First case of choriocarcinoma reported in North America.

Original description of “Krukenberg’s tumor”.

Mackenrodt’s operation for the plastic reconstruction of the vagina.

Wertheim demonstrated the gonococcus in acute cystitis.

An outstanding account of myomectomy.

Kelly, professor of gynecology at Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, was a leading gynecologist in America. This work is notable for its 315 illustrations and ten plates, mostly by Max Brödel, the most famous medical illustrator in America from around 1890 to 1940. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

“Brenner tumor” first described; see also No. 6118.

Includes first clinical and pathological study of hyperplasia of the endometrium. Cullen is remembered eponymically for “Cullen’s sign”, a discoloration of the skin about the umbilicus, regarded as a sign of ruptured ectopic gestation. See Nos. 6220 & 6124.1.

Gilliam’s operation for prolapse.

Noble introduced a flap operation for atresia of the vagina.

“Pfannenstiel’s incision”.

Wertheim’s radical operation for cancer of the uterus.

“Baldy–Webster operation”. Webster’s method of treating retrodisplacement of the uterus was later modified by J. M. Baldy, Amer. J. Obstet. Dis. Wom., 1902, 45, 650-54, and N.Y. med. J., 1903, 78, 167-69.

Baldwin’s operation.

“Brenner tumor”, earlier described by Orthmann (No. 6109). See the historical note in Cancer, 1956, 9, 217.

Donald’s operation for prolapse.

Radical vaginal hysterectomy for carcinoma of the cervix.

Blair Bell was an outstanding figure in British gynecology and one of the founders of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Cary was the first to perform salpingography.

Independently of Cary (No. 6122) Rubin performed salpingography. Preliminary communication in Zbl Gynäk., 1914, 38, 658-60.

Fothergill’s modification of Donald’s operation for prolapse.

Contains the first reference to what would become known as “Cullen’s sign”, discoloration of the skin about the umbilicus, as a sign of ruptured ectopic gestation. This work contains extraordinary illustrations by Max Brödel, including a series of truly remarkable variations in belly buttons. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The Stockholm method of radium treatment of cancer of the uterus, as carried out at the Radiumhemmet, Stockholm, follows the technique devised by Forssell.

First description of metropathia hemorrhagica.

Tubal insufflation method for the diagnosis and treatment of sterility due to occlusion of the Fallopian tubes.

The true nature of ovarian endometriomata was elucidated by Sampson.

Second edition, 10 vols. & index, 1941-55.

First use of estrogenic hormone for the treatment of amenorrhea in ovariectomized women, with production of the typical cyclical endometrial changes.

The Paris method of radium treatment of cancer of the uterus was devised by Regaud.

Schiller’s test for carcinoma of the cervix.

“Meigs’s syndrome” – fibroma of the ovary with pleural effusion – is described on pp. 262-63.

Stein–Leventhal syndrome.

Mclndoe’s operation for the construction of an artificial vagina.

The first cytopathology test, smear diagnosis of carcinoma of the cervix: the "Pap" test. Papanicolaou first reported in 1928 that he could recognize cancer cells (Proc. Third Race Betterment Conf., p. 528) but the importance of his findings was not generally accepted and he abandoned the work for some years.

The earliest text specifically for midwives, based on the teachings of Soranus, the greatest obstetrical writer of antiquity. Muscio was a pupil of Soranus. His book, the earliest copy of which is a manuscript dating from circa 900 CE preserved in the Royal Library of Brussels (Brussels MS 3714), is arranged in catechism form; it was first published as above and in Caspar Wolff’s Gynaeciorum, 1566 (No. 6011). A Greek–Latin bilingual text was edited by F. O Dewez, Vienna, 1793. Until the 19th century Moschion was lauded as the greatest obstetrical writer of antiquity while Soranus’s works remained hidden. See V. Rose, Sorani Gynaeciorum vetus translatio latina, Leipzig, 1882, No. 12200.

First printed edition in the original Greek of the first half of the Tetrabiblion,  issued in Venice by the heirs of Aldus Manutius. In the Tetrabiblion Aetius collected together works of other men which might have been forgotten but for him. Among them are Rufus of Ephesus, Antyllus, Leonides, Soranus, and Philumenus. This work also includes Aetius’s own original work on the treatment of aneurysm by ligation of the brachial artery above the sac. Aetius also left an exhaustive treatise on diseases of the eye. Although he did not describe cataract, he was familiar with 61 different affections of the eye. Most of his work consists of compilations of earlier writers, but he recorded his own observations on ophthalmic therapeutics. Julius Hirschberg translated the section of Aëtius's text on ophthalmology into German, Berlin, 1899. This was translated into English by Richey L. Waugh as The ophthalmology of Aëtius of Amida. Digital facsimile of the 1534 edition from BIUSanté, Paris at this link. The standard Greek edition of books 1-8 is A. Olivieri, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum VIII, 1-2, Berlin, 1935-50. 

The first obstetrical book printed in the vernacular. Facsimile edition, Munich, 1910. Ortoloff also wrote the first German pharmacopoeia. See No. 1794. ISTC No. io00113000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

The earliest printed textbook for midwives. It underwent over 100 editions, being used as late as 1730. The first edition was published in Strassburg by Martin Flach in 1513. This was demonstrated most recently by Lawrence I. Longo in his entry on Rösslin's work in Haskell Norman's One hundred books famous in medicine (1995) No. 13. Based upon the research of Benzing, Longo also described and illustrated two undated issues of Rösslin's work which previously had been assigned to 1513. Because it was thought for a long time that three issues appeared the same year, there was some confusion among bibliographers as to which, if any, could be shown to be first. However, Benzing convincingly assigned one of the undated issues to circa 1515 and the other to circa 1518. Georg Klein, Eucharius Rösslin's 'Rosengarten' gedruckt im Jahre 1513 reprinted in facsimile (Munich, 1910) the undated edition, now assigned to circa 1515 issued in Hagenau by Heinrich Gran. This was titled Der Swangern frawen und hebammē rosengartē. Klein also issued "Zur Bio-und Bibliographie Rösslins und seines 'Rosengartens', Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 3 (1910). The third variant, now assigned to 1518, was issued in Cologne by Arnt von Aich, but with the title Der swangeren Frawen und Hebammen Rosegarten.

Other studies include Sir D’Arcy Power’s article in The Library, 1927, 4 ser. 8, 1-37, subsequently reprinted in book form, and A.M. Hellman, A collection of early obstetrical books… including 25 editions of Roesslin’s Rosengarten (New Haven: Privately printed, 1952). In 1956 Josef Benzing of Mainz published "Zu den ersten Ausgaben des 'Rosengartens' von Eucharius Rösslin," Das Antiquariat, Wien, 12, Nr.5/6, 57-58. This remains the best critical analysis of the three earliest editions of Rösslin in German.

For the background to Rösslin's book see Monica H. Green, "The sources of Eucharius Rösslin's 'Rosegarden for pregnant women and midwives (1513)", Medical History, 53, 167-192, available from PubMedCentral at this link.

The first English treatise on midwifery, translated by Richard Jonas from the 1532 Latin translation by Roesslin the Younger (De partu hominis) of Roesslin's work (1513). The 1540 English edition was illustrated with two sheets, printed on both sides, of crudely engraved "birth fygures" copied from Roesslin's woodcuts. These also appear, with minor changes "Stoole" for "Stwle") in the second edition of 1545. The second edition  was edited by the physician, Thomas Raynalde, who intended to augment it with a section on anatomy and illustrations of the female reproductive organs, but his intentions were not fully realized. Copies of the 1545 edition contain two engraved representations of the male trunk, possibly engraved on a one plate, printed on a single sheet, folded and stitched in the quire. They are engraved on a different plate, but correspond with the first and second figures on plate 30 of Germinus (1545), except that fig. 1 is reversed. Hind, Engraving in England pp. 44, 53-55. Hook & Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science & Medicine (1991) No. 1844, with more extensive discussion of the 1545 edition. These engravings, and those in Geminus's anatomy, are the earliest engravings published in England.

Paré’s revival of podalic version repopularized the procedure, which had been described by Soranus of Ephesus (No. 6008). English translation in The Workes of Ambroise Parey [sic], London, 1634. Digital facsimile of the 1550 edition from BnF Gallica at this liink.

An improved version of Rösslin’s Swangern frawen. This contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book. Rueff described smooth-edged forceps for delivery of a live baby, preceding Chamberlen, and a toothed forceps for extraction of the dead fetus. He developed a method of cephalic version combining internal and external manipulation. A Latin translation of his book, De conceptu et generatione hominis, was published by Froschauer in the same year. English translation, London, 1637.

The illustrations show contemporary ideas about mammalian embryology.

The earliest public document in the vernacular containing legislation governing midwives. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Legislation governing the practice of midwifery was introduced in the city of Frankfurt in 1573, Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

First Italian book on obstetrics. It is a work of importance for the study of the history of Caesarean section; in it Mercurio advocated the Caesarean operation in cases of contracted pelvis.

An encyclopedic work on ancient and contemporary medical, scientific and juridical opinion on premature birth and the period of gestation. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first book on obstetrics published by a midwife. Louise Bourgeois was accoucheuse to the French court. She was one of the pioneers of scientific midwifery; her Observations was the vade mecum of contemporary midwives. She induced premature labor in patients with contracted pelvis, an idea probably derived from Paré.

Actual origin of the so–called “Mauriceau” manoeuvre, usually credited to Mauriceau (No. 6147). Guillemeau was not only responsible for this technique for delivery of the after coming head so important before the forceps and Caesarian section, but he was also the first to employ podalic version in placenta praevia. English translation, London, 1612.

Harvey was among the first to disbelieve the erroneous doctrine of the “preformation” of the fetus; he maintained that the organism derives from the ovum by the gradual building up and aggregation of its parts.  The chapter on on labor (“De partu”) in this book is the first work on that subject to be written by an Englishman, and the first original work on obstetrics by an English author. This book also demonstrates Harvey’s intimate knowledge of the existing literature on the embryology. He corrected many of the errors of Fabricius. Harvey considered this to be the culminating work of his life, and more significant than De motu cordis. See The analysis of the Degeneratione animalium of William Harvey by A. W. Meyer, Stanford Univ. Press, 1936. First English translation, London, 1653. New translation, with introduction and notes by G. Whitteridge, Oxford, Blackwell, 1980.

Page 245 contains a report of successful symphysiotomy.

The outstanding textbook of the time. Mauriceau, leading obstetrician of his day, introduced the practice of delivering his patients in bed instead of in the obstetrical chair. It was to Mauriceau that Hugh Chamberlen attempted to sell the secret of his forceps; Chamberlen translated the Traité into English in 1672. This book established obstetrics as a science.

Portal’s important treatise included his demonstration that version could be done with one foot. He also taught that face presentation usually ran a normal course. English translation, 1705.

With Mauriceau, Justine Siegemundin was responsible for introducing the practice of puncturing the amniotic sac to arrest hemorrhage in placenta praevia. She was midwife to the Court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and the most celebrated of the German midwives of the 17th century.

Mauquest de la Motte applied podalic version to head presentations. English translation, prepared at the suggestion of William Smellie, 1746.

The teaching of Ould did much towards the advancement of midwifery in the British Isles. His Treatise is the first text-book of obstetrics of any importance in English.

Levret, who improved the obstetric forceps, was a famous teacher in Paris.

Besides introducing a curved forceps (see No. 6152) Levret invented several other obstetric instruments and made fundamental observations on pelvic anomalies. His book covered the whole field of obstetrics and remained a standard work for many years.

Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. In his Treatise he described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of exact measurement of the pelvis. He was the first to lay down safe rules regarding the use of forceps, and personally introduced the steel-lock, the curved, and the double forceps. He invented the “Smellie manoeuvre” to deliver breech cases. His book was followed by two volumes of case reports, 1754 and 1764; it was re-published by the New Sydenham Society, edited with annotations by Alfred H. McClintock, 3 vols., 1876-78. It includes the first illustration of a rachitic pelvis. Digital facsimile of the 1876 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Biography of Smellie by R. W. Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1952.

The celebrated atlas for No. 6154, which is a complete work in itself. The 39 superb engravings include 26 after drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library. The remainder were by Smellie, “assisted by a pupil called [Pieter] Camper”. Camper’s drawings are preserved in the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and in Leiden University. Camper’s illustrated MS of his studies with Smellie and of his third visit to England in 1785 is preserved in Amsterdam University. It was translated into English with notes, and published as Opuscula selecta Neerlandicorum de arte medica, 1939, 15. See J.L. Thornton, Jan van Rymsdyk: Medical artist of the eighteenth century (Cambridge: Oleander Press, 1982.) For the first American edition of the plates (in greatly reduced format) see No. 6154.

This description of an abdominal pregnancy, successfully operated on by Bard was “the first scientific paper on a surgical subject to come from the North American Colonies” (Earle). John Bard was the father of Samuel Bard.

Harvie, Smellie’s successor, advocated external expression of the placenta instead of traction on the cord, anticipating Credé in this connection by almost a century (see No. 6183). Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic contributions to obstetrics and gynecology, 1935, pp.131-38.

The first book written by an English midwife. Sharp was the most accomplished midwife of 17th-century England. Scholarly, extensively annotated edition edited by Jane Hobby, New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Gives the first published account of the forceps, kept secret by the Chamberlen family for generations. Chapman was the second person in England to teach midwifery publicly. The first edition of his book was not illustrated. In the second edition of 1735 he included an illustration of the forceps.

Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps. His book contains, under case 14, the earliest published record of the use of the hitherto secret Chamberlen forceps, in 1726, together with illustrations of two variant types.

Giffard was the first English obstetrician to publish substantial contributions to clinical midwifery. He described the Ritgen maneuver almost a century before Ritgen, as well as a case of ectopic gestation, which he illustrated on plate 2.

Atlas of six superb life-size mezzotint plates after paintings by Jan van Rymsdyk. A separate 16-page text was published in octavo.

Hunter originally trained as Smellie’s assistant. Once he achieved brilliant professional and financial success he became a great collector of rare books and manuscripts, coins, paintings, minerals, shells, and antiquities. Reflecting Hunter’s interests in anatomical art and fine printing, this work contains 34 copper plates depicting the gravid uterus, life-size. It is William Hunter’s best work and one of the finest anatomical atlases ever produced, “anatomically exact and artistically perfect” (Choulant). Except for J. Dalby’s little book, Virtues of cinnabar and musk against the bite of a mad dog, 1762, Hunter's atlas is the only medical publication produced by the famous Baskerville Press. The letterpress is in both Latin and English. The plates were engraved by several artists from drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, the original sepia drawings for which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library. In 1851 The Sydenham Society published a reprint of the atias. See J. L. Thornton’s Jan van Rymsdyk, medical artist of the eighteenth century, Cambridge: Oleander Press, 1982. 

Hunter’s text for No. 6157, edited and published by Matthew Baillie after William Hunter's death. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Rigby differentiated between premature separation of the normal placenta (accidental hemorrhage) and placenta praevia (unavoidable hemorrhage).

Böer, a pioneer of “natural childbirth”, was the founder of the Viennese school of obstetrics.

This work was edited by order of Catherine II of Russia, to whom von Mohrenheim was accoucheur. Its importance lies mainly in its splendid engravings, some of which were taken from Smellie (see No. 6154.1). It includes a brief literary history of obstetrics.

Home records (p. 162) that John Hunter suggested artificial insemination. The actual insemination was performed by the patient’s husband with a syringe.

Interstitial pregnancy first reported.

First significant textbook on obstetrics written by an American. Bard gave an excellent description of the mechanism of labor, and of pre-eclampsia. Woodcut illustrations were engraved by American physician and illustrator Alexander Anderson (1775-1870). Anderson was not credited in the book.  Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first use of ergot in the induction of labor in America. Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic Contributions to Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1935, pp. 21-23.

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

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

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

Artificial induction of premature labour.

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

Mme La Chapelle was a famous midwife and a colleague of Baudelocque. She supervised 5,000 deliveries and her vast experience enabled her to write her book. She reduced the 94 theoretical presentations suggested by Baudelocque to 22. The above, posthumously edited by her nephew, represents her life work.

Although not the first to record the auscultation of the fetal heart sound, Le Jumeau (Kergaradec), a pupil of Laennec, brought the importance of this diagnostic procedure to the notice of the medical profession. Laennec reprinted Le Jumeau's paper in the later editions of De l’auscultation médiate (No. 2673).

Classic description of hydatidiform mole.

“Montgomery’s glands”, the sebaceous glands of the areola, were previously described by Morgagni. They are described, with his “tubercles” (the secondary areola seen in pregnancy) in the above work.

Jacquemier’s sign, diagnostic of pregnancy.

Pioneering work on obstetric auscultation, including the sounds of the foetal heart. English translation by C. West, London, 1839.

Lever, of Guy’s Hospital, was the first to report the finding of albuminous urine in connection with puerperal convulsions.

Meigs drew attention to embolism as a cause of sudden death in childbed. Previously such deaths had been attributed to syncope.

Classic description of pelvic hematocele.

Classic description of hyperemesis gravidarum.

First episiotomy in America, 2 December 1851.

“Duncan’s folds”, the peritoneal folds of the uterus. Republished in book form, Edinburgh, 1854. Duncan, a leading Edinburgh obstetrician, became lecturer on the subject at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

Wright was responsible for the introduction of combined cephalic version.

Credé’s method of removing the placenta by external manual expression. It is first mentioned in his Klinische Vorträge über Geburtshilfe, Berlin, 1854, 599-603.

Braun’s decapitation hook.

Hodge, nearly blind, dictated this superb textbook from memory to his son. It includes his concept of “parallel planes” at the various levels of the pelvic canal, and his placental forceps for the completion of abortion. The book is very well illustrated. Hodge invented the “Hodge pessary”. See No. 6043.1.

Introduction of combined podalic version.

Supplement to No. 424.

“Braxton Hicks’s sign”.

“Bandl’s ring”. Bandl was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Vienna and Prague.

Lawson Tait regarded this as the first authoritative work on the subject. Parry showed the necessity for operation in such cases and it was this book, more than anything else, which determined Tait (No. 6196) to do so.

Tarnier invented the axis-traction forceps. See also Ann. Gynéc., 1877, 7, 241-64

Pinard, professor of obstetrics in Paris, showed the importance of abdominal palpation as an aid to obstetrical diagnosis. English translation, 1885.

Matthews Duncan pointed out that pernicious vomiting in pregnancy may be associated with hepatic lesions.

Credé introduced the practice of instillation of silver nitrate into the eyes of all newborn children as a preventive measure against ophthalmia neonatorum. Separate expanded edition with the same title, Berlin: A. Hirschwald, 1884.

The first successful operation for ruptured ectopic pregnancy was performed by Lawson Tait on 1 March 1883.

The “Champetier de Ribes bag”.