The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-20
MIIPPINslnrrs.,, 2,


LppincOtts Magazine are as follows
'0The Arrny Medical Museum at Washing
ton. bv lieutenant Colonel j. j. Woodward,
M. b.; "Sixteen Years Ago." a sketch, by
A. G. Penn; "Her Message, poem, by Ed
gar Fawcett; "a Leaf in the Storm" tale
Of the present war, by Ouida, illustrated;
"Student Rambles in Prussia" by Stephen
Powers; "The Blood Seeding" tale of
Western life, by John Hay; my Mission to
San Domingo, by r. M. Walsh; ''Book Col
lectors," by E. H.; "The Red Hand" a sketch
from real life, by John g. Barnwell "Oross-
ing the Line" a poem, by Mary r. Whittle-
sey; 'sMoral of the Franco-Prussian War;" by
Hon. Amasa Walker; "Our Monthly Gossip"
Literature of the Day" 'Serial Supple
ment, Rookstone, by Katherine S. Macquoid.
Part l.
From the paper on "The Army Medical
Museum at Washington" by Surgeon J. J.
Woodward, we take the following account of
the collection of surgical specimens:-
The surgical section consists at present of
about six thousand specimens, of which the
majority belong to the category of military
surgery though many other surgical subjects
are already we'll illustrated. There are speci-
mems exhibiting the effects of missiles of
every variety on all parts of the body; speci-
mems which show the different stages of the
processes of repair, and the several morbid
conditions which may interfere with their
favorable termination; specimens de-
rived from surgical operations
of every character-calculi, tumors,
and the like. The osseous specimens are for
the most part preserved dry, neatly cleaned,
mounted on little black stands, that they may
be handled without injuring them, and duly
ticketed with their catalogue numbers. A
considerable number of specimens, however,
from their nature, require to be preserved as
hau 70
sected, and are preserved with clear alcohol in
glass jars similar to those used in the medi-
cal section.
There are also three hundred and fifty
plaster casts representing the mutilations
resulting from injuries and surgical opera
tions. A series of over four hundred exam
pies of missiles extracted from wounds, and
the missiles themselves may also be men,
toned. Latterly, a number of interesting
preparations displaying the effects of arrow
wounds and other injuries peculiar to Indian
hostilities have been received.
To give any detailed description of such a
collection is of course out of the question;
yet it may be of interest to state that there
are upon the shelves 211 specimens of frac-
ture of the Uranium, including 46 cases of
trephining; 10 of depressed fracture of the
inner table, without injury of the outer, a
rare and interesting condition on which it
would be out of place to comment here; and
% specimens of wounds by sabres and other
cutting weapons.
There are 50 examples of amputations at
the shoulder Joint, 1873 of amputations of the
arm, and Sc of the forearm; 1872 excisions of
the shoulder-jeint, and 173 other excisions at
various points in the upper extremities.
The lower extremities furnish IA amputa-
tiens of the hip, 436 of the thigh, and 161 of
the Leg with 25 excisions of the hip-joint, 0
of the knee joint, and Sc other excisions at
various points in the lower extremities.
series of 225 fractures of the thigh
in which conservative measures have
been attempted must also receive notice;
and special mention may be made of
SO sequestra, or portions of dead bone
extracted from stumps after amputation, of
which 73 are from the thigh. Some of the
latter series of specimens are very remark
able, several of them being from six to eight
inches long, and few even exceeding the
latter extraordinary dimensions. After am
putation in the continuity of the long bones
especially in military surgery, it not unfre
quently happens that the death-or NEGRO
sis, as surgeons term it-of portion of tn,
shaft of the bone ensues. A process o.
liberation is then set up, by which tht
dead portion is separated from that part o.
the bone which still retains its vitality
Simultaneously, formation of new bone
takes place beneath the membrane covering
the shaft, so that when ultimately the deat
sequestrum loosens and is drawn out, hollow
mass of living bone, which is slowly filed III
by natural processes, remains, and secures
the full length of the stump. This process
was not fully appreciated at the beginning o
the war. Instances are well known-anC
doubtless many others have escaped observa
tion-in which, on account of the recogni
tion of dead bone in the stump after amputa
tions in the continuity of the long bones
second or even third operations were resorteC
to, which might judiciously have beeI
avoided had the operators been as full
acquainted with the natural processes
in such cases as all may now becom,
by the study of the specimens of th,
museum, or of the descriptions of then
which have been published.
AS a matter rather of popular than of sur
gical interest, mention must also be made o.
q shelf in this series on which stand, side b,
side, specimens derived from the mutilateC
limbs of seven general officers. Need it b,
said that no critical eye could distinguish then
Of private soldiers? Nevertheless, it is no
uninteresting to know that the speci
mems mentioned are here with the ful
appreciation of the distinguished gen
tlemen whose wounds furnished them
AS a memorable example, when at Get
tysburg the gallant leader of one of ou
army corps was struck down by a frae
ment OF shell, which shattered the bones 0
his leg to such an extent as to render ampu
tation necessary, the first thought of the sui
ferer after the shock of the operation was n
the museum at Washington, to which h
ordered the broken bone to be sent, in th
hope that his misfortune might prove th
gain of fellow-soldiers in the future. Wit
such examples, no humber individual hs