Asbestosis Cases in the Saranac Museum, with Dr. Bristol's List of Asbestosis Cases (1965)

Four pages dated January 11, 1965. The first, headed "Asbestosis Cases in Museum," lists 20 pathology specimens by number (P-32-48 to P-44-316) with diagnoses such as "Asbestosis; silicosis," "Tuberculosis; asbestosis" and "Asbestosis; emphysema. Left lung - primary carcinoma," and notes on exposure ("Asbestos factory 13 yrs.," "10 years weaver," "Asbestos spinner and carder - 15 yrs."). The other three pages are a "List of Asbestosis Cases Selected by Doctor Bristol," giving each case's Saranac number, name, diagnosis, the kind of report on file, and the lung tissue and slides held, for cases from about 1930 to 1956, several of them marked as on display in the museum. A few entries cite the published case reports they came from, such as JAMA in 1930.

What it shows

The Saranac Laboratory at Saranac Lake, New York, had studied asbestosis since the late 1920s and kept a pathology museum of lungs and slides. These lists show that by 1965 its collection held dozens of human asbestosis cases going back to about 1930, several of them with lung cancer, and one from an asbestos factory in Cape Town. The second list was drawn up by a Dr. Bristol, probably Dr. Leonard J. Bristol, who read chest X-rays for Johns-Manville in the 1960s. Who the lists were made for is not stated.