American Civil War Medical & Surgical Antiques

(A Private Collection - Research and Identification Project)

Civil War Era Surgical Sets, Surgeon's Swords & Images

Civil War Surgeon Education & Civil War Medicine Text-books

Established 1995      .   .   .     Dr. Michael Echols

As seen in: Military Images Magazine, American's Civil War Magazine, Warman's Civil War Collectibles, Antique Week, Northeast Antiques, Civil War Army Swords, Civil War Times Illustrated, various TV programs, Antiques & Collecting publications

 

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John Hooker Packard, M.D.

Click here to see the copy of the book by Dr. Hooker in  this collection

Name: John Hooker Packard
Death date: May 20, 1907
Place of death: Philadelphia, PA
Type of practice: Allopath
Journal of the American Medical Association

John H. Packard, M.D., one of the most prominent American surgeons of the last part of the 19th Century and a pioneer of modern American surgery, was born in Philadelphia in 1832. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1853, he spent 1.5 yr visiting the great Paris hospitals and another 18 months as a resident physician at the Philadelphia's University Hospital. Until his retirement in 1896, he practiced surgery in various Philadelphia hospitals and taught surgery, pathology, and anatomy at the medical school. He served as acting assistant surgeon in two Union Army hospitals during the Civil War. He founded or was an active member of many prestigious medical, surgical, and pathological societies, several of which still exist today.

Among Dr. Packard's numerous publications, two popular surgical textbooks stand out: A Manual of Minor Surgery (1863),  adopted by the US Army, and a Handbook of Operative Surgery (1870).  Dr. Packard was the chief editor of the first American edition of Holmes System of Surgery published in 1882.  

As an eminent Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Packard had used chloroform exclusively until 1864.  Like many busy American surgeons outside of Boston, he appreciated the agent's potency, speed of action, and the intense muscular relaxation that it produced. In May 1865, he reported to the Philadelphia College of Physicians that after witnessing several life-threatening or fatal accidents in his own or in his colleagues' practices, he was switching to ether. He had been encouraged to do so by his friend and ether enthusiast,  F.D. Lente of Cold Springs, New York.  Lente had designed an inhaler to induce deep anesthesia safely, rapidly, and with a small amount of ether.  Packard reported his satisfaction with Lente's method in a second communication to the college in May 1866.

Information from Rutkow: History of Medicine, p. 46

 

(The personal edited research notes of Michael Echols, the source of which may or may not be completely documented)

 

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Medical Collections          

Direct links to all medical & Civil War collections on this site

American Surgical Sets:        Pre-1861:  1 | 2    -    Civil War:  4 | 5 | 6 | 7     -    Post-1865:  3 

Medical Text-Books:

1 | 1a | 2 | 2a | 3 | 3a | 4 | 4a | 5 | 5a | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9a | 10 | 11 | 12

Medical Lecture Cards:

1 | 2 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Surgeon CDV Images:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Medical Staff Swords:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

Hosp Dept Bottles & Tins:

1 | 2 | 3 |

 

Currently Seeking to Purchase for this Collection

Partial or Incomplete surgical sets or instruments by:  Snowden, Tiemann, Gemrig, Kolbe', Hernstein

 Any medical instrument or book marked:   U.S.A. / Hosp. Dep't.  or  U.S.A. / Med. Department

Medical Antiques Wanted List                             Contact Dr. Michael Echols

American Civil War Medical & Surgical Antiques

This site is an active on-going collection and research project.  Additions are actively being sought.  Information and evaluations on pre-1865 material are gladly provided to individuals, universities, authors, archivists, museums, libraries, auction houses, antique dealers, and researchers. 

Students and teachers are welcome to use the content on this educational site for projects without permission.  All others please request permission before publication.  Material produced by Dr. Echols is copyrighted and all rights are reserved.  Permission is gladly given, but please ask.

All content 'by Dr. Echols' and all original photography on this Web Site is copyrighted 1995 - 2010 and may not be used on any other web site or in print without the expressed e-mail permission from Dr. Echols:  Contact   All rights reserved.  Please note, information on this site may not be normally referenced as this is an active research project and content may not yet be properly cited for publication. 

("Braceface" is a term kids apply to other kids who wear braces.  Dr. Echols is a retired orthodontist)

 

Last update: Tuesday, March 16, 2010