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The fifth of six children, he contracted rickets and tropical sprue, an intestinal disorder, at 4, both caused by vitamin deficiencies from his limited diet, and suffered from brittle bones throughout his life.

Buckets and barrels hold sprue — the overflow from glass molds — and other chunks and shards sorted by color.

Image: Drop Take “sprue marks,” the small imperfection that’s left on a keycap where the molten plastic flowed into its mold.

Before the war, Rhoads worked at Rockefeller University in New York City, and he travelled to Puerto Rico to study conditions such as anaemia and tropical sprue.

Ms. Shechet said it represented a sprue, a tool for casting molten material like porcelain.