United States Marine Hospital Research Articles

Global Drug Prohibition in Local Context: Heroin, Malaria, and Harm

Cairo’s Qasr El Aini Hospital regularly received opiate addicts in poor health, but a startling new development in April 1929 captured the attention of Dr. Alexander Gordon Biggam, Director of the Medical Unit. Patients with a history of injecting heroin were being admitted with high fevers, and diagnored with falciparum malaria. Shocked by the prevalence of the disease, which appeared confined to networks of injection drug users, Dr. Biggam hypothesized—correctly—that the disease was being spread through contamined blood in shared syringes. “If the theory of the production of this malignant malarial infection amongst the heroin addicts is correct,” he concluded, “we are faced with a problem of considerable importance to the inhabitants of Cairo.”1 In the winter of 1932, a similar novel outbreak of malaria among injecting heroin users occupied Dr. Guy Henry Faget, an Assistant Surgeon at the United States Marine Hospital in New Orleans, a facility serving primarily merchant seamen. “If the hypodermic syringe must be accepted as a means of conveying malaria among narcotic addicts,” Dr. Faget warned, “then a new chapter in the epidemiology of this disease has been opened.”2

Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer by Jane Clements Monday, Francs Brannen Vick and Charles W. Monday Jr.

Reviewed by: Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer by Jane Clements Monday, Francs Brannen Vick and Charles W. Monday Jr. Watson C. Arnold Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer. By Jane Clements Monday and Francs Brannen Vick, with Charles W. Monday Jr. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2018. Pp. 352. Appendices, photographs, notes, bibliography, index.) With access to archives of the South Texas Kenedy ranching family, Jane Clements Monday and Francs Brannen Vick have written a biography of Arthur Spohn, an extraordinary physician who became a member of the family when he married one of Mifflin Kenedy’s daughters, Sarah. Quaker ship captain Mifflin Kenedy partnered with Richard King to make a fortune shipping and selling cotton to the Confederacy, then expanded into cattle ranching by buying up land from Mexican American families. His future son-in-law, Arthur Spohn, was born into a prominent Canadian family in 1845. He attended medical school at the University of Michigan, worked and studied medicine in New York City, then joined the Union Army as a surgeon near the end of the Civil War. The army sent him to join the troops in South Texas, where his brother Henry was also stationed, and over the next decade Spohn practiced medicine. He left military service in 1870. After a brief time in Mier, he settled in Corpus Christi, where he served as a member of the United States Marine Hospital Service for the port. There Spohn met Sarah Kenedy; they married in 1876, and he joined the social elite of South Texas. Spohn’s medical practice carried him hundreds of miles across South Texas on horseback and by carriage, wagon, train, and later by automobile. He was joined in his practice at various times by his brother, his nephew Alexander Hamilton, and other family members. One of the more extraordinary events in his practice concerned his treatment of Henrietta King’s favorite stepbrother, William Chamberlain, who had been attacked by a rabid coyote. Spohn met the wagon carrying the young man to town and, having recently read about the success of Louis Pasteur’s rabies vaccine, he suggested that Chamberlain be taken to France for treatment. Henrietta agreed, and Spohn and the boy began an odyssey that carried them by ship from Galveston to New York, across the Atlantic to France, and by train to Paris. There they interviewed Pasteur, who recommended treatment. Spohn stayed with Chamberlain while he received a series of injections. The patient recovered and survived for many years. Another unusual case involved a woman who suffered from a three hundred-pound ovarian tumor. Spohn describes finding her buried in its mass. He had the good sense to drain it slowly over several weeks, and then he removed it easily by surgery. The patient lived many more years without a recurrence. As he aged, Spohn developed a specialty in the diseases of women and in gynecological surgery, but he recognized a need for a hospital to care for all of the patients in Corpus Christi. He persuaded the Sisters of Charity and the Bishop of South Texas to sponsor a hospital that [End Page 126] has since become the center for a series of clinics and hospitals known as the Christus Spohn Health System. Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer is a welcome addition to the Texas medical history bookshelf. The authors have given us a compelling portrait of an extraordinary person. Watson C. Arnold Fort Worth, Texas Copyright © 2019 The Texas State Historical Association

Arkansas Atlantis: The Lost Town of Napoleon

MARK TWAIN'S SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER in Life on the Mississippi had heard a tale of murder, revenge, and buried treasure. A dying man told him of an unscrupulous Union soldier who had stowed ten thousand dollars in gold in Napoleon, Arkansas, during the closing days of the war. Twain sought the treasure and was on way to Napoleon with directions to the loot: Brick livery stable, stone foundation, middle of town, corner of Orleans and Market. Corner toward Court-house. Third stone, fourth row. As the riverboat approached Napoleon, Twain told the captain to go ashore, but the captain explained: Why, hang it, don't you know? There is n't any Napoleon any more. Has n't been for years and years. The Arkansas River burst through it, tore it all to rags, and emptied it into the Mississippi! Any hope that the treasure might remain in the ruins was dashed as the captain described the destruction of the town: Just a fifteen minute job, or such a matter. Did n't leave hide nor hair, shred nor shingle of it, except the fag-end of a shanty and one brick chimney,-all that's left of Napoleon. Twain fondly recalled that Napoleon had been a good big self-complacent town twenty years ago. Town that was county-seat of a great and important county; town with a big United States marine hospital; town of innumerable fights-an inquest every day; town where I had used to know the prettiest girl... and the most accomplished in the whole Mississippi Valley.1 Napoleon had been washed away by the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers in the years following the Civil War. Twain's 1883 account of its destruction-swallowed up, vanished, gone to feed the fishes-was more dramatic than the actual process, but the town's ruin demonstrated the Mississippi's power and the futility of efforts to control it. Yet the river had also brought the town into being. The ambitious residents of Napoleon, who had made their town into a well-known stopover for those traveling the Mississippi between the 184Os and 186Os, had paid more attention to the commercial possibilities than to the dangers of the river, which often flooded the town.2 The town of Napoleon existed at the confluence of the Mississippi and Arkansas for fewer than fifty years. But many notable events took place at that site even before the town was founded. Some suggest that the Jesuit missionary Marquette may have celebrated Arkansas's first Catholic mass there. It might have been the burial site for Pierre Laclede, who founded St. Louis in 1764 and died on a return trip from New Orleans.3 Napoleon was founded in the 182Os or 183Os by the planter, land speculator, and former French soldier Frederick Notrebe, who named it for his old commander, though he had been forced to flee Napoleonic France.4 Scholars have disagreed as to the exact year of Napoleon's establishment, some placing it as late as 1840. But Napoleon's first primary school was founded on December 10, 1838. Earlier that year, Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis sent Father Peter Donnelly to establish a Catholic church in Arkansas. He purchased land for the church in Napoleon and held the first mass there in May 1839.5 Many accounts bear out Mark Twain's description of a robust riverine community. Napoleon served as the county seat for Desha County and quickly became prominent as a shipping center where steamboats and sternwheelers transferred passengers and goods to shallow-draft boats that traveled up the Arkansas River. An 1890 almanac suggested that before its demise, the town had about 2,000 inhabitants and was the chief business point for miles up and down the river.6 Lusty Napoleon was known for hosting many river travelers.7 John Brown, who later attempted to spark a slave uprising at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was even rumored-to have been among the town's guests-though Brown's biographers fail to mention any such visit.8 This Port Said of the Mississippi offered travelers goods and services on wharf boats, as well as in the saloons, theaters, banks, inns, and cotton offices on shore. …

The origins of the National Eye Institute 1933-1968. The Fifth Charles B. Snyder Lecture.

Many organizations and individuals prompted the authorization of the National Eye Institute by the United States Congress. The United States Marine Hospital and Public Health Service established a Laboratory of Hygiene in 1887, which became the research center of the National Institute of Health in 1930. The Albert D. and Mary Lasker Medical Foundation was mainly responsible for the 1945 conversion of the American Society for the Control of Cancer to the American Cancer Society, dedicated to medical research. Mildred Weisenfeld, a patient with retinitis pigmentosa, founded The Fight for Sight! in 1946 to provide funds for eye research. The Laskers invited Miss Weisenfeld to testify in support of a National Institute of Neurology, and her appeal was so persuasive that it emerged as the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. Congressman John Fogarty and Senator Lister Hill directed the attention of the Congress and the public to the need for the Federal support of medical research. In 1960 Jules Stein, the legendary founder of the Music Corporation of America (MCA), established a new philanthropy, Research to Prevent Blindness, which provided skilled leadership in detailing the need for research in blinding disease and obtaining Congressional and Presidential approval of a new institute. The Committee for Research in Ophthalmology and Blindness was instrumental in bringing the groups interested in the welfare of the blind into harmony with groups concerned with medical research in blinding disease. The Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology was the first medical society to support the need for a National Eye Institute. The National Eye Institute was formally approved 8 August 1968 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1993.

Plague in San Francisco in 1900. The United States Marine Hospital Service Commission to study the existence of plague in San Francisco.

Bubonic plague, the feared Black Death of the Middle Ages, probably came to the United States in 1900 by way of the port of San Francisco. The controversy that ensued concerning the actual existence of this disease led to one of the most scandalous episodes in the history of American public health and involved everyone from the President of the United States to the individual resident of San Francisco. The incident necessitated the formation of a special commission to ascertain if plague existed and brought out racial prejudice in high government office. It placed the state governor and special interest groups against the public health authorities. The initial failure to take action against the plague may have led to dissemination of this disease in the West. Out of this episode came a strong state department of public health and an increased public awareness of the dangers of communicable diseases.

CEREBRAL THROMBOSIS PRECIPITATED BY INJECTION OF A MERCURIAL DIURETIC

Serious untoward effects from the use of mercurial diuretics in congestive heart failure have been relatively rare. Although some immediate fatalities have been reported from the intravenous use of these agents, it is generally recognized that the incidence of such reactions must be extremely low. Nevertheless, routine administration by the intramuscular route has been advocated as a means of preventing fatalities of this type. Regardless of the method of administration, however, severe diuresis occasionally causes weakness, anorexia, mental confusion, apathy, restlessness, delirium, hallucinations and more rarely coma and death. It has been observed, moreover, that such manifestations of dehydration, which generally develop six to twelve hours after injection, are more prone to arise in the elderly patient. In analyzing the toxic reactions to mercurial diuretics encountered at the United States Marine Hospital, Staten Island, during the past ten years, we observed a side effect heretofore not reported, namely, cerebral thrombosis.

RHINOPLASTY: The Use of Methyl Methacrylate Implants

THE VARIOUS materials used in the reconstruction of depression defects of the nose are almost as numerous as the decades since rhinoplasties were first mentioned in writings, about the seventh century B.C. 1 Surgical implants have varied from paraffin to bone, and none has been found to be entirely satisfactory. In 1942 one of the authors (R. S. L.) while at the Mayo Clinic 2 noted the successful use of methyl methacrylate, an acrylic resin, in the reconstruction of a hip joint. This resin, commonly known as lucite, was then considered in the ear, nose and throat department of the United States Marine Hospital, Baltimore, for use as nasal implants. This type of surgical implantation was first done at this clinic in January 1943, and since then 20 patients have received surgical implants. Because it was feared that the tissue might react to methyl methacrylate as to a foreign body, the material

Pilonidal Cysts

Dr. Ferguson is Acting Assistant Surgeon, USPHS, and chief of the genito-urinary service at the United States Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York.

Automatic Open Filter Beds

Journal Article Automatic Open Filter Beds Get access Elinor Zola, Elinor Zola Chief Pharmacist United States Marine Hospital, Boston U.S.P.H.S. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar George F. Archambault George F. Archambault Former Chief Pharmacist United States Marine Hospital, Boston, U.S.P.H.S. Member of Faculty, Mass. College of Pharmacy Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Bulletin of the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, Volume 3, Issue 6, 1 December 1946, Page 191, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/3.6.191 Published: 01 December 1946

The Story of the National Leprosarium: The United States Marine Hospital, Carville, Louisiana

The Story of the National Leprosarium: The United States Marine Hospital, Carville, Louisiana

PENICILLIN IN TREATMENT OF GONORRHEAL CONJUNCTIVITIS

V. R., a man aged 24, was admitted to the United States Marine Hospital, Staten Island, N. Y., on July 3, 1943. He stated that a urethral discharge was observed on May 18, three days after sexual exposure. About four days subsequent to the appearance of the urethral discharge the patient noticed that the right eye was inflamed. On May 24 he was admitted to the United States Marine Hospital at Brighton, Mass., where the diagnoses of gonorrheal urethritis and gonorrheal conjunctivitis (of the right eye) were recorded. Sulfathiazole therapy was instituted, and sulfathiazole ointment, boric acid and cold compresses were applied locally. Bacterial vaccine made from the typhoid bacillus U. S. P. was given intravenously. The oral use of sulfathiazole was continued until July 2, at which time the urethral discharge had subsided considerably but the ocular infection, with a copious purulent discharge, persisted. The appearance of the right

A Senior Field Trip

It was a day to which we looked forward during the entire three years of our training. For one thing it was a break in the ward work. Then, too, it was a chance for our entire class to be together all day and to have a time. Also, in common with everyone, we have an abundance of curiosity and interest about this historic disease, leprosy. So, bright and early on a sunshiny April morning we gathered in front of our home, and at last we were settled in a big bus to begin the eighty-mile drive to the leprosarium, which lies about twenty miles off the highway from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It is situated away from the main thoroughfares of the state on what was once a prosperous plantation on the Mississippi river, whose huge grasscovered levee rises just across the road from the old stone and wrought-iron gates. At the entrance to United States Marine Hospital Number 66, we were stopped by a guard who took our names and entered them into a book and when we left he checked us out. Entering these gates, on our right we saw the administration building which is the original plantation home. It is a beautiful white two-story structure of the typical early Louisiana colonial architecture showing a French provincial influence. It has tall shuttered windows and a two-story gallery with columns. In front of it is an old spreading live oak covered with Spanish moss, which adds a note to the quietness which is characteristic of the institution. We were greeted by three Sisters of Ch rity, members of the Order that has been in charge of the patients since I896. First we were taken on a short tour of the grounds. On the left of the gates is a row of homes for the staff who are Marine officers. They live in modern houses along a flower-lined walk. In the center of the campus are the ever-present flagpole and cann signifying this as a government institution. The Sisters showed us the work that is being done on a building project of the government to rehouse the inmates. They also showed us the site of their new home soon to be erected.

United States Marine Hospital at the Port of Boston

United States Marine Hospital at the Port of Boston

The United States Marine Hospital, Port of Boston

The United States Marine Hospital, Port of Boston

XANTHELASMA AND LEPROSY

For many years xanthelasma has been observed among the inmates of the United States Marine Hospital (National Leprosarium) at Carville, La., but the frequency of its occurrence was not disclosed until a survey was made in the early part of 1937. In this survey xanthelasma was found in 27 of 243 lepers examined. For comparison, the orbital regions of 235 tuberculous patients in the wards of the Charity Hospital in New Orleans were examined by Dr. J. B. Colligan. In this group 144 patients were over 30 years of age and 77 were over 40. Xanthelasma was not found in any of the 235 tuberculous patients. Dr. Alfred Gage made a similar examination of 200 patients at the clinic of Tulane University of Louisiana, including all applicants for admission. In this group 37 patients were over 30 years of age, and 48 were over 40. Xanthelasma was found in 2

History of Leprosy in the United States 1

It is an honor and a privilege to have been invited to present this subject at a meeting honoring Colonel Craig; it is especially agreeable to me to participate actively because there has been a long-standing personal friendship between Colonel Craig and myself which began when we were both very young officers in our respective Federal Services—he on duty at the Lettermann General Hospital in San Francisco and I at the United States Marine Hospital in the same city. I remember especially well the interest he already had in differentiating the diarrheal diseases that came into the military hospital from the Philippine Expedition and how generous he was in sharing his information with me.Dictionary definitions of history are: “A systematic record of past events, especially the record of events in which man has taken part”; “Past events in general, considered as accomplished facts, or as material for record.”

Observations on Heart Disease in Marine Hospital Practice: A Study of Organic Heart Disease in the United States Marine Hospital, Stapleton, N.Y., during the Fiscal Year 1931

Observations on Heart Disease in Marine Hospital Practice: A Study of Organic Heart Disease in the United States Marine Hospital, Stapleton, N.Y., during the Fiscal Year 1931

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, La. Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1931.

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, La. Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1931.

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, LA: Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1931

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, LA: Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1931

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, La. Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930

The National Leper Home (United States Marine Hospital), Carville, La. Review of the More Important Activities during the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930