The Great Seal

Abstract

FOR more than a hundred and seventy-five years (since 1783) the Secretary of the Massachusetts Medical Society has had custody of a silver seal mounted in a hardwood handle (Fig. 1). It was long used to impress the signature of the Society upon a disk of red sealing wax covered with a thin paper wafer, which was affixed to official documents. This kind of seal was eventually supplanted by the hand-lever type that embosses the design directly into a sheet of paper without the use of wax.The old seal was without doubt engraved by one of the 15 to . . .