Part 2 (1/2)
In 1954, several antibiotics were donated to the Division including a mold of _Penicillium notatum_ prepared and presented to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution by Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), the discoverer of penicillium (1929), and a few Petri dishes used by botanist Benjamin M.
Daggar who, while working for Lederle Laboratories, developed Aureomycin (chlortetracycline) in 1948. The Forest D. Dodrill--G.M.R. mechanical heart (1952), the first machine reported to be used successfully for the complete bypa.s.s of one side of the human heart during a surgical operation,[17] was presented to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.
The following year, 1955, the Division acquired one of the earliest Einthoven string galvanometers (named after the Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven, 1860-1927) made in the United States in 1914 by Charles F.
Hindle for an electrocardiograph. Also added to the Division's collections was the electrocardiograph used by Dr. Frank E. Wilson of the United States, a pioneer educator in this field. Two temporary exhibits on allergy and surgical dressings were installed in the gallery. In the same year, Curator Griffenhagen published _Early American Pharmacies_, a catalog on 28 pharmacy restorations in this country.
In 1956, among many publications of interest in the fields of medical and pharmaceutical history, was Curator Griffenhagen's _Pharmacy Museum_, with a foreword by Laurence V. Coleman, who termed it a useful catalog and ”a good reflection of the history of the museum movement at large.” A third x-ray tube of Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen (1845-1922) was added to the collection in 1957 as well as a complete set of hospital-ward fixtures of about 1900 from the Ma.s.sachusetts General Hospital, rare patent medicines, 18th-century microscopes, and a 13th-century mortar and pestle made in Persia.
In 1957, Mr. Griffenhagen published a series of ill.u.s.trated articles in the _Journal of the American Pharmaceutical a.s.sociation, Practical Pharmacy Edition_, which were later reprinted by the a.s.sociation in a booklet ent.i.tled, _Tools of the Apothecary_. In it, he described several pharmaceutical specimens in the collection and their place in history.
Division of Medical Sciences (1957 to Present)
The U.S. National Museum was reorganized on July 1, 1957, into two units, the Natural History Museum and the Museum of History and Technology. At the same time, and in view of the widening scope of the Division, its more scientifically based planning, and the constantly increasing collection with equal emphasis on all branches of the healing arts, the Division's t.i.tle was changed to the Division of Medical Sciences--the t.i.tle it still bears in 1964. With the reorganization, the Department of Engineering and Industries, under which the Division fell administratively, was renamed the Department of Science and Technology of the Museum of History and Technology. It was also the first time since its establishment in 1881 that the Division had two curators, for on July 1, 1957, Dr. John B. Blake joined the staff.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 19.--CURATORS JOHN B. BLAKE AND GEORGE GRIFFENHAGEN examine the newly acquired (1957) electromagnetic, Morton-Wimshurst-Holz Influence Machine. It was manufactured by the Bowen Company of Providence, Rhode Island (1889). With the discovery of x-ray, it was used for making x-ray photographs until early in the 20th century.]
As a result of these changes, the Division was subdivided into a Section of Pharmaceutical History and Health and a Section of Medical and Dental History. The former was planned to encompa.s.s the collections of _materia medica_, pharmaceutical equipment, and all material related to the history of pharmacy, toxicology, pharmacology, and biochemistry, as well as the Hall of Health which was opened November 2, 1957, and which emphasizes man's progressing knowledge of his body and the functions of its major organs.[18] The latter Section was planned to include all that belongs to the development of surgery, medicine, dentistry, and nursing, especially in relation to hospitals.
In October 1957, the Division acquired a collection of rare, ceramic, drug jars which included two, 13th-century, North Syrian and Persian, albarello-shaped, majolica jars; a 15th-century, Hispano-Moresque drug container; and a 16th-century, Italian faience, dragon-spout ewer.
During the following two years, Curator Griffenhagen periodically toured museums and medical and pharmaceutical inst.i.tutions in this country, South America, and Europe gathering specimens and information for the Division and for publication, respectively. However, on June 27, 1959, he resigned his curators.h.i.+p to join the staff of the American Pharmaceutical a.s.sociation in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. Dr. Blake became the curator in charge of the Division and Mr. Griffenhagen was succeeded on September 24, 1959, by the author of this paper as a.s.sociate curator in charge of the Section of Pharmaceutical History and Health.
Dr. Blake, as curator of the Section of Medical and Dental History, acquired a large number of valuable and varied specimens for the Division's collections. They included optometric refracting instruments, an early 1920's General Electric, portable, x-ray machine, the Charles A. Lindbergh and Alexis Carrel pump (designed in 1935 to perfuse life-sustaining fluids to the organs of the body), the Sewell heart pump (1950) to control delivery of air pressure and suction to the pumping mechanism, and a large and valuable collection of dental equipment formerly at the universities of Pennsylvania and Illinois. Dr. Blake wrote the explanatory material and supervised the design and production of the majority of exhibits in the renovated hall of medical and dental history. He also contributed several scholarly articles and a book (see bibliography) on the history of the healing arts and public health in particular. He resigned on September 2, 1961, to join the staff of the National Library of Medicine as chief of the History of Medicine Division, and was succeeded by the author as curator of the Division.
From the summer of 1962 to April 1964, the Division benefited from the expert advice of Dr. Alfred R. Henderson as consultant in the preparation and designing of the surgical and medical exhibits of the Museum of History and Technology.
During the period from 1961 to May 1964, the Division's collections expanded greatly through its medical, dental, and pharmaceutical acquisitions. Specimens of antiques acquired from 1961 through 1963 numbered up to 1,539 and included gifts from leading inst.i.tutions and individual philanthropists. The scope of these gifts and acquisitions ranges from electronic resuscitators, microscopes, x-ray equipment, and spectacles, to patent medicines, amulets, apothecary tools, dental instruments, and office material of pract.i.tioners.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 20.--EXHIBIT ON SPECTACLES, LORGNETTES, OPTOMETERS, and refraction, completed in 1960. It features a cross section of the Division's large collection of eyegla.s.ses. (Smithsonian photo 47943-D.)]
In the last decade, the interest in the national endeavor for promoting research and scholars.h.i.+p in the history of medicine has increased greatly. It was most appropriate, therefore, for the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution to play host on May 2 for two sessions of the 37th annual meeting of the American a.s.sociation for the History of Medicine held in the Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., area from April 30 through May 2, 1964. In welcoming the members to the morning session in the auditorium of the new Museum of History and Technology, Frank A. Taylor, director of the United States National Museum, expressed the feeling that the meeting of the a.s.sociation was, in a sense, a dedication of the new auditorium and an opportunity for the Smithsonian to reaffirm its deep interest and commitment in fostering research and furthering the appreciation of scholarly endeavor in the history of the healing arts.
A New Dimension For the Healing Arts
”One day the United States will have a National Museum of science, engineering, and industry, as most large nations have.” This was the prediction made in 1946 by the director of the U.S. National Museum, Mr.
Frank A. Taylor, then curator of the Division of Engineering.[19] It was in 1963, that the new $36,000,000 building of the Museum of History and Technology was completed, and opened to the public in 1964. The offices of the Division of Medical Sciences as well as the reference and study collections were moved to the fifth floor of the new building. The exhibits, however, will be displayed in the gallery at the southwest corner of the first floor. These exhibits, it is hoped, will show a new dimension and an unprecedented approach in displaying the development of the healing arts throughout the ages and the instruments and equipment a.s.sociated with health professions. They also present the expanding objectives and plans of the Division's growth as an integral part of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution. Conveniently, the exhibits form four, closely connected halls in one large gallery which will be open to the public in the summers of 1965 to 1966.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 21.--EXHIBIT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLOOD-PRESSURE INSTRUMENTS and the early 20th-century sphygmomanometers which was completed in 1960. (Smithsonian photo 47943-M.)]
1. THE HALL OF HEALTH displays models and graphic and historical exhibit materials to demonstrate the function of the various healthy organs of the human body. The main topics emphasized are: embryology and childbirth; tooth structure; the heart and blood circulation; respiration; the endocrine glands; kidneys and the urinary-excretory system; the brain and the nervous system; the ear; and vision and the use of eyegla.s.ses.
The most appreciated exhibit of all in this Hall is the ”transparent woman” figure which rotates, automatically, every 15 minutes with a recorded message describing the function of each major organ of the body at the same time that the organ is electronically lighted, so that the viewer can see its place in the body.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 22.--HEARING-AID EXHIBIT designed in 1962. It includes otologist Julius Lempert's personal memorabilia and original surgical instruments used in the fenestration operation for restoring hearing. (Smithsonian photo 49345-C.)]
2. THE HALL OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY will depict the history of these two sciences with exhibits of the equipment used through the centuries.
In the medical field, early trephining and other surgical instruments will be displayed along with a diorama of an 1805 surgical operation performed by Dr. Philip Syng Physick in the amphitheater of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Diagnostic instruments such as stethoscopes, endoscopes, speculums, and blood-pressure measuring devices will be exhibited with a series of microscopes ill.u.s.trating the development of these instruments. Exhibits of original galvanometers and other apparatus will trace the development of cardiography. The early use of anesthesia will be shown by apparatus of William Morton and Crawford W.
Long, American pioneers in this field. The development of the devices of modern medicine and surgery will be shown by exhibits of the iron lung and x-ray tubes, including a tube used by W. K. Roentgen. Medicine chests and surgical kits of different periods will graphically summarize the state of medical science in the period each represents.