Endurance & Suffering, winner of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis for 2009, has been reviewed by the Canadian Medical Association Journal! The print version of the journal has 65,000 subscribers and the on-line version gets over a million hits a month. To access the PDF file of the review, click on "Begin manual download" on the web page here »» An expanded version with more images and poems can be accessed directly here »»
A commercial printing-out paper was used for the photographs representing the surgical treatment of three genu valgum cases described in this report from Ospedale Brescia. Giovanni Battista Morelli is the surgeon and author, but unfortunately I cannot find any biographical information on this man.
Added a second memorial of Dr. Edmund Randolph Peaslee.
Another museum piece came up for auction, this time at Swann Gallery. $780.00 was the closing price for this CDV image representing nonfilarial elephantiasis in the clinical subject, Susan Grisham:
Sale 2199 Lot 221
(MEDICAL)
Portrait of Susan Grisham, suffering from Elephantiasis. Carte-de-visite, with Cowan's Photography Gallery printed credit and the sitter's name, age (24) and birth place (Tennessee), in pencil, in an unknown hand, on mount verso. Circa 1865
Estimate $250-350
Tomorrow, Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy will be hosting Jim Edmonson, curator of the Dittrick Museum and co-author of Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 (Blast, 2009). Doctor Edmonson's lecture is titled, "The Dissection Room Photo: A Lost Genre of Medical Portraiture" and will take place at Observatory. Copies of Dissection will be available for sale and signing—a better xmas gift for the discerning scholar/artist is hardly conceivable! »»
December 1.
Andrea Cuarterolo of the Instituto de Historia del Arte Argentino y Latinoamericano has written a really superb essay on early South American medical photography. Title is: Fotografía y teratología en América Latina. Una aproximación a la imagen del monstruo en la retratística de estudio del siglo XIX. It appeared in Vol. 7, No. 1, Fall 2009, issue of the electronic journal, A Contracorriente (p. 119-145), and is made available in the form of a pdf file that can be accessed here: »»
November 25.
The distinguished Paris firm of La Librairie Alain Brieux is offering two original photographs that were used by Léon Charles Albert Calmette to illustrate his book, Les venins, les animaux venimeux et la sérothérapie antivenimeuse, Paris, Masson, 1907 (pp. 256-258). The description can be read here »»
Completed the cataloging of Gridley J. F. Bryant's piece. Began reading another report of microcephalus, this one written by von Bischoff.
Began cataloging the project proposal for construction of Boston City Hospital. It is illustrated by an albumen of an architectural drawing made by Gridley J. F. Bryant.
Ten years ago, when the miniature-room of the Royal Academy used to be mobbed by fair women, bent, either upon criticising their friends or furtively admiring their own portraits, who could have foreseen that Sol was about to wrest the pencil from the hand of the cunning limner, and annihilate one of the oldest callings connected with the Fine Arts? The income of a Thorburn or a Ross seemed as assured as that of an archbishop against change or curtailment, and no high-born lady's boudoir was complete without a portrait of herself paid for at a princely price. The introduction of the Daguerreotype process, some five and-twenty years ago, seemed only to fix more firmly the claims of the brush against the art of the photographer. Tompkins or Hopkins may submit to go down to posterity as livid corpse-like personages; but the Lady Blanche or the fair Geraldine, forbid it, oh Heavens! Presently, however, Fox Talbot appeared upon the scene, and the dull metal, which only enabled you to see your friend glaring at you at an almost impossible angle, gave way to photography, in which the image was fixed upon paper. The Collodion process followed, and from this moment the occupation of the miniature-painter was gone. A truer draughtsman than either Thorburn, Ross, or Cooper of old had appeared on the scene, and year by year we looked with a diminished interest for England's beauties in the miniature-room of the Royal Academy screen.—Pages 297-298, Subtle brains and lissom fingers..etc., by Dr. Andrew Wynter (London: Hardwicke, 1869 3rd ed.).
November 9.
$676.66 was the hammer strike on this museum piece which closed yesterday on eBay. The tintype image represents congenital abnormities of ectrodactyly and syndactyly:
Reading Richard Klüpfel's doctoral dissertation, illustrated by an albumen of the skull of a female microcephalus who had recently died. Except for descriptions of the girl and her family, most of the thesis is horribly dry—mostly comparative measurements of various skulls to see if some Darwinian atavism could be established. Klüpfel could find only 40 cases of microcephaly in the literature.
Began cataloging a doctoral thesis by Émile Joly.
Added the first Richard Hill Norris paper on blood platelets.
Final final revision of the Dissection photographs... review.
Final revision of the Dissection.. review.
Began cataloging a photographic monograph on blood by Dr. Richard Hill Norris, inventor of dry collodion.
Made a few revisions to the Dissection review. Will probably continue to revise.
Clinic
The 150-year-old discipline of medical photography, concerned with the visual evaluation of phenomena, satisfies the demands of observation. What fascinates us most about the discipline today, however, is its theatrical aspect – the equipment, rooms, machines and devices, the ostensive description, which almost strikes the observer as obscene. All of this is part of the great theatre of medicine, first demonstrated by Charcot and his use of photography in his investigations into hysteria. The clinic is stage upon which the scenes of life, survival, and sometimes death are played out. The clinic is, to quote Antonin Artaud, a “theatre of cruelty”, and it is no stranger to the question of aesthetics.—Extract from the press release of Clinic.
Ville Lenkkeri is one of 11 photographers whose work is beautifully featured in the book, Clinic. An exploration of the medical universe through contemporary photography, sponsored by the non-profit organisation RVB and curated by the art director of RVB, Rémi Faucheux. Many of the photographers were participants in hospital artist-in-residence programs of Europe and America. The book is available through the RVB website here »»
Added a review of the book, Dissection, Photographs of a rite of passage in American medicine: 1880-1930, the first scholarly iconography of this genre published by Blast books.
Updated the Duchenne physiognomy.
Note to self:
Nineteenth century medical scientists recognized the similarity between the helical forms of cerebral convolution and the spirals that are found in nature. If Charles Karsner Mills were alive today, he would be following the modellers who now use fractal geometry to study and describe the phyllotaxy of the plant kingdom. He would have been astounded by the paper published by the team of researchers at the University of Cambridge who discovered fractal organization in brain function this year. Here is an excerpt:
"Systems in a critical state are poised on the cusp of a transition between ordered and random behavior. At this point, they demonstrate complex patterning of fluctuations at all scales of space and time. Criticality is an attractive model for brain dynamics because it optimizes information transfer, storage capacity, and sensitivity to external stimuli in computational models. However, to date there has been little direct experimental evidence for critical dynamics of human brain networks. Here, we considered two measures of functional coupling or phase synchronization between components of a dynamic system: the phase lock interval or duration of synchronization between a specific pair of time series or processes in the system and the lability of global synchronization among all pairs of processes. We confirmed that both synchronization metrics demonstrated scale invariant behaviors in two computational models of critical dynamics as well as in human brain functional systems oscillating at low frequencies (under 0.5 Hz, measured using functional MRI) and at higher frequencies (1–125 Hz, measured using magnetoencephalography). We conclude that human brain functional networks demonstrate critical dynamics in all frequency intervals, a phenomenon we have described as broadband criticality."
For an explanation of the term "criticality," refer to the Wikipedia entry for Self-organized criticality »»
For an excellent review of the Cambridge paper and what it means for brain research, refer to David Pincus's paper Fractal Thoughts on Fractal Brains »»
The Cambridge paper is cited as follows: Kitzbichler MG, Smith ML, Christensen SR, Bullmore E (2009) Broadband Criticality of Human Brain Network Synchronization. PLoS Comput Biol 5(3): e1000314. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000314.
Added correspondence regarding dry collodion, written by Dr. Richard Hill Norris and published in the journal, Photographic Notes, pLondon, 1856.
A book on the thermal baths of Bath with an excellent bibliography.
Probably the first photographs of gangrenous purpura appeared in Dr. Martin de Gimard's monograph published in 1888.
This was one of the most valuable ophthalmology reference books of the nineteenth century, written by Henry Willard William of Harvard with a photograph by Gutekunst.
La Suggestion Mentale by Henri Bourru and Prosper-Ferdinand Burot. Their subject was the famous Louis Vivé whose multiple personality disorder inspired popular fiction writers. Robert Louis Stevenson studied the medical literature on doubling while writing Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
A second paper by Mills with a section co-written by Dr. Anthony Jackson Parker.
Updated the Dr. Myrtle's treatise on the Harrogate waters. Added jpeg of the frontispiece.
An annotated bibliography on cerebral localisation by the "dean of American neurologists," Charles Karsner Mills.
Possible the first photographs published of the Phelps operation for club foot.
Note to self:
Cette lacune concernant ce point de symptomatologie psychiatrique tend à se combler chaque jour. En septembre 1860, j'ai vu avec la plus grande satisfaction, à l'asile de Stephansfeld, le cabinet où M. le docteur Dagonet s'exerce à prendre les types qui lui paraissent le plus frappants. M. Morel vient de faire construire à Saint-Yon un atelier de photographie où il pourra recueillir les physionomies si différentes que les aliénés fournissent à l'œil du médecin.
En 1858, M. l'inspecteur général, feu le docteur Ferras, fit diguerréotyper la physionomie de l'aliéné qui avait assassiné le trop regrettable docteur Geoffroy (1), alors mon médecin en chef. Trois portraits furent faits dans des positions différentes, un de face, un de trois quarts et un de profil.
J'aurais désiré ardemment joindre a l'appui de cet essai un certain nombre de photographies, et compléter les recherches auxquelles je m'applique depuis plusieurs années par des épreuves plus probantes, des tableaux plus compréhensibles que toutes les expressions que l'on peut employer et toutes les descriptions que l'on peut faire. Je dois renvoyer à plus tard ce complément indispensable du travail que j'ai l'honneur de vous adresser aujourd'hui.
— excerpt from Laurent, "De la physionomie chez les aliénés," published in the journal, Annales médico psychologiques. Paris, Victor Masson, 1864; pages 185-186.
Here is another nineteenth century photographic atlas of skin diseases—somewhat obscure.
Here is an essay by Piffard on flash photography.
Began cataloging Pekelharing's report on beriberi.
The powerful narrative structures of art <==&==> medicine can be found in Dr. Matthew Clark's totemic sculpture titled, Pethidine:
Atlas of hair by Wilhelm Waldeyer.
The albumen photographs illustrating this rare offprint were rendered as drawings for the journal article.
Here is the autopsy report of General Hoche—a must-read for any scholar of the French Revolution.
Another paper by Thorndike — on enchondroma of the femur.
Paper on surgical repair of a congenital fissure at the symphysis of the jaw — by the surgeon for whom Thorndike laboratory was named.
Cataloging of Crichton-Browne continues.
Began cataloging Crichton-Browne.
Case of osteitis deformans, or Paget's disease. Sir James Paget stepped in to confirm the diagnosis.
Notes to self:
Dr. Crichton Browne then exhibited a number of photographs of pathological specimens, which had been taken in his own asylum. He remarked that he had been much struck with some of them, and that it must be peculiarly interesting to the President—who had, through good report and through bad, adhered to phrenological ideas—to find them coming back to the terms of phrenology. These photographs were a series which he had taken by having the brains prepared by freezing, and he had them in every form, so that the convolutions of the brain could be distinctly seen. — The journal of mental science, vol. 18 (1872), page 467.
In the second place, it occurred to me that the insane ought to be studied, as they are liable to the strongest passions, and give uncontrolled vent to them. I had, my self, no opportunity of doing this, so I applied to Dr. Maudsley, and received from him an introduction to Dr. J. Crichton Browne, who has charge of an immense asylum near Wakefield, and who, as I found, had already attended to the subject. This excellent observer has with unwearied kindness sent me copious notes and descriptions, with valuable suggestions on many points; and I can hardly over-estimate the value of his assistance. I owe also, to the kindness of Mr. Patrick Nicol, of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum, interesting statements on two or three points. — Darwin, The expression of emotions in man and animals, introduction.
In some photographs of patients affected by a monomania of pride, sent me by Dr. Crichton Browne, the head and body were held erect, and the mouth firmly closed. This latter action, expressive of decision, follows, I presume, from the proud man feeling perfect self-confidence in himself. The whole expression of pride stands in direct antithesis to that of humility; so that nothing need here be said of the latter state of mind. — Darwin, The expression of emotions in man and animals.
The depression of the corners may often be seen, as already stated on the authority of Dr. Crichton Browne and Mr. Nicol, with the melancholic insane, and was well exhibited in some photographs sent to me by the former gentleman, of patients with a strong tendency to suicide. It has been observed with men belonging to various races, namely with Hindoos, the dark hill-tribes of India, Malays, and, as the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer informs me, with the aborigines of Australia. — Darwin, The expression of emotions in man and animals.
Browne, Dr. J. Crichton, 15, 75, n. 16, 157, 189, 204, 211, 253, 309, 313, 333, 361, n. 49. — Darwin, The expression of emotions in man and animals. Index.
Dr. Sutherland exhibited, for [at the behest of] Dr. Crichton Browne, a collection of photographs of cases of mental aberration, chronic and recurrent mania, idiocy and imbecility, and general paralysis of the insane. — The Medical times and gazette, vol. 1 (1872), page 689.
Report — or advertisement? — on Dr. Beverly Cole's operating table.
Began cataloging Devecchi's paper on subtrochanteric osteotomy.
Note to self:
LA PHOTOGRAPHIE COMME MOYEN DE DIAGNOSTIC.—La photographie présente souvent une sensibilité telle, qu'elle fait ressortir violemment certains défauts que l'œil ne peut même apercevoir. C'est ainsi qu'on photographiait, il y a plusieurs années, une dame dont le portrait parut couvert de taches dont l'original ne présentait aucune trace. Le lendemain, elles apparurent très-nettement, et cette dame mourut do la petite vérole. La photographie avait devancé la vue et reconnu avant cette dernière des taches d'un jaune très-faible. — Vogel, La photographie et la chimie de la lumière.) Lyon: Lyon Médical, vol. xxi, 1876, p. 343.
Updated Brigham's monograph on cheiloplastic operations titled Surgical cases with illustrations.
Toland's paper on hip disease.....photograph unverified.
A paper by William Fletcher McNutt, who served on the board which prepared the San Francisco city charter and who served in other official capacities such as chief of the police and director of the state prison. He was a mason.
A paper by R. A. McLean on two cases of fibroid tumor of the thyroid. The presence of a photograph is unverified, but nevertheless indicated to exist by a couple of sources. It is possible that the photographs were circulated in an offprint.
Note to self:
It is a mistake to suppose that marriage is essential to success at the beginning of a medical career. There is a peculiar charm, a subtle indescribable mystery, about the unmarried doctor which makes him at once a favorite and confidential female adviser.
On entering your profession remember you are not a tradesman. About fees there should be no unseemly fuss.
Patients are what yon professedly want, and they are to be found in every class. To the man of science, the prince and the blacksmith are embryonically identical with the hog, the dog and the rabbit, and are nothing more than a mass of red pulp when born. It cannot therefore, matter to the physiologist whether his observations are made in the palace or the cottage; but his manners in either place should be always those of a gentlemen who respects others because he respects himself. The great opportunities opening out before you will be comparatively lost without a sound basis of science. This is the helping hand which brings you from darkness into light, and disperses the thick shadows of prejudice and custom. For this reason I would recommend you, instead of sitting with your heels on the mantelpiece [sic] and smoking a pipe, with a lively expectation of patients (who never come), to devote the early disengaged years of your life to the study of the Unknown.
Do not so overcrowd your life with practice that yon find no time to replenish either mind or body. Your duties to yonr patients will be better rendered the more conscientiously you fulfill yonr duty toward yourself. Overwork means indigestion, indigestion begets irritability, and irritability means short measure for your patients and inability to reason clearly.
An M.D. and a gentleman will not convert the chimneyshelf of his consulting room into a photographic gallery of celebrated patients. Neither will he advertise their names in society, or unduly display and be puffed up by his coroneted correspondence. Nor will he make himself a propagandist, and thrust a tract, together with his prescription, into the hand of his patient. In a word the consulting room should be as sacred and as purely official as the confessional.
Finally, gentlemen, your social and professional position will always be what you yourselves choose to make it. — Western Lancet, vol. 8, pp 525-526 (reprinted from the London World).
Toland's paper on the surgical treatment of osteomyelitis.
Finished revising the description for Jackson's catalog of the Warren Anatomical Museum.
Cataloged a paper by Toland on elephantiasis of the scrotum.
Began revising the description for Jackson's catalog of the Warren Anatomical Museum.
Possibly this is the first photograph published of a case of free skin graft.
Possibly the first cyanotype published in a medical journal.
After a 3 year hiatus and with the emergence of hidden treasures, cataloging of the Western Lancet resumes.
Probably the most important of the photo illustrated papers in the Glasgow Medical Journal is this one by Alexander Davidson on pseudohypertrophic dystrophy. This concludes the cataloging of that journal.
One more report from Dr. Patterson. A search for evidence that he was the photographer has been fruitless, but it is likely. This may conclude the work of cataloging of the Glasgow Medical Journal.
Two cases of adenoid tumor. Only one more Patterson paper remains to be catalogued.
Note to self — the dimensionality within nature's beauty:
The congenital deformity, shown in the photograph copied here, had much interest for the large number of medical friends to whom I showed the girl. The extraordinary power she had in using the terminal portions of her arms excited much surprise. As may be seen in the photograph, the bones of the forearm were shorter than normal, and she had absolutely no trace of hands. There were, indeed, little wart- like projections on both stumps. On the left, this projection was seen to consist of two portions, the smaller one being on the radial side, while that on the ulna was divided into four by minute grooves. On the right stump, the wart-like projection was smaller and simpler. The photograph shows both.
She could sup with a spoon......
She could also write with a pencil on paper. She held the pencil between the two stumps. She had, apparently, only learned at school to write down figures.......
She could lift toys with ease, and she could take sweetmeats out of a wide-mouthed bottle by balancing them, one by one, on the stump, using the right one by preference. She could even lift ordinary pins off the floor........
The girl seemed remarkably bright and clever. She bad no other defect or malformation. The town authorities had tried to help her by supplying artificial hands furnished with hooks, etc. But the child's power of using her own stumps rendered these artifices worse than useless. I tried to see the child again before writing this communication, but I learned that her mother is now dead, and that the girl had been taken to Quarrier's Orphans' Home, at Bridge of Weir. — Extracts from: Finlayson, James (1890) Case of congenital absence of both hands, with a remarkable power of using the stumps. Philadelphia: Archives of pediatrics, vol. vii (pp. 674-675).
Another Patterson case, this time a tumor of the hand.
A case of polymastia in a young child.
Macphail's report on Duchenne's disease. A solid report except there are no histological findings or bibliography.
One more of Patterson's reports on lithotomy......
.....and another.
Photographs of elephantiasis of the scrotum in Samoan men, the population which represented the most exaggerated profiles of this disease.
Note to self:
Dr. W. J. Branch, of Basseterre, St. Kitt's, has sent us a photograph (which we regret not to be able to reproduce) of a little coloured boy in the St. Kitt's Hospital, who has two large teeth in his nose. " It was not easy," writes Dr. Branch, "to get a good picture of him, because he seemed to think that the camera was meant not to take, but to take off, his head. His lip was held up to show that all the incisor milk- teeth in the upper jaw are in their natural situations. A portion of his nose has been destroyed by ulceration. It was for this disease that he was sent to the hospital. It soon healed with the application of iodofonn ointment, and the administration of iodide of potassium. I intended to have made a new nostril for him, but while waiting to make sure of the cure of the ulcer, these teeth began to make their appearance. They seem to be the two central incisors of the permanent set They spring from the floor of the nostrils at the sides of the bony septum, are freely movable,.and are apparently attached to the mucous membrane only. They have little or no roots, but their crowns are very large, white and solid. The boy's mother had syphilis many years ago, probably before his birth." — Page 425, The Medical Times and Gazette, London, Churchill; vol. i, 1884.
A paper on photographing microscopic sections which was reprinted in the Scoville press, Photographic Times. Did O. G. Mason of Bellevue make the necessary arrangements?
Another of Doctor Patterson's cases of large stone in the bladder.
It is still a mystery, what causes the keraunographic figures on the skin when struck by lightning. It is extravasation of red blood cells, probably an electrostatic phenomenon, but what compels the displacement of the cell bodies is unknown. Perhaps time slows down and they are pushed along by gentle currents.
Another paper by Patterson, this time for large stone in the bladder.
Amputation of the gravid uterus for fibroids, the first such operation performed in Scotland.
A possible unique skin infection. For some reason, it was not recorded in Gould & Pyle.
A photograph representing a leprosy case reported by M'Call Anderson.
The next week or two will be occupied by reading and cataloging the papers that are photographically illustrated in Glasgow Medical Journal. Here is a case of advanced melanomic sarcoma.
Completed indexing Byrom Bramwell.
This report is for a rare case of ophthalmoparesis in a child. The authors speculate that it was caused by tuberculoid lesion of the pons.
A ten ounce calculus in a 32 year old woman.
Kangeroo tendon used as a suture in a case of rhinoplastic surgery.
Porro's procedure used for the first time in Australia.
Amputation of the thigh......and
.......amputation of the tibia.
Here is a clinical report for surgical correction of genu varum (bow legs) in the pediatric subject.
The photographs illustrating Robert James Lee dissection of the iris are by Samuel Highley, who published the first clinical psychiatry work illustrated by photographs, written by his friend Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond. As well as being a gifted instrument maker and photographer, Highley was a prominent science publisher.
Last paper by Houzé that is photographically illustrated?
Note to self:
A correspondent of the Medical and Surgical Reporter (March 1st) narrates a case where it seems tolerably certain that scarlet fever was transmitted by means of a letter. At least there is much less room for doubt than in many cases where such a cause is popularly assigned. The outbreak was in a country house half a mile distant from the nearest neighbor, and the family had occupied the house for three years ; the children had not been away from the farm for two months, and no one had been in the house who had had the fever or been where it was. In fact, no case of the disease had been known of or heard of by the physician for some months anywhere in the county. It appeared, however, that the mother had received a letter from her brother only a short time before, stating that her brother's family had just lost a child with scarlet fever. This letter contained a photograph. The letter was received only seven days before the first child was taken sick, and the children all handled the letter and picture. — The Boston medical and surgical journal, volume 110 (1884), page 260.
Another paper by Houzé.
A distinguished provincial doctor's treatise on immobilizing the limb stump after amputation.
Der Hypnotismus, by Conrad Rieger and Hans Virchow. Rieger was highly influenced by what was coming out of the Salpetriere school.....interesting reading, especially what he relates of the behavior of his patient while she was hypnotised. The ecstatic state he induced in his subject is matched by his equally ecstatic writing.
Updated Helwig.
Scientia Books has unearthed a gem — the Samuel A. Powers book titled, Variola, with 21 heliotypes of the pathogenesis of this terrible disease. The book was self-published in 1882.
Also, Antiquariat Michael Kühn is offering Ewald's, Physiologische Untersuchungen ueber das Endorgan des Nervus octavus (GM 1472). This volume is illustrated with a beautiful stereograph, mounted on a card and inserted in the back sleeve of the book, representing the prepared labyrinth of a pigeon:
Began work on an 1864 book promoting ocean-side health spas, illustrated with 4 albumens.
Beautiful albumen of Dr. Samuel Sherwell's famous 9 year-old patient who suffered from a rare skin disorder. Sherwell describes scooping up double handfuls of exfoliated skin from the bed linen, like scooping up dry leaves.
Note to self:
Updated the catalog description for the biography and papers of Dr. Timothy R. Lewis. Added jpeg of the frontispiece. Began work on one of his titles.
Note to self:
Another point was somewhat novel. It was important that the bodies of the two drowned men should be identified. No one who saw them, recognized either one. They had lain in the water two days; were now exposed to a warm atmosphere, and decomposition was rapidly progressing; and unless their present appearance could be preserved, in a few hours all hopes of recognition would be gone. A photograph picture was therefore taken of the bodies, which, by means of a stereoscopic instrument, enabled acquaintances subsequently to recognize in them the persons of Jarvis and Dexter, both ascertained to be comrades and associates of Ruloff. Counsel for the prisoner objected on the trial to any evidence of identification being received, founded upon an examination of the pictures. The objection was overruled, and exception taken. In this case there were other circumstances which corroborated the testimony of the witnesses who identified the bodies from viewing the pictures, and which established their identity beyond all doubt; but as this kind of evidence is quite likely hereafter to be employed in various ways upon the trial of cases, the remarks of Judge Potter, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, holding the General Term, in discussing the point, may very properly be quoted. He says: " It is the every-day practice to use the discoveries in science to aid in the investigation of truth. As well might we deny the use of the compass to the surveyor or mariner; the mirror to the truthful reflection of images; or spectacles to aid the failing sight, as to deny in this day of advanced science the correctness, in greater or less degree depending upon the perfection of the machine, and the skilful admission of light, to the photographic instrument, its power to produce likenesses; and upon the principle, also, that a sworn copy can be proved when the original is lost or cannot be produced, this evidence was admissible." As germane to this point, I add the following, taken from the New York Evening Post, which, although a newspaper paragraph, is somewhat significant of the future employment of photographs upon the witness-stand :
"An Australian gentleman, examining a mining claim, was seized, stripped, and covered with tar and wool. He went and got himself photographed in this guise, and sued his assailants for two thousand dollars' damages, putting in his picture as evidence." — George Burr (1871), Medico-legal notes on the case of Edward H. Ruloff. New York: The Journal of Psychological Medicine, vol. v ; pages 728-729.
Began cataloging a paper on laparotomy which is interesting for the reported cases of dermoid cysts.
Updated the description for the paper, Encapsulated round fibroid tumor of the uterus, by Dr. Broomall. Added jpeg.
Updated the description for the book, Quelques observations chirurgicales, by Dr. Brigham. Added jpegs.
Here is a paper by Dr. David Williams Cheever on excision of the elbow joint, richly illustrated by six full leaf heliotypes.
January 7.
I wanted to share with you good friends of mine this extremely nice coverage Endurance and Suffering received in
the current, today's, issue of The Canadian Medical Association Journal. The print version of the journal has
65,000 subscribers and their on-line version gets over a million hits a month Barbara Sibbald, the Editor, tells me.
So maybe a lot of doctors will read some poems this month. In case you hadn't heard, in November the book won the
Deutscher Fotobuchpreis Gold Medal. I owe Alexander Scholz, the publisher of Edition Galerie Vevais, a very great
deal for being brave enough to take on this book--a book no American publisher would consider.
All best,
John
Go to:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/180/1/80
and then click "Begin manual download" and after a few moments, the pdf will come in.
For an expanded version with more images and poems, then go to:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/data/180/1/80/DC1/1
Revised the description for the 1870 Cheever paper.
Sculptural splints fashioned by a physician with an artist's sensiblity.
Paper on the development of the ear by an early Darwin enthusiast.
At 10 o'clock P.m. the Society re-assembled in the Lowell Institute to listen to a paper by Dr. C. J. Blake, of Boston, on "A New Use of the Membrana Tympani." The paper was illustrated with illuminated photographs by means of Black's stereopticon. A preparation of the ear was shown, in which the membrana tympani had been exposed, and styles attached to the handle of the malleus and the point of the incus. When the membrana tympani was set in vibration by a sound, the style traced a waved line on a bit of smoked glass. The curves formed by different vowel-sounds and by different musical notes were perfectly distinct from each other in character, and each sound had its own particular curve. Dr. A. Graham Bell, who was present, stated that he hoped this process of phonautography might be of use in the teaching of deaf-mutes. The paper of Dr. Blake was highly interesting.—(1875) The Medical Times and Register Philadelphia: Lippincott, vol. v (p. 635).
Paper on anastomotic sutures by Cushing of Harvard (NOT the brilliant Harvey Cushing).
