Evening star., 1953-07-13
Our 'Stronqest Things Are on View in This Museum
By John McKeIwoy

4NOV AOAA6 0SO1 0HOuV UAAAo VAA4AC
Of year. a nun and several Of
her young charges from q Vir-
ginia parochial school visited
Washington. The nun asked
her sightseeing guide to drop
by the Medical Museum of the
Armed Forces Institute of Path
ology.
Lady" said the guide, don't
go in there. That's an awful
place. You'll probably get sick"
The nun. nevertheless. was
persistent. And after several
hours in the museum with her
pupils. she told a curator:
This is a most interesting
place."
Most people seem to find the
museum that way. Off1cials can
only remember one man who
toppled over from a sudden case
of queasiness. The exhibits did
something to him.
Since 1852, when 1t was found
ed, the museum has been collect
ing strange things-strange.
perhaps to the layman, but fas-
mating and valuable to the
medical profession. It's collec-
ton ranges from a wide assort-
mentl OF preserved kidneys and
lungs to portions of the back
bones of President James A.
Garfield and John Wilkes Booth.
Tatooed Torso From Japan.
Much Of the museums relics"
have come from Army doctors
who mailed them in and added
lust thought you might be in
terested." The literally tatooed
torso of a Japanese man arrived
shortly after World War II from
Yokohama and a few years
after the Civil War, the museum
received a box of skulls from
the West illustrating the effec-
tiveneSs Of Indian tomahawks.
The museum, formerly the
Army Medical Museum, was
started for the purpose Of COL
lecting specimens of actual
wounds and diseases among Un-
ion troops. It was the hope that,
through the study of such
things. doctors could cut the
death rate and suffering of the
men. That is still the hope.
DR.. j. H. Brinton, the mu-
seum's first curator, scurried off
to Civil War battlefields to get
together the museums first COL
lection. He needed regular ship
ments of alcohol before he could
bottle and send his specimens
back to Washington. It is re-
ported that DIR. Brinton had q
terrible time getting the alco-
hol through"
But the conscientious curator
succeeded in setting up, for all
doctors to see, a library" on the
bullet-shattered bones of the
Civil War. His exhibit stands
today.
Moved to New Quarters.
The present museum is q wing
Of the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology. It was moved, after
World War II. from the old,
dark building at Seventh street
and Independence avenue S.W.
right across the avenue.
The institute took over the
empty cafeteria and recreation
hall of the Coast Guards local
band of SPARS. Where once
the SPARS filed through the
cafeteria, shelves now hold bot
tied specimens. This is the stor-
age room of the museum. Here,
medical students can draw out
kidney the way one takes a
book from a library.
Upstairs in the temporary type
building, the public is free to
wander.
This section of the museum
was largely pulled out of a pile
of glass jars and boxed bones by
former curator, the late Maj.
Ruell Sloane. He set the museum
up after it had been stored in a
jumbled pile during World War
II.
Medical students, doctors from
all branches of the services and
civilian physicians often visit
the museum and its files" to see
how certain diseases treat GER
tain organs of the body. They
can note what malaria has done
to a spleen, or the effects of radi-
alton on Japanese. skin Medical
men, headed for foreign coun-
tries, can spend a few hours get
ting a better picture of diseases
they might find in those lands.
Was in F0rd's Theater.
Just how the public gets into
the museum is traced back to
1867. 1t was then located in
Ford'S Theater on Tenth street.
People were found to be just as
interested in the bone display
as in the mementoes of the Lin
coin assassination. 1t was then
opened to the public.
It has been estimated that
10000 persons dropped by the
museum last year. The peak
load walked in around cherry
blossom time. The museum is
open from 8 am. to S pm, holi-
days and Sundays included.
Today'S curator is Col. Hugh
Gilmore, an Army doctor. His
assistant is Miss Helen Purtle,
who has been at the museum
since 1948, Morris Leikund is
the historian and Mrs. Evelyn
~ II