An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”
15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: April 29, 2024
Order of authorship in the original paper was Western, Benson, Gleason. First report of babesiosis in a non-immuncompromised patient, confirming the potential wide spread of this tick-transmitted illness.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)
Study of the significance of medical diagnosis for Babylonian medicine. Analyzing the structure and contents of the Babylonian diagnostic handbook and the evolution of the diagnostic texts, the author shows that the diagnostic handbook was an integral part of the Babylonian medical tradition. Includes the transliteration, translation, and commentary of a large part of the diagnostic handbook, including copies of new texts.
In 1883 Koch discovered the bacilli of two different forms of infectious conjunctivitis (Egyptian ophthalmia); in 1886. Weeks discovered the same organism to be the cause of “pink-eye”. The organism has become known as the Koch – Weeks bacillus (seealso No. 5923).
The authors described an organism resembling, but different from, Bartonella bacilliformis (Oroya fever) on a patient returning from Peru. The patient recalled numerous insect bites on her legs and feet during her trip to Peru. The authors identified a "Bartonella isolate BMGH DQ683199" nearly identiical to a Bartonella species identified in a pulex flea from Cuzco, Peru, and posited this as the probable vector. The organism was named Bartonella Rochalimaea Eremeeva in honor of the first author. Digital facsimile from nejm.org at this link.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)
Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1905 – 1914.
One of the most careful investigations of the bacterial diseases in plants was made by Smith, who conclusively demonstrated the existence of such diseases and proposed a scheme of classification for the bacteria concerned.
Translated into English by George M. Sternberg as The bacteria (Boston, 1880). Sternberg illustrated the American edition with 5 heliotype reproductions of his own photomicrographs.
Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA), 104, 7617-7621, 2007.
Order of authorship in the original publication: Corr, Li, Reidel...Hill. The authors discovered that Lactobacilli produce a bacteriocin, a peptidic toxin that inhibits the growth of similar or closely related bacterial strains. This particular bacteriocin, identified as Abp118, provides the protective value of Lactobacillus salivarius against pathogenic bacteria in the human microbiome.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)
Order of authorship in the original publication: Mendoza, Nieweglowska, Govindarajan. The authors showed that the large phage that specifically infects a Pseudomonas bacterium segregates its DNA, which the phage CRISPR would attack and destroy, by building a proteinaceous compartment or wall around its DNA. This protein barrier makes its DNA inaccessible to the CRISPR nuclease attack and destruction. This could be called the operation of natural selection at the molecular level.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)
D'Hérrelle cited several actual reports of successful treatment of bacterial infections by the injection of bacteriophages in animals and humans. These may be considered early attempts at direct gene transfer in vivo (Wolff & Lederberg p. 11). The advent of antibiotics discouraged further investigation in this direction. Translated into English by George H. Smith as The bacteriophage: Its role in immunity. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1922. Digital facsimile of the 1921 edition from Google Books at this link, of the English translation at this link.
Discovery of Salmonella choleraesuis. The Salmonellae tribe was named after Salmon, even though the discovery was made by Smith. See Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988) 31-32.
"From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a non-therapeutic experiment involving over 400 black male sharecroppers infected with syphilis. The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatment. Its purpose was to trace the spontaneous evolution of the disease in order to learn how syphilis affected black subjects.
The men were not told they had syphilis; they were not warned about what the disease might do to them; and, with the exception of a smattering of medication during the first few months, they were not given health care. Instead of the powerful drugs they required, they were given aspirin for their aches and pains. Health officials systematically deceived the men into believing they were patients in a government study of “bad blood”, a catch-all phrase black sharecroppers used to describe a host of illnesses. At the end of this 40 year deathwatch, more than 100 men had died from syphilis or related complications." New and expanded edition, 1993.
No place identified: [No publisher identified], 1560.
In this short treatise on balneotherapy physician, humanist , and prolific writer Georg Pictorius described 38 different bathing facilities. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1940.
The earliest complete Mexican medical text and the only medical text known to be the work of native Aztecs. Written by an Aztec physician named by the Spanish Martin de la Cruz, and translated into Latin by another native, Juan Badiano, around the time of the Spanish Conquest, the work is the earliest extant medical treatise written by a native American, and the earliest herbal written in the Americas. Fine color reproductions.
Sir William Osler wrote to S. Weir Mitchell in 1908, "I buy a few good things now and again. I had a find last week, 140 original letters to Baglivi, 17th century ‑ from Redi, Malpighi, Pitcairn, Bellini, and the famous old anatomists and physicians of the day. B's answers are with them."
Emmerich and Löw prepared a water-soluble antibiotic substance, pyocyanase, from Pseudomonas pyocanea. It inhibited pathogenic cocci and the organisms responsible for diphtheria, plague, cholera, and typhoid.
"The Smithsonian Institution began to collect objects related to health and medicine in 1881. It first obtained examples of patent medicines in 1930, acquiring packages of Haarlem Oil (or Dutch Drops), Dr. John Hooper’s Female Pills, and Roche’s Herbal Embrocation. Since then the Smithsonian’s collection of patent medicines has expanded to over 4,000 products, dating from the 19th century to the present day."
This was entered into this database in 2017, and without a date for the origin of this electronic resource, I assigned the date 2017
This is a collective work, incorporating the writings of more than 70 authorities, among whom may be mentioned Avicenna, Averroës, Avenzohar, Guainerio, Gesner, Savonarola, Petrus de Abano, and Maimonides. It gives an extensive history of balneology and an exact description of all the then known watering-places (about two hundred). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
London: Alecto Historical Editions & The British Museum (Natural History), 1980 – 1990.
Banks' Florilegium has been called the largest fine art printing project of the 20th century. It is the first complete publication in color of the 734 folio size copperplate engravings of newly discovered plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander while they accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyage around the world between 1768 and 1771. Banks and Solander collected plants in Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java.
Banks' and Solander's specimens were studied aboard the HMS Endeavour by the artist Sydney Parkinson. Parkinson drew each specimen and made notes on their color, and for some species completed watercolor illustrations. When the Endeavour returned to London Banks hired artists Frederick Polydore Nodder, John Frederick Miller, James Miller, John Cleverly and Thomas Burgis to create watercolors of all of Parkinson's drawings. Between 1771 and 1784 Banks hired 18 engravers to create the copperplate engravings from the 743 completed watercolors with the purpose of eventually publishing an edition. Because Banks was engaged in many other projects, the Florilegium was not printed in Banks' lifetime, and he bequeathed the plates to the British Museum, where they were preserved. Between 1900 and 1905 James Britten and the British Museum issued prints of 315 of the plant engravings in black ink, under the title Illustrations of Australian Plants. Others were included in black and white in the 1973 book Captain Cook's Florilegium (Wikipedia). However, the complete series of plates in Banks' Florilegium was never issued in color until the above edition.
Limited to only 100 numbered sets, the sets were issued in 101 cloth-backed portfolios housed in 35 large folio custom-made solander boxes (including Supplement). The complete Banks’ Florilegium contains 738 engraved plates printed in color by hand using a 17th century printing technique called à la poupée, in which each color was applied directly to the copperplate by hand, and some plates were retouched with watercolor afterwards. The technique derives from a method developed by Johannes Tayler in the 17th century and revived by Pierre-Joseph Redouté in the early 19th century. The involved process of inking with a rolled up "dolly" of cotton tarlatan, printing, and cleaning the plates can take upwards of three hours for each impression.
A critique of medical practice and procedures in 80 pages of rhymed couplets voiced by farmyard animals. Mary Griffith, who published these satirical poems anonymously, dedicated the work to the Philadelphia physician Nathanial Chapman, who she considered "one of the 'three good doctors.' "
Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
Reviews and analyzes the structure, function, and design of baths, seeking to integrate their architecture with the wider social and cultural custom of bathing, and examining in particular the changes this custom underwent in Late Antiquity and in Byzantine and Islamic cultures.
"In 1962, Dr. C. Henry Kempe and his colleagues led the identification and recognition of child abuse with the defining paper, The Battered Child Syndrome. This paper was regarded as the single most significant event in creating awareness and exposing the reality of child abuse. It gave doctors a way to understand and identify child abuse and neglect, along with information about how to report suspected abuse" (http://www.kempe.org/about/history/, accessed 02-2017).
Battle Creek, MI: [Battle Creek Sanitarium], 1908.
"John Harvey Kellogg is best known for the invention of the famous breakfast cereal, Corn Flakes, in 1878. Originally, he called this cereal Granula, which he later changed to Granola in 1881. However, due to patent rights, he had to once again change the name to Corn Flakes.[19]
"These Corn Flakes were invented as part of his health regimen to prevent masturbation. His belief was that bland foods, such as these, would decrease or prevent excitement and arousal.[20] Kellogg was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.
"John Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg started the Sanitas Food Company to produce their whole grain cereals around 1897, a time when the standard breakfast for the wealthy was eggs and meat, while the poor ate porridge, farina, gruel, and other boiled grains.[John and Will later argued over the recipe for the cereals (Will wanted to add sugar to the flakes). So, in 1906, Will started his own company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which eventually became the Kellogg Company, triggering a decades-long feud. John then formed the Battle Creek Food Company to develop and market soy products.
"A patient of John's, C. W. Post, would eventually start his own dry cereal company, Post Cereals, selling a rival brand of corn flakes. Dr. Kellogg later would claim that Charles Post stole the formula for corn flakes from his safe in the Sanitarium office" (Wikipedia article on John Harvey Kellogg, accessed 03-2017).
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the expanded second edition (1913) from the Hathi Trust at this link.
Meynert noticed regional variations in the histological structure of different parts of the gray matter in the cerebral hemispheres. He is credited with beginning the study of cytoarchitecture. Meynert described the fountain decussation of the tegmental tract (“Meynert’s decussation”) and several other structures in the brain. Published in book form, 1868.
The work of Schroeder van der Kolk brought histological examination to the forefront in connection with theories on the localization of function. His careful microscopical studies confirmed the medulla as being the ultimate seat of epilepsy. The book was translated into English for the New Sydenham Society in the same year.
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 1890 Behring and Kitasato discovered the diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins (see No. 5060). The above papers deal more fully with the use of the diphtheria antitoxin.
Bradley showed that racemic amphetamine, that is, the 50:50 mixture of d- and l-amphetamine isomers (Benzedrine®), was shown to reduce the impulsivity, distractibility, and inattention characteristic of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Discovery, in 1851, of Schistosoma haematobium, the parasite of bilharziasis. Bilharz was Professor of Zoology at Cairo. English translation in Rev. infect. Dis., 1984, 4, 727-32, and in Kean (No. 2268.1).
Ehrlich’s first paper on the staining of specific granulation in white blood corpuscles by means of aniline dyes. His work immensely affected subsequent technical methods of staining.
Translated into English by C. M .Williams and Sydney Waterlow as The Analysis of Sensations (1897). Revised and supplemented from the Fifth German edition by Sydney Waterlow (1914). Digital facsimile of the 1886 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1914 English translation from the Internet Archive at this link.
Roux is regarded as the founder of developmental mechanics (“Entwicklungsmechanik” as he named it). His work on the production of half-embryos initiated a turning point by shifting emphasis from descriptive to experimental embryology. Roux believed that the above work showed that the nucleus of each blastomere is capable of directing a specific independent line of differentiation. He eventually concluded that the nucleus is made up of hereditary particles. Partial English translation in No. 534.3.
Considered the most extensive account of human cerebellar development. "Hochstetter carried out detailed work on the embryology of the human brain, and his beautiful figures have been reproduced in textbooks ever since. According to Kuhlenbeck, 'There is little doubt that, as regards the ontogenetic development of certain features in the human brain, particularly of hemispheric stalk and lamina terminalis, the documentary material and the descriptions provided by Hochstetter have few if any equals in the neuroanatomical literature…' (The CNS of Vertebrates3(II):633, 1973).
Cuneiform medical texts from the library of Ashurbanipal, together with German translations. A valuable paper on this subject is M. Jastrow’s "The medicine of the Babylonians and Assyrians," Proceedings Royal Society of Medicine. 1913-14, 7, Sect. Hist. Med., 109-76. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link
Demonstration that the spermatozoon enters the ovum and that fertilization occurs by the union of the nuclei of the male and female sex cells. Hertwig also established that the transfer of hereditary material is part of the same nuclear process. Hertwig was professor of anatomy at Jena and Berlin.
Marchand obtained the first electrocardiogram. Using the differential rheotome he measured the time course of the potential variations from the frog’s heart.
Classic account of cell division and karyokinesis. Flemming named the nuclear substance “chromatin” and gave the name “mitosis” to cell division. Translation of Part II in J. Cell Biol., 1965, 25, No. 1, pt. 2, 3-69. See also Flemming’s book on the subject, Zellsubstanz, Kern und Zellteilung, Leipzig, 1882.
Ludwig changed Poiseuille’s hemodynamometer into the kymograph by the addition of a float and caused this float to write on a recording cylinder. Abridged English translation in Ruskin (No. 3160.1).
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.
Lewin was probably the first to extirpate a laryngeal growth with the aid of the laryngoscope. Bruns claimed this distinction, but may not have heard of Lewin.
Ludwig wrote a classic monograph on renal secretion. He theorized that urine formation could be explained purely in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry, and that under the hydrostatic pressure of the blood in the capillaries of the glomerulus, protein and cell-free fluid is separated from the blood by a simple physical process of filtration. This theory contradicted Bowman’s contention that the glomerulus secretes fluid. See also Ludwig’s habitation thesis, from which the above work was expanded: De viribus physicis secretionem urinae adjuvantibus. Marburg, Elwert, 1842. Digital facsimile of th 1843 work from Goethe Univerität at this link.
Goltz made important observations on the decerebrate frog. He showed it to possess no volitional powers except after stimulation, no memory and no intelligence. His experiments on frogs deprived of their spinal cords showed them to have intelligence but lessened powers of co-ordination and adaptation.
First account of the islets of Langerhans. In 1893 Édouard Laguesse attached the name of Langerhans to the structures. Langerhans did not suggest any function for them. The book was reprinted with an English translation by H. Morrison, Bull. Hist. Med., 1937, 5, 259-97.
Stromeyer is the founder of modern surgery of the locomotor system. He advocated and practised subcutaneous tenotomy for all deformities of the body arising from muscular defects.
S.B. k. Akad. Wiss., math.-nat. Cl. (Wien), II Abt., 55, 516-22, 1867.
Duncan showed that the essential feature in chlorosis is a quantitative change in the hemoglobin content and not a great reduction in the number of red blood cells.
Klebs filtered the discharges from gunshot wounds, found the filtrate to be non-infectious, and from that reasoned that traumatic septicemia is of bacterial origin. He was the first to filter bacteria and to experiment with the filtrate.
Virchow made an important survey of the physical characters of the German people. Outside pathology of which he was the Master, Virchow’s greatest scientific interest was anthropology.
Schleiden demonstrated that plant tissues are made up of and developed from groups of cells, of which he recognized the “cytoblast” or cell-nucleus. He observed with great accuracy certain other activities of the cell, and is an important figure in the development of the cell theory. In keeping with other scientists of his time, he held that young cells develop spontaneously from the cytoblast, an acceptance of the theory of spontaneous generation. English translation (Sydenham Society) 1847.
Rouen: Pour Robert du Gort au portail des Libraires, 1555 – 1556.
A vernacular guide for living a healthy life compiled from the writings of Fuchs. Includes herbal and dietary remedies, recipes for oils, pills and other preparations to treat maladies such as fever, plague and wounds.
"This book contains the extant tradition of Benvenutus Grassus’ Treatise on the eye and six philological related studies. The tradition in Latin (Metz, Bibliothèques- Médiatèques, MS 176) is displayed with the four known versions in Middle English (Glasgow, Glasgow University Library, Hunter MSS 503 and 513); London, British Library, Sloane MS 661, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 1468) along with one in Provençal (Basel, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität, MS D.II.11). The diplomatic transcriptions of the manuscripts are synoptically arranged to ease the researchers’ consultation and comparison. The philological studies deal with the versions of the Latin tradition and with the common and diverging features of the English vernacular tradition, mainly in the Hunter MSS. Both the synoptic edition and the philological studies are the result of a collaborative edition and joint research on Hunter MSS providing a state-of-the-art approach to the treatises" (Publisher).
First description of acute anterior poliomyelitis, which Heine separated from other forms of paralysis; he described the deformities arising from the disease. He also called attention to congenital spastic paraplegia, which, following Little’s classic description (No. 4691.1), was termed “Little’s disease”.
Herbst was the first to demonstrate that an animal eating trichinous flesh would thereby develop trichinae in its own muscles. English translation of part I in Kean (No. 2268.1).
“Purkynĕ phenomenon” or “Purkynĕ shift”, a change in the apparent relative luminosity of colors in a dim light (scotopic vision) compared with that in full daylight (photopic vision). Also published in Rust’s Mag. ges. Heilk., 1825, 20, 3-83, 199-276, 391-423. See V. Kruta J.E. Purkynĕ, physiologist. A short account of his contributions… with a bibliography of his works. Prague: Academia Publishing House, 1969.
Henderson-Hasselbalch equation for the determination of pH concentration in the blood. English translation in No. 1588.16. For Henderson's papers see No. 9645.
Important studies of beri-beri are recorded in this book. After its publication the author made many additional contributions to the literature on the subject.
Loeffler and Frosch proved that foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a filter-passing virus; this was the first recognition that a virus causes disease.
Koch–Weeks bacillus, Hemophilus conjunctivitidis, or Hemophilus aegyptius. Koch discovered the bacilli of two varieties of Egyptian conjunctivitis. See also No. 5930.
Invention of the ophthalmoscope, one of the greatest events in the history of ophthalmology. English translation by T. H. Shastid, Chicago, Cleveland Press, 1916.
His was, more than any other person, responsible for the introduction of the microtome, although Ranvier and other French people had earlier employed microtomes of simpler types.
Z. rat. Med., 3 R., 4, 145-67; 3 R., 20, 257-307, 1858, 1863.
Welcker was the first to determine the total blood volume and the volume of the normal red blood cells. Earlier paper in Vjschr. prakt. Heilk., 1854, 44, 63.
This book "challenges the “virgin soil” hypothesis that was used for decades to explain the decimation of the indigenous people of North America. This hypothesis argues that the massive depopulation of the New World was caused primarily by diseases brought by European colonists that infected Native populations lacking immunity to foreign pathogens. In Beyond Germs, contributors expertly argue that blaming germs lets Europeans off the hook for the enormous number of Native American deaths that occurred after 1492.
"Archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians come together in this --- volume to report a wide variety of other factors in the decline in the indigenous population, including genocide, forced labor, and population dislocation. These factors led to what the editors describe in their introduction as “systemic structural violence” on the Native populations of North America" (publisher).
Caracas, Venezuela: Ediciones del Rectorado, Universidad central de Venezuela, 1984.
Alphabetical bibliography by author's name of all scholars, physicians, and others who studied the Hippocratic Collection and published about it. Entries include a brief biography of the authors, transcription of the full title of their works and, in several cases, photographic reproduction of the title page, some explanatory notes, and references to bibliographies and library catalogues.
The first attempt at a systematic medical bibliography. Revised edition with annotations by revisions by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Leiden, 1734). Douglas's original autograph manuscript for the book is preserved in the Hunter Collection, University of Glasgow Library.
Augsburg: Literar. Institute von Haas & Grabherr, 1927.
Approaches the literature of suicide from many points of view including philosophical, medical, psychological, religious, literary, and artistic, as well as topics like family suicide, mass suicide and euthanasia, from the 15th to 20th centuries. The bibliography lists about 4000 works in thematic chapters, to each of which Rost wrote an introduction. It includes 54 illustrations, which may represent the first published collection of historical images on suicide.
Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'Université, 1987.
Bibliographie des textes médicaux latins: Antiquité et haut moyen âge : Premier supplément, 1986-1999, Volume 2 by Klaus-Dietrich Fischer, Université de Saint-Etienne, 2000.
A bibliography of publications, including those on medical subjects, issued from the Imprimerie national in Cairo established by Napoleon during the campaign, and also publications issued from Paris documenting information gathered during the campaign.
Bibliography of British works on butterflies and moths from the early seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries. Includes biographical information on the authors covered. Plates are mainly portraits of the authors.
Winchester, Hampshire, England: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1985.
Revised second edition of Lefanu's A bio-bibliography of Edward Jenner (1951). The annotations in this bibliography form a kind of biographical narrative of Jenner's life and achievements.
"The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates (BFV) aimed to index the world literature of vertebrate paleontology. Although no compilation can ever be complete, the BFV attempted to include every published scientific work that mentioned vertebrate fossils. In addition, it included works that dealt with closely related subjects such as evolutionary theory, geology, and the history of science, where relevant. Articles from newspapers and popular magazines were not included; nevertheless, the total number of references to books and published articles is in the neighborhood of 200,000. The bibliographies indexed literature by taxonomy, geologic age, geography and subject areas, although the indexing changed over the years. The contents of those bibliographies have been converted to a database that can be searched using subject and taxonomic indexes, covering the literature from 1509-1993.
"The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates was compiled and published as a series of volumes, beginning with the 1928-1933 Camp, et al., volume published in 1940 (see below). However, this volume continued the work begun by O. P. Hay and his colleagues, who had published two previous retrospective volumes covering the literature of North American vertebrate paleontology, in 1902 and 1929. The Camp volumes were published by the Geological Society of America. In 1962, A. S. Romer, et al. (see below) compiled a massive bibliography to complement the Hay volumes, covering the non-North American published literature up to the point when the BFV series proper was begun.
"In the early 1970s, the BFV indexing was done under a cooperative agreement by the SVP, the American Geological Institute (AGI) and the University of California Museum of Paleontology, under the supervision of J. T. Gregory, and the references incorporated into AGI's GeoRef.
"Publication of the series resumed in 1983, with a compilation of the AGI references in the 1973-1977, 1978 and 1979 volumes. The 1980-1993 volumes were supported by the SVP and the University of California Museum of Paleontology. The increasing indexing of vertebrate paleontological literature in computerized indexes, and the increasing costs of indexing caused the SVP to cease publication of the BFV in 1996. A demonstration project of the BFV Online, created by John Damuth in 1994, proved successful, and the SVP supported its expansion. A grant from the Dinosaur Society permitted keystroking of the references from the older printed volumes, which have been added to the database." (http://vertpaleo.org/Publications/Bibliography-of-Fossil-Vertebrates.aspx).
Individual volumes were published as follows, after which annual volumes appeared through 1993:
Hay, O. P. 1902. Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 179, 868 pp. Hay, O. P. 1929. Second Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication no. 390, vol. 1, 916 pp. Romer, A. S., N. E. Wright, T. Edinger and R. van Frank (eds). 1962. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Exclusive of North America. The Geological Scoiety of America, GSA Memoir 87. Camp, C. L. and V. L. Vanderhoof (eds). 1940. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1928-1933. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 27. Camp, C. L., D. N. Taylor and S. P. Welles (eds). 1942. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1934-1938. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 42. Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1949. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1939-1943. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 37. Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1953. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1944-1948. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 57. Camp, C. L. and H. J. Allison (eds). 1961. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1949-1953. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 84. Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison and R. H. Nichols (eds). 1964. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1954-1958. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 92. Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison, R. H. Nichols and H. McGinnis (eds). 1968. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1959-1963. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 117. Camp, C. L., R. H. Nichols, B. Brajnikov, E. Fulton and J. A. Bacskai (eds). 1972. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1964-1968. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 134. Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, B. Brajnikov and K. Munthe (eds). 1973. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1969-1972. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 141.
An extensive bibliography, and substantial excerpts from practically every important reference made to each of 30 communicable diseases, from 1800 onwards.
Literature on "selected diseases" presented in chronological order, beginning with auricular fibrillation and ending with trichinosis, emphasizing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Collective and individual biographies. Confined to books in English published in the 19th-20th centuries. Revised and enlarged version of J.L. Thornton, A select bibliography of medical biography. 2nd ed., London, 1970.
The author is a professor of mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics. Besides treatment of earlier literature, this bibliography includes many lesser known 20th century works.
Winchester, Hampshire, England: St. Paul's Bibliographies & San Francisco, CA: Norman Publishing, 1989.
This is the definitive edition of a bibliography originated by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. It contains a new introduction by Whitteridge, taking account of then-recent research, particularly on Harvey’s manuscript works. Editions of Harvey’s works published since the second edition of the bibliography issued in 1953 were added, the details of locations of copies were updated, and the census of copies of the first edition of De motu cordis was revised. Norman Publishing was the co-publisher of this title.
Revised and best third edition, Park Ridge, IL: American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 1993. This includes a photographic essay, with extensive captions, by Richard Upjohn Light.
"... restricted to literature in the English language, with over 3200 entries; it is also confined to the thought and practices of the Western world, from Biblical times to 1980." Concerns much on animal experimentation and the antivivisection movement.
An attempt to reconstruct the library of Avraham Portaleone (1542-1612) of Mantua, physician to the ducal house of Gonzaga, on the basis of two interesting inventories, including a Hebrew list of 1585 and an inventory associated with Portaleone's death in 1612, notarized and preserved in the Archivio Notarile at Mantua.
On his death in 1474 Giovanni di Marco da Rimini, physician to Malatesta Novello, bequeathed his library of medical manuscripts to the recently established Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena, Italy. Giovanni's library, which was preserved along with the rest of the Bibliotheca Malatestiana, may be the earliest physician's library to have survived intact. The library contains numerous spectacular codices of the expected standard European and Arab scientific and medical authorities, several dating from the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, and one (S. XXI.5) dating from the 8th century. Some are finely illuminated. That Giovanni owned several manuscripts from prior centuries suggests that he collected books not only for reference but also out of humanistic and antiquarian interest. The annotated catalogue contains numerous fine color plates.
For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.
"The Digital library of late-antique Latin texts – digilibLT – publishes prose texts written in Latin in the late antiquity (from the 2nd to the 7th century AD). The library intends to make available all the works of pagan content. Only a few works of Christian authors and themes are included, by now, in order to allow the necessary comparisons of linguistic uses in late antiquity.The texts are annotated according to the XML-TEI standards, and are offered free of charge to the public for reading and research. The library also offers a complete canon of authors and works, including detailed information on the critical editions on which the digital texts are based, and listing, if the case, editorial changes which deviate from the critical editions chosen as reference. Search windows are designed to allow users to search either the entire collection of texts or a selection of them (by author, period, or type of text) or single authors and works. Texts can be downloaded freely, which allows individual scholars to work on their areas of interest with maximum flexibility. The library also provides short entries on late-antique authors and works, bibliographies, and canon entries. Finally, the library also includes some important works on late-antique Latin prose authors, offering the texts in PDF form or listing links to websites where these works can be found."
With reproductions of the original engraved plates, Bibliotheca anatomica was the most extensive compilation of anatomical treatises published in the 17th century. It was an extensive anatomical library in 2 thick volumes. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
Haller is one of the greatest names in medical bibliography. While pursuing his monumental scientific career he found time to compile bibliographies of botany, anatomy, medicine and surgery which together form the most exhaustive summary of previous writings on these subjects. Reprinted, Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1969.
The auction catalogue of the celebrated library formed by the physician and classical scholar Askew, third owner of the famous gold-headed cane. Askew attempted to secure a complete series of all the Greek classics ever published; he purchased Richard Mead's Greek manuscripts, the papers of Dr. Taylor and some fine early classical codices from the library of the Maffei family." Among the principal purchasers of Askew's books were William Hunter, the British Museum, and the kings of England and France. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
Boerhaave’s library contained about 3,300 volumes on a wide range of subjects, including many outstanding illustrated works in botany and fine illustrated works on anatomy. As one would have expected, Boerhaave, the editor of a new edition of the writings of Vesalius, owned a first edition of the Fabrica. What one might not have expected was that he also owned all of the rare first editions of Berengario da Carpi, whose anatomical works prior to Vesalius would certainly have had no practical scientific value by the eighteenth century. Boerhaave also owned a fifteenth-century edition of Mondino, confirming that he was a book collector as well as a scholar. At the end of the catalogue is a group of “Libri Prohibiti” including first editions of Spinoza. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
Organized in three parts: floras, medical botany, and horticultural and agricultural works. Séguier includes books, pamphlets, and references in the periodical literature. "The entries for the publications contain usually the title fully transcribed and in the original language, the place of publication, the publisher, the size .... and sometimes a critical commentary and an indication of the location where he saw the book or found a reference to it. These statements of location are obviously of great importance because they will very often allow us at once to identify the library where the publications are presently located....A useful feature is the provision of marginal notes giving relevant references to reviews, publication, comments or other secondary publications relevant to the main entry...." (Stafleu & Cowan 11624). Includes a reprint of Montalbani's bibliography of 1657. Digital facsimile of the 1740 edition from Google Books at this link.
Zürich: apud Orell, Gessner, Fuessli et socc, 1771 – 1772.
This was the first of the several bibliographies compiled by Haller, one of the greatest figures in the history of medicine. The work contains the most exhaustive and thorough information of the writings in the field of botany then extant. Choulant considered that the bibliographies on botany and anatomy were the best of Haller’s works.
This bio-bibliographical encyclopedia of English and foreign literature includes many articles on physicians from the ancient world up to Watt's time, and is an extraordinary achievement for one man. Typically the first sentence summarizes the author's life and death, followed by listing of writings more or less detailed. Watt's comments on specific editions and translations indicate a remarkable familiarity with the history of medical literature, and occasionally with the rarity of certain editions. The work has been estimated to include citations of more than 200,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals on the widest range of subjects. The first and second volumes contain an alphabetical listing of over 40,000 authors and their biographical details. Full length titles of works, date and place of publication, and information on translations and subsequent editions are provided for each author. The entries covering the earliest printed texts contain details of British and foreign printers. Volumes three and four provide an encyclopedic index to volumes one and two. The works are listed within 30,000 subject areas, in chronological order of publication. Subjects, authors and titles are fully cross-referenced using an ingenious indexing system. Robert Watt devoted 25 years of his life to the Bibliotheca's compilation. He studied classical languages and philosophy at Glasgow University. Later he became a student of anatomy and theology at Edinburgh, and practised as a physician. His interest in the history of medicine led him to begin compiling the Bibliotheca, which he extended to include works on law, history, language, philosophy, science, technology, travel and geography, and classical literature. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
Geneva: Chouet, de Tournes, Cramer, Perachon, Ritter, 1702.
A library of chemical and alchemical works, including various alchemical works (some illustrated) that were already rare by Manget's time. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
One of the great landmarks of descriptive scientific bibliography. With bibliographical details of each work, biographical notices of each writer, and exhaustive lists of references in chronological order, its scope and accuracy set a standard rarely equalled in the bibliography of the history of science. Sir William Osler (d. 1919) considered Ferguson’s catalogue the model of descriptive scientific bibliography. The Young collection is preserved in the Andersonian Library, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
A compilation of mostly complete surgical treatises, representing what Manget considered an essential surgical library of then-modern as well as classical texts-- a surgical library in 4 large volumes. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
Fulton (No. 6785) points out that this work contains the “most complete bibliographical study of the literature of head injury that had been brought together up to that time”. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
The first bibliography of historical medical literature in Portuguese. The preliminary leaves evaluate the status of medical history and bibliography. Part 1 describes the history of medicine to 1600; part 2, its history from 1600 to 1731; the third, its history from 1731 to 1783. Each is a narrative with copious annotations, including bibliographical citations. The work was based on Portal’s Histoire de l’anatomie et de la chirurgie, Paris 1770-1773, but has substantial additions on Portuguese medicine and on the years 1773-1783. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
A second edition was published in 1862. Digital facsimile of the second edition from the Medical Heritage Library at the Internet Archive, at this link.
London: Catalogi venundantur apud plurimos Londini Bibliopolas, 1754.
Mead's library consisted of upwards of 10,000 printed volumes, and many rare and valuable manuscripts. The collection was especially rich in medical works, and in early editions of the classics; it realized over £5,500 in a sale that lasted no fewer than 28 days. Mead was also a collector of classical antiquities, paintings, coins, and medals. His art collections, including several Rembrandts, realized £10,550. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
The first systematic medical bibliography. Includes an annotated list of 1,224 authors writing in Latin, lists of French, German, and Italian writers, and other material. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
Basel: J. Schweighauser, Berne, E. Haller, 1776 – 1788.
Haller compiled four great bibliographies dealing respectively with botany, anatomy, surgery, and medicine. They formed the most complete reference work of the time, consisting of a classified analysis of over 52,000 publications of all countries. Additions and corrections to Haller’s Bibliothecae were published by C.G. Murr, Adnotationes ad bibliothecas Hallerianas, Erlangen, 1805.
This bibliography of over 7,500 titles, edited by W. W. Francis, R. H. Hill, Leonard Mackall, and Archibald Malloch, is the catalogue of Osler’s magnificent library. For it Osler wrote an unfinished Introduction entitled "The Collecting of a Library." In that he indicated that formal planning for the catalogue with L. L. Mackall, W. W. Francis, and T. A. Malloch was underway before his death. The catalogue, published a full 10 years after Osler's death, follows Osler's distinctive organizational scheme. In many cases the annotations are based on notes that Osler wrote in his books, making this catalogue one of the most interesting to read of all annotated bibliographies in the history of medicine and science, and a reflection of Osler's bibliophilic taste and personality.
Fielding Garrison reviewed "The Osler Catalogue" in the Bulletin of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, 5, 860-863, September 1929. A digital facsimile of his review is available from PubMedCentral at this link.
On the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catalogue, which coincided roughly with the formal opening of the Osler Library at McGill, W. W. Francis published some brief, but distinctive comments on the catalogue and his role as chief editor in its production as "Osler's Catalogue", J. Hist. Med., 9, 464-465, 1954.
The Bibliotheca Osleriana was reprinted in 1969 with addenda and corrigenda, and a preface by Lloyd G. Stevenson, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press. A digital facsimile of the 1969 edition is available from the Internet Archive at this link.
See also The Osler Library, Montreal: McGill University, 1979.
Background on the Bibliotheca Osleriana: Osler as a Book Collector by Leonard M. Payne Reprinted from Oslerian Anniversary. The record of the 300th meeting of The Osler Club of London held jointly with the Royal College of Physicians of London. London: The Osler Club, 1976, 38-47.
The Gay of Heart by Thomas S. Cullen Reprinted from Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 84 (1949): 41-45. Chicago: American Medical Association. Concerns Osler's sense of humor and habit of practical joking, both of which are often forgotten.
The first large, well-printed bibliography of medicine, including twice as many authors as van der Linden (No. 6744). It represented an elaborate subject anaylsis, with entries arranged alphabetically by subjects, with numerous cross-references and an author index. This formed part of a six-volume work covering various sectors of learning from the beginning of printing.
Though the title might be translated as a library of medical writings, the set is an extensive bio-bibliographical dictionary of medical writers. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
References to over 10,000 items, ‘arranged under 660 separate headings or articles,’ some with comments by the compiler. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
This was one of the first attempts at a universal bibliography. Unfortunately the section on medicine (liber xxi) was never published. William Osler used the Bibliotheca universalis as one of the models for his own Bibliotheca Osleriana. He placed Gesner in the most important section (“Bibliotheca prima”), and once remarked:”I am not sure that this fellow should go into ‘Prima’, but I love him so much that I must put him there. Besides, he is the Father of Bibliography”.
Details 23,000 printed items, including 150 incunabula. The catalogue does not include Erik Waller’s vast collection of autographs and manuscripts also preserved in Uppsala.
As a result of the burning of his home and the destruction of his library, which included numerous unpublished manuscripts on a wide range of subjects, Bartholin published what was intended to be work of self-consolation. He recounted examples in history of other library losses through fire, and catalogued and summarized the vast amount of his intellectual work that was "lost to Vulcan." He also consoled himself with a bibliographical list of his works that had already been published in print, and thus had their content protected from catastrophic loss from fire. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.
An early attempt at a bibliography of the literature of veterinary medicine, including historical works. Strangely, the author cited publication dates only by their last 3 digits, thus 1800 is printed as 800, etc. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.
3rd edition, 1923. Translated as Biblical and Talmudic medicine. Translated by Fred Rosner. New York, Sanhedrin Press, 1978, with enlarged index and expanded references.
Panum was the first to investigate the chemical products of putrefaction. His work had great significance for the doctrine of putrid intoxication. An abstract of the above paper is in jb. in-u. ausländ. ges. Med., 1859, 101, 213-17. See Hans Jørn Kolmos, "Panum's studies on "putrid poison" 1856. An early description of endotoxin," Danish Medical Bulletin , 53 (4) (2006) 450-2.
Vierordt invented a sphygmograph which acted on the principle that indirect estimation of blood-pressure could be accomplished by measuring the counter-pressure necessary to obliterate the arterial pulsation. This was the first instrument with which a tracing of the human pulse could be made. The paper is the first record of a study with an instrument of precision of the pulse in health and disease. Vierordt expanded this work into book form: Die Lehre von Arterienpuls, Braunschweig, Vieweg, 1855.
First extensive treatise on the use of pedicle grafts from the temple and cheek for supplying necessary skin for the reconstruction of deformed eyelids.
The standard annotated bibliography of Vesalius's works, known for its unusual system of numbering entries. Posthumously edited for publication by John F. Fulton and Arturo Castiglioni. Digital facsimile of the 1943 edition from whitney.yale.edu at this link. Second edition with addenda, Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1962. See also Elly Cockx-Indestege, Andreas Vesalius: A Belgian census: Contribution towards a new edition of H.W. Cushing's Bibliography (Brussels, 1994).
"The Word's First Human Visualization Platform: Anatomy, Disease & Treatments— all in interactive 3D.
Web, Mobile and Augmented Reality
"the virtual body as the health equivalent of Google Maps" (New York Times)
"BioDigital was founded on the premise that 3D technology will transform the way we understand the human body. The volume and complexity of health information continues to increase, but the methods in which its communicated has not changed in centuries. Allowing people to see inside the body, using interactive 3D technology, promises to have a profound impact on the way we comprehend our health.
"To improve global health literacy using the first 3D body platform.
"Hailed as the equivalent of Google Maps for the human body, the BioDigital Human is a scientifically accurate cloud based virtual body that empowers everyone to learn about health and medicine in an entirely new visual format. Anatomy, disease and treatments - all in an engaging, interactive 3D format that resembles life itself" (https://www.biodigital.com/about).
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” The BHL consortium works with the international taxonomic community, rights holders, and other interested parties to ensure that this biodiversity heritage is made available to a global audience through open access principles. In partnership with the Internet Archive and through local digitization efforts, the BHL has digitized millions of pages of taxonomic literature, representing over 100,000 titles and over 170,000 volumes.
"Much of the published literature on biological diversity is available in only a few select libraries in the developed world. These collections are of exceptional value because the domain of systematic biology depends, more than any other science, upon historic literature. Yet, this wealth of knowledge is available only to those few who can gain direct access to significant library collections. Literature about the biota existing in developing countries is often not available within their own borders. Biologists have long considered that access to the published literature is one of the chief impediments to the efficiency of research in the field. Free global access to digital literature repatriates information about the earth’s species to all parts of the world.
"The BHL consortium members digitize the public domain books and journals held within their collections. To acquire additional content and promote free access to information, the BHL has also obtained permission from publishers to digitize and make available significant biodiversity materials that are still under copyright.
"Because of BHL’s success in digitizing a significant mass of biodiversity literature, the study of living organisms has become more efficient. The BHL Portal allows users to search the corpus by multiple access points, read the texts online, or download select pages or entire volumes as PDF files.
"The BHL serves texts with information on over a 150 million species names. Using Global Names Recognition and Discovery (GNRD) and UBio’s taxonomic name finding tools, researchers can bring together publications about species and find links to related content in the Encyclopedia of Life. Because of its commitment to open access, BHL provides a range of services and APIs which allow users to harvest source data files and reuse content for research purposes. BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life .
"Since 2009, the BHL has expanded globally. The European Commission’s eContentPlus program has funded the BHL Europe project, with 28 institutions, to assemble the European language literature. Additionally, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (BHL China), the Atlas of Living Australia (BHL Australia), Brazil (through BHL SciELO), the Bibliotheca Alexandrina(BHL Egypt), and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (BHL Africa) have created national or regional BHL nodes. Additionally, in 2014, the National Library Board of Singapore became the first institution to join BHL as both a Member of BHL and a global node (BHL Singapore). Global nodes are organizational structures that may or may not develop their own BHL portals. It is the goal of BHL to share and serve content through the BHL Portal developed and maintained at the Missouri Botanical Garden. These projects will work together to share content, protocols, services, and digital preservation practices."
Contains 130,000 very brief biographical notes compiled from nearly 200 references (which are cited) on roughly 95,000 people from Europe and the Middle East during the 1000 years of the Middle Ages. The text is searchable through Google Books. In English, German and French.
"Obituaries of Royal Society Fellows first appeared in 1830, in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Initially obituaries were read at the Anniversary meeting and were printed within the record of that meeting. From 1859 they appeared in a separate section at the back.
"Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society were published from 1932 as a continuation of these tributes. They then developed from being relatively short, traditional obituaries to biographical essays of record. This change was duly recognized by a change of title to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society in 1955, when the new annual carried life studies of Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and Alan Turing.
"Content since 1932 can be browsed below. To find specific obituaries we recommend using the ‘Advanced Search’ and entering the Fellow’s name in the ‘Title’ box. For more information and search tips please visit our information for readers page, which outlines where all obituaries published since 1830 can be found."
The first significant paper on child psychology, written from Darwin's personal notes of his observations of the development of his first born son, William Erasmus. The text is available from Darwin Online at this link.
Vierter Band (Die Jahre 1883 bis zur Gegenwart umfassend). 1904: T. 1. A-L. T. 2. M-Z
Fünfter Band: 1904 bis 1922. 1926
Bd. 6. (1923 bis 1931): T. 1. A-E. 1936, T. 2. F-K. 1937, T. 3. L-R. 1938, T. 4. S-Z. 1940
Bd. 7a. (Berichtsjahre 1932 bis 1953): T. 1. A-E. 1956, T. 2. F-K. 1958, T. 3. L-R. 1959, T. 4:Hälfte 1. S-Thor. 1961, T. 4:Hälfte 2. Thorb-Z. 1962
Bd 7a. Suppl. 1971
Bd. 7b (Berichtsjahre 1932 bis 1962): T. 1. A-B. 1967, T. 2. C-E. 1968, T. 3. F-Hem. 1970, T. 4. Hen-K. 1973, T. 5. L-M. 1976,T. 6. N-Q. 1980, T. 7. R-Sm. 1985, T. 8. Sn-Vl. 1989, T.8.T.2. Doppellieferung. T. 9. Vo-Z. 1992
Bd. 7b. (Suppl.) Bibliographie der Periodika. 1994.
This is one of the best sources of medical biography up to 1880, with useful bibliographical notes. Articles were written by many physicians, whose names were mentioned on the title page. Gurlt and Wernich assisted Hirsch in the massive editorial process. Digital facsimile of all the volumes from Google Books at this link. A revised edition, incorporating a revision of No. 6720, was completed in 1935 and reprinted, Munich, 1962. See also No.6732.
Besides biographical accounts this work reproduced many portraits of physicians. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Second, revised edition, containing entries from 1880 to 1930, 2 vols., Munich & Berlin, 1929-1935.
Cushny made important contributions concerning the pharmacological action of optical isomers over a period of nearly twenty years. He summarized this work and that of others in his Charles E. Dohme Lectures, 1925.
Simultaneously with Lamarck, Treviranus coined the term “biology” for the study of living things, and he was the first to use it in a book title. This massive work was a summary of all basic knowledge about the structure and function of living matter. Treviranus wrote that any living creature has the ability to adapt its organization to changing external conditions. Thus both Haeckel and Weismann considered Treviranus to be a precurser of evolution theory, even though Treviranus never explained how changes in organic structures occurred nor how they could become hereditary. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.
Minneapolis,MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1950.
"To gain insight into the physiology of starvation, in 1944 [Ancel] Keys carried out a starvation study with 36 conscientious objectors as test subjects in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. At the time, conscientious objectors were being placed in virtual concentration camps, with a few functioning like the Civilian Public Service, so that recruiting them would prove easier than seeking out volunteers in the general population.[14][17] The original pool of 400 responders was reduced to 36 selectees, of whom 32 would go on to complete the study.[23] The main focus of the study was threefold: set a metabolic baseline for three months, study the physical and mental effects of starvation on the volunteers for six months, and then study the physical and mental effects of different refeeding protocols on them for three months.[14] The participants would first be placed on the three month baseline diet of 3200 calories after which their calories were reduced to 1800 calories/day while expending 3000 calories in activities such as walking. The final three months were a refeeding period where the volunteers were divided into four groups, each receiving a different caloric intake.[14]
The war came to an end before the final results of the study could be published, but Keys sent his findings to various international relief agencies throughout Europe[3]and, by 1950, he completed publication of his two-volume 1385-page Biology of Human Starvation." (Wikipedia article on Ancel Keys, accessed 01-2017).
Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1977.
"Skylab was the United States' space station that orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, when it fell back to Earth amid huge worldwide media attention. Launched and operated by NASA, Skylab included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems necessary for crew survival and scientific experiments. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 170,000 pounds (77 t). Lifting Skylab into low earth orbit was the final mission and launch of a Saturn V rocket (which was famous for carrying the manned Moon landing missions).[2] When data from onboard experiments (some of which were on physical film) were returned to Earth, analysis of scientific and engineering data of each mission was completed. Skylab's solar observatory was one of its major functions. Solar science was significantly advanced by the telescope, and its observation of the Sun was unprecedented. As the Skylab program drew to a close, NASA's focus had shifted to the development of the Space Shuttle, through which NASA hoped to reduce the cost of space access compared to previous launch systems" (Wikipedia). Digital facsimile from ntrs.nasa.gov at this link.
Contains 435 hand-colored plates in double elephant folio format, originally issued in 87 parts. The birds of America is widely regarded as the greatest illustrated ornithological work ever published, and one of the greatest works of natural history illustration ever created.
Imprint dates: v. 1, 1827-30; v. 2, 1831-34; v. 3, 1834-35; v. 4, 1835-38, June 20.
Plate LXIV drawn from nature by Lucy Audubon.
Plates I-II, VI-VII engraved by W [illiam] H[ome] Lizars, retouched by R [obert] Havell, junr.; pl VIII-IX engraved by W.H. Lizars; pl. III-V, CI-CV, CVIII, CX engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell, junr.; pl. X-C, CVI-CVII, CIX, CXII-CCCCXXXV engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell.
Plates II, VII dated 1829; pl. CVI-CX, CXII-CVX dated 1831; pl. CXXXI-CXL, CXLIII-CLV dated 1832; pl. CLVI-CLXXVII, CLXXIX-CLXXXII, CLXXXIV-CLXXXV dated 1833; pl. CLXXXVI-CXCVII, CXCIX, CCII-CCXXXV dated 1834; pl. CCXXXVI-CCLXXXV, CCLXXXVII, CCLXXXIX-CCXC dated 1835; pl. CCLXXXVI, CCLXXXVIII, CCXCI-CCCL dated 1836; pl. CCCLI-CCCC dated 1837; pl. CCCCI-CCCCXXXV dated 1838.
Sanger edited The Birth Control Review until 1929. A new series began in 1933. It was a birth control advocacy periodical published by the American Birth Control League, and later by its successor, the Birth Control Federation of America. Birth Control Federation of America was the earlier name of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The journal ceased publication in 1940. Digital facsimiles of vols 1-3, (1917-19) from the Hathi Trust at this link.
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
When first published in 1985 this was the first monograph devoted solely to the history of Byzantine hospitals. Reissued with an extensive new introduction by the author in 1997.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1971.
A study of the trends in black enrollments in the nation’s medical schools, and various public and higher education factors that limited the supply of black physicians in America through the 1960s.
These workers showed the beneficial effect of raw beef liver upon blood regeneration in anemia. Their work paved the way for the liver diet treatment of Minot and Murphy.
Lombard soaked the skin in cedarwood oil, rendering transparent the superficial epidermal layers, and thus making possible many direct observations on it.
Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2014.
The first comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of the triangular relationship among the Tibetan art and science of healing (Sowa Rigpa), Buddhism, and arts and crafts. Sowa Rigpa was influenced by Chinese, Indian, and Greco-Arab medical traditions but is distinct from them. Developed within the context of Buddhism, Tibetan medicine was adapted over centuries to different health needs and climates across the region encompassing the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalayas, and Mongolia.
Observation of the effect of strong emotions on gastrointestinal motility (No. 1029) led Cannon to examination of the sympathetic nervous system and its emergency function. Cannon showed the close connexion between the endocrine glands and the emotions.
"A groundbreaking study of the marriage and sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Brown focuses on the practice of permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and lifelong virginity-in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. and traces early Christians' preoccupations with sexuality and the body in the work of the period's great writers.
"The Body and Society questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped relationships between men and women, Roman aristocracy and slaves, and the married and the celibate. Brown discusses Tertullian, Valentinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, the Desert Fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, among others, and considers asceticism and society in the Eastern Empire, martyrdom and prophecy, gnostic spiritual guidance, promiscuity among the men and women of the church, monks and marriage in Egypt, the ascetic life of women in fourth-century Jerusalem, and the body and society in the early Middle Ages" (publisher)
20th anniversary edition with a new introduction, 2008.
Illouz improved on the Fischers’ technique with the invention of a cannula with a blunt tip. This new type of cannula reduced blood loss and nerve damage, as well as reducing the risk of complications or death from liposuction procedures. Illouz published extensively on liposuction in French, beginning in 1977. This was his first major publication on the subject in English.
Loosely based upon the notorious crimes of Burke and Hare, who murdered 16 people in 1828 in order to sell their corpses to Scottish anatomist Robert Knox. In Stevenson's story, the anatomist is referred to as Mr. K___, and the main characters are two of Knox's medical students who become entangled in providing corpses for their mentor.
In 1977 Gunther von Hagens invented plastination, a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts.In the process water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample, including the original weight. During the first 20 years plastination was used to preserve small specimens for medical study. It was not until the early 1990s that the equipment was developed to make it possible to plastinate whole body specimens, each specimen taking up to 1,500 person-hours to prepare. The first exhibition of whole bodies was displayed in Japan in 1995. Over the next two years, von Hagens developed the Body Worlds exhibition, showing whole bodies plastinated in lifelike poses and dissected to show various structures and systems of human anatomy. This met with public interest and controversy in more than 50 cities around the world.
First English book on sweating sickness, and the first devoted to a single disease to be published in England. Caius’s work appeared a year after the last epidemic visit of the disease. From it we learn that the disease was febrile, the sweating merely a manifestation of the fever, and that it was accompanied by pain in the limbs, nausea, vomiting, and delirium. A facsimile edition of the book was published in New York, 1937; it also appears in Gruner (No. 5524) and in the 1844, 1846, and 1859 editions of No. 1678.
Albee was the first to employ living bone grafts as internal splints. He used cutting machines and saws to make inlaid, perfectly-fitting grafts. See especially his “Transplantation of a portion of the tibia into the spine for Pott’s disease. A preliminary report”, J. Amer. med. Ass., 1911, 57, 885-86. See No. 4384.1.
Computed tomography of the inner ear of 20 Neanderthal specimens directed by Spoor showed that the Neanderthal semicircular canal is subtly distinct in size, shape, and orientation from that of modern humans. With Marc Braun.
Possibly the most enlightened, and detailed book on sex, reproduction, and contraception published during this period; illustrated in color. In addition to outlining the era's five most reliable methods of contraception (withdrawal, condoms, the vaginal sponge, douching and the rhythm method) Ashton explained the most effective means and timing for inducing miscarriage. Digital facsimile of the 1861 reprint from the Internet Archive at this link. The author, a physician, characterized himself on the title page as "Lecturer on Sexual Physiology, and Inventor of the Reveil Nocturne."
"The London underground displays posters for fertility clinics, directed at both women and men. Picture books teach children the facts of life. We are always reading about reproduction. Reproduction also describes what communication media do—multiply images, sounds and text for wider consumption. This exhibition is about these two senses of reproduction, about babies and books, and the ways in which they have interacted in the past and continue to interact today. Before reproduction there was generation, a broader view of how all things come into being than passing on the blueprint of a particular form of life. Before electronic media there were clay figurines, papyrus, parchment, printed books and journals. The interactions between communication media and ideas about reproduction have transformed the most intimate aspects of our lives."
"The biological mingling of the previously separated Old and New Worlds began with the first voyage of Columbus. The exchange was a mixed blessing: It led to the disappearance of entire peoples in the Americas, but it also resulted in the rapid expansion and consequent economic and military hegemony of Europeans. Amerindians had never before experienced the deadly Eurasian sicknesses brought by the foreigners in wave after wave; smallpox, measles, typhus, plague, influenza, malaria, yellow fever. These diseases conquered the Americas before the sword could be unsheathed. From 1492 to 1650, from Hudson's Bay in the north to southernmost Tierra del Fuego, disease weakened Amerindian resistance to outside domination. The Black Legend, which attempts to place all of the blame for the injustices of conquest on the Spanish, must be revised in light of the evidence that all Old World peoples carried, literally though largely unwittingly, the germs of the destruction of American civilization" (publisher).
The first edition of part 2, preceded part 1, being published in 1789. This poem was the chief source of Erasmus Darwin's literary fame during his lifetime. Like his other works, this poem contains a great deal of frequently advanced scientific information in the nearly 300 footnotes and 115 pages of appendices. This work also contains five plates engraved by William Blake, including "The fertilisation of Egypt" after a design by Henry Fuseli, and 4 engravings of the Portland Vase.
New York: Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties , 1963.
Colden was the first distinguished American woman botanist. Her work is known only from an untitled manuscript by her on the flora of the lower Hudson River Valley of New York that is preserved in the Natural History Museum (London), portions of which are here reproduced in facsimile. The manuscript's title page was added by Ernst Gottfried Baldiner in 1801. The manuscript includes 340 ink drawings by Colden, and in some cases includes folklore suggesting medicinal uses for particular plants. Colden died in childbirth at the age of 42.
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.
Birmingham: Printed by M. Swinney & London: T. Cadell, 1776.
The first flora of Great Britain using Linnean binomial nomenclature, and the first complete scientific classification and description of British plants in the English language. Withering included much information on natural places of growth, time of flowering, economic uses as foods and drugs, and poisonous properties.
Withering's explanatory title page was notably verbose. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
"generally considered to be the first attempt at a scientific systemization of plants" (D.S.B., 3, 412-13.) Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.
Part 1: Flora of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands (1843-45); Part 2: Flora of Fuegia, the Falklands, Karguellen's land, etc. (1845-47); Part 3: Flora of New Zealand. 2 vols. (1851-53); Part 4: Flora of Tasmania. 2 vols. (1853-59). Digital facsimiles at the Internet Archive at this link. (See also No. 7446).
The first medical book printed in California, a small 23-page pamphlet of folk or popular medicine. It was printed by Agustín V. Zamorano, the first printer in Alta California under Mexican rule before the region became part of the United States. Facsimile reproduction and partial translation in Robert J. Moes, The Zamorano press and the Botica: California's first medical book (Los Angeles: The Zamorano Club, 1988).
Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing India, 1893 – 1897.
Dated to the Gupta era, between the 4th and the 6th century CE, the Bower Manuscript, preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was written on birch bark in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit using the Late Brahmi script or Gupta script. The manuscript preserves one of the earliest treatises on Indian medicine (Ayurveda). The medical parts (I-III) may be based on similar types of medical writings antedating the composition of the saṃhitÄs of Charaka, SuÅ›ruta, and thus rank with the earliest surviving texts on Indian tradition medicine, or Ayurveda. A Sanskrit Index was published in 1908, and a revised translation of the medical portions (I,II,and III) in 1909; the Introduction appeared in 1912. For further information on this manuscript see HistoryofInformation.com at this link. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
Cambridge, MA: Printed at the Riverside Press, 1911 – 1918.
An attempt at a truly comprehensive bibliography of the world literature in western languages on these subjects to 1900, including more than 100,000 entries. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.
Stuttgart: Deutscher Verlags-Anstalt, 1983 – 1991.
"Vol. I, edited by Susanne Koppel, describes 684 works dating from the discovery of Brazil to the nineteenth century, on history, politics, literature, ethnology, geography, climate, botany, zoology and medicine. The entries are arranged chronologically, and for each Koppel gives collation, condition of the Bosch copy, extensive bibliography and comments. There are indexes by author, subject, place of publication, artist, provenance and Brazilian place name.
"Vol. II, part 1, edited by Renate Löschner and Birgit Kirchstein-Gamber, describes 236 sketches (of which 92 are illustrated) made during the 1815-1817 expedition of Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) to Brazil. The Prince was one of the most noted German travellers to describe the Americas. Borba de Moraes states that "from a scientific point of view this expedition was one of the most profitable of the nineteenth century" (II, 544); an account of it was published as Reise nach Brasilien, Frankfurt, 1820.
Vol. II, part 2, covering the correspondence and sketches of the 1815-1817 expedition, is beautifully illustrated with over 100 color plates, among them drawings of monkeys, birds, reptiles, frogs, a jellyfish, a wasp's nest, etc. This volume was edited by Birgit Kirschstein-Gamber, Susanne Koppel and Renate Löschner, with an introduction by Dorothea Kuhn" (Richard Ramer).
Order of authorship in the original publication: Hartrampf, Scheflan, Black. The transverse rectus abdominus myocutaneous flap for breast reconstruction. Breast reconstruction without the use of an artificial implant.
Catlin, the famous American artist, was the first in America to call attention to the bad effects of mouth-breathing. He based his book on observations of native American practices, and illustrated his book with humorous sketches. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.
Privately printed pamphlet asserting the prehistoric origin of cave paintings discovered in the cave of Altamira, Cantabria, Spain by Maria Sanz de Sautuola, daughter of the author. These were first prehistoric cave paintings discovered; initially the scientific establishment refused to accept the prehistoric origin of these paintings, and other cave paintings as they were discovered.
Venice: Bonetus Locatellus, for Octavianus Scotus, 1497.
Serapion the Elder and Serapion the Younger were Syrian Christians who wrote in Arabic. Breviarum medicinae was an abridgement of the opinions of the Greek and Arabic physicians concerning diseases and their treatment. It also includes transcriptions from Alexander of Tralles, an author with whom few of the other Arabic writers seem to have been much acquainted.
Matthaeus Platearius, a physician from Salerno, is thought to have produced a twelfth-century Latin manuscript on medicinal herbs titled "Circa Instans" aka ("The Book of Simple Medicines"), later translated into French as "Le Livre des simples medecines." It was an alphabetic listing and textbook of simples that was based on Dioscorides "Vulgaris", which described the appearance, preparation, and uses of various drugs. Matthaeus Platearius and his brother Johannes were the sons of a female physician from the Salerno school who was married to Johannes Platearius I; it is possible that she was Trotula. ISTC No. is00466000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.
The earliest scientific account, by a practitioner, and corroborated by witnesses, of healing by the “laying-on of hands”. Greatrakes became known as “the Irish stroker” because of his method of healing by stroking the affected part. He recognized the limited types of conditions which stroking could treat, and was a sincere and well-meaning practitioner. He wrote the above work to defend himself against charges that he was a charlatan. See Peter Elmer, The miraculous conformist: Valentine Greatrakes, the body politic, and the politics of healing in Restoration Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). Full text of Greatrakes's book is available from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link.
“The best general summary of epidemiological opinion at the beginning of the nineteenth century; and few works surpass it as a compendium of earlier speculations in this field”. (Winslow). A great linguist, Webster was the author of the famous dictionary. Osler considered the above work the most important American medical work written by a layman.
Dated June 26, 2014. Using viral genomics and PCR, the Saudi authors demonstrated that full genome sequences of a man, and the camel he had contact with, were identical. Available from nejm.org at this link.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation.)
This paper, dated November 8, 2012, characterized the virus up to and including its genome sequence, including radiology and imaging findings, lab findings, diagnosis and management. The authors tentatively named the virus "HCoV-EMC" for Human and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, where the lead author, Zaki, sent the virus to be sequenced. Taxonomists later renamed the virus MERS-CoV. Available from nejm.org at this link.
Remarkably, for political reasons Zaki lost his job at a private hospital in Saudi Arabia immediately after he sent the disease sample to Rotterdam. He also had to flee the country immediately. Details of this firing were reported on FluTrackers.com at this link. Further details were reported in Nature Middle East on June 2, 2014 at this link.
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)
The first medical publication of North America and the only one to appear in the 17th century. Only one copy of the original printing of this broadside survived, written by Thacher, a Boston minister. The sheet was reprinted, with a bibliographical and biographical study of the reprints done in 1702 and 1721-22, by Henry R. Viets. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1937).
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.
Frerichs divided the progression of renal disease into three stages: initial hyperemia, fatty infiltration and exudation, and organization leading to fibrosis and atrophy. This is one of the earliest works on kidney disease to incorporate histological appearances. However, Frerichs did not recognize the primary involvement of the glomerulus in what later became known as glomerulonephritis. See No. 4212.
This collective work shows how Galen was adopted, adapted, admired, contested, and criticized across diverse intellectual environments and geographical regions, from Late Antiquity to the present day, and from Europe to North Africa, the Middle and the Far East.
British Anti-Lewisite BAL (dimercaprol), a medication used to treat acute poisoning by arsenic, mercury, gold, and lead, was discovered during the 1939-45 war. With L. A. Stocken and R. H. S. Thompson.
A comprehensive history and bibliography of the subject, including a revised history of the English herbal literature, and accounts of other books of medical and pharmaceutical interest.
London: Council of the British Optical Association, 1932 – 1957.
Vol. 1 primarlily by Sutcliffe; vol.3 by Mitchell. The 3 volumes describe more than 1000 items; every entry is annotated. The first volume is extensively illustrated.
Covers British periodicals published in the British Empire. Published in book form, Baltimore, 1938. Supplement, 1938-61, by A. M Shadrake, Bull. med. Libr. Ass., 1963, 51, 181-96, covers Gt Britain and Ireland, but excludes reports of societies and hospitals.
"The British Pharmacopoeia has provided official standards for the quality of substances, medicinal products and articles used in medicine since its first publication in 1864. It is used in over 100 countries and remains an essential global reference in pharmaceutical research and development and quality control. This book explores how these standards have been achieved through a comprehensive review of the history and development of the pharmacopoeias in the UK, from the early London, Edinburgh and Dublin national pharmacopoeias to the creation of the British Pharmacopoeia and its evolution over 150 years. Trade in medicinal substances and products has always been global, and the British Pharmacopoeia is placed in its global context as an instrument of the British Empire as it first sought to cover the needs of countries such as India and latterly as part of its role in international harmonisation of standards in Europe and elsewhere. The changing contents of the pharmacopoeias over this period reflect the changes in medical practice and the development of dosage forms from products dispensed by pharmacists to commercially manufactured products, from tinctures to the latest monoclonal antibody products" (Publisher).
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
Explores the films and radio and television broadcasts developed by twentieth-century birth control advocates to promote family planning at home in the United States, and in the expanding international arena of population control.
The work of Auer and Lewis (see No. 2600) led Meitzer to the conclusion that bronchial asthma was due to anaphylaxis, although he did not appreciate that not all cases of asthma were so caused.
Focuses on the traditional woman-centered home-birthing practices, their replacement by male doctors, and the movement from the home to the hospital. She explains that childbearing women and their physicians gradually changed birth places because they believed the increased medicalization would make giving birth safer and more comfortable. Ironically, because of infection, infant and maternal mortality did not immediately decline.
'Brought to Life', is a website provided by the Science Museum, London. It offers access to images of thousands of fascinating objects from the Museum’s great medical collections. The site also incorporates detailed descriptions, introductions to major themes in the history of medicine and engaging multimedia.
"This site is not only a valuable resource for teachers and students working on the history of medicine, and related subjects, in schools and universities. It also engages people of all ages and interests in the story of medicine.
"Creation of the site has been made possible through the generous financial support of the Wellcome Trust and the loan of the Trust’s great collections to the Science Museum. The Museum is most grateful for their support."
The first work in English on the history of disease in China traces an epidemic of bubonic plague that began in Yunnan province in the late eighteenth century, spread throughout much of southern China in the nineteenth century, and eventually exploded on the world scene as a global pandemic at the end of the century.
The first printed book to contain illustrations of animals, and the first notable scientific book in German. It discusses animals, birds, fish, anatomy, physiology, plagues, the medicinal value of plants and stones, etc. ISTC no. ic00842000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.
First edition of Paracelsus's collected works. Though all the autographs of Paracelsus's writings were later lost, Huber, who was born shortly after Paracelsus's death, was able to collect a great number of autographs and early copies, so he was able to edit a complete edition of the medical and natural philosophic works of Paracelsus in 10 volumes. Huber's edition of Paracelsus's surgical writings (Chirurgische Bucher und Schriften) was issued after Huber's death, in Strasbourg in 1605. Links to facsimiles of the 10 vols. plus the 1605 edition at the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek from the Zurich Paracelsus Project at this link.
Steinhöwel was a Swabian author, humanist, and translator who was much inspired by the Italian Renaissance. His translations of medical treatises and fiction were an important contribution to early Renaissance Humanism in Germany. This was a famous book; six printed editions appeared in the 15th century. It is reproduced in facsimile in A. C. Klebs: Die ersten gedruckten Pestschriften, 1936. ISTC No. is00762800. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.
Augsburg: Johann Schönsperger, about 1495] Also recorded as [Johann Schobsser], and [Anton Sorg], and [Ulm: Johann Zainer] , 1495.
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.
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.
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1939.
Vol. 1-6, 1933-38 entitled Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine. Recent issues may be viewed from Project Muse at: http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/24
In this very attractively produced publication the authors called attention to the decreasing trend of death rates from infectious diseases and the increasing trend of death from chronic diseases such as cancer, cephritis, intracranial lesions of vascular origin, etc.
The relationship of the bursa of Fabricius to antibody formation was discovered by Glick, T. S. Chang, and R. G. Jaap. Its removal in early life led to inability to produce antibodies.
Swammerdam's extensive collection of microscopical observations on insects was written in Dutch, and edited for publication 57 years after Swammerdam's death, with an extensive life of the author, by Herman Boerhaave. By the end of 1679 Swammerdam completed his manuscript, and the illustrations were virtually finished; two plates had been engraved, and the translation from Dutch to Latin was underway. However, Swammerdam’s health took a turn for the worse when his malaria returned. At Swammerdam's death in 1680 the manuscript passed to his friend Melchisédec Thévenot, with a request that the work be published. Unfortunately Thévenot could not meet the request of his dying friend. On Thévenot's death his papers were sold and the manuscript was bought by the King's painter, Joubert; on Joubert's death the manuscript was sold once again. In 1727 Boerhaave acquired the manuscript, but did not complete the editorial process and see the work into print until ten years later. The 2-volume folio work, published in 2-columns, includes a parallel Latin translation by Hieronymus David Gaubius. English translation, with title mistranslated as "Book of Nature" London, 1758. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books 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.
Venice: in aedibus haeredum Aldi Manutii et Andreae Asulani, 1534.
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.
