Forms Bd. 12, Teil 1, of Handbuch der Gynäkologie, hrsg. J. Veit u. Stoeckel. See also No. 6311.4

Second edition, 1950.

Reprint, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1990.

Reprinted with No. 6311.5, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1989.

Edited by J. M. Munro Kerr, R. W. Johnstone, and M.H. Phillips. Supplements No. 6299.

79 essays with historical accounts, excerpts from sources, etc.

A continuation of No. 6303.

Reprinted with No. 6311, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1989.

French translation, 1976.

Greek editio princeps of Soranus, based on manuscripts Dietz discovered in Paris and Rome, and published after the early death of the editor. Soranus was the leading authority on the gynecology and obstetrics of antiquity. He recognized atresia of the vagina as being congenital or acquired from inflammation. He packed the uterus for hemorrhage and performed hysterectomy for prolapse. He described podalic version. Soranus also included full instructions on the care and management of infants.Translated into English, with an introduction by Oswei Temkin, with the assitance of Nicholson J. Eastman, Ludwig Edelstein, and Alan F. Guttmacher as Soranus' Gynaecology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956. Digital facsimile of the 1838 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Rhazes was the first to devote an entire treatise to diseases of children. Although he lived so many years before the advent of printing, he was still regarded as an authority in the 15th century and his works were among the earliest medical books to be printed. Sudhoff included the above work in his Erstlinge der pädiatrischen Literatur, Munich, 1925.  ISTC No. ir00175000.

As with several 15th century printed medical compendia, this work contains texts by authors in addition to Rhazes, including Galen, and Hippocrates.

Written in 1429, this didactic poem is the first known text to be devoted to the normal physiology and common illnesses of children. It was written in old Swabian, and its author was a monk. The poem was probably intended to be chanted, as an aid to memorization, and as a way of spreading of information among those who were not able to read and write; but, of course, in book form it had to be read. For details of this rare work, see J. Ruhräh, Pediatrics of the past, New York, 1925, pp. 465-86.  Digital facsimile from Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel at this link.  ISTC No. ih00013000.

The first printed book dealing exclusively with pediatrics. This was also the first medical treatise, and probably also the first scientific treatise, to make its original appearance in printed form rather than having prior circulation in manuscript. It is also one of the two first books published in print by a living author, the other being Valturio's De re militari (1472). 

The book was based mainly on the writings of Avicenna and Rhazes. It appeared in facsimile in Sudhoff’s Erstlinge (see No. 6355), and there is a translation by H.F. Wright in J. F. Ruhräh’s Pediatrics of the past, 1925 (No.6354). ISTC no. ib00010000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

This work has very little originality, being mainly derived from the Arabic physicians of 500 years before, but is noteworthy as being the first book on pediatrics printed in German. It includes what is probably the first reference in medical literature to microcephaly. It was reprinted several times before 1500. Facsimile in Sudhoff’s Erstlinge (see No. 6355). The edition of 1497 is the first printed work on pediatrics to contain an illustration. Facsimile reproduction with commentary, Zürich, J. Stocker, 1976. English translation in Ruhräh (No. 6354). ISTC No. im00527000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

A work on disorders of pregnant women as well as on pediatrics. It describes 52 childhood diseases, providing the name, the causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatment of each, drawing on Greek authors, Arabs (especially Avicenna) and recent authors. Facsimile reprint in Sudhoff (No. 6355). Curiously almost all recorded copies lack the first 77 leaves, which apparently were not issued. In the 1980s six of the missing leaves were discovered as endpapers. See D.E. Rhodes, "A volume from the monastery library of Hayles," Trans. Camb. Bibl. Soc., 8 (1985), 598-603 & 9 (1987) pp. 205-207.  ISTC No. ir00241000. English translation in Ruhrah, No. 6354.

The “boke of children” is the first work on diseases of children to be written by an Englishman the English language. Phaer enabled Englishmen to read and think of pediatrics in their own language. The edition included Phaer's translation of Jehan Goeurot's The regiment of lyfe, a translation of the Regimen of Salerno, and Phaer's A goodly bryefe treatise of the Pestylence, a treatise on the plague.

See Thomas Phaer and the boke of chyldren (1544) edited by Rick Bowers. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Reniassance Studies, 1999. Digital facsimile of the 1999 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reprint of 1553 edition, edited by A.V. Neale and H.R.E. Wallis, Edinburgh, 1955. Also reprinted in Rühräh (No. 6354).

The first French work on pediatrics. Vallambert considered a wider range of diseases than any previous writer, including the first reference to syphilis in children, and gave the best commentary up to his time on infant feeding, including the first mention of baby-feeding apparatus. Digital facsimile from Gallica, BnF at this link.

The second work in English on pediatrics, published more than 100 years after the publication of Phaer’s book. Pemell was a general practitioner living at Cranbrook in Kent; he was buried only five days after the publication of his book. Reprint, Tuckahoe, 1971.

Harris was physician to William and Mary. His book served for nearly a century as a standard work on pediatrics. He anticipated the modern treatment of tetany by using calcium salts in infantile convulsions. For a study of the book, see Ann. med. Hist., 1919, 2, 228-40. English translation 1693, 1742.

Cadogan’s famous essay laid down rules on the nursing, feeding, and clothing of infants, and filled a great need at a time when infant welfare was much neglected through the ignorance of those concerned. As a result of this work, Cadogan was elected a physician of the Foundling Hospital in 1754. He became a friend of Garrick, and was present at that great actor’s deathbed. 10th ed., 1772.

Sir Frederic Still considered this work “the most progressive which had yet been written”; it gave an impetus to research which influenced the future course of pediatrics. Rosén was particularly interested in infant feeding. The Underrättelserwere originally published in the calenders of the Academy and were later collected and issued in book form in 1764. English and German translations in 1776. For a biography, bibliography, and essays on this book, see Nils Rosen von Rosenstein and his textbook on paediatrics, ed. B. Vahlquist and A. Wallgren. Acta paediat., 1964. Suppl. 156.

One of the best pediatric works of the period. Armstrong is noteworthy as the founder of the first children’s dispensary in Europe, the Dispensary for Sick Children, London, in 1769.

Underwood laid the foundation of modern pediatrics. His work was superior to anything that had previously appeared and remained the most important book on the subject for sixty years, passing through many editions. The first edition (p.76) includes the first description of sclerema neonatorum (“Underwood’s disease”). That edition also contains a description of "aphthae of thrush."

In the second edition (1789, volume 2, pp. 122-27) Underwood presented a description of congenital heart disease in children. This was the first pediatric treatise to do so. Also, in the second edition, volume 2, pp. 53-57 entitled "Debility of the lower extremities," Underwood was the first to consider poliomyelitis as an entity.

English translation, Uttoxeter, 1805. Like his father, Heberden junior was a great clinician. It is probable that the above was compiled from notes left by Heberden senior.

First account of infantile tetany is given on pp. 86-97. Clarke died before this work was published. In it he also gave a clear description of laryngismus stridulus. This disease, which consists in a sudden onset of difficult breathing, obviously originating in the windpipe, was confused by Boerhaave with asthma, and by later writers with true croup. Its anatomical cause is not yet known; but Clarke's exact clinical description (Commentaries, chap. iv.) was the first step to a precise study of the affection.

"In 1818, Leopold Anton Gölis (1765-1827, Austrian physician and pathologist), a paediatrician and dissector in the Institute for the Sick Children of the Poor in Vienna, described the clinical and autopsy findings of many children affected by hydrocephalus, opening 180 bodies that died of this disease. Due to Gölis' great experience with children, he described hydrocephalus in a 35-year-old man, case XXXVI, with 8 ounces (240 cc) of serum in the brain ventricles and refers to three old patients affected by hydrocephalus but lacking the typical paediatric external cranial vault alterations (Gölis, 1815, 1818)."

"The clinical picture of idiopathic adult hydrocephalus was very slowly delineated in the literature. The history of Jonathan Swift is suggestive of the clinical picture and autopsy findings of idiopathic adult hydrocephalus. Yet, the early descriptions of idiopathic adult hydrocephalus are pathological findings in asymptomatic patients (Morgagni, Baillie, Heberden Jr). Gölis, due to his experience with paediatric hydrocephalus, was the first physician who clearly associated hydrocephalus with adult patients, recognizing the possible cause of progressive neurological impairment. Moulin, Dörner and Andral gave us early outstanding descriptions of symptoms related to idiopathic adult hydrocephalus. The most detailed triad of symptoms in idiopathic adult hydrocephalus was related by French neurologists in 1950; they summarized the clinical picture characterized by progressive walking, cognitive, and urinary impairment, which for the first time were confirmed with the radiological picture of enlarged ventricles. The Dorothy Russel's point of view was adopted in 1964 by McHugh. Indeed he put the adult congenital together with idiopathic adult hydrocephalus assuming a decompensation in adult life of a long-standing congenital hydrocephalus" (Paolo Missori Sergio, Paolini Antonio Currà, "From congenital to idiopathic adult hydrocephalus: a historical research," Brain, 133/6 (2010)1836-1849).

Translated into English by Robert Gooch as A treatise on the hydrocephalus acutus, or inflammatory water in the head (London, 1821). Digital facsimile of the 1820 second edition in German from the Internet Archive at this link.

Davis called attention to the high infant mortality rate, especially in London. His suggestion that poor mothers should be instructed in the care of their infants resulted in a system of health-visiting by benevolent ladies. He founded a dispensary for sick and indigent children at St. Andrew’s Hill, London, in 1816; this was later removed to the Waterloo Road and eventually became the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women.

First American textbook on pediatrics.

The first significant work on the pathological anatomy of infants. Billard performed several hundred autopsies on infants and children and correlated the data obtained with clinical observations he had made. This pioneer work on the pathological anatomy of infants includes interesting observations on cerebral congestion, intestinal disturbances, the pulse, teething, etc. It includes the first classification of infantile diseases of any importance (Abt/Garrison). English translation of the third edition, 1839, does not include the atlas of colored plates.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. 

In its day this was the best English work on the subject, and was translated into several languages. West was one of the founders of the Hospital for Sick Children, Gt. Ormond Street, London.

Bednaŕ was a famous Viennese pediatrician. His description of aphthae of the palate in the newborn (“Bednaŕ’s aphthae”) is in vol. 1, p. 104 of his book.

Gerhardt edited this great work, which was written by the foremost pediatricians of the time and which gives a close-up view of pediatric knowledge at the end of the 19th century.

First description of “Winckel’s disease” of the newborn, characterized by icterus, hemorrhage, hemoglobinuria, and cyanosis.

Henoch, whose name is remembered for his description of purpura, initiated the modern concept of pediatrics. English translation, New York, 1882.

Includes the first account of Bact. coli infection. The organism was later renamed Escherichia coli (E.coli).

Soxhlet wrote on the nature of milk droplets, estimated the specific gravity of milk with his lactodensimeter, described an apparatus for the sterilization of milk, and devised a test for the estimation of fats in milk.

Jacobi was the first in the United States to specialize in the practice of pediatrics. In 1862 he founded the first pediatric clinic in the U.S., in New York. He wrote extensively on pediatrics.

A commonsense work written for parents and caretakers of children rather than for physicians. This brief book achieved a popular success unrivalled by any previous American medical publication. It was the forerunner of “Dr. Spock” and related works.

The first really complete and authoritative American text on the subject.

Heubner was professor of pediatrics at Berlin. With Rubner he determined the caloric requirement of infants and did other important work on infant feeding.

First clear description of infantile acrodynia (“pink disease”).

Pioneer treatise on the care and feeding of premature and newborn infants. Budin sponsored the idea that an infant should be given milk equal in amount to one-tenth of its body weight. English translation, London, 1907.

English translation, 1912-24.

Acrodynia (“pink disease”, “Swift’s disease”); first full description.

“The first book ever written dealing solely with premature and congenitally diseased infants” (Cone). Hess founded the first premature infant center in the United States at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.

Feer described a vegetative neurosis (“Feer’s disease”) affecting infants and characterized by cyanosis of the extremities, recurrent sweating, tremor, motor weakness, rapid pulse, and insomnia. It was first described by Selter (No. 6344) and later by Swift, with whose names it is sometimes associated; it is also termed infantile acrodynia and pink disease.

Marriott introduced the insulin-fattening method of treatment of malnutrition in infants.

An extensive bibliography of pediatric literature, containing about 7,000 references.

Re-issued separately with an appendix on the history of pediatrics in recent times by A. F. Abt, Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1965.

Contains sketches of the lives of the more important pediatricians of the past, with a comprehensive selection of their works, translated where necessary into English. Ruhräh has thrown much light on the important contributions of long-forgotten writers, and he has carefully traced the progress of pediatrics from ancient times to the 19th century. The book includes a valuable bibliography.

Facsimile reproductions of the three earliest printed works on pediatrics: Bagellardo, Metlinger, and Roelans, together with a valuable prefatory essay on their importance.

This work covers the whole field of pediatrics to the end of the 18th century. It is a very readable, interesting and accurate history of the subject. Reprinted Folkstone, 1965. See No. 4503.

4404 entries. The rare books formerly in the John Crerar Library are now in the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago.

Fatio was probably the first surgeon to study and treat surgical conditions of children in a systematic fashion. His book, first published over 60 years after his death, is divided into five parts: 1) the anatomy of woman and on generation; 2) the pregnant woman and her diseases; 3) on natural and complicated deliveries; 4) the pregnant woman, her diseases, food and drink; 5) the care of newborn children and their diseases.  In the last part Fatio includes the earliest section on pediatric surgery in a medical book. He describes operations for hypospadias, hydrocolpos, imperforate anus and many more. Because he engaged in revolutionary political activity in the city of Basel Fatio was imprisoned, tortured, and executed in 1691. All of his manuscripts except the text of above work were burned by the authorities. See Rickham, The dawn of paediatric surgery: Johannes Fatio (1649-1691)-His life, his work and his horrible end, in No. 6357.9. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first systematic treatise on the subject, and a landmark in pediatric surgery. Includes an early account of colostomy and one of the earliest histories of that procedure. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Hillier performed the first therapeutic percutaneous nephrostomy for giant hydronephrosis with ureteropelvic junction obstruction in a four-year old boy.

In 1871 Hutchinson was the first successfully to operate on a case of intussusception in a two year-old infant. Preliminary account in Med. chir. Trans., 1876, 41 (2nd ser.), 99-102.

Discouraged by the high mortality of intussusception, Hirschsprung instituted a plan of controlled hydrostatic pressure reduction. By 1905 he was able to present a 35 per cent mortality based on 107 personal cases in a disease that was usually fatal in over 80 per cent of cases.

The first pyloromyotomy for pyloric stenosis, incising the pyloric muscle while leaving the mucosa intact and leaving the muscle to heal: “Rammstedt’s operation.” In 1920 Rammstedt discovered that the family name had originally been spelt Ramstedt; he therefore reverted to the original spelling for the rest of his life (see Lancet, 1963, 1, 674).

Ladd pioneered the development of pediatric surgery in the United States. Robert E. Gross, his chief resident, succeeded to his position at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Ablation of the tracheo-oesophageal fistula and primary end-to-end oesophageal anastomosis, first achieved in 1941.

Gross developed the specialty of pediatric surgery, inventing numerous operations. This was the first modern comprehensive textbook on the subject.

Well-documented illustrated series of historical articles by various authors.

Hereditary ectodermal dysplasia first described. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Axmann of Wertheim described osteogenesis imperfecta occurring in himself and his two brothers. He referred to the occurrence of articular dislocations and blue sclerotics. See also No. 6367.

Craniohypophyseal xanthomatosis was first reported by Sir Thomas Smith (see also No. 6359). Hand in 1893 (No. 6361), Schüller in 1915 (No. 6362), and Christian in 1919 (No. 6363) also reported cases, and the condition became known as the “Hand–Schüller–Christian syndrome”.

“Hand–Schüller–Christian syndrome”, which Hand called polyuria and tuberculosis.

Schüller described two more cases of the condition to which his name, with those of Hand and Christian, has been attached.

“Hand-Schüller-Christian syndrome”.

First description of the “Stevens–Johnson syndrome” (see No. 4150).

“Rowland collected 14 cases of the Hand–Schüller–Christian syndrome, and made the important generalization that it was due to xanthomatosis” (Rolleston).

“Eddowes’s syndrome” – blue sclerotics and fragility of the bones, occurring as a familial syndrome; osteogenesis imperfecta. See also No. 6358.1.

Laurence–Moon (–Biedl) syndrome first described. See also No. 6369.

Laurence–Moon–Biedl syndrome (see also No. 6368). Biedl’s cases were more fully described by W. Raab, in Wien. Arch. inn. Med., 1924, 7, 443-530.

Includes several references to the condition later known as “Reiter’s syndrome” (No. 6371).

“Reiter’s syndrome”, a disease of males characterized by initial diarrhea, urethritis, conjunctivitis, and arthritis. Reiter was a German Nazi physician and war criminal who conducted medical experiments at Buchenwald. He wrote a book on "racial hygiene" entitled Deutsches Gold, Gesundes Leben - Frohes Schaffen (1942)

"During World War I, Reiter worked first as a German military physician on the Western Front in France. While there, he cared for several soldiers suffering from Weil's disease, and made his first notable discovery that one of the causative bacteria were Leptospira icterohaemorrhagica, which had eluded culture methods and identification by other scientists ever since that disease had been recognized in 1886.^[3] Later, after being transferred to the Balkans, where he served in the 1st Hungarian Army, he reported a German lieutenant with non-gonococcal urethritis, arthritis, and uveitis that developed two days after a diarrheal illness and had a protracted course with relapses over several months. The combination of two of the elements, urethritis and arthritis, had been recognized in the 16th century, and the triad had first been reported by Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, an English surgeon who lived from 1783 to 1862. Separately from Reiter, the triad was also reported in 1916 by Fiessinger and Leroy.^[4] Reiter thought he saw a spirochete which he called Treponema forans, related to but distinct from Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, and erroneously thought it was the cause, calling the disease Spirochaetosis Arthritica.^[5][6] The error probably was influenced by his previous discovery of Leptospira icterohaemorrhagica, and by his work on Treponema pallidum that later enabled others to develop the "Reiter Complement Fixation Test" for syphilis.^[2] Nevertheless, the eponym Reiter's syndrome was used for the disease he described, and the syndrome became widely known by that name.^[7][8]"

"In 1977, a group of doctors began a campaign to replace the term "Reiter's syndrome" with "reactive arthritis". In addition to Reiter's war crimes, they pointed out that he was not the first to describe the syndrome, nor were his conclusions correct regarding its pathogenesis.^[10] Reiter incorrectly concluded that the triad of conjunctivitis, urethritis, and non-gonococcal arthritis was the result of a spirochetal infection and proposed the name "Spirochaetosis arthrosis".^[11] The group of doctors was joined by Dr. Ephraim Engleman, one of the authors on the first English-language journal article that used the term "Reiter's syndrome," who was still practicing 65 years later and had been unaware of his Nazi connections at the time he suggested the eponym. The campaign gradually gained momentum, and the term "Reiter's syndrome" has become increasingly anachronistic and has fallen out of favor.^[12][13]" (Wikipedia article on Hans Reiter (physician), accessed 3-2020).

See also No. 6370.

First definite description of the Hurler syndrome (No. 6371.2). Hunter became Professor of Medicine in the University of Manitoba.

Hurler syndrome (lipochondrodystrophy, gargoylism), earlier described by Hunter (No. 6371.1).

“Letterer–Siwe disease”; see also No. 6373.

Weve of Utrecht first clearly demonstrated the heritable nature of the Marfan syndrome (see No. 4365.1).

See No. 6372.

Behçet’s disease, previously described by H. Planner and F. Remenovsky, Arch. Derm. Syph. (Berlin), 1922, 140, 162-88.

This work by the resident physician at Deshima, the Dutch East India Company’s trading station in Nagasaki Bay, Japan, contains the first detailed description of acupuncture, and the first illustration of acu-points published in the West. Ten Rhijne correctly described fourteen acu-tracts but confused them with blood-vessels, a misidentification that persisted in later Western studies of acupuncture.

Kaempfer’s illustrated accounts of Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion are among the best of the 17th century. They appeared for the first time in the above work and were translated into English in his The History of Japan, 2 vols., London, 1727. Other fascicules of this work concern Japanese plants. Digital facsimile of the 1712 edition from ETH Zurich at this link.
Translated into English by Willem Floor and Colette Ouahes as Exotic attractions in Persia, 1684-1688: Travels & observations. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2018.

Dujardin seems to be the first European to discuss acupuncture within its historical context as an ancient remedy still found to be of practical value. His section on Chinese and Japanese medicine appears on pp. 75-104 of Vol. 1, and includes reproductions of Ten Rhijne’s plates. Volume 2 was edited by Bernard Peyrilhe. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

Berlioz, father of the composer, published the first French monograph on acupuncture. He had his best success with muscle and joint stiffness after falls, and rheumatic and arthritic states. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first English monograph on acupuncture. Churchill had most success with rheumatic conditions, sciatica, back-pain, etc. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The German translation of Churchill's book, Abhandlung über die Acupunctur. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von J. Wagner. Mit Vorrede und Zusätzen hrsg. von J. B. Friedreich. Bamberg: Ludwig Wesché, 1824, was the first treatise on acupuncture in German.

The first treatise on electro-puncture – the only significant Western contribution to acupuncture, and one of the most widely used methods of acupuncture today.

A section of Needham’s Science and civilisation in China series, separately published. Includes the best bibliography of early Western treatises on acupuncture.

De Medicina is the oldest Western medical document after the Hippocratic writings. Written about 30 CE, it remains the greatest medical treatise from ancient Rome, and the first Western history of medicine. Celsus’s superb literary style won him the title of Cicero medicorum. De medicina deals with diseases treated by diet and regimen and with those amenable to drugs and surgery. The surgical chapters contain the first accounts of the use of ligature, excellent descriptions of lateral lithotomy and herniotomy, and the earliest discussion of the surgical remedies for mutilations -- what we now call plastic surgery, including plastic operations for restoration of the nose, lips, eyelids, ears, etc. Celsus also included numerous important contributions to dentistry, including some of the earliest Western accounts of the treatment of toothache, oral surgery, tooth extraction, and fractures of the jaw.

The text of De Medicina seems to have been neglected at some point during the Middle Ages, and when it was no longer copied, it was eventually lost. A copy was discovered in Milan in 1443. ISTC no. ic00364000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

French physician and writer Symphorien Champier's biographical study of famous medical writers, De medicine claris scriptoribus in quinque partibus tractatus, issued as part of his Libelli duo, has been called the first history of medicine written after De medicina by the first century CE Roman writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus. The brief listing of the writings of these famous physicians which it includes is considered the first published bibliography of medical literature after Galen's bibliography of his own writings, De libris propriis liber, which was written in the second century CE, but not printed until 1525, and the brief bibliography of Galen's writings which was first published in Articella seu Opus artis medicinae,edited by Franciscus Argilagnes (Venice, 1483). 

Breslauer & Folter, Bibliography: Its History and Development (1984) No. 10. A bibliographical study of Champier by P.A. Allut appeared from Lyons in 1859; a check-list of his writings was published by J.F. Ballard and M. Pijoan in Bull. med. Libr. Ass., 1940, 28, 182-88.

An early history of diseases, with extensive sections on ophthalmology (ff. 66-77) and urology (ff. 260-271). Lib. IV, Cap. iii, page 196 contains the first recorded case of gastric ulcer. Lib. VI. cap. iii contains the first description of angioneurotic edema (later described as Quincke's edema, No. 4081). Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

Freind was the first English historian of medicine, and his book is a classic study of the period with which it treats. Freind dabbled in politics and planned the above work while committed to the Tower of London on a charge of high treason, a charge of which he was innocent. Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister at the time, suffered much from renal calculi and called in Richard Mead, a great friend of Freind. Mead refused to treat Walpole until Freind was released, and this was speedily arranged!

The first large history of medicine; Le Clerc is sometimes called the “Father of the History of Medicine”. The first edition appeared in 1696, but later editions are more useful. English translation, 1699. Reprint of 1729 edition, Amsterdam, B. M. Israel, 1967.

The first American publication on medical history. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

The work covers the "origin of medicine" from the time of the Creation to the Trojan War (6000 – 1184 BCE), and describes both Old and New World medical practices of the period. The lectures were necessarily relatively general, but the footnotes, which occupy more than half of the text, provide full details ("historical illustrations") and identify all of Lettsom's printed sources. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

A monumental work, full of information which was of great assistance to later historians. Includes a useful chronology. Third edition, 1821-28; fourth edition of vol. 1, 1846.

As an historian, Haeser was eclipsed only by his fellow-countryman Sudhoff. A third edition, in three volumes, appeared in 1875-82 and was reprinted, Hildesheim, G.Olms, 1971.

Vol. 2 was in 2 parts. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Until superseded by Garrison, Baas’s book was the most important one-volume text on the history of medicine. For an expert evaluation of it, see Garrison’s History, 4th ed., p. 884. An English translation, by H.E. Handerson was published in New York in 1889 as Outlines of the history of medicine. Digital facsimile of the 1876 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1889 translation from Google Books at this link.

“The most important American book dealing with the history of medicine up to its day” (Garrison). Among the essays Holmes chose to include were his works on homeopathy, puerperal fever, and his address at the dedication of the Boston Medical Library. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The only comprehensive multinational study of the development of medical education, and of limited value for coverage of the 19th century. Translated into English by Evan H. Hare as A history of medical education from the most remote to the most recent times (London, 1891), reprinted, with introduction by Erwin Ackerknecht, New York, Hafner, 1966. Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reprinted Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1966.

A classic brief history up to the early 19th century. Reprinted 1964.

A collection of lectures. The bibliography of the revised edition of 1922, for which Sudhoff was responsible, is significantly improved over the first edition.

English translation in Disease, life and man. Selected essays by Rudolf Virchow. Selected, translated, annotated, and introduced by L. J. Rather, Stanford, 1958.

Puschmann died before the completion of this work, and it was then edited by Pagel and Neuburger. It ranks with the work of Haeser; many authorities collaborated in the writing of the histories of the various subjects treated. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.