Part 1 (1/2)
History of the Division of Medical Sciences.
by Sami Khalaf Hamarneh.
_In The Museum of History and Technology_
_This paper traces, for the first time, the history of the Division of Medical Sciences in the Museum of History and Technology from its small beginnings as a section of materia medica in 1881 to its present broad scope. The original collection of a few hundred specimens of crude drugs which had been exhibited at the centennial exhibition of 1876 at Philadelphia, has now developed into the largest collection in the Western Hemisphere of historical objects related to the healing arts._
THE AUTHOR: _Sami Hamarneh is the curator of the Division of Medical Sciences in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution's Museum of History and Technology._
By the early 1870's, leading figures from both the health professions and the general public had begun to realize the necessity for having the medical sciences represented in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution. The impetus behind this new feeling resulted from the action of a distinguished American physician, philanthropist, and author, Joseph Meredith Toner (1825-1896), and came almost a decade before the integration of a new section concerned with research and the historical and educational aspects of the healing arts in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.
In 1872, Dr. Toner established the ”Toner Lectures” to encourage efforts towards discovering new truths ”for the advancement of medical science ... for the benefit of mankind.” To finance these lectures, he provided a fund worth approximately $3,000 to be administered by a board of trustees consisting of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (only in some years), and the president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. The interest from this fund was to compensate physicians and scholars who were to deliver ”at least two annual memoirs or essays” based on original research on some branch of the medical sciences and containing information which had been verified ”by experiments or observations.”[1]
The Secretary of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution agreed to have these lectures published by the Inst.i.tution in its Miscellaneous Collections.
The first lecture given by the a.s.sistant Surgeon of the U.S. Army, ”On the Structure of Cancerous Tumors and the Mode in which Adjacent parts are Invaded,” deserves credit even by current standards of scientific research.[2] Only 10 lectures were given between 1873 and 1890 (see bibliography), despite the recommendation for at least two every year.[3]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 2.--DR. JOSEPH M. TONER, a leading physician in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., and founder of the ”Toner Lectures” for the promotion and advancement of medical education and research. In 1873, Dr. Toner became president of the American Medical a.s.sociation and, in 1874, he became president of the American Public Health a.s.sociation. He was a physician to St. Joseph's Male Orphan Asylum and St. Ann's Infants'
Asylum in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. In addition, he was instrumental in establis.h.i.+ng Providence Hospital in the District of Columbia. He also provided a workable plan for the American Medical a.s.sociation's library in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. (1868-1871). Among his several publications are: _Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and Medical Education in the United States before and during the War of Independence_ (Was.h.i.+ngton: Government Printing Office, 1874) and _Medical Men of the Revolution_ (1876). In 1882, he donated his large library, consisting of 44,000 books and pamphlets on topics related mainly to medicine and history, to the Library of Congress. (_Photo courtesy of National Library of Medicine._)]
A more direct factor, which not only contributed to the establishment of a section on the healing arts, but also had a greater effect upon the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution than any other event since its founding, was the 1876 centennial exhibition in Philadelphia.
This magnificent international fair commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The finest exhibits of 30 foreign countries and various States of the Union partic.i.p.ating in the fair were finally donated to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution as the official depository of historical and archeological objects for this country. As a result, the Inst.i.tution's collections increased to an extent far beyond the capacity of the first Smithsonian building. This led to the erection of the National Museum, known for the last two decades and until date of publication as the Arts and Industries building, which was completed on March 4, 1881, and was used that evening for the inaugural reception of incoming President James A.
Garfield.
Section of Materia Medica (1881-1898)
Throughout the 19th century, the study of _materia medica_ (dealing with the nature and properties of drugs of various kinds and origins, their collection and mode of administration for the treatment of diseases, and the medicinal utilization of animal products) held an increasingly important place among the medical sciences. In the United States, as in other civilized countries, this topic was greatly emphasized in the curriculum of almost every school teaching the health professions.
Today, the subject matter contained in this branch of science is taught under the heading of several specialized fields, such as pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and drug a.n.a.lysis of various types. However, when the decision was made in 1881 to promote greater knowledge and interest in the healing arts by creating a section devoted to such pursuits in the U.S. National Museum, the t.i.tle of Section of Materia Medica was adopted. Added to this, was the fact that the bulk of the first collections received in the Section was a great variety of crude drugs, which const.i.tuted much of the material then taught in the academic courses of _materia medica_.
The new Section was included in the Department of Arts and Industries, then under the curators.h.i.+p of a.s.sistant Director G. Brown Goode. From its beginning and for two decades, however, the Section of Materia Medica was sponsored and supervised by the U.S. Navy in cooperation with the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution. For this reason, the Navy decided not to establish a similar bureau for a health museum as did the Army in starting the Medical Museum (of the Armed Forces Inst.i.tute of Pathology) in 1862 through the efforts of Dr. William Alexander Hammond. The Smithsonian did, however, provide a clerk to relieve the curator of much of the routine work. The Section's early vigorous activities were the result of the ingenuity of the first honorary curator, Dr. James Milton Flint (1838-1919), an a.s.sistant Surgeon of the U.S. Navy. From the establishment of the Section, in 1881, to 1912, Dr. Flint was curator during separate periods for a total of nearly 25 years. For three of his tenures (1881-1884; 1887-1891; 1895-1900), he was detailed to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy. During the interim periods, other naval doctors were detailed as curators.
Finally, in 1900, Dr. Flint retired from the Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral and volunteered to continue his services to the National Museum.
The proposal was gladly accepted and he continued as a curator until his retirement from the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution in 1912.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 3.--REAR ADMIRAL JAMES M. FLINT, U.S. Navy surgeon and first honorary curator of the Section of Materia Medica. (_Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress._)]
The Section commenced with a wealth of material. After the close of the 1876 centennial exhibition, its _materia medica_ collection had been stored with the other collections in a warehouse, awaiting an appropriation by Congress for transfer and installation. This collection was gradually brought into the new National Museum after that building's completion in 1881. Many other _materia medica_ specimens were transferred from the Department of Agriculture. In addition to these large collections of crude drugs, generous contributions came from several prominent pharmaceutical firms such as Parke, Davis & Company of Detroit, Michigan; Wallace Brothers of Statesville, North Carolina; and Schieffelin and Company of New York City. These manufacturing houses are mentioned here because they and their agents abroad were the first to take interest and donate to the Section, complete a.s.sortments of contemporary remedial agents then in common use throughout the United States and Europe, besides many hundreds of ”rare and curious drugs.”
Thus, in spite of difficulties encountered from bringing several collections into the building at one time, the _materia medica_ exhibition got off to a good start.
It was Dr. Flint, the first curator, who stated in 1883 that remedial agents used by a nation or a community are as indicative of the degree of their cultural development and standard of living as is the nature of their food, the character of their dwellings, and their social and religious traditions. Therefore, he felt that collections of drugs and medical, surgical and pharmaceutical instruments and appliances should not be thought of or designed as instructive to the specialist only, but should also possess a general interest for the public. Because of these objectives, Dr. Flint added, this section was conceived as a departmental division for the collecting and exhibiting of objects related to medicine, surgery, pharmacology, hygiene, and all material related to the health field at large.[4]
During his first term of curators.h.i.+p (1881-1884), Dr. Flint devoted much of his time to sorting, examining, identifying, and cla.s.sifying the _materia medica_ specimens.[5] In 1881, he issued a memorandum of instructions to be followed by collectors of drugs and urged them to give detailed and accurate information regarding acquired specimens so that they might be ”more than mere museum curiosities.” In addition, in 1883, he prepared a brief manual of cla.s.sification of the _materia medica_ collection in the Museum as well as a useful, detailed catalog of informational labels of the individual objects on exhibition. The unpublished catalog is still the property of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution Archives, Division of Medical Sciences' Library.
It was Dr. Flint's ambition to obtain a comprehensive, worldwide collection of all substances used as remedies. Then, in order to identify drugs from foreign countries, he tried to collect ill.u.s.trated works on medical botany and printed pharmacopoeias of all nations having them. He rightly defined an official pharmacopoeia as ”a book containing directions for the identification and preparation of medicines prepared and issued with the sanction of a government or organized and authorized medical and pharmaceutical societies. Its purpose is to establish uniformity in the nomenclature of remedies and in the character and potency of the pharmaceutical preparations. It is enacted by legislation, and thus becomes binding on all who prepare drugs or sell them for medication.” By soliciting the help of various American consuls and Navy officers abroad, about 16 such official pharmacopoeias were collected, making an almost complete international representation of all available, official, drug standards. With these sources of information, Dr. Flint compiled and arranged an international list of _materia medica_ specimens, indicating the authorized preparations of each. By so doing, the first curator of this Section took the initiative at least in proposing and, to some extent acting, on the preparation of an international pharmacopoeia of drugs used in existing authorized formularies giving ”official synonyms, and tables showing the const.i.tuents and comparative strength of all preparations.”[6] This undertaking is of special importance in the history of American pharmacy, since it was probably the first attempt of its kind in the United States.[7] In addition, colored plates and photographs of medicinal plants were collected, forming the nucleus of the Division's current collection of pictorial and photographic material related to the history of the health field.
Dr. Flint also put on exhibition 630 Chinese _materia medica_ specimens from the 1876 Philadelphia centennial. These had been collected originally by the Chinese Imperial Customs Commission for the centennial and were subsequently given to this country.