Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08

Morren had to say in the Senate on February
IS. 1885, when the bill for erecting the Army
Medical Museum was under discussion. Sena-
tor MorrelI said:
1T am directed by the Committee on Public
Buildings and Grounds to report fayorably the
bill ed 48) providing for the erection Of q
building to contain the records OF the library
and museum of the Medical Department,
United States Army.
At desire to say that II the committee had
deemed it necessary to amend the bill they
would have amended 1t by specifically provid-
ing for the location Of the SITE which, as they
believe should be at the corner of B street
and Seventh street southwest, for the reason
that the regents of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton have title to the land round about the
Smithsonian to the extent of 80 acres; and un-
questionably within a very short time probably
less than half dozen years, the museum there
now will have to be doubled in order to con-
tain even the amount Of articles that are
ready to go into it at the present time. I
have conferred with two members of the COM
mission, and I find that they would be both
in favor of the location on the site mentioned
by me-that is on the corner of B and Seventh
streets southwest. Therefore we do not make
any amendment"
IN gancing over the arguments in the Sem
ate regarding the erecting of the Medical
Museum Building, before referred to, an inter-
esting statement was also found regarding the
old Ford's Theater Building, on Tenth street,
which, in view of the calamity resulting from
the falling in of the floors of that building on
June 9, 1885, when something like 70 Govern
ment clerks were killed and So more badly
injured, might prove decidedly interesting. For
instance, here is what Representative j. F..
Follett said in the House on February 10, 1885,
Mr.. Speaker, the most magnificent medical
museum and library in the world belongs to
the Medical Department of our Army, and is
individual owning such library would permit
it to remain for "A hours. It has accumu-
lated through the efforts of the medical fra
ternity of the United States and has cost the
Government comparatively nothing.
''In the museum department. there are IL
hastrations of the effects Of gunshOt wounds
and injuries received in battle such as medical
students and the medical profession can have
access to in no other way. That museum and
library should be kept BY itself, and should be
kept In o building where IL would not be exc
posed to danger by reason Of its surroundings
To the medical fraternity Of the United States
tt has been for years, and Is now an object Of
special solicitude that this property should be
put In such position as not to be constantly
exposed TO the danger Of being lost or destroyed.
The building in which It Is now located has
already begun to tumble to the ground. The
rear wall Is more than IL inches out Of plumb,
and, as I said before no private individual
would think Of leaving such property in such
building for any length of time
The particularly remarkable part of this
Statement Is that the Government should then
and later permit this building to be used to
house its clerks and records, knowing its walls
to be so far out of plumb. It surely proved
20 be q most expensive and regrettable error,
"A MOTHER unusually able and cordial man
whose helpfulness and kindlness endeared
him to every one was Otis Tuition Mason. Prof.
Mason, as he was always called, had been an
Instructor for many years in the Columbian
College when it was out on Fourteenth street,
and when he came to the National Museum he
became curator of the Department Of Eth
nology, and remained in that department until
he died. He was q type specimen Of what
real honorable man should be. It was while