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Ophthalmologic Collections from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at the Army Medical Museum
SPECIAL REPORT. OPHTHALMOLOGIC COLLECTIONS FROM T H E AMERICAN ACADEMY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY A N D OTOLARYNGOLOGY AT T H E ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM. JAMES
F.
COUPAL,
M.D., Major, Medical Corps, U.S.A.
The Curator, Army Medical Museum, reports on the material thus far brought together in the Army Medical Museumby the activities of the Academy Committee and mem bers. The James Moores Ball collection is referred to; and the pathologic specimens that have been accumulated and the manner of dealing with them. Shortly after the International Con gress of Ophthalmology, held in Wash ington, D. C , May, 1922, arrangements were made with the American Acad emy of Ophthalmology by Major George R. Callender, then curator, to accept pathologic ophthalmic mate rial at the Army Medical Museum. This plan has yielded considerable in the way of results, the most important of which was the donation by Dr. James Moores Ball of his ophthalmic museum to the Army Medical Museum on July 4th, 1922. This material is divided under the following main items: 1. Pic torial items. 2. Gross dissections and gross pathology. 3. Microscopic items. 4. Ophthalmic armamentarium. 5. Rare ophthalmic literature. The historical collection alone of this exhibit would have been a generous donation to the Army Medical Mu seum. It contains old cuts and bio graphic sketches of most of the pio neers in ophthalmology. Many of these are valuable references for the historical portion of any article on oph thalmology. This historical group consists of 136 accessions, many of which should be listed as true incunab ula. Under Section 2 of gross dissec tions and pathology are 468 accessions. These form a complete set from the standpoint of a museum exhibit. The gross specimens of this set have been remounted, so that their mounts con form with those already provided for the ophthalmic material from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The pictorial items consist of 2 medals and 2 diplomas; 46 pictures of ocular anatomy; 180 original drawings in color, mostly pathologic; 92 microphotographs and microscopic draw ings, etc.; 94 unusual colored drawings of the normal and diseased fundus; 40
colored pictures from the "Atlas of Rare Ophthalmoscopic Conditions;" 38 plates from Pagenstecher and Genth's "Atlas of the Pathologic An atomy of the Eyeball," and 43 illustra tions on operative surgery of the eye. MUSEUM SPECIMENS.
The other valuable result of this re lation has been the accumulation of pathologic material, sent in by mem bers of the American Academy of Oph thalmology, which now numbers ap proximately 150 gross and over a thou sand histologic specimens. This ma terial is still coming in rapidly and con tains specimens of unusual interest. Sixty gross specimens, 50 histologic specimens and 80 pictures from this collection were displayed at the Boston City Hospital, at the 16th Annual Meet ing of the International Association of Medical Museums; as an example of the museum technic in handling ophthalmic material. The eyes are re ceived in formalin, usually travel in an ordinary mailing case without any damage, are sectioned with a long, thin blade thru the equatorial plane, leaving the greater half of the optic nerve for that portion which is sectioned histologically. The exceptions to this procedure are governed by special lesions, chiefly those new growths which are isolated and local, and for which a special plane of section is needed to show the gross pathology. The half of the eye con taining the smaller portion of the optic nerve is then sewed to a small piece of vulcanite in which has been cut a hole to fit the specimen. This is then photographed, mounted in Kaiserling III and labelled. The photographs are taken with a 75 mm. lens attached to an ordinary photomicrographic camera
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COLLECTIONS AT ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM
by means of a prism mounted in a cone. The eyes are placed under water, covered by a glass plate and illumi nated by a small arc light at about an angle of 45 degrees. This type of illumination necessitates that the lens be placed horizontally and that it be attached to the camera with the prism arrangement mentioned. This method gives a magnification of about seven times, so that the ordinary eye fills an 8x10 negative. The only difficulty about this process consists in avoiding the small bubbles which float up from the deeper portions of the eye and pre sent highly refractile circles in the pic ture if they are not removed. The remaining half of the eye is im bedded in cellodin, and sections made of the globe and serial sections of the optic nerve in a plane perpendicular to that of the globe, where there is neces sity to show metastasis along this structure. Rapid paraffin sections are made upon request of the contributor if there is a clinical need for early diag nosis. These early diagnoses are fur nished by the staff at the Army Medi cal Museum, and consultation upon them is obtained from the group of ophthalmic pathologists assigned for
this purpose. The emergency diag noses can be furnished in a few days from paraffin sections, tho the celloidin imbedding is a slow process and sev eral weeks are necessary 'before re ports on these are obtainable. . The following men have afforded us excellent consulting services in these diagnoses: Dr. F. H. Verhoeff, Mass achusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Bos ton, Massachusetts; Dr. Harry S. Gradle, 22 E. Washington St., Chicago, Illinois; Dr. M. Feingold, 4206 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, La.; Dr. William C. Finnoff, 318 Fourteenth St., Denver, Colorado; Dr. W. E. Camp, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Dr. H. Barkan, 516' Sutter St., San Francisco, California. Microphotographs can be prepared of any of this material for Use in illus trating articles or in teaching of oph thalmology. The sections themselves can also be mounted, and with the rou tine hematoxylin and eosin stain make a very acceptable lantern slide. Lan tern slides for teaching can also be pre pared from the gross photographs, and since these are magnified several times, are rather excellent in their detail.
F.
COUPAL,
M.D., Major, Medical Corps, U.S.A.
The Curator, Army Medical Museum, reports on the material thus far brought together in the Army Medical Museumby the activities of the Academy Committee and mem bers. The James Moores Ball collection is referred to; and the pathologic specimens that have been accumulated and the manner of dealing with them. Shortly after the International Con gress of Ophthalmology, held in Wash ington, D. C , May, 1922, arrangements were made with the American Acad emy of Ophthalmology by Major George R. Callender, then curator, to accept pathologic ophthalmic mate rial at the Army Medical Museum. This plan has yielded considerable in the way of results, the most important of which was the donation by Dr. James Moores Ball of his ophthalmic museum to the Army Medical Museum on July 4th, 1922. This material is divided under the following main items: 1. Pic torial items. 2. Gross dissections and gross pathology. 3. Microscopic items. 4. Ophthalmic armamentarium. 5. Rare ophthalmic literature. The historical collection alone of this exhibit would have been a generous donation to the Army Medical Mu seum. It contains old cuts and bio graphic sketches of most of the pio neers in ophthalmology. Many of these are valuable references for the historical portion of any article on oph thalmology. This historical group consists of 136 accessions, many of which should be listed as true incunab ula. Under Section 2 of gross dissec tions and pathology are 468 accessions. These form a complete set from the standpoint of a museum exhibit. The gross specimens of this set have been remounted, so that their mounts con form with those already provided for the ophthalmic material from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The pictorial items consist of 2 medals and 2 diplomas; 46 pictures of ocular anatomy; 180 original drawings in color, mostly pathologic; 92 microphotographs and microscopic draw ings, etc.; 94 unusual colored drawings of the normal and diseased fundus; 40
colored pictures from the "Atlas of Rare Ophthalmoscopic Conditions;" 38 plates from Pagenstecher and Genth's "Atlas of the Pathologic An atomy of the Eyeball," and 43 illustra tions on operative surgery of the eye. MUSEUM SPECIMENS.
The other valuable result of this re lation has been the accumulation of pathologic material, sent in by mem bers of the American Academy of Oph thalmology, which now numbers ap proximately 150 gross and over a thou sand histologic specimens. This ma terial is still coming in rapidly and con tains specimens of unusual interest. Sixty gross specimens, 50 histologic specimens and 80 pictures from this collection were displayed at the Boston City Hospital, at the 16th Annual Meet ing of the International Association of Medical Museums; as an example of the museum technic in handling ophthalmic material. The eyes are re ceived in formalin, usually travel in an ordinary mailing case without any damage, are sectioned with a long, thin blade thru the equatorial plane, leaving the greater half of the optic nerve for that portion which is sectioned histologically. The exceptions to this procedure are governed by special lesions, chiefly those new growths which are isolated and local, and for which a special plane of section is needed to show the gross pathology. The half of the eye con taining the smaller portion of the optic nerve is then sewed to a small piece of vulcanite in which has been cut a hole to fit the specimen. This is then photographed, mounted in Kaiserling III and labelled. The photographs are taken with a 75 mm. lens attached to an ordinary photomicrographic camera
S53
854
COLLECTIONS AT ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM
by means of a prism mounted in a cone. The eyes are placed under water, covered by a glass plate and illumi nated by a small arc light at about an angle of 45 degrees. This type of illumination necessitates that the lens be placed horizontally and that it be attached to the camera with the prism arrangement mentioned. This method gives a magnification of about seven times, so that the ordinary eye fills an 8x10 negative. The only difficulty about this process consists in avoiding the small bubbles which float up from the deeper portions of the eye and pre sent highly refractile circles in the pic ture if they are not removed. The remaining half of the eye is im bedded in cellodin, and sections made of the globe and serial sections of the optic nerve in a plane perpendicular to that of the globe, where there is neces sity to show metastasis along this structure. Rapid paraffin sections are made upon request of the contributor if there is a clinical need for early diag nosis. These early diagnoses are fur nished by the staff at the Army Medi cal Museum, and consultation upon them is obtained from the group of ophthalmic pathologists assigned for
this purpose. The emergency diag noses can be furnished in a few days from paraffin sections, tho the celloidin imbedding is a slow process and sev eral weeks are necessary 'before re ports on these are obtainable. . The following men have afforded us excellent consulting services in these diagnoses: Dr. F. H. Verhoeff, Mass achusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Bos ton, Massachusetts; Dr. Harry S. Gradle, 22 E. Washington St., Chicago, Illinois; Dr. M. Feingold, 4206 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, La.; Dr. William C. Finnoff, 318 Fourteenth St., Denver, Colorado; Dr. W. E. Camp, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Dr. H. Barkan, 516' Sutter St., San Francisco, California. Microphotographs can be prepared of any of this material for Use in illus trating articles or in teaching of oph thalmology. The sections themselves can also be mounted, and with the rou tine hematoxylin and eosin stain make a very acceptable lantern slide. Lan tern slides for teaching can also be pre pared from the gross photographs, and since these are magnified several times, are rather excellent in their detail.