Cholera in Australia illustrated by the author's own photographs.
Paper on a segmented urethral calculus removed by T. G. Morton, the chief surgeon of Pennsylvania Hospital and husband of Kirkbride's daughter.
March 10.
She then came again under his care, with an enormous waxy liver, and in a hopeless condition. The limb was slightly flexed and adducted, and one sinus existed over the left hip, from which pus escaped. She suffered no pain, but remained quietly in bed, the urine and faeces were passed involuntarily. She lingered on for four months, when it was noticed that there was a very sharp prominence over the spinous processes in the dorsal region, and one also in the lumbar region. The breathing became rapid and laboured ; and steadily sinking, the child died three years and six months after the operation.
On post-mortem examination, the organs were, as was diagnosed during life, in a waxy condition, and traces of old tubercular disease were found in the lungs.
After death, a photograph, from which the accompanying woodcut was obtained, was taken by Mr. Mason, of Bellevue Hospital, by simply suspending her in a head rest. It will be observed that the limbs are nearly normal in position, and they assumed this position by their own gravity, without any extension or traction being applied to them. The limb operated upon is, in fact, the straighter of the two, and is not so much flexed at either hip or knee as the other. A sharp angular projection is distinct over the third dorsal, and another not so prominent over the first lumbar, vertebra; the enormous abdomen is markedly conspicuous.
Length of body, 30 inches ; left lower extremity 13 inches from anterior superior spine of ilium to external malleolus, right limb 13J inches long between same points. Length of both limbs from trochanter major to external malleolus 13s inches (these measurements were made by Professor Stephen Smith). Showing position of limbs after death. — p. 337, Transactions of the International Medical Congress, Seventh Session, Held in London London: J. W. Kolckmann, v. 2, 1881.
A remarkable recovery from excision of the hip joint.
March 9.
The Finsen Institute is located amid the shady boughs of great trees in the edge of the town. About it are numerous private villas. Rovsing's clinic is nearby. The institute consists of only two buildings; one, the laboratory, is an old villa. The clinic building was especially built for Finsen's work. At the left, as one enters the grounds, is a little low red building that one does not notice until attention is called to it. This was the place where Finsen first worked out his ideas. The building was brought here from another part of the city, and serves as a memento of the beginning of Finsen's efforts. If you enter the clinic suddenly you are somewhat startled at first. There are perhaps half a hundred patients in the big room, waiting their turn at the light machines.
The faces you encounter make you shudder. It is like a first view of Boleslas Biega's sculpture. Even the white, expressionless, cicatricial faces of the cured cases one has to get used to. But the horrible disfigurement of advanced, untreated lupus vulgaris is terrible. One face was a blank, reddish-white mass, ringed with two pink circles, from which dull eyes glanced staringly; there was no nose, and a ragged hole with everted, granular border, served for mouth. No wonder they honor the name of Finsen, when he has given to his people the means whereby so hideous a human being can be restored to a fair semblance of his original self.
The patients, many of whom have come from distant parts of the globe, are first photographed and then seen by a physician, who rings, with a wax pencil, the exact spot to which the light is to be applied. Then they are taken to the operating-room for treatment, after which a simple ointment and a bandage are applied. That is all. Some cases need only a few treatments, others must remain for many weeks. Patients are advised to come back in six months or a year to have some spots that may have escaped the rays cleaned up. Each treatment costs from fifty cents to a dollar according to the circumstances of the patient. — pp. 34-36, Glimpses of Medical Europe by Ralph Leroy Thompson (Philadelphia and London: Lippincott, 1908).
A paper on what is probably a neurofibroma of the face.
Work on the bibliography resumes with this paper by John Hill Brinton, a doctor who in his role as the first director of the Army Medical Museum, made significant contributions to medical photography.
Paper by S. Weissell Gross, son of S. David, on cystomatous tumor of the perineum in a male subject.
This paper on fibroma in the clitoris is interesting for Bumstead's comment on adventitious growths.
Skipped to volume 2 of the Photographic review of medicine & surgery for this paper on vascular tumor of the lips, by an anatomist at Jefferson Medical College.
Maury's case of a former slave suffering from keloids that developed after severe physical abuse and trauma. It is an American story.
Pancoast's famous case of exuberant horny excrescences on the face of a barnacled old sea captain.
Samuel David Gross led the inaugural issue of the Photographic review of medicine & surgery with this article on echinococcal cyst of the thigh.
Bibliographical work begins anew with cataloguing the individual contributions in the journal, Photographic review of medicine & surgery.
A letter by Galton on composite photography which was published in The Photographic News (1888).
January 28.
Theodore Schwann, the author of the cell-theory. To some of our readers it will be a startling piece of intelligence that the founder of modern histology is actually at this moment alive, and teaching as Professor of Physiology in the Belgian University. The committee charged with the management of the celebration desire the co-operation of scientific bodies and of individuals in this country. We are authorised to draw the attention of officials of the learned societies and other corporations to the approaching event, and to beg them to obtain some expression of sympathy with the object of the celebration—viz., the doing homage to the genius of Theodore Schwann. It is requested that letters intended to be read at the celebration may be forwarded either direct to the secretary, Prof. Edouard van Beneden, Liege, or to Mr. Ray Lankester, Exeter College, Oxford. All Englishmen of science who have specially occupied themselves in the field of work opened up by Schwann, are begged to communicate individually with either of the above- named gentlemen, and to forward their photographs for insertion in an album which is to be presented to the founder of the cell-theory. — from the journal, Nature, March 28, 1878; page 436.
Swann auctions is offering an original albumen print from the Duchenne masterpiece, Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine/ (Figure 8) at its sale on February 7, lot #47. The first 109 lots, which include the Duchenne and another medical subject (X-ray of the hand... lot 48), were placed by "An American collector" who has written a prefatory paean on his experiences in the hunt of photographic stories. His essay is a superb read and I recommend it to scholars of all genres of photography.
Transcribed from Galton's autobiography, his chapter on composite photography. Also have had the pleasure of corresponding today with Dr. Laurie Slater, a physician and scholar of medical antiquities who is generous in sharing his knowledge through his website, Phisick. Mahomed's sphygmograph with ivory rests is one of the treasures displayed there and can be found under the "Medicine" category on his menu. The brilliant Dr. Mahomed collaborated with Galton on his phthisic physiognomy essay which was catalogued yesterday and in the chapter of Galton's autobiography transcribed today there is this following anecdote:
With the help of Dr. Mahomed and the permission of the authorities of Guy's Hospital, I took many photographs of consumptive patients and made composites of them, which are published in the Guy's Hospital Reports, vol. xxv. They show two contrasted types, the one fine and attenuated, the other coarse and blunted. Dr. Mahomed was a very promising physician, on the eve of becoming well known, when he caught a fever of the same description, I am told, as that on which he had become an authority, and died of it in his newly purchased house.
Finished Roux. Began cataloging another article by Galton, illustrated with his composite photographs of phthisic physiognomy.
I will conclude with a simile. The final verdict about works of art and men of genius may be compared to one of those composite photographs (devised by Mr. Francis Galton which are obtained by the superposition, one above the other, of many negatives taken from different individuals. Each separate face has left its filmy impress on the composite photograph; and all the faces have contributed to form a type the type of a criminal, the type of a consumptive person, the type of a certain family. Blurred in some of its outlines and details as the ultimate result may be, such a composite photograph has an unmistakable generic individuality, which is even more instructive, even more convincing for the student of criminal, consumptive subject, specific family, than the mere aggregate of single photographs which compose it. It yields, not the person, but the type. Even so the final verdict of criticism is the total result of countless personal judgments, superimposed, the one above the other, coalescing in their points of agreement, shading off into blurred outlines at points of disagreement, but combining to produce a type which is an image of fundamental truth. — "The Criterion of Art," extract, from Essays Speculative and Suggestive, (1890) by John Addington Symonds.
The individual photographs were taken with hardly any selection from among the boys in the Jews' Free School, Bell Lane. They were the children of poor parents. As I drove to the school through the adjacent Jewish quarter, the expression of the people that most struck me was their cold, scanning gaze, and this was equally characteristic of the schoolboys. The composites were made with a camera that had numerous adjustments for varying the position and scale of the individual portraits with reference to fixed fiducial lines; but, beautiful as those adjustments are, if I were to begin entirely afresh, I should discard them, and should proceed in quite a different way. This cannot be described intelligibly and at the same time briefly, but it is explained with sufficient fulness in the Photographic News, 1885, p. 244. — extract, "On the racial characteristics of modern Jews," by Joseph Jacobs, in: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, (1886).
Finished transcribing Duchenne's essay. Began cataloguing a Roux treatise on amputation at the ankle.
Began transcribing Duchenne's essay titled, Recherches icono-photographiques sur la morphologie et sur la structure intime du bulbe humain.
A monograph on surgery of the infant palate by a master of the art of uranoplasty. Ehrmann presents 41 operations for repair of the cleft palate. The book is illustrated by 62 photos of casts made before and after the operation, however this information is unverified until I find a copy.
Finished cataloging the Bonnet biography. Scientia has a signed presentation copy of Bonnet's major opus, Traité des sections tendineuses et musculaires/ and Norman has Bonnet's grand opus, Traite des maladies des articulations (with the atlas). Both works are treasures that will be picked up by a savvy collector.
January 18.
Began researching a little biography on the French orthopedic surgeon, Amédée B. Bonnet (1802-1858). Here is a passage about Bonnet written by Leonard F. Peltier and transcribed from page 36 of his book, Orthopedics: A History and Iconography (Norman Publishing, 1993):
In Lyon, the development of the new specialty was in the hands of Amédée B. Bonnet (1802-1858) (figure 2.23). Bonnet studied in Paris in the early part of the eighteenth century, when it was the center of the medical world. Receiving his medical degree in 1832, he went immediately to Lyon, where he became associated with the Hôtel Dieu. His practice flourished and he eventually was made the chief surgeon of the hospital and professor of surgery in the medical school. While he wrote on many surgical subjects, it is his work on joint diseases that remains most important. He believed in treating his patients by operative methods as well as by nonoperative means such as manipulation, splinting, and immobilization. His book, Traité des sections tendoneuses et musculaires, which appeared in 1841, discusses the use of subcutaneous tenotomy in the treatment of strabismus, myopia, stammering, clubfoot, deformities of the knee, torticollis, fractures, and other conditions.
Italian psychiatrists.
Here is an 1883 Marine Hospital report on fracture of the skull at the base. Illustrated by two large photo plates.
Work done today on describing Aeby's monograph on the lung.
Added more information pertinent to the Ewart monograph.
Above is a link to the essay on gelatine-bromide emulsion which revolutionized photography.
Below is a description of marking tales, hand-written into a book listed on eBay »»
The doctor writes that if a woman who is pregnant gets scared or stressed, her baby will be affected and he gives three case examples. A women who encounters a beggar on the street crawling to her with deformed legs-she then gives birth to a baby with deformed legs, another woman's husband shots and kills a squirrel or was it a cat, and shots its head off, she gives birth to a headless baby, another who's husbands slaughters cows ask for her help, her baby at a young age of childhood goes off to slighter woman.... hello! this is 1880s and the doctors think that!
Here is Ewart on the morphology of the lung, illustrated with photogravures.
Spent a little more time researching FS Watson and adding to the description. Began researching Ewart.
Finished the description for the Watson atlas.
First entry of the year is this monograph/atlas by Francis Sedgwick Watson on the diseased prostate, published in 1888. This is the personal copy of Herbert Leslie Burrell, (1856-1910) and came with two envelopes of illustrations from Watson inserted among the pages. Possibly Burrell meant to use them for a surgical compendium he was planning, but never completed. Photographs will be posted tomorrow.
