1862

William Hammond becomes Chief of Medical Bureau of U.S. Army (surgeon general of Union Army).  His early reforms included evaluation of all army surgeons (voluntary and lifers) to strict medical examination boards staffed by elite physicians guided by science and, via Circular 2 of May 21, 1862, establishment of Army Medical Museum.  Museum was widely advertised and open to public, since (1) it was funded by federal government and was to be a “memorial of shared sacrifice” and (2) it attested to the scientific authority and social prominence of the orthodox physician; “in opening up the museum’s collection the war physicians could demonstrate their deeper knowledge of the body and new avenues of medical research that developed through the war” (Devine, 182-183). This meant that the medical department of the Army claimed “ownership” of all military bodies, and used this claim to justify dissections (189, 192-19 3). The diseases that ravaged soldiers’ bodies shaped the projects and directed the specific aspects of scientific medicine; but often the individual soldier had to relinquish ownership and control of his body for this knowledge to be developed” (212-213).