Cystine, the first amino-acid to be isolated, was prepared by Wollaston from a urinary calculus. This was also the first report of cystinuria.

This graduation dissertation was the first published brochure on cerebrospinal meningitis.  Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Introduced the theory of localization of cerebral function, although in a somewhat fantastic form. This pioneer attempt to map out the cerebral cortex according to function gave rise to the pseudo-science of phrenology. The work also contains some important additions to the knowledge of cerebral anatomy. Gall and Spurzheim ended their collaboration after the first 146pp. of Vol. 2. The remainder was written by Gall alone. The first edition was issued in two formats: (1) text and atlas all in folio and (2) text in quarto and atlas in folio. The second edition was revised by Gall, and published without the plates, but with a collection of replies to his critics as Sur les fonctions du cerveau et sur celles de chacune de ses parties. 6 vols., 8vo, Paris, l’Auteur, 1822-25. English translation of second edition, 6 vols., Boston, 1835.

Gomes obtained a substance, which he named cinchonino, from cinchona bark. That it contained the active principle of cinchona was later proved by Pelletier and Caventou. For an English translation of the paper, see Edinb. med. surg. J., 1811, 7, 420-31.

The beginning of the modern clinical conception of tuberculosis. Bayle gave the best description to date of the varieties of tuberculosis. He was first to use the term “miliary” to describe small tubercles and first to speak of tuberculous diathesis. He left an original description of the coarse character of the tubercle and its identity with the pulmonary, granular, and other varieties of tuberculosis. He recognized six types of pulmonary lesion. English translation, Liverpool, 1815.

The first workable process for canning foods. In 1795 Appert began developing the process under Napoleon’s auspices as a way to maintain food on military expeditions. For strategic reasons he was not allowed to publish the secret method until 1810. Appert’s method was strictly empirical. Pasteur eventually discovered a scientific explanation for the process and refined its operation. See Nos. 2479 & 2480. Digital facsimile of Appert's work from BnF Gallica at this link. Appert's work was translated into English as The art of preserving all kinds of animal and vegetable substances for several years (London, 1811).

"A man of compassion, Bell made many enemies because he was outspoken about the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted by incompetent surgeons practicing in Scotland. In 1800 he became involved in an unfortunate controversy with James Gregory (1753–1821), the professor of medicine at Edinburgh. Gregory in 1800 attacked the system whereby the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh acted in rotation as surgeons at the Royal Infirmary, with the result that the younger fellows were excluded. Bell, who was among the number, composed an Answer for the Junior Members (1800), and ten years later published a collection of Letters on Professional Character and Manners, which he had addressed to Gregory. After his exclusion from the infirmary he ceased to lecture and devoted himself to study and practice. (Wikipedia article on John Bell, accessed 1-2020)

The first systematic work on congenital syphilis.

Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, embodied his theories in the Organon. The minute doses set down by him did much to correct the evils of the polypharmacy of his time, in which overdosage was pervasive. Hahnemann professed to base medicine on a knowledge of symptoms, regarding investigation of the causes of symptoms as useless; he thus rejected the lessons of pathology. Digital facsimile of the 1810 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. There are several English translations, the first of which was made from the 4th German edition: The Homoeopathic Medical Doctrine, or "Organon of the healing art;" A new system of physic translated from the German of S. Hahnemann by Charles H. Devrient, with notes by Samuel Stratton. Dublin: W. F. Wakeman. 1833. Digital facimile of the 1833 English edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of Hahnemann's personal copy of the 5th edition of the Organon (1833) with his autograph revisions for the 6th edition (completed 1842) from UCSF Library at this link. 

"Hahnemann completed his work for the 6th edition in 1842, a year before his death. After Hahnemann’s death in 1843, his widow had a hand-written copy made of Hahnemann’s volume and notes. In 1920, James Ward and William Boericke, American homeopaths based in San Francisco, purchased both the interleaved volume and the manuscript copy. Richard Haehl, a German homeopath, acted as their agent. Haehl used the hand-written copy as the basis for the 6th edition, published in Germany in 1921. The interleaved volume was sent to Boericke in San Francisco, and he used it as the basis of the 1922 English-language edition" (https://www.library.ucsf.edu/archives/homeopathy/digital/).

Experimental excision of the pylorus.

The first medical book devoted to a single case of insanity, and the first illustration of an influencing machine, commonly complained of by paranoid patients.

The first book on mental deficiency. Thelwall recognized that sensory deprivation could be a cause of apparent mental defect through his work with handicapped children. He established criteria for distinguishing between intellectual capability and performance. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Hildenbrand gave a classic description of typhus. The French literature sometimes refers to the condition as “Hildenbrand’s disease”. English translation by S. D. Gross, 1829.

14,995 titles arranged according to medical subject. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Second edition, Paris: Institut Agronomique, 1991. Digital facsimile of the 1810 edition from BnFGallica at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link. Second edition, revised, corrected, and expanded with 50 additional pages, Paris, 1812. Digital facsimile of the second edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Valentin considered this work on the correction of deformities of the spine, neck, rickets, clubfoot, etc. one of the first "scientific" treatises on orthopedics. Digital facsimile from digitale-bibliothek-mv.de at this link.

Burns was the first to suggest (p. 31) ligature of the innominate artery. His book describes “Burns’s space”, the fascial space at the suprasternal notch.

The first recorded case of chloroma (myeloid sarcoma, granulocytic sarcoma, extramedullary myeloid tumor), a manifestation of acute myeloid leukemia, is found on p. 396 of this book. This was of course, about 30 years before leukemia was understood as a disease.

This anatomy for artists and sculptors contains 38 good copperplates in black and red.

First book on cerebrospinal meningitis; in it North recommended the use of the clinical thermometer, not in general use until the time of Wunderlich. For more information on this book, see the article by F. L. Pleadwell in Ann. med. Hist., 1924, 6, 245-57.

First complete chemical analysis of the nervous system.

Contains first reference to experimental work on the motor functions of the ventral spinal nerve-roots, without, however, establishing the sensory functions of the dorsal roots. This very rare privately printed pamphlet, the original edition was limited to 100 copies, is reproduced in Medical Classics, 1936, 1, 105-20. Facsimile reprint, London, 1966. Bell’s own annotated copy, preserved in the library of The Royal Society, is reproduced in Cranefield, The Way In and the Way Out: François Magendie, Charles Bell and the Roots of the Spinal Nerves, Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Futura Publishing, 1974. See No. 1588.9. Cranefield proves that Magendie (No. 1256) discovered the “Bell-Magendie law”.

First successful ligation of the external iliac artery in America (Aug. 19, 1811).

Langenbeck’s operation of iridencleisis for construction of artificial pupil. He was Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Göttingen.

Known as the Materia Medica Pura. Second edition, 6 vols, 1822-27. For the third edition, Hahnemann only wrote vols. 1 & 2 (1830-33). 

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first American book on pediatrics, in the tradition of "advice books" or childcare manuals for mothers. This was the first American printed book on a medical subject written by a woman. Pages 248-75 publish a list of plants with "medicinal qualities... serviceable in the complaints of children." Tyler had the work published anonymously. See C. Gibbons, "Mary Tyler and the Maternal physician," Journal of Regional Culture, 3, 33-34.

The first American textbook of anatomy. The first edition contained nearly 1000 pages of text, but no illustrations. Later editions were expanded, illustrated and updated by William E. Horner, and Joseph Pancoast. Digital facsimile of the first edition from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Only Mackenzie is credited with authorship on the title page. Holland and Bright accompanied Mackenzie on this voyage and exploration. On p. xi of the Preface Mackenzie indicates that he benefitted from Hooker's notes on the botany of Iceland. On p. xiii he credits Holland with the account of the diseases of the Icelanders, and credits Bright for the account of the zoology and botany of Iceland. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"In 1809 he went to Iceland to make a botanical survey for [Sir Joseph] Banks; his collections were lost in a fire at sea on the way home but with the aid of Banks’s notes from his own journey there in 1772 Hooker was able to produce an account which was published in 1811" (ODNB). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. There was also an issue from Yarmouth: Printed by J. Keyman, 1811, "Not Published".

Le Gallois described the action of the vagus nerve on respiration. He showed that bilateral section of the vagus can produce fatal bronchopneumonia. The above work includes (p. 37) his location of the respiratory center in the medulla , and not in the spinal cord, as had been previously believed. “For the first time, an area of brain substance within a major subdivision of the brain and having a specific function had been defined accurately by experiment” (Clarke & Jacyna).

Le Gallois is also remembered for his reviving, after Borelli, the neurogenic theory of the heart’s action; namely that the motor power of the heart comes from the spinal cord via branches of the sympathetic nerves. Le Gallois also developed a primitive isolated heart-lung preparation in rabbits and was the first to suggest the possibility of a heart-lung machine: “If the place of the heart could be supplied by injection, and if, for the regular continuance of this injection, there could be furnished a quantity of arterial blood, whether natural or artifcially formed . . . then life might be indefnitely maintained” (quoted in Fye, “Julien Jean César Legallois,” Clinical Cardiology 18 (1995): 599-600. . Digital facsimile of the 1812 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation by N. C. and J. G. Nancrede (Philadelphia, 1813) as Experiments on the principle of life, and particularly on the principle of the motions of the heart, and on the seat of this principle: including the report made to the first class of the Institute, upon the experiments relative to the motions of the heart. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

Cheyne believed that cerebral anemia might be the cause of apoplexy, and described pathological cases of cerebral infarction and of cerebral hemorrhage. The work contains the first illustration of a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Larrey was the greatest military surgeon in history. Of him Napoleon said: “C’est l’homme le plus vertueux que j’ai connu”. He was present at all Napoleon’s great battles and one of the few who stood by him on his abdication, and was waiting for him on his return in 1815. Larrey was one of the first to amputate at the hip-joint; he described the operation in vol. 2, pp. 180-95, reporting at least two successful cases. He was the first to describe the therapeutic effect of maggots on wounds, gave the first description of “trench foot”, invented the “ambulante volonte”, used advanced first-aid posts on the battlefield, and devised several new operations. He was familiar with the stomach tube, with débridement, and with the infectious nature of granular conjunctivitis (trachoma). He was a kindly man, who devoted much of his life to the well-being of the soldiers, among whom not even Napoleon commanded more love and respect. Larrey states on page 1 of vol. 5, published 24 years after vol. 4, that he intended it to complete his campaign memoirs. Vol. 5 includes his account of the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon’s exile.

English translation with notes by Richard Willmott Hall of vols. 1-3 in 2 vols. as Memoirs of military surgery and campaigns of the French armies, on the Rhine, in Corsica, Catalonia, Egypt and Syria; at Boulogne, Ulm and Austerlitz; in Saxony, Prussia, Poland, Spain, and Austria. Baltimore, 1814. English translation of vol. 4 by John C. Mercer, as Surgical memoirs of the campaigns of Russia, Germany, and France. Philadelphia, 1832.

Meckel classified malformations systematically, on the basis of altered developmental mechanisms, basing his work on embryology. See No. 2284.

First case of appendicitis reported in English, and the first in which perforation was recognized as the cause of death. John Parkinson was the son of James Parkinson (No. 4690).

David Pitcairn is accredited with the first reference to rheumatism as a cause of cardiac disease, in a lecture given in 1788. Jenner read a paper on the same subject in 1789, but the first clinical report on the subject to be published was that by Wells. Reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 294-312.

Goodlad successfully ligated the external iliac on July 29, 1811. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Physick was the first, in 1805, to use a stomach tube for gastric lavage in a case of poisoning. He acknowledged the priority of Monro secundus in the invention of a similar instrument in 1767. For history of the stomach tube, see R. H. Major, Ann. med. Hist., 1934, n.s. 6, 500-09.

Travers’s researches on intestinal sutures recorded the first accurate knowledge on this subject.

The first American textbook on psychiatry, and, considering the state of that science in Rush’s time, one of the most noteworthy. It underwent four editions.

Wells was the first to notice the presence of blood and albumin in edematous urine. He also established the fact that the edema occurred in the upper parts of the body, and he described the uremic seizures to which such cases are liable.

Mme Boivin was one of the most famous of the Paris midwives. She improved the speculum and wrote intelligently on hydatidiform mole.

This is the catalogue that Watt prepared of his own very carefully chosen medical library, and published for the use of his students. Because Watt chose the roughly 1000 books with great care the library is representative of the best information available to medical students in Scotland at the beginning of the 19th century. Reprinted in A bibliography of Robert Watt, M.D., author of the Bibliotheca Britannica. With a facsimile edition of his Catalogue of medical books and with a preliminary essay on his works: A contribution to eighteenth century medical history, by Francesco Cordasco (Detroit: Gale Research, 1968).

Assalini served as a military surgeon with the Napoleonic armies in Egypt, Spain, Germany, and Russia, taking part in 60 battles and 400 combats. He was wounded three times, and was eventually appointed First Surgeon to the Emperor. His career essentially ended with the fall of Napoleon. This work underwent numerous editions. Digital facsimile of the 4th corrected and expanded edition (1819) from Google Books at this link.

Frank was with Napoleon in Egypt; this volume contains numerous reports on aspects of medicine during that campaign. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Salvage's 21 plates after his own drawings "are based on three casts of bodies dissected to different anatomical layers and set in the pose of the Borghese Gladiator. For these casts he preferred to use the bodies of soldiers in their prime killed in duels rather than patients who died as a result of illness . . . Salvage, like Genga and Lancisi, presents the anatomy of the ideal forms of antique sculpture . . . The plates are colour-coded, with the muscles in red ink and the bones in black ink. The anatomy of the Borghese Gladiator is depicted in four views in a series of eleven plates. The contour of the body in the skeleton plates is given in red ink, and a broken line of the same colour is used for the detached muscles in the plates of deeper dissection . . . This system of transparent anatomy serves as an effective aide-mémoire for the viewer of the different anatomical layers and was a popular method of anatomical illustration” (Cazort, Kornell & Roberts, The Ingenious Machine of Nature, 105; also featuring an illustration from Salvage’s work on the cover). Salvage studied medicine at Montpellier and served as an army surgeon before joining the staff of the military hospital of Val-de-Grâce in 1796. His classically-inspired Anatomie, published the year before his death, also incorporates anatomical representations of the Belvedere Apollo, the Apollo of Florence, the infant Bacchus and the Farnese Hercules. 

Physiologists still consult Magendie’s classic description of the physiology of deglutition and vomiting. Magendie proved, against the current theory of Haller, that the stomach was passive rather than active in vomiting. This was essentially correct; however Magendie did fail to observe the active role of the plyloric end of the stomach. English translation in Ann. Phil., London, 1813, 1, 429-38.

Magendie showed that the epiglottis is not necessary for swallowing, which disproved the accepted doctrine that the epiglottis was necessary to cover the glottis to prevent food from entering the trachea.

Blackall predated Bright in detecting albuminuria in association with edema. His book, of which the second edition is more important than the first, includes reports on cases of angina pectoris.

Prichard, a Bristol physician, classified and systematized facts relating to the races of men better than any previous writer. His interest in anthropology was stimulated by one of the pressing questions of his day: Did all the races of mankind have a common origin, as stated in the Scriptures, or did they spring from different ancestral stocks? Prichard, a confirmed monogenist, sought to demonstrate the common origin of the human races by compiling evidence from a variety of fields, including anatomy, physiology, comparative psychology, linguistics and cross-cultural studies. He theorized that the earliest races of mankind had been dark-skinned, and that the black races, far from representing a degeneration from white "perfection," were the origin from which the white races had sprung.

The second edition of his book, 1826, contains a remarkable anticipation of modern views on evolution, views which were suppressed in later editions. Facsimile edited with an introductory essay [and bibliography] by G. W. Stocking, Jr., Chicago, University Press, 1973. The one-volume first edition was unillustrated. By the 3rd edition the work was expanded to 5 vols. (1836-47) and contained many color plates. In that form it synthesized all then known information about the various races of mankind, forming a basis for modern ethnological research.

Prichard issued a popularization of his work, with numerous color plates, as The natural history of man (1843). The fourth edition of that was edited and enlarged, and published in 2 vols. by Edwin Norris (1855). 

This was the most influential textbook of dermatology of the 19th century, and the work which conveyed Willan’s system to most of the medical world. Included in the book was material by Willan which remained unpublished from his unfinished On cutaneous diseases. The Synopsis also “contained material original to Bateman himself…and it also provided insights into the origins of the morphologic system and an appreciation of its limitations not to be found in the work it was designed to complete” (Crissey & Parish). Description of lichen urticatus appears on p. 13.

By his advocacy of absolute rest in the horizontal position without the aid of caustics and setons, Baynton can be said to have introduced the modern treatment of spinal caries in England. The book is dedicated to Edward Jenner.

Probably the second book on whooping cough, written after two of Watt's children died from the disease. After vaccination for smallpox was introduced, Watt found, as he had expected, that the number of deaths from that disease was reduced, and he expected to find a relative reduction in pediatric mortality as a whole. However, he found that no such reduction had occur, as children continued to die from other diseases. This result placed him in direct conflict with advocates for vaccination who hoped to show that curing smallpox would reduce deaths overall. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Sutton named and described alcoholic delirium tremens, differentiating the condition from phrenitis. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The pioneer work by an Englishman advocating humane treatment of the mentally ill. Tuke set out in this work the successful results of his experience with the “mild system of treatment” which had been instituted at The Retreat since its foundation. More than a multitude of learned tomes, this unpretentious work by a layman convinced both professionals and public alike of the value of humane treatment in psychiatric care.

The first systematic treatise on surgery written by an American. The work is notable for containing not only Dorsey’s original contributions, but for its publication of the work of Dorsey’s uncle and teacher, the pioneer American surgeon, Philip Syng Physick (1768-1837). Physick, who never learned to become a competent writer, asked his nephew to organize his teachings into a surgical handbook.

Beer is remembered for his textbook; the doctrines in it dominated practice for many years. He described the symptoms of glaucoma and noted the luminosity of the fundus in aniridia. He also presented for the first time the general principles of treating post-traumatic inflammations, including penetrating and perforating injuries as well as injuries to the orbit. He describes the first use of the loupe for the examination of the living eye. The plates in this work were both hand-colored and signed by Beer. He was a distinguished iridectomist. Many of his pupils became famous ophthalmic surgeons. Beer opened the first known eye hospital, in 1786, in Vienna. English translation, Glasgow, 1821.

The remarkable Thomas Young compiled this bibliography of works which he considered necessary to a complete medical library. Second edition, 1823.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first book in English on the materia medica of India, and a pioneering work in the field of Indian medical history. Ainslie joined the British East India Company as an assistant surgeon in 1788 and spent the next 27 years in India, eventually rising to the position of superintending surgeon of the southern division of the army in Madras. He was one of the first European scholars to investigate the traditional Hindu medical system known as Ayurveda,. The specific purpose of his book was to make indigenous remedies available to the British Army, thus reducing its reliance on expensive imported drugs; however, his larger purpose was to bridge the gap between the medical cultures of Europe and Asia. He was careful to distinguish the Indian medicines already known in Europe from those exclusively used by native physicians. Ainslie drew upon works in Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian and Arabic, all of which he cited in his bibliography. The names of the medicaments listed in the work are given in several languages, using roman, Tamil and Arabic types. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Enlarged and retitled second edition: The influence of tropical climates on European constitutions: to which is added tropical hygiene, or the preservation of health in all hot climates, (adapted to general perusal) (1813). Digital facsimile of the 2nd ed. from the Internet Archive at this link. There were also several later editions.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

The first Japanese exposition of the whole system of human anatomy, based on original observation. The work includes the records of three dissections performed in Kyoto in 1783, 1798, and 1802.

 “A Japanese treatise on anatomy and anatomical dissection in five volumes was published in 1813 by Shoshui or Boku or Koki Mitani (1774-1823) with the title Kaitai hatsumo. This was not the first original Japanese work on dissection, since priority in that respect had been established by the appearance in 1759 of the Zo-shi of Toyo Yamawaki. But that earlier work was short and its illustrative material limited to a few crude drawings of the viscera. Kaitai hatsumo appears, however, to be the first Japanese exposition on the whole system of human anatomy, based upon original observation (including dissection) and knowledge of other anatomical works. An inserted advertisement for this book [not present in this and many other copies] is translated to read as follows: ‘This book is Kaitai hatsumo, on some new Dutch theories and moreover some dissections of a real dead body to make it sure. And it has become clear that the Dutch theories are right and the traditional Japanese and Chinese theories which [have been] with us for 3000 years [are] quite wrong.’ (Somehow one gets here the impression of a persistent reluctance to relinquish the traditional anatomical beliefs in favor of the European knowledge which had come into Japan. After all, the gross inaccuracies of the traditional teachings had been firmly established by the work of Gempaku Sugita and his friends in the previous century)… “Scattered throughout the text of Kaitai hatsumo is a series of anatomical plates printed in color. These drawings were very well executed, and illustrate the following structures: thoracic and abdominal viscera, in situ; the lungs, with a careful dissection of the bronchial tree; the heart; the diaphragm; the spleen; the stomach; the liver and gall bladder; the kidneys, with their blood supply, and the ureters; the urogenital system, in male and female, with the plexus of veins draining testes and ovaries; the uterus, with Fallopian tubes and ovaries (the ovaries are shown as contained within the uterine tubes); the urinary bladder in the male, with testes and accessory organs of reproduction (seminal vesicles, prostate), and penis; the small and large intestines, with the vermiform appendix; the blood supply to the intestine through the mesentery; the pancreas; a schematic diagram of the lymphatics (called ‘water-ducts’) associated with the small intestine (the function of the lymphatics, it was be - lieved, was to control blood volume of the body); the general vascular system of the entire body; the system of spinal nerves; and, finally, the gross appear - ance of the brain… “The last volume of Kaitai hatsumo is in the form of an appendix, written by one of Mitani’s pupils named Konsei Minamoto. This work was of sufficient historical importance to be entirely reprinted in a facsimile edition as recently as 1930.”–Mestler, A Galaxy of Old Japanese Medical Books with Miscellaneous Notes on Early Medicine in Japan Part I. Medical History and Biography. General Works. Anatomy. Physiology and Pharmacology (1954) pp. 316-18 .

The first Western history of Chinese medicine. Lepage, a pupil of Pierre Sue, was a friend and colleague of pioneer sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat. In his medical thesis Lepage presented an overview of what was then known of Chinese medicine, drawing on Jesuit letters and other 18th-century European narratives of travels in China. Lepage “advocated understanding the state of the medical sciences among other peoples” and “proposed the long-range task of studying Asian systems and the more immediate one of reviewing those of the Chinese” (L. Barnes, Needles, Herbs, Gods and Ghosts: China, Healing and the West to 1848, p. 237.)

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Home plagiarized this large work from the manuscripts of John Hunter, his late father-in-law, and, as a result, of immense importance for publication of Hunter’s researches, and for aspects of Hunter's collection on which his "museum" was based. After he corrected the page proofs Home destroyed the original manuscripts by Hunter, on which this work was based. See Qvist, John Hunter (1981). Digital facsimiles from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Before turning to surgery, Brodie did important work in physiology. Above is his study of the influence of the pneumogastric nerve on gastric secretion.

For this work Wells was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society. His researches on the subject were of major importance in the development of the science of ventilation, particularly in its relation to relative humidity and the influence of the latter on the comfort of the occupants of factories, ships, theatres, etc. Wells was physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, from 1800 until his death.

Orfila, pioneer toxicologist, was the leading medico-legal expert of his time. He was born in Minorca, studied at Valencia, Barcelona, and Paris, and was one of the founders of the Académie de Médecine. Digital facsimile of the French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation, 1815-17.

Adams was a pioneer in medical genetics. He distinguished between familial and hereditary diseases, saw that an increase in hereditary disease frequency in isolated areas could be caused by inbreeding, and suggested the establishment of hereditary disease registers. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first monograph on congenital defects of the heart.

Post, Professor of Surgery and Anatomy at Columbia College, New York, was the first in America to ligate the common carotid artery for aneurysmal disease.

First successful ligation of the internal iliac, Dec. 27, 1812. The patient died in 1822 and an account of the autopsy is given by Richard Owen in Med.-chir. Trans.,1830, 16,219-35.

This treatise on infantile eczema is the only fascicule of the second volume of Willan’s On cutaneous diseases (No.4018) that ever appeared in print. It was edited for publication after Willan's death by his stepson-in-law Ashby Smith.

First successful pericardiocentesis. The above reference is not to his first writing on the subject, which cannot be traced. See also Dict.Sci. med.,1819, 40, 370.

The first full-length book on dentistry published in the United States, and the first American book on the subject with a dental illustration.

Colles’s description of fracture of the carpal end of the radius led that type of fracture to be named “Colles’s fracture”. He was Professor of Surgery at Dublin for more than 30 years. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 1038-42.

The first survey of all plants of North America above Mexico, including more than 3,000 species and 470 genera; describes more than 100 species collected by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Digital facsimile from Botanicus at this link.

Digital facsimile from patrimoines-martinique.org at this link.

Henry wrote that he had been a captive of the Indians during the Creek War and that he incorporated what he learned during his captivity. His work was one of the first illlustrated herbals published in the United States. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The greatest work of medical botany published during the Napoleonic period; considered a masterpiece of color print production with 425 plates printed in color and finished by hand. The medicinal aspect appears to have been loosely interpreted, and the scope of the work was expanded to include grapes, melon, palms, pineapple, pomegranates, bananas, and other interesting but non-medicinal plants. It was written by physician-botanists Chaumeton, Poiret, and Chamberet, and illustrated by Ernestine Panckoucke and Jean Francois Turpin. Only Chaumeton's name appeared as author on the title page. Panckoucke and Turpin were credited as illustrators on the title page. Digital facsimile of the 1828-1832 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

From 1800 until Laennec's discovery of auscultation, there were only four major text-books on heart disease, that of Burns in England, of Corvsart in France, Testa in Italy, and Kreysig in Germany. It has its strong points such as advocating digitalis and sound views on angina pectoris and coronary disease; Kreysig's wide review of the literature provides a good picture of cardiology at the time" (Bedford 416). "Kreysig first demonstrated endocarditis long beofre Bouillaud, and was acquainted with defects of the cardiac valves. The so-called 'purring' tremor was also known to him before Laennec, and he likewide recognized rheumatism as a cause of heart disease before Bouillaud" (Baas).

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Carmichael "subdivided venereal infections into four major classes, each of which he maintained had a distinct exciting poison, a peculiar primary manifestation and a separate series of constitutional affections. From this he inferred that there were four varieties of morbid poison on which the existence of all these symptoms depended . . .Carmichael was correct in identifying that syphilis presented itself in many forms, both the primary and secondary lesions of syphilis can appear in one or in a variety of manifestations. His theory about the
plurality of poisons was however misdirected” (Spongberg, Feminizing Venereal Disease, p. 30). Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

The 4 hand-colored plates of unusual and extreme cases are a feature of this work. In 1817 Nathaniel Chapman (1780-1853) paid for an American edition of Carmichael's work to be published in Philadelphia. That edition contained American copies of Carmichael's plates engraved by the American engraver Alexander Lawson (1773-1846). Those plates were among the finest engraved and hand-colored medical illustrations published in American up to that date. Lawson had previously been the engraver of the images in Wilson's American Ornithology, 9 vols., 1808-1814.

An elaborate expansion of Lamarck’s one-volume work with the same title published in Paris, 1801 (No.215.5). As a systematist Lamarck made important contributions to biology. He separated spiders and crustaceans from insects, made advances in the classification of worms and echinoderms, and introduced the classification of animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. The introduction to this work includes Lamarck’s summary of his four laws of evolution. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Chevreul characterized cholesterol.

Guthrie was the leading British military surgeon during the first half of the 19th century. He served in the Napoleonic Wars; his book is one of the most important in the history of the subject.

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.

Carson recognized the vital effect on venous return played by the negative pressure in the pleural cavity.

Includes the best illustrations of aneurysms and of aortic valvular endocarditis so far published, and the first description on non-sacculated dilatation of the aortic arch (“Hodgson’s disease”).

Colles tied the subclavian artery in 1811 and again in 1813. Garrison reminded us that Colles is credited with the first successful ligation of the innominate artery in Europe, but was unable to verify this. The paper was reprinted in Medical Classics, 1940, 4, 1043-72.

Chevreul proved that the sugar in diabetic urine is glucose.

Delabarre was one of the first to systematize occlusal anomalies through description and illustration of individual kinds. He also developed some of the earliest orthodontic appliances using bands. 

“Lisfranc’s amputation” of the foot.

"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.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Publication date is estimated.

Park died in Africa in 1806, as a result of conflicts with native peoples. This volume includes the journal of Isaaco, an African, who served as Mungo Park's guide. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

When this was published Tilton was serving as the first Surgeon General of the Army. On the title page of his book he characterized himself as "Physician and Surgeon in the Revolutionary Army of the United States." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Modeled on Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, this work covered the geography, antiquities, topography, medical conditions and goverment of Ohio.

Digital facsimile from digital.cincinnatilibrary.org at this link.

The first book on dentistry published in Canada. Facsimile edition, Montreal, 1969.

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link:

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Crosse, a British surgeon whose name appears without the final "ed" on the title page, was a British surgeon who spent the winter of 1814-15 in Paris, where he wrote numerous letters to friends in london and Dublin describing Parisina hospital practices. These were then collected and published in this book, "the most measured and detailed British account of study in Paris" (Brockliss, “The new Paris medical school and the invention of the clinic,” in Cross and D. Williams, eds., The French Experience from Republic to Monarchy, 1792-1824, 137.)

The primary record of medicine during the War of 1812.

The first modern physiology textbook, in which doctrine gave way to simple, precise descriptions of experimental facts. Vol. 2 contains Magendie’s classic demonstration of the importance of nitrogenous food, or protein, in the food supply of mammals. In the course of his experiments on dogs fed non-nitrogenous substances, Magendie also induced the first experimental cases of what would later be called an avitaminosis (specifically, lack of vitamin A.) Translated into English by John Revere as A summary of physiology, Baltimore, Edward J. Coale & Co., 1822.

Digital facsimile of the 1822 edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

In his early account of chronic tetany, Kellie referred to carpo-pedal spasm and spasms of the glottis as part of the syndrome.

Döbereiner was the first to treat the subject of light therapy on a scientific basis.

This work "included a summary of more than two dozen experiments he [Parry] conducted on a variety of mammals. In this book he discussed the pulsatile expansion of the arteries and importance of collaterals. Parry refuted the theory that arterial pulsation was due to an intrinsic property of the vessels themselves. He attributed their motion to the force given to the blood by ventricular systole" (W. Bruce Fye, "Caleb Hillier Parry," Profiles in Cardiology, 71).

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

On July 2, 1815, Guthrie successfully ligated the peroneal artery of a German soldier wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.

Brodie first operated for varicose veins in 1814.

First accurate description of keloid (“Alibert’s keloid”), although it was mentioned by Retz in 1790.

Carpue revived the Hindu method of rhinoplasty (see No. 5735.1), and reported two successful cases. Facsimile edition, with biography of Carpue by Frank C. McDowell and bibliography of his writings, Birmingham, Classics of Medicine Library, 1981. German translation by C.F. von Graefe, Berlin, Realschulbuchhandlung, 1817.

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.

Physick, the “Father of American surgery”, graduated at Edinburgh, having been a pupil of John Hunter. He introduced several new procedures in surgery, one of which was the use of absorbable kid and buckskin ligatures to replace silk or flax sutures then in use.

Mascagni's anatomy for artists and sculptors, edited for posthumous publication by Mascagni's literary execultor Francesco Antonmarchi. 15 hand-colored engraved plates after drawings by Antonio Serantoni (1780j-1837), an artist that Mascagni trained and worked with for many years.

"Burnett in 1816 described an epidemic of a short term fever occurring among the Naval Forces engaged in the Siege of Malta in 1799, and this fever was almost certainly phlebotomus" (Coulter, The Royal Naval Medical Service: Administration, p. 230). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

An exceptionally well-written bio-bibliographical study of Jourdain's accomplishments and publications published in the year of his death. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"M. F. Cuvier est chargé de la direction générale de l'ouvrage."  Digital facsimile from commons.wikipedia.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Excludes Sandifort's medical books, which presumably he bequeathed to his son Gerard, who contributed a preface to this catalogue.

Second edition in five vols., 1829–1830. After Cuvier's death 12 "disciples" of Cuvier brought out a third edition in 22 vols. from 1836 to 1849. The 12 "disciples" were Jean Victor Audouin (insects), Gerard Paul Deshayes (molluscs), Alcide d'Orbigny (birds), Antoine Louis Dugès (arachnids), Georges Louis Duvernoy (reptiles), Charles Léopold Laurillard (mammals in part), Henri Milne Edwards (crustaceans, annelids, zoophytes, and mammals in part), Francois Desire Roulin (mammals in part),Achille Valenciennes (fishes), Louis Michel Français Doyère (insects), Charles Émile Blanchard (insects, zoophytes) and Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (annelids, arachnids etc.). The work was illustrated with tables and plates (at the end of Volume IV) covering only some of the species mentioned. A much larger set of illustrations was published by the entomologist Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in his Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier (9 vols, 1829-1844).  Its 448 quarto plates by Alfred Joseph Annedouche, Canu, Eugène Giraud, Lagesse, Lebrun, Vittore Pedretti, Plée and Smith illustrated 6200 animals. Cowan. "On the Disciples' Edition of Cuvier's Regne Animal", J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist. 8 (1) (1976) 32–64. Several English translations were published, the first of which was probably that of John Edward Gray (1824). See Coleman, Georges Cuvier zoologist, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1964. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

“Parkinson’s disease”–paralysis agitans. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 946-97. Facsimile edition, with biography of Parkinson by Macdonald Critchley, London, 1955. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See also parkinsonslife.eu.

Pander’s doctoral thesis (unillustrated) in which he announced his discovery of the trilaminar structure of the chick blastoderm, a term that he coined. Pander's discovery stimulated von Baer’s research. Also in 1817 Pander paid for the publication of an illustrated German-language edition of the thesis: Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Hühnchens im Eye (Würzberg, 1817). Digital facsimile of the Latin edtion from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the German-language edition from Google Books at this link.  

First important account of tabes dorsalis.

Carlisle, a distinguished surgeon and anatomist, advised young people to adopt a sound regimen early in life in order to secure longevity. Addressing himself directly to old people he described diseases common to the elderly and paid particular attention to the problems of performing surgical operations on the aged.

Barton served as a naval surgeon and, in 1815, became Professor of Botany at Philadelphia. Along with Bigelow (No. 1842) Barton’s work is one of the first two botanical works with colored plates issued in the United States.

Bigelow was professor of materia medica and botany at Harvard. This work included native American remedies. It was the first book printed in the United States to include color plates printed in color. See R.J. Wolfe, Jacob Bigelow's American medical botany, 1817-1821 …Boston: Boston Medical Library, 1979. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Meckel’s work on embryology brought a better understanding of congenital malformations, which had previously been attributed by many to supernatural influence. This work illustrates a number of anomalies and other diseases. It is a supplement to his Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie. See No. 534.56.

Botulism first described. Kerner published an expanded study as Neue Beobachtungen über die in Würtemberg so häufig vorfallenden tödtlichen Vergiftung durch den Genuss geräuchter Würstem, Tübingen, 1820. He published his most extensive report as Das Fettgift oder Die Fettsäure und ihre Wirkungen auf den thierischen Organismus, ein Beitrag zur Untersuchung des in Würsten giftig wirkenden Stoffes (1822). This monograph "reviewed 155 cases of poisoned patients and precisely described the autonomic dysfunctions: “The tear fluid disappears, the gullet becomes a dead and motionless tube; in all mucous cavities of the human machine the secretion of the normal mucus stands still, from the largest, the stomach, to the tear duct and the excretory ducts of the lingual glands. No saliva is secreted. No drop of wetness is felt in the mouth…”. (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)78793-6/fulltext).

Double introduced and applied auscultation (pp. 31 and 186).

This is Cloquet’s medical thesis. It was followed by his thesis in competition for head of the anatomy section of the Paris Faculty: Recherches sur les causes et l’anatomie des hernies abdominales. Paris, Méquignon-Marvis, 1819. Marcy (No. 3601) considered Cloquet’s work to be in the class of Cooper and Scarpa. Cloquet's 1817 work was illustrated with plates engraved by his father. The lithographed plates in the work of 1819 were drawn on stone by Cloquet himself, and are among the earliest lithographed medical illustrations. See No. 409. Digital facsimile of the 1817 work, followed by the 1819 work, from the Internet Archive at this link.

Rostan gave an early description of cardiac (“Rostan’s”) asthma.

Post was the first successfully to ligate the subclavian artery outside the scaleni (Sept. 8, 1817).

Bateman, the pupil of Willan, continued his teacher’s classification of skin diseases. The above work is notable for its 72 colored plates. Strictly speaking it is the first atlas of dermatology, as Willan’s work falls more into the category of illustrated treatise. This book includes numerous original contributions by Bateman. Originally issued in 12 fasciculi from 1814-1817. Unchanged reprint, 1828. 

Includes (pl. lii) important description of herpes iris (erythema iris), and of the eczema due to external irritation (pl. lv-lviii, eczema solare, impetiginoides, rubrum mercuriale). Pl. lxi represents the first description of molluscum contagiosum, but according to Paterson (No. 4032) the disease was probably noticed by Tilesius about 1793. Bateman refers to Tilesius but calls his case molluscum pendulum. 

Prostatic carcinoma first reported (p. 279).

Classic description of achondroplasia. Romberg’s graduation thesis. English translation (Sydenham Society), 1853.

Isolation of emetine. It was not until a century later that Vedder demonstrated its value in the treatment of amoebiasis. Also during 1817 Magendie and Pelletier published "Recherches chimiques et physiologiques sur l’ipécacuanha," Ann. Chim. Phys. (Paris), 4, 172-85. 

McDowell was a pioneer ovariotomist. Although not the first to perform this operation, he deserves credit for putting it upon a permanent basis. The above records his first ovariotomy, performed in 1809, together with two later cases. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 651-53.

Reports the first successful vaginotomy for abdominal pregnancy, as opposed to an abdominal laparotomy. 

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.

Lorenz Oken, a leading light in the Nature-Philosophical School in Germany, produced important work in the field of biology. He founded the journal Isis, which published articles of great value; its incursion into the field of German politics led to a demand for the resignation of Oken from his professorship or the suppression of his journal. Oken resigned and continued to publish Isis.

The first English work on the forensic aspects of mental illness. Digital facsimile from Wellcome Forensics Collection, Internet Archive, at this link.

"From 1815 to 1817 Maclean travelled in Spain, Turkey, and the Levant, and he studied the plague at the Greek Pest Hospital at Constantinople, in the service of the Levant Company. His experiences in the Levant and in India provided the basis for his most important medical work, The Results of an Investigation Respecting Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (1817). Here Maclean restated his opposition to the theory that epidemic diseases were contagious, adding that the quarantine measures then imposed routinely in most Mediterranean ports against vessels sailing from the Levant had no basis in medical fact" (ODNB).  Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

In 1816 Leacock, from Barbados, reported systematic experiments in Edinburgh on dogs and cats that established that donor and recipient must be of the same species, and recommended inter-human transfusion; he then returned to Barbados and published nothing more.

Eduard von Graefe’s medical thesis described the method devised by his brother, Carl Ferdinand von Graefe (1787-1840), for transfusing blood or other liquids into the blood vessels. The work includes an illustration of the elder Graefe’s transfusion apparatus, which consisted of a silver syringe, a cannula and a trocar. Graefe’s transfusion method involved “opening the vena mediana when uncovered by means of a trocar; after the stiletto is drawn back, the blood or any other liquid is injected by the canule. Should it be necessary to repeat the operation, a lead probe is passed into the opening of the vein, to prevent its obliteration” (Ullersperger, p. 426).

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Perhaps the oldest separate work on the psychological development of children, written five years after Grohmann published a work on the education of children. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Relative to the suffering of Napoleon's soldiers during the bitter cold of Russian winters, includes methodology of resucitation of victims of freezing. Digital facsimile of thesis issue of the 1817 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. The same publisher also issued a trade issue in 1817.

Translated into English by John Clendinning as A treatise on the effects and properties of cold, with a sketch, historical and medical, of the Russian campaign. With an appendix by the translator. Edinburgh: Machlachlan & Stewart, 1826. Digital facsimile of the translation from Google Books at this link.

The history of epidemics and epizootics in Europe since the 14th century. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link. Greatly revised, corrected and augmented second edition, Paris & Lyon, 1835. Digital facsimile of the 2nd edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This unfinished work with 22 spectacular plates included some full body images of patients, and unlike other illustrated works by Alibert, it concerned more than skin diseases. Vol. 2 was never published but a second, posthumous edition with 33 plates appeared in 1838.

Digital facsimile of the 1822 edition from Google Books at this link.

In this work Serres described the glands of Serres, epithelial remnants of the dental lamina. These have the capicity to form small cysts (Bohn's nodules). Serres believed that gingival crevicular fluid was secreted from this tissue.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first book printed in heavily embossed type for the blind. In 1819 Sebastien Guillé issued a second edition of this work identifying himself as the author.

First anatomical illustrations of frozen sections. De Riemer appears to have been the first to freeze tissues in order to permit fine sectioning for the purposes of diagnosing diseased tissue. Digital facsimile from UniversitatsBibliothek Heidelberg at this link.

“A valuable surgical record of the Napoleonic period” (Garrison).

Jacobson described the tympanic canal, nerve, and plexus, all of which are named after him. In 1809 he discovered “Jacobson’s organ”, as reported two years later by G. Cuvier.

The elder Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is credited with coining the word teratology, and was the first seriously to attempt the experimental production of anomalies, by manipulating chick eggs. See T. Cahn, La vie et l'oeuvre d’Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Paris, 1962.  Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Blundell invented a syringe by means of which he was able to transfuse dogs.

First statement of the theory of natural selection. Wells’s paper on a white woman with patchy brown discoloration of the skin contains an almost complete anticipation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, although it was completely ignored until it was resurrected by a correspondent of Darwin in the 1860s. The volume also contains Wells’s autobiography. See no. 1604.

First accurate description of the condition which later became known as “Cheyne–Stokes respiration.” Reprinted in F. A. Willius & T. E. Keys: Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 317-20.

First ligation of the innominate artery, May 11, 1818. The artery was tied off half an inch below its bifurcation, and the patient suffered no respiratory or circulatory embarrassment. The ligature separated from the artery on the 14th day, but on the 20th day the patient was able to walk downstairs. A fatal hemorrhage occurred from the wound, however, and the patient died on the 26th day.

Dupuytren was the first successfully to treat aneurysm by compression.

Brodie’s best work. It includes his description of hysterical pseudo-fracture of the spine and the first clinical description of ankylosing spondylitis. The fifth edition, 1850, gives (p. 77) a description of “Brodie’s disease” – chronic synovitis with a pulpy degeneration of the affected parts.

Heinroth drew his psychology from the Bible and maintained that mental health was maintained only by piety and that sin engendered madness; for him treatment was by repentance and a return to the fold. English translation, 2 vols., Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1975.

Ballingall distinguished between amoebic and bacillary dysentery. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Von Graefe revived rhinoplasty in Germany with this survey of what he called the three methods: the Italian, the Indian, and the “German” method, his own variation on the Italian method. On p. 13 he described the first truly successful case of blepharoplasty, performed in 1809. Latin translation by J. Hecker, 1818. Digital facsimile of the 1818 German edition from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Cooper, the pupil and great interpreter of Hunter, was the most popular surgeon in London during the Regency. In 1802 he gained the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. Travers was surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and particularly distinguished himself in vascular surgery and ophthalmology. The book includes a description of “Cooper’s tumor”.

In 1817 Cooper ligated the abdominal aorta. The patient died next day, but examination showed that his aorta was so diseased that he could never have recovered, while the ligation was so well performed that with a lesser degree of aortic disease the man would probably have survived. Cooper published the report of this operation in Vol. 1, 101-30.

Includes the first description of glaucoma in which heightened intraocular pressure is recognized, credit for which goes to the author’s father, Pierre Demours (1702-95), whose portrait appears in the atlas in recognition of this. The atlas also contains the first French translation of Soemmerring (No. 1489) with additional plates.

Expansion of No. 6166. First book on the subject.

Artificial induction of premature labour.

Includes (Bd. 2, Abt II, p. 302) description of Osiander’s lower-segment Caesarean operation.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first comprehensive botany of the United States. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Translated into English by B. H. Black and published in 1819 as Directions for the treatment of persons who have taken poison, and those in a state of apparent death: Together with the means of detecting poisons and adulterations in wine, also the means of distinguishing real from apparent death: With an appendix, on suspended animation and the means of prevention. Digital facsimile of the 1818 French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the First American (English) edition (1819) from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

The full digitized text of the 1818 is available from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first French national pharmacopeia. The French pharmacopeia became the model for later national attempts to publish national pharmacopeias. Notably the first U.S. pharmacopeia was issued in 1820. After a legal notice in French this work is entirely in Latin, making in one of the later significant medical publications in Latin. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first pharmacopeia printed in Turkey. This was a translation into Greek from Brugnatelli's Farmakopoea ad uso degli Speziali, e Medici Moderni della Repubblica Italiana. The printer in Istanbul was not identified. It is probable that this was the first work on a medical subject printed in the Ottoman Empire. Halil Tekiner – Afife Mat – Mert Sandalci, A Concise History of Turkish Pharmacopoeias from 1818 to Present (http://www.histpharm.org/ISHPWG%20Turkey.pdf).

Catalogues 1150 anatomical preparations in the anatomical museum at Kiel. Foreward by anatomist/pathologist Johann Leonhard Fischer (1760-1833) who was responsible for much of the collection.

Chamisso was naturalist on the Kotzebue voyage of 1815-1818. This monograph on certain Vermes included the first description of several of the tunicates and the earliest use of the expression “alternation of generations”. Nissen, Zoologische Buchillustration, 862.

The only book on the War of 1812 by a British or Canadian surgeon, and the first medical book on the Province of Ontario, Canada. This and the work of Mann (No. 2161.1) are the only books on medicine in the War of 1812. Reprint with introduction by C.G. Roland, 1985.

Includes description of “Burdach’s column”, the posterior column of the spinal cord. This work is also “an unrivalled source of historical information on macroscopical neuroanatomy” (Meyer).

Records the first human to human transfusion. A man received 12 to 14 oz. of blood from several donors by means of Blundell’s funnel and syringe. He died 56 hours after the transfusion.

Isolation of strychnine.

“Jacob’s membrane”, the layer of the retina containing the rods and cones.

Purkynĕ’s graduation dissertation on the subjective visual phenomena earned for him the appreciation of Goethe and the chair of physiology at Breslau. Reprinted in his Opera omnia, vol. 1, pp. 1-56,1918. There were two issues of the first edition published the same year. The second edition was published in 1823.

This book revolutionized the study of diseases of the chest. Auscultation in the instrumental sense dates from Laennec’s invention of the stethoscope (at first merely a roll of stiff paper) with a view to amplifying the sound of the heart’s action. The work illustrates Laennec's wooden stethoscope, which could be purchased from the publishers, and which was advertised for sale on the original printed wrappers of the first edition. Laennec's first wooden stethoscope was in two parts; later he invented a three-part stethoscope.

Laennec was considered the greatest teacher of his time on tuberculosis. Indeed, it was in elaboration of his investigation of the disease that he invented the stethoscope. He established the fact that all phthisis is tuberculous, described pneumothorax and distinguished pneumonia from the various kinds of bronchitis and from pleuritis. “Laennec’s cirrhosis” – chronic interstitial hepatitis – is described on p. 368 of Vol. 1. The second edition, 1826, is even more important, since it gives not only the various physical signs elicited in the chest, but adds the pathological anatomy, diagnosis, and treatment of each disease encountered. Laennec died of tuberculosis at the early age of 45. English translation of the first edition by J. Forbes, London, 1821. 

Bostock’s classical description of the “catarrhus aestivus,” hay fever, is also referred to as “Bostock’s catarrh”. It begins the modern era in the clinical recognition of hay fever. The case he described was in fact himself. He was physician to Guy’s Hospital, London.

Dupuytren successfully ligated the subclavian artery on March 7, 1819.

Carpue popularized suprapubic lithotomy, a procedure not often previously carried out.

“Dupuytren’s fracture”, of the ankle, described in a learned 212-page review of ankle fractures, and of the normal anatomy and function of the ankle joint. “Of especial interest is the description of experimental fractures produced in cadavers to elucidate the mechanism of injury” (Peltier).

Report of Roux’s operation on Stephenson (No. 5740). English translation in No. 5768.2. Roux recorded it more fully in his Quarante années de pratique chirurgicale, vol. 1. Paris, Masson, 1854. See No. 5741.2.

Best work of its time on the mechanism of labor. English translation, London, 1829.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Pascalis mapped this yellow fever outbreak using a method similar to Valentine Seaman, but with a more extensive and detailed list of cases. A condensation of his 60-page pamphlet with a reissue of his map appeared in the Medical Repository,  a journal edited by Pascalis and Samuel L. Mitchell, Vol. 5 (1820). Digital facsimile of the 1819 pamphlet from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

This work set forth Lawrence's then radical and remarkably advanced ideas concerning evolution and heredity. Arguing that theology and metaphysics had no place in science, Lawrence relied instead on empirical evidence in his examination of variation in animals and man, and the dissemination of variation through inheritance. On the question of cause, Lawrence disagreed with those who ascribed variation to external factors such as climate, and rejected the Lamarckian notion of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. His understanding of the mechanics of heredity was well ahead of his time: he stated that "offspring inherit only [their parents'] connate qualities and not any of the acquired qualities," and that the "signal diversities which constitute differences of race in animals . . . can only be explained by two principles . . . namely, the occasional production of an offspring with different characters from those of the parents, as a native or congenital variety; and the propagation of such varieties by generation" (p. 510). While Lawrence did not grasp the role that natural selection plays in the origination of new species, he recognized that "selections and exclusions," including geographical separation, were the means of change and adaptation in all animals, including humans. He noted that men as well as animals can be improved by selective breeding, and pointed out that sexual selection was responsible for enhancing the beauty of the aristocracy:

"The great and noble have generally had it more in their power than others to select the beauty of nations in marriage; and thus . . . they have distinguished their order, as much by elegant proportions of person, as by its prerogatives in society" (p. 454) Lawrence investigated the human races in detail, and insisted that the proper approach to this study was a zoological one, since the question of variation in mankind "cannot be settled from the Jewish Scriptures; nor from other historical records" (p. 243). The Natural History of Man came under fire from conservatives and clergy for its materialist approach to human life, and Lawrence was accused of atheism for having dared to challenge the relevance of Scripture to science. In 1822 the Court of Chancery ruled the Natural History blasphemous, thus revoking the work's copyright. Lawrence was forced to withdraw the book; however, it continued to be republished in unauthorized editiions. Darwin , who owned one of the unauthorized editions, cited Lawrence's book five times in The Descent of Man (1871)

Privately printed pamphlet describing Sarlandière's "artificial leech," a mechanical bleeding device designed to replace leeches when they were not available. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this work Rudolphi detailed the life cycle of nematode parasites of mankind, such as the parasitic roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides.  Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

"Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859) was one of the outstanding dental practitioners and teachers in the early part of the eighteenth century, both in America and Europe. He published two highly regarded books, practiced and taught in London for several years, before returning to America, where he became the most eminent dental practitioner in the southern United States. He had great financial success and used his time and money to offer free dental service to children. His major contribution to dental science was the concept that dental caries was caused by external influences related to foreign material on the tooth surface. This was before our knowledge of dental plaque and the action of the oral bacteria. Based upon this concept, he stressed the importance of clean teeth to prevent tooth decay" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12641168/).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.