Thanks to the continuing generosity of Mrs. Annette Cravens, the Edgar McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection was further enriched by the addition of a number of fascinating instruments and artifacts.

Dettweiler’s sputum flask - A German sputum pot for patients with consumption.

Assalini forceps made from steel with a crosshatched ivory handle. The instrument is signed  Ferguson 21 Giltspur Street London.

Gigli Saw (early 20th century) used for craniotomy. Three holes were drilled in the skull with the trephine and the flexible wire saw was passed under the skull and sawn through to remove a triangle of bone.

Southey’s Trocar Set Used to drain peripheral oedema from the ankle or the leg. Invented by Henry Herbert Southey (1783 -1865) sometimes referred to as Southey tubes this trocar contains 4 silver perforated cannulae in the handle compartment so that another was readily available when it was needed to leave one inserted in the body for drainage purposes. (Seen on page 178 of Elisabeth Bennion’s Antique Medical Instruments) One such purpose would have been for the drainage of peripheral oedema in the ankle, leg or even the vulva.

Three 19^th century glass infant feeding bottles

Mathieu surgical stitching instrument (cased)

Chartroule tuberculosis treatment device

BOOKS

Christian Friedrich Daniel. Commentatio de infantum nuper umbilico et pulmonibus. 1780
The first edition of a comprehensive study of forensic methods of detecting infanticide. The first part surveys methods of analyzing the umbilical cord to determine cause of death in newborns. The second part is devoted to a discussion of the hydrostatic lung test, first proposed by Johann Scheyer in 1689, based upon Swammerdam’s discovery twenty years earlier, that the lungs of newborns will float on water if respiration has taken place. Daniel was a physician at Halle who wrote several books on forensic medicine.

Joannes Christianus Heyne. Tentamen cheirurgico-medicum, de praecipuis ossium morbis. 1705
The first edition of a very early treatise on the practice of orthopedic surgery by a physician specializing in diseases of the bones. Among many subjects, Heyne describes bone inflammations, abscesses, ulcers, spina ventosa and rickets.

(bound with)

Jacopo Berengario da Carpi. De fractura cranii liber aureus. 1629

An early edition of the author’s great work on skull fractures in which he groups the consequent lesions according to their symptoms. He here observes the relationship between the location of the lesions and the resulting neurological effects. Berengario was the greatest of the pre-Vesalian anatomists.

Petition of the Medical faculty of the University of the City of New-York to the honorable the Senate and Assembly of the State of New-York for the legalization of anatomy.

(bound with)

John Draper, MD. An introductory lecture, delivered at the opening of the Medical Department of the University, for session 1853-4, and entitled An appeal to the people of the State of New York, to legalize the dissection of the dead. 1853

That’s right…  in the HSL History of Health Sciences collection (yaasssss, it’s down in the BASEMENT!)

Come visit us, and be afraid — be VERY afraid!

In a classic example of culture reflecting the conditions of the times, so sang the Allen Brothers and Vardaman Ray respectively in the 1930s. “Jake leg” or “jake walk” meant permanent paralysis for as many as 100,000 people who drank a certain patent medicine product known as Jamaica Ginger — a ginger extract. During prohibition, the Treasury Department ordered the percentage of solids in patent medicine doubled to reduce “tippling”, and so a pair of zealous manufacturers added tri-ortho-cresyl-phosphate, TOCP, a "plasticizer" used to keep synthetic materials from becoming brittle, to their Jamaica Ginger product to meet this new regulation, thus introducing a potent neuro-toxin. Sounds a little like the recent pet food debacle that occurred in 2007!. Such incidents heighten awareness of the continuing need for agencies like the FDA to safeguard products that we assume are safe – read Emily Friedman’s commentary, Happy Tails, Jake Leg, and the Food and Drug Administration .

Delve into the details of this incident in health sciences history. The Great American Medicine Show: being an illustrated history of hucksters, healers, health evangelists, and heroes from Plymouth Rock to the present (WZ 310 A735g 1991) references the events on pg. 170 in the Patent Medicines chapter. Listen to songs about “jake leg” recorded by blues artists of the time – check out the Jake leg blues CD in the Music Library (CD 13587). Or visit the web and listen to Jake Leg: An Affliction and the Blues It Inspired , the 2003 NPR segment in which they interviewed Dr. John Morgan, an authority on the topic.

Western New York residents may wonder if our local Jog for the Jake run has anything to do with “jake leg” – the answer is it does NOT. The 5K road race and Kids’ Fun Run, established in 2002 in memory of Dr. Lawrence D. Jacobs, Buffalo’s world-renowned Multiple Sclerosis (MS) physician and researcher, raises funds for The Jacobs Neurological Institute to be used for neurological research. It is just coincidence that both “jake leg” and “Jog for the Jake” involve neurological conditions.

Of interest to health professionals, researchers, veterinarians, public health officials, and the general public. Mark your calendars now!

Dr. John J. Halperin will explain how the organism that causes Lyme Disease came to the United States and how the disease is spread through ticks and their life cycle. He will also provide practical information on how to prevent tick bites, what to do if bitten and how health professionals diagnose the disease.

Dr. John J. Halperin will deliver the 17th Annual C.K. Huang Lecture at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Health Sciences Library

Friday, May 16th, 2008; 6 to 9 p.m.
Austin Flint Main Reading Room and the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection
Health Sciences Library
South Campus
RSVP: by May 12, 2008

Seating is limited to the first 100 people

Download the Registration form , or contct Linda Lohr at 829-3900 x136 or email lalohr@buffalo.edu

Buffet Dinner and Beverages: 6-7 p.m.
Presentation: 7-8:30 p.m.
Reception for Dr. Halperin, Coffee and Dessert: 8:30-9 p.m.
Member $16.00 per person
Non-member $18.00 per person
Students $ 9.00 per person