Abstract
Today unpublished or “file drawer” experiments are the impetus for trial registration and reporting of all results. In 1801, Joseph Carpue, the father of modern plastic surgery, did a file drawer experiment for Benjamin West, who was President of the Royal Academy of Arts. George III had commissioned West to create the largest stained glass window ever created whose theme, the Crucifixion, was based upon Michelangelo's drawing. Subsequently, West suffered a series of political, professional and economic setbacks. In the summer of 1801, West's project was delayed. By the fall, West hoped that independent scientific confirmation of his design could salvage the project. West approached Carpue who obtained a murderer's fresh corpse that he crucified and documented the results with plaster casts created by sculptor Thomas Banks. Carpue's experiment showed that West's window design wrongly depicted the Crucifixion because West had posed the hands and shoulders incorrectly. West died in 1820 without ever being associated with Carpue's experiment. Carpue's obituary in The Lancet in 1846 contained Carpue's handwritten note that described the experiment but not West's Royal commission. As no records or publications associate the cast with West project, this can be considered to be a file drawer experiment. After 1801, West made further drawings of the Crucifixion that showed the figures in the same position as the cast. Nineteenth century auction catalogues suggest that West made a corrected Crucifixion painting, but its current location remains a mystery.
Highlights
Voluntary Professor of Surgery University of Miami School of Medicine, 9155 S Dadeland Blvd
File drawer experiments are not suppressed by external authorities; rather they are suppressed by those directly involved with the experiments
Joseph Carpue was an anatomist, teacher and surgeon who practiced in London in the first part of the 19th century (Figure 1)
Summary
Voluntary Professor of Surgery University of Miami School of Medicine, 9155 S Dadeland Blvd. Joseph Carpue was an anatomist, teacher and surgeon who practiced in London in the first part of the 19th century (Figure 1) Today he is best known as the father of modern plastic surgery, but he . Legg shot Lamb on October 2, 1801, was tried on October 28, 1801, and was executed five days later.[8,9] Benjamin West was the President of the Royal Academy of Arts, not the Royal Society. George III gave West his first commission and over the ensuing years, they spent much time discussing how to raise interest in the fine arts in England. Stuart was a student of West's at the Royal Academy He became a portraitist who is best known for his portrait of George Washington. It was said that George III had offered West a knighthood, but that he had refused it and hinted that he would accept a baronetcy.[13]
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