Alex Peck Antique Scientifica-Catalogue, P. 28

Below is a listing of a few medical and scientific antiques that are currently for sale. Please feel free to send an e-mail or to call (217) 348-1009 for additional details and to place an order. Click on the thumbnails for enlargements and additional views.

217. A superb salt print photograph of Confederate Surgeon Magnus M. Lewis, Chief Surgeon of General Pickett’s Division. Magnus M. Lewis was born in Jefferson Co., Va. in 1824. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1846, and set-up his practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

As Virginia and the rest of the Confederacy were gearing up for war in early 1861, the local Alexandria Volunteer troops marched into Manassas Junction. Surgeon Lewis was a member of this group and upon arriving at Manassas Junction he assumed command of the Virginia Volunteer Surgeons by the order of the Governor of Virginia. The Alexandria troops were mustered into service of the Confederate Army on July 1, 1861, and became a portion of the 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment.

On May 5, 1862, Dr. Lewis became the Chief Surgeon of General A.P. Hill’s Brigade and a year later on June 30, 1863, as fate would have it just before the great Battle of Gettysburg, he was named Chief Surgeon of Pickett’s Division. Shortly after Gettysburg, Surgeon Lewis was appointed Medical Director of the Department of North Carolina. But then in 1864 as Pickett’s Division was rebuilt and recalled to the Army of Northern Virginia, Surgeon Lewis regained his position of Chief Surgeon of that division. As the war wound down Dr. Lewis was paroled at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, with General Lee and the rest of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

After the war, Dr. Lewis returned to practice in Alexandria and died in 1884.

This salt print photograph is a striking exhibition piece as the buttons and uniform trim are lightly hand-painted bringing out a deep contrast highlighting all of the pomp and circumstance that was this Confederate Surgeon. His gray tunic is decorated with surgeon’s insignia and quatrefoil running up the sleeve. An engaging photograph of the one man who witnessed the true measure of bravery and of defeat that was ultimately Pickett’s Division. This oval image is 5 1/4" by 7 1/4" included with the mount it is 8”x10.”

218. An 1812 State of New York military commission appointing Platt Williams Surgeon of the Second Regiment of Riflemen. The commission was signed by Governor Daniel D. Tompkins on 17 August 1812. Dr. Williams graduated from Columbia College around 1805. The New York State Register of 1843 lists him as on the faculty of Albany Medical College and as an officer of the New York State Medical Society (joined in 1816). Tompkins was Vice President of the United States (1817 - 1825) under President James Monroe. American medical artifacts from the War of 1812 era are exceedingly rare.

219. A high quality 19th century bronze bust of Hippokrates (Hippocrates), the Greek physician and Father of Medicine. The portrait is dated 1854, stands 13.5" tall with marble plinth, and weighs over 15 pounds. BUST OF HIPPOCRATES

220. A Civil War date CDV of Frederick Louis Otto Roehrig (1819-1908), Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army. The photo has the backmark of Edward Hipple of Philadelphia. Dr. Roehrig is identified by a caption below the image that states: DR. F.L. OTTO ROEHRIG/ Special Eye and Ear-Surgeon, in the service if the United States Army. Roehrig is shown full pose in uniform with a tinted-green sash worn across the chest indicating that he is the ‘officer of the day.’ A Model 1840 Medical Staff sword is attached to his belt and his kepi is on a side table. Note the hand-coloring of the emerald green sash and the gilt of the sword, belt buckle, buttons, and uniform insignia. There is one citation to Roehrig in the Medical and Surgical History. SOLD

221. A Georgian pocket balance set with pans and two weights apparently made of a solid white metal, possibly tin or electrum. (I've had the set for nearly 20 years and it has yet to tarnish.) The exterior of the formed-sheet iron case has a faux tortoise shell painted decoration.

222. A copy of Lardner's The Microscope (London:1856) that is signed and dated: Dr. Josiah Curtis / Surg. U.S. Vols. / Oct. 1864. Knoxville Tennessee. Dr. Curtis (1816-1883) graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1843. During the Civil War, he served as a brigade surgeon, including duty as surgeon-in-charge at Cuyler Hospital, Philadelphia, and Medical Director at Knoxville. There are five citations to Curtis in the Medical & Surgical History; one accounts his participation in the hip amputation of a seaman wounded while serving on the U.S. frigate Congress during an engagement with the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac. Curtis settled in Nashville at the end of the War. In 1872 he took part as surgeon, microscopist, and naturalist, in the U.S. Geological Survey of what is now Yellowstone Park...this book may well have been carried by Curtis on this assignment. The next year he became chief medical officer of the U.S. Indian Service. SOLD

223. A very rare Model 1860 Staff and Field Officer's sword by Ames with caduceus etched on the blade. For a discussion of this variant Civil War sword and the Medical Staff, see Peterson, p. 141-142, fig. 125, and the following photograph in this catalogue.

224. A CDV of Reed Brockway Bontecou, M.D., Brigade Surgeon U.S. Volunteers, on the porch of his residence at Harewood Hospital. Dr. Bontecou (1824-1907) was one of the foremost surgeons of the Civil War and surgeon-in-charge of U.S. Army Harewood Hospital, Washington, D.C. He is remembered, in particular, for his U.S. Army medical and surgical photographs, which are largely reproduced in the Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion. These are the earliest photographs to systematically document orthopedic surgery. Note that Surgeon Bontecou is wearing what one would take to be a Model 1860 Staff and Field Officer's sword, not the expected Model 1840 Medical Staff sword, though it may actually be a Medical Staff sword variant. See Peterson, p. 141-142, fig. 125, for a discussion of this peculiar medical sword, and the immediate previous catalogue entry.