3. Physical and external medicine including baths, 



exercise, electricity, massage, surgery, cautery, 

 and blood-letting; 



4. Internal medicine including medications and 



treatment used by the ancient Egyptians, 

 Greeks, Hindus, Arabians, and Chinese; and 



5. Preventive medicine including beverages, food, 



soil, clothing and li.il dtal it >n 



It is certainly to Dr. Flint's credit thai from itv 

 early conception, first as Section ol Materia Medica 



and there. il'lcr as Division ol Medicine, he pi. nine, I 



for an all-embra< mg exhibition and reference i olle< - 



tion of the medical sciences. Until the end "I the 

 l'»th century and the early yens of the 20th century, 

 crude drugs as well as primitive and magic medicine 

 held a more prominent place th.m medical instru- 

 ments in the exhibits and collections. In 1905, I lint 

 i lued his last, known, liter, ir\ contribution, "Direc- 

 tions for Collecting Information and Objects Illus- 

 trating the History ol Medicine," in Part S of Bullrlni 

 oj ths I'.S. National Museum, no. 39. The emphasis In- 

 put upon this shows Dr. flint's interest in collecting 

 medical and pharmaceutical objects and equipment 

 of historical value. Consequently, he arranged new 

 exhibits including one on American Indian medicine. 

 A medical historian. Fielding H. Garrison, inspected 

 aboul 1910 and. in his "An Introduction to the 

 History of Medicine," wrote of their novelty and 

 appeal. "In the interesting exhibit of folk medicine 

 in the National Museum at Washington," he com- 

 mented, "a buckeye or horse chestnut (Aesi ulm flavin I, 

 an Irish potato, a rabbit's foot, a leather strap pre- 

 viously worn by a horse, and a carbon from an arc 

 light are shown as sovereign charms against rheu- 

 matism. Other amulets in the Washington exhibit," 

 he added, "are the patella of a sheep and a ring made 

 urn "I a coffin nail (die,; out of a graveyard) for 

 cramps and epilepsy, a peony root to be carried in 

 the pocket against insanity, and rare and precious 

 stones for all and sundry diseases." It had been Dr. 

 Flint's intention, besides presenting an educational 

 display on the histor) of the medical arts, to warn 

 the public against the perils of quackery and the 

 faults of folk medicine, as well as to expose evils in 

 drug adulteration. Today, we can sec actual fulfill- 

 ment of these intentions in the present exhibit .it the 

 medical gallery which has been executed recently on 

 the bases of scientific, historical research. 



After Dr. Flint's retirement from the Smithsonian 

 Institution in 1912, there was no replacement for over 



live years, rherefore, the Division oi Medicine was 

 placed, lor administrative purposes, under tin- super- 

 vision oi the i urator ol the neuiv reestablished 

 Division of I extiles. Frederick I.. Lew ton. During 

 these ve.ns, in- fought against the dispersal 

 lie. h, ,i| and materia medit a colle< tions I bus. for la< k 

 of a curator of its own, almost all new activities in 

 the Division oi Medicine were curtailed until 1917. 

 On January 31. 1917, Lewton addressed members 

 ol the American Pharmaceutical \ so iatiori inv iting 

 them to i ooperate in gathering up and presen ing .it 



the National Miiseiuii the "man) unique and im- 



ible objects." connected with the early histor) ol 

 pharmacy in this country which could still be saved 

 I hen. on Mart h 14, 191 \ an examination was an- 

 nounced by the ( "w il Service- I he-Id Mav 2) for an 

 assistant c urator for the 1 >iv ision of Medic inc. and the 

 position was filled b) Joseph Donner on August 16, 

 191 \ Donner was the first full-time employee paid 

 by the Smithsonian Institution for the- curatorship of 

 this Division. He held the post until January 31, 

 1918, when he was inducted into the S.niil.tiv ( orps 

 ol the United States Army. No significant activities 

 in the Division of Medicine were repotted during 

 these lew months. 



Mr. Donner was followed bv a second, full-time. 



museum officer who promoted a great a nut of got id 



will towards the Division during his curatorship of a 

 little over 30 years. Dr. Charles Whitebread (1877- 

 1963), the first pharmacist to head the 1 )iv ision. joined 

 the Smithsonian in 1918 and remained until his re- 

 tirement in 1948, the longest service, thus far, of any 

 individual in the Division. 



Dr. Whitebread received his degree of Doctor of 

 Pharmacy from the School >>i Pharmacy at George 

 Washington University in Washington, DC. in 1911. 

 He entered government service- late in 1915, but it 

 was ii< it until April 2. 1918, that he agreed to become 

 assistant curator of the Division of Medicine. 



Curator White-lire. id's lust veil was an active and 

 challenging one. lor in this new position he began t" 

 develop a deep interest in the- history of the healing 

 arts. He made a number ol important acquisitions, 

 most of them pcrtainim; to pharmaceutical produi i-. 

 Synthetic chemicals and crude drugs. If- found that 

 m.mv specimens from the older drug collections had 

 deteriorated to such an extent as to be worthless, and 

 he began replacing them with freshly marketed drugs. 



i" Journal of (he American Phtirn . 

 pp. 376-377, 466. 



PAPER 43: HISTORV OF THE DIVISION ( U MEDICAL St II \e I s 



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