Civil War BRAIN SURGEON W. W. Keen SIGNED Letter, ANTIETAM + Battle Manila Bay For Sale

- Civil War SURGEON William Williams Keen SIGNED Letter -- Neurological Pathologist & FIRST BRAIN Surgeonin the U.S. -- MEDICAL / CIVIL WAR / Spanish American War CONTENT -- Mentions WEIR MITCHELL, ANTIETAM, Battle of Manila Bay -

This is the FINEST W.W. Keen signed item I have ever encountered.

SUPERB, three page typed-letter SIGNED (TLS) by PIONEER Brain SURGEON William Williams Keen – with excellent MEDICAL, CIVIL WAR, and SPANISH AMERICAN WAR content. The letter is dated May 5th 1898, on his personal stationary (Philadelphia), and with the original mailing envelope included.

Letter is addressed to his DAUGHTER Margaret at “Miss Porter’s School” in Farmington / Connecticut and reads in full, “My dear Margaret: - I have been over head and ears at work in my examinations, which are not yet completed and ought to have been done last night. In addition to that I had to go to Norristown on Monday and give an address to the nurses of the training school and to New York on Tuesday for my second Cartwright Lecture. I stayed with Dr. McCosh, the son of the former President of Princeton. I do not know whether you remember the little Magee children, one of whom, (David, I think was his name), was a particular friend of yours in the “Kineo Lake and Transportation Steamboat Company”. His father, Dr. Magee, married Miss McCosh and Dr. Magee was medical cadet with me in the hospital where Dr. Weir was in charge at Frederick, Md., just after the battle of Antietam. Weir dined with me at Dr. McCosh’s before the lecture and after the lecture Dr. McCosh gave a very nice reception at Sherry’s for me; about 125, I suppose, of the leading surgeons and some physicians in New York were there. Your affectionate father, W.W. Keen (signed) - OVER - I was interrupted just here and Miss Cline thought I was through with my letter. I got back from New York on Wednesday at 12:15, and found a telegram waiting me which called me to Lancaster to operate and I did not get back till ten at night, with no lunch and no dinner except a couple of sandwiches. I have done very well however to-day with my work and only suffered from a little headache this morning. I suppose you have seen that the New Orleans on which Edgar is has been ordered to Admiral Schley’s Flying Squadron, and I suppose they will be off somewhere very soon. We have all been delighted over the news from Manila and hope that the Atlantic fleet will do as well as the Pacific. It is, however, very dreadful to think of all the good men who will lose their lives for a beggarly lot of Spaniards and Cubans. By the way if you want to get off a joke on some of the girls which was got off on me yesterday in New York, you can remind them that the State Government is guarding the croton water aqueduct and also mention that they have been thinking of closing the New York Public Library lest the Spaniards should get in and explode their magazines. I hope that the Robinhood squad will turn out all right. Do you know Miss Sue Price, the granddaughter of Edward H. Trotter? She lives, I think, on Spruce Street somewhere near 21st. She is engaged, I was told yesterday by Edith Howe, to Mr. Sam Goodman of Chestnut Hill. I will send the pictures back as soon as the girls have all seen them. How glad I shall be when all this letter writing is over and you are at home!

WILLIAM WILLIAMS KEEN (1837 – 1932) graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1862. He was the FIRST brain surgeon in the United States. Following his graduation from medical school, Keen passed the examining board and entered service as an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the Union Army in 1862. He served near the front lines before being called to Turner\'s Lane Hospital in Philadelphia in 1863. The U.S. military was organizing its hospitals to offer specialized care and Union soldiers with neurological injuries and illnesses were sent to Turner\'s Lane. There Keen worked closely with Doctors S. Weir Mitchell and George Morehouse in observing the neurological patients injuries. In 1864, they documented their intensive study of 120 patients there in an outstanding 164-page monograph titled, “Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries of Nerves”. They were also the first to report on and name causalgia, a severe burning sensation that can follow partial injury of the nerves. The three doctors also studied the exaggerated symptoms in malingering patients, primary and secondary shock, and reflex paralysis. They noted that when an important nerve is severed, there can be a paradoxical reaction in which the patient suffers increased sensitivity to pain and touch. Following the Civil War, Keen spent two years studying in Berlin and Paris. Thereafter, he lectured on pathology and surgery at Jefferson Medical College from 1866 to 1875, and again from 1889 to 1907. In the interim, Keen was President of the “Philadelphia School of Anatomy” from 1875 to 1889. He achieved global acclaim in the medical community for inventing several new procedures in brain surgery, including drainage of thecerebral ventricles and the removal of large brain tumors. Keen also performed one of the very first successful removals of a brain tumor. He served as President of theAmerican Surgical Association (1898), the American Medical Association (1900), and the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons (1903). Doctor Keen, along with five other eminent physicians, participated in a secret surgical operation to remove a cancerous tumor from President Grover Cleveland’s jaw onboard the yacht Oneida in 1893.

CONDITION: the letter itself is written on two separate pieces of paper, with typed written text on three sides only (the last side or page is “blank”). Both sheet of paper measure about 8 3/8 x 10 ½ inches in size each and are in EXCELLENT condition. There are some original mailing folds and toning, but NO rips or tears. The mailing envelope measures about 3 ½ x 6 inches in size and is in fine overall condition with some tears along the top where it was opened (see scans). The signature / autograph of William Williams Keen is guaranteed authentic. $10 for shipping, postage & INSURANCE. Please email your questions.