The first effort to present summaries of the evidence for earliest occupation in all the regions of Europe including Russia, edited by Roebroeks and van Kolfschoten.

Describes 2105 items with paginations. Reprinted 1977.

Detailed historical analysis and English translation of medical manuscripts buried with their owner in 168 BCE and unearthed in Mawangdui, Hunan, in 1973, representing Chinese medical traditions from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE. Before these texts were unearthed the earliest extant medical text from China was the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor compiled in the first century BCE. 

First radical prostatectomy for carcinoma.

Wangensteen’s apparatus for relief of acute intestinal obstruction. See also his Intestinal Obstructions: Physiological, pathological and clinical considerations with emphasis on therapy, including description of operative procedures. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, 1955.

Schiller’s test for carcinoma of the cervix.

The classic treatise on the initial approach to abdominal pain. This work underwent its 22nd edition in 2011. 

Reprinted from Proc. Brit. Acad., 1919-20, 9, 341-74.

Digital facsimile of vol. 1 and limited (search only) of vol. 2-4 from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The Turkana Boy, (KNM-WT 15000) now called Nariokotome Boy, a Homo erectus fossil which was in 2016 the most complete early human skeleton found. It is a nearly complete skeleton of a hominin youth believed to be 1.5 to 1.6 years old. The skeleton was discovered in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu, a member of a team led by Richard Leakey, at Nariokotome near Lake Turkana in Kenya.

Revised edition, 1995.

Extensively annotated, magnificently printed catalogue (590pp. in 4to) entirely illustrated in color, of an exhibition of 250 early medical manuscripts, printed books, and related objects from the ancient world to the 17th century held at the Fondation Martin Bodmer in 2010. "History, science, art and symbolic representation of the world." Exhibited items came from the collection of the Fondation Martin Bodmer and 30 other institutions. With the collaboration of Vincent Barras, Charles Méla, Sylviane Messerli, Élisabeth Macheret. Préface du Professeur Charles Méla. An edition was also published in French.

Still's autobiography is probably the first biography or autobiography of an African American physician.

"James Still, medical doctor and herbalist, was born on April 9, 1812 in Burlington County, New Jersey.  Still was born to Levin and Charity Still, two former slaves living in the Pine Barrens to avoid being captured and sold back into slavery. Although the Still family was poor, the children attended school periodically and had some of their own textbooks, such as the New Testament and a spelling book.  When Still was three years old, a Dr. Fort, a Philadelphia physician, came to the Pines to vaccinate the children. His visit was the spark of inspiration that led to Still’s desire to be a doctor.

"Just before Still turned 18 he was voluntarily hired out as an indentured servant by his father. During the three years of his servitude, Still read everything available about medicine and botany, and learned all he could from the Native Americans of the area. On his twenty-first birthday, he was released from his service, given $10.00 and a new suit. He left immediately for Philadelphia. Still’s racial and financial status prevented him from attending medical school. Nonetheless, he continued to gain medical knowledge, reading everything he could find while working menial jobs to support himself.  

"In the spring of 1835, Still met Angelina Willow. The two were married on July 25 of that year and had a girl, Beulah. Angelina died from tuberculosis in August of 1838 and Beulah died in August of the following year. Still quickly remarried Henrietta Thomas and the two of them had two sons, James and Joseph.

"Still’s medical career began soon after his second marriage.  He created a “cough balm” from plants and herbs grown on his farm and soon after his first patient used it successfully Still became famous.  Two Philadelphia pharmacists heard of his product and began buying all of the cough balm he could supply. With that money he was able to buy a small house and begin making house-calls to patients.

"In response to his success, local doctors challenged his medical credentials. Still consulted a local attorney and learned that he was safe from legal action as long as he continued to never claim to be an MD, nor ask for a fee for his services.

"James Still eventually suffered a stroke, limiting his practice to patients who came to his home. In 1877, he published his autobiography, Early Recollections and Life of Dr. James Still in which he detailed the memories of his life. Five years later, in 1882 James Still died of a second stroke at his New Jersey home" (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/still-james-1812-1882), accessed 02-2017).  

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Articles from recent issues may be viewed at http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/15733823/21/5.

Using the viral genome isolated from the archival serum of the "Kinshasa patient", Lemey, Faria and colleagues deduced that the prototype African viral strain first crossed from monkeys to humans about 1920 in the area of Kinshasa in Africa. This was about forty years before it was first detected in a stored human blood sample collected in 1959 from a hospitalized patient it in Kinshasa. Order of authorship in the original publication was Faria, Rambaut, Suchard...Lemey.

Full text and images from PubMedCentral at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

First successful in-vitro fertilization of human oocytes.

Includes four "Photo-relief" (Woodburytype) plates. Possibly the only book on this subject. One may assume that the special earth contained some anti-bacterial mold such as penicillin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Taylor accompanied Florence Nightingale to Scutari, and worked as nurse in the military hospitals. She provided one of the first eye-witness acounts of military hospitals at Scutari and Koulali, and wrote about the management of military hospitals generally. While in the Crimea she converted to Catholicism. After she became a nun she was known as Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart. Digital facsimile of the revised third edition (1857) from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Among the essays in this book two are of special note:

 1. Piot, P., Sureau, P., Breman, J.G., Clinical aspects of Ebola virus infection in Yambuku area, Zaire, 1976  (pp. 157-166). This is the first clinical description of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. The authors were the first team of Westerners to arrive at and enter the Yambuku mission hospital.

2. Sureau, P., Piot, P., Breman, J.G. Containment and surveillance of an epidemic of Ebola virus infection in Yambuku area, Zaire, 1976. (pp. 116-121).  The first account of the heroic efforts of the authors to contain this epidemic at its epicenter under practically unsurmountable odds.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Also published with same title in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 38 (1989) 831, 832-837. Discovery of the "Ebola Reston" strain of the Ebola virus. The strain is lethal in monkeys; it turned out to be non-pathogenic for humans.

Digital text from cdc.gov at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this paper and its interpretation.)

http://echo.gmu.edu/

"ECHO (Exploring and Collecting History Online) is a portal to over 5,000 websites concerning the history of science, technology, and industry. This guide helps researchers find the exact information they need while also granting curious browsers a forum for exploration. 

ECHO is also a first step into the field of digital history: since 2001 it has been a laboratory for experimentation in this new field, and it fosters communication and dialog among historians, scientists, engineers, doctors, and technologists. In addition to facilitating access to digital resources on the history of science, technology, and industry, ECHO has promoted the creation of digital history with tools like Zotero and the construction of Digital Memory Bank technology (as in preserving the memories of Hurricane Katrina). We also help scholars and institutions with their own digital history projects through workshops and consultancies. 

The project is based at George Mason University's Center for History and New Media."

Halbertsma first performed Caesarean section in puerperal convulsions.

Revised edition, 2004.

Full text available from en.wikisource.org at this link.

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

Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, translated by Bruce Fink (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006).

First uretero-intestinal anastomosis.

The first large scale application of stereoscopic photography to anatomy. The 5 parts each contain 50 stereo cards on which are pasted original stereo photographs and corresponding printed descriptive text. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This is an ongoing project with many volumes and many editors and several publishers. The number of volumes already published, and planned volumes was unclear in May 2017 when I wrote this entry. Further information is available from vallisneri.it at this link.

Includes the correspondence and previously unpublished manuscripts. A description of this set is available from the publisher at this link.

"The current blueprint for medical education in North America was drawn up in 1910 by Abraham Flexner in his report Medical Education in the United States and Canada. The basic features outlined by Flexner remain in place today. Yet with the past century's enormous societal changes, the practice of medicine and its scientific, pharmacological, and technological foundations have been transformed. Now medical education in the United States is at a crossroads: those who teach medical students and residents must choose whether to continue in the direction established over a hundred years ago or to take a fundamentally different course, guided by contemporary innovation and new understandings about how people learn.

"Emerging from an extensive study of physician education by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Educating Physicians calls for a major overhaul of the present approach to preparing doctors for their careers. The text addresses major issues for the future of the field and takes a comprehensive look at the most pressing concerns in physician education today. The key findings of the study recommend four goals for medical education: standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process; integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience; development of habits of inquiry and innovation; and focus on professional identity formation.

"Like The Carnegie Foundation's revolutionizing Flexner Report of 1910, Educating Physicians is destined to change the way administrators and faculty in medical schools and programs prepare their physicians for the future" (Publisher).

Includes a history of the subject. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

At Luxor, Egypt, in 1862 the American collector and dealer in papyri Edwin Smith purchased the papyrus which bears his name. It is preserved at the New York Academy of Medicine. The original text was written about 3000 BCE; the present manuscript is a copy dating from about 1600 BCE. It is the oldest known surgical treatise and consists entirely of case reports; it describes 47 different cases of injuries and affections of the head, nose, and mouth, together with methods of bandaging. 

A more recent edition in French is: Claude Carrier and Dider Fournier, Le papyrus chirurgical Edwin Smith (New York Academy of Medicine Library). Brest: PAM, 2015. This edition includes a transcription of the text with philological analysis followed by a medical analysis case by case.

First description of ovarian pregnancy.

Myerson, an American neurologist, psychiatrist, clinician, pathologist, and researcher, funded by Benedrine manufacturer Smith, Kline and French, promoted Benzedrine (i.e. amphetamine) as an anti-depressant, leading to its wide adoption as the first anti-depressant pill.

Demonstration of the effect of deprivation of biotin.

Loeb and Aron (No.1138.2) demonstrated the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the anterior pituitary.

Test for diagnosis of cancer. With B. Halperin and S. H. Libert.

Experimental evidence of the value of promin (sodium glucosulphone) in tuberculosis. With H. C. Hinshaw and H.E. Moses. See also Amer. Rev. Tuberc., 1942, 45, 303-33.

Evans and Long discovered the growth hormone of the anterior pituitary, showing that continued injections of an anterior pituitary extract produced an acceleration in the growth-rate of laboratory animals.

McGee prepared the first active male hormone extract from the lipoid fraction of bull testes. His paper includes a preliminary account of the capon-comb test. See No. 1191.

One of the first papers on the application of lasers in medicine. In 1961 Goldman became the first researcher to use a laser to treat a human skin disease when he treated melanoma. The method later became popular in removing birthmarks and tattoos without leaving much scarring. With D. J. Blaney, D. J. Kindel Jr., and E. K. Franke. See also Goldman, L., Blaney, D. J., Kindel, D. J. Jr, Richfield, D., Franke,  E. K.,  "Pathology of the effect of the laser beam on the skin," Nature 197 (1963) 912– 914.

First clinical use of “furacin” (nitrofuran). With C. L. Kiehn and J. W. Christopherson.

Introduction of cortisone and A.C.T.H. in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. With C. H. Slocumb, and H. F. Polley. Hench and Kendall shared a Nobel Prize with Tadeusz Reichstein (No. 1153) in 1950.

The first discussion of decompression sickness in flying personnel.

Darwin's report on over 12 years of experimentation with cross and self-fertilization on 57 species. In these experiments Darwin discovered and demonstrated the concept of hybrid vigor or heterosis.

C. R. Moore, T. F. Gallagher, and F. C. Koch were the first to obtain a potent testicular extract containing the male sex hormone, androsterone, later obtained in crystalline form by Butenandt. They also gave a detailed account of the capon-comb test for the assay of the male hormone.

Classic study of caisson disease. Smith was "Late Surgeon to the New York Bridge Co. (Caisson Work)", treating workmen who built the Brooklyn Bridge. The Eads Bridge (St. Louis) and the Brooklyn Bridge (New York City) were testing grounds for caisson construction. These caissons were enormous compressed air boxes used to build riverine piers and abutments anchoring the bridges. Caisson meant faster and cheaper construction, but there was a hidden cost- caisson disease (decompression sickness). Within caissons, workers labored at pressures as high as 55 psig. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See also Smith's The physiological, pathological and therapeutical effects of compressed air. (Detroit: George S. Davis, 1886). Digital facsimile of the 1886 work from Google Books at this link.

Diagnosis of cardiac pain. With A. L. Barach and H. G. Bruenn.

First practical demonstration of an oral contraceptive.

Compound E (cortisone) introduced in the treatment of rheumatic fever. With C. H. Slocumb, A. R. Barnes, H. L. Smith, H. F. Polley.

Gowans’s work, particularly between 1957 and 1962, was mainly responsible for the fusion of studies on the lymphocytes with the mainstream of immunology. The above paper dealt with the recirculation of lymphocytes. See also J. Physiol. (Lond.), 1959, 146, 54-69.

The first systematic publication in Great Britain on industrial disease and its prevention. For comprehensiveness, first-hand clinical experience and constructive proposals for improvements, Thackrah’s monograph is superior to that of Ramazzini. It attracted attention from both medical men and laymen at the time that it appeared, and played an important part in stimulating the factory and health legislation which mitigated some of the worst features of the Industrial Revolution. The book also includes important information on the harmful effects of child labor. The second edition (1832) was doubled in length. A reprint of the 2nd edition, with a life of the author by A. Meiklejohn, was published in 1957.

Pioneering study of the physiological effects of training.

Introduction of vitallium. With W. Stuck and A. Beach.

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

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

Order of authorship in the original paper: Roland, Everett, Cyr. Using PCR, the authors demonstrated that the tick Amblyoma americanum (the Lone Star Tick) was the insect vector of Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Digital facsimile from citeseerx.ist.psu.edu at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Order of authorship in the original publication: Buller, Arens, Hmiel. The authors confirmed that the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), is Ehrlichia ewingii, a pathogen carried by dogs and known in that form as E. canis. Available from nejm.org at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Waldeyer discovered the germinal epithelium.

The (extrapyramidal) syndrome of Hallervorden and Spatz.

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

This dictionary of medical eponyms gives references to the original publications involved and records wherever possible the first use of the eponym.

First nephrectomy for malignant disease.

In his account of progressive pernicious anemia, Biermer was first to describe the retinal haemorrhages. He was at one time accredited with the first description of pernicious anemia ; later it was shown that Addison had described the condition in his classic work on the suprarenals (No. 3118) and that Combe (No. 3112) had reported a case of pernicious anemia as far back as 1822. On the European Continent the condition is referred to as “Biermer’s disease”. Preliminary communication in Versammlung deutscherNaturforscher undAertze, 1868, Tageblatt No. 8, IX Sect., p. 173.

First description of torsion-spasm, dystonia musculorum deformans; also called “Ziehen–Oppenheim disease” following reports of cases by these writers in Neurol. Zbl., 1911, 30, 109, 1090.

Kocher introduced silk sutures.

Tallqvist’s hemoglobin scale.

Translated into English as "The contraction of the vena portae and its influence upon the circulation," Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, I (1896) 111-157. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Determination of the effect of high acceleration on blood pressure, establishing that the systolic pressure in arteries going to the head falls progressively as acceleratory forces increase.

Traces the evolution of medicine from the stage of superstition and magic to the present time, and shows how our knowledge of the subject has developed through the study of anatomy and physiology. Translated in English as Man and Medicine (New York, 1932).

Thirteen contributions edited by Boroviczény, H. Schipperges, and E. Seidler. Includes chronological table of events in the history of medicine and a bibliography.

Discovery of the intracapsular mechanism of accommodation. Gullstrand received the Nobel Prize in 1911 for his work on the dioptrics of the eye.

Kraepelin evolved a new classification of insanity. He introduced the concepts “dementia praecox” and “manic-depressive insanity”. (Regarding the latter, see also No. 4932.)

Daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud made the psychoanalysis of children her own province. This is probably the most famous classic of child analysis.

Wagner saw and described the nucleolus.

Albert introduced the concept of joint arthrodesis into orthopedic surgery. This is the first description of arthrodesis of an ankle for paralytic foot. English translation in Bick, Classics of orthopaedics, 52-54.

Independently of His, Forel formulated the neuron theory.

Experimental ventricular fibrillation.

Knauer implanted ovaries into immature or castrated animals, producing development of sexual characteristics, thus demonstrating the existence of an ovarian hormone.

Introduction of paraffin embedding

Caton succeeded in leading off action potentials from the brains of animals, a first step towards the development of the electroencephalograph. See also Brit. med. J., 1877, 1, Suppl. 62-75.

This detailed psychophysical and electrophysiological analysis of one patient proved that a cochlear implant provided sufficient information to the central nervous system for the understanding of speech. 

MacWilliams described experiments in which application of an electrical impulse to the human heart in asystole caused a ventricular contraction, and that a heart rhythm of 60–70 beats per minute could be evoked by impulses applied at spacings equal to 60–70 /minute. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Ziemssen confirmed Remak’s discovery of the motor points, established their exact location, and published exact instructions for finding the motor points for stimulating the various muscles of the body.

Leduc reported the effects of a galvanic current on the brain. His work led the way to electric convulsion therapy, introduced by Carletti and Bini (No. 4962).

Demonstration of the changes in the electro-encephalogram in epilepsy. With S. Graham and W. Grey Walter.

Introduction of electrocoagulation in neurosurgery.

Unipolar leads. With F. D. Johnston, A. G. MacLeod, and P. S. Barker.

Introduction of chest leads.

First description of the typical changes in the electrocardiogram in coronary thrombosis.

With B. R. Boone and W. E. Chamberlain.

The introduction of the electromagnet into ophthalmology. A pupil of Helmholtz, Hirschberg was one of the most voluminous writers in the field of ophthalmology. Besides his dictionary (see No. 5932) he wrote a classic history of the subject (see No. 5996) which today remains the authoritative history of ophthalmology. He founded the Centralblatt für praktische Augenheilkunde in 1877.

Antibodies shown to be gamma globulins.

X-ray microscopy.

Jellinek specialized in the study of injuries and deaths caused by electricity, and their prevention.

Introduction of the vectorcardiogram.

The first comprehensive monograph on electrocardiography in any language.

This 37-page pamphlet was the earliest collection of information regarding electrocardiography. It contained "only single lead electrocardiograms, limited to mitral stenosis and hypertrophy of the right and left venticles; arrhythmias were not shown" (Shapiro, "The first textbook of elecrocardiography. Thomas Lewis: Clinical electrocardiography," J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., 1 (1983) 1160-61).

A pioneering study of diseases and death caused by lightning and electricity. Jellinek specialized in the study of electrical accidents and their prevention. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First exhaustive treatise on electrophysiology. English translation, 2 vols., London, 1896-98.

Nélaton was a great teacher and operator at the Hôpital St. Louis. He invented several surgical instruments. The description of “Nélaton’s tumor” of bone appears in vol.. 2, p. 46,  and on p. 441, “Nélaton’s line”.

Boerhaave was the first to separate out urea from urine, and to do so without adding chemical substances such as alcohol or nitric acid. He first published his method for isolating it in the above work. English translation, London, 1735.

Haller synthesized the whole physiological knowledge of his time. In the above, probably his greatest work, Haller included some anatomical descriptions which were most valuable. He is said to have written more than 1300 scientific papers.

The first 5 vols. of this work were issued in Lausanne; vols. 6-7 in Berne.

Mitochondria described, p. 145.

Hanson isolated the first really potent parathyroid extract.

Important studies on the survival of primitive types of neuromuscular mechanism in some of the higher vertebrates.

Leidy illustrated this book himself. He was professor of anatomy at Philadelphia and the leading American anatomist of his time.

In this work Johannsen coined the term “gene” as the “underlying structure in the organism, that which was transmitted during hybridzation.” He also coined the term "phenotype" to express what is actually observed and can be measured, in contrast to "genotype" that he coined “to express the underlying constitution of the organism from which development of the organism begins" (Brock).

The first treatise on the subject. Fechner applied the laws of mathematical physics to the physiology of sensation. He discussed the functional relations of the dependence between mind and body and investigated the cutaneous and muscular senses. Translated into English by Helmut E. Adler as Elements of psychophysics. New York: Holt, Rinhart & Winston, 1966. See also No. 1464.

In this work Stensen, in collaboration with the mathematician Vincenzio Viviani (1622-1703), a pupil of Galileo, developed a geometrical description of muscular contraction, and attempted to show theoretically that muscles did not increase in volume during contraction. The appendix contains his anatomical descriptions of the head of two sharks. In discussing the relationship of the shark teeth to similar-shaped fossil stones found in the Mediterranean, Stensen developed theories of how geological structures and fossils might be formed. This was translated by A. Garboe as The earliest geological treatise (1667), London, 1958.

The first Portuguese book on ophthalmology. Santa Ana was the first Portuguese physician to specialize in ophthalmology. "He acknowledges (pp. vii-viii) that the section of the Elementos on anatomy and physiology is a translation of Deshais-Gendron’s Traité des maladies des yeux, 1770, but states that he made numerous corrections based on his own experience: “Aqui forão necessarias hum maior número de emendas, tanto em Anatomia, como em Fysica.” Likewise the section on pathology and therapy is a translation from Plenck’s Doctrina de morbis oculorum, 1777, but has numerous corrections based on Santa Anna’s experience." (Richard Ramer). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

The first American textbook of botany. Digital facsimile of the revised 1804 London edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Among the most important of the English textbooks on anatomy. An eleventh edition was published in 1908-29.

The first great English work on the subject, widely published and used in England and America. Pereira was Professor of Materia Medica at the School of Pharmacy set up by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.  Digital facsimile of the first edition from  the Hathi Trust at this link.

Pereira revised and expanded this work through four editions, the last of which appeared the year after his death. By its fourth edition the work was expanded to two volumes in three and the title was also expanded, somewhat grandiosely, to read "Fourth edition, enlarged and improved, including notices of most of the medicinal substances in use in the civilized world, and forming an encyclopedia of materia medica."  Digital facsimile of the fourth edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The standard English work on the subject for generations, translated, expanded and used worldwide; thirteenth edition, Principles and practice of medical jurisprudence, appeared in 1984. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

First textbook in English on medical jurisprudence.

First notable American text on forensic medicine.

First English book devoted specifically to medical statistics. Hawkins was instrumental in obtaining the insertion of a column for the names of diseases or other causes of death, in connexion with the first Act for the registration of births and deaths.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Revised edition, 1915, of which a digital facsimile is available from the Internet Archive at this link.

In his day Gross was the most famous surgeon in the U.S.A. He was for a time Professor of General Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathological Anatomy at Cincinnati Medical College and while there published his Elements, the first exhaustive, systematic study of pathological anatomy in English. Gross was the first to precede each description of the morbid anatomy of an organ with an account of its healthy color, weight, size and consistence founded on original research. The second edition of 1845 was considerably revised and enlarged, while the third edition of 1857 was abridged. Horner’s book (No. 2287) was the only important work on pathology to precede it in America.

In this landmark of theoretical population ecology Lotka attempted to provide for parts of biology a basis comparable to that given by theoretical physics to experimental physics. This was the first great exposition and elaboration of Verhulst’s logistic. (No. 145.56). Reprinted, New York, 1956 as Elements of mathematical biology.

Includes a section on the education of deaf-mutes. Paracusis is described in the Appendix, p. 166.

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

Originally issued in three parts from 1836 to 1839 when the authors were joint lecturers on medicine at Guy’s Hospital.

A classic exposition of respiratory and intermediary metabolism. Fourth edition, 1928. Reprint of Lusk’s personal annotated copy of the fourth edition, with biography and bibliography of his writings, New York, Johnson Reprint, 1976.

The story of Treves's patient, Joseph Carey Merrick (1862-1890), incorrected identified by Treves in these reminiscences as "John Merrick." The story was retold in The elephant man, Bernard Pomerance's 1977 play about Joseph Merrick's life, as well as David Lynch's 1980 film The Elephant man in which Treves was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. 

"The exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. The dominant theory throughout much of the 20th century was that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I. In 1986, a new theory emerged that he had Proteus syndrome. In 2001, it was proposed that Merrick had suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome. DNA tests conducted on his hair and bones have proven inconclusive," Wikipedia article on Joseph Merrick, accessed 7-28-2016.)

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This atlas illustrates the various changes that occur under the collective term elephantiasis, including tumors of the blood and lymphatic vessels, fibromas, neuromas, papillomas.  Goldschmid 258.

The first monograph on the elephant, including 28 plates. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1910 edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Expanded from a "small" edition issued in 1873 at the request of the Conservator of Forests, British Burma to "answer the purpose of a guide for the management of those animals, in a more direct and complete form; and also to gather, from the records available, the cause of the high rate of mortality among the Government elephants in Burma" (Preface).

Hamilton was among the first to treat ulcers by skin-grafting. He made the flap smaller than the space which it was intended to fill, “trusting to growth and expansion of the graft to complete the cure”. Also published in N. Y. J. Med., 1854, 13, 163-73. See his earlier theoretical paper in Buffalo med. J., 1847, 2, 501-509.

Hereditary elliptocytosis.

First successful embolectomy; operation carried out by G. Labey, November 16, 1911.

First known description of the “tetralogy of Fallot” (see No. 2792). Reprinted in his Opera philosophica, ed. W. Maar, Vol. 2, Copenhagen, V. Tryde, 1910, pp. 49-53. For translation see Proc. Mayo Clin., 1948, 23, 317.

The study of cell-lineage was initiated by Whitman’s paper on Clepsine.

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

"The first work devoted to the staged, embryonic human brain."

Order of authorship in the original publication: Pritt, Sloan, Johnson. Discovery of a new species of Ehrlichia, initially denoted as "Wisconsin and Minnesota, 2009," that was not related to E. chaffeensiis or E. ewingii but is similar to E.muris. Digital text from PubMedCentral at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation.)

Order of authorship in the original paper: Baize, Pannetier, Oestereich. The authors used PCR, viral sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis to track down the index case, a two-year-old child in Meliandou village, Guékédou Prefecture, southern Guinea. This case, in which the child died on December 6, 2013, sparked the Ebola Zaire epidemic of 2014. The authors tracked down all contacts with the child to a point of unstoppable spread and dissemination. In a multi-country collaboration the virus was sequenced and characterized.

Digital facsimile from nejm.org at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Order of authorship in the original publication: Pierson, Diamond. Analyzes, and documents with 147 references, the variety of new clinical syndromes, including fetal / in utero effects, caused by the Zika virus. Also addresses adult human pathology and viral aspects.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

A facsimile edition of MS Am 1118.11 in Houghton Library, Harvard University. Digital facsimile of the actual herbarium from Harvard at this link.

Deals with British doctors only.

Translated into English as Emmenologia: Written, in Latin, by the late learned Dr. John Freind. Translated into English by Thomas Dale, M.D. London: Printed for T. Cox, 1729. 

Digital facsimile of the 1752 English translation from Google Books at this link.

First full description of epidemic myositis, “Bornholm disease”. See also Sylvest’s monograph on the subject, London, 1934.

The epidemic character of poliomyelitis was first noted by Medin. The disease is also known as “Heine–Medin disease” from the descriptions given by these two writers (see also No. 4664). German version in Verh. X. Int. Med. Kongr., 1890, 2, Abt. 6, 37-47, 1891. English translation in Bick, Classics of orthopaedics, 116-23.

Kveim’s test for sarcoidosis.

Pedersen, a Danish canon, humanist scholar, writer, printer and publisher, wrote and published the earliest medical book issued in Scandanavia by a Scandanavian writer. Translated as "A useful doctor book for poor and rich, young and old," Pedersen's book would be characterized as folk or popular medicine, inspired by Dioscorides. When he published this book Malmø was a Danish city.

Holger Nielsen (“arm-lift”) method of artificial respiration.

Between 1748 and 1749, Kalm, a Swedish naturalist and student of Linnaeus, traveled throughout northeast America, specifically in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Canada, surveying the countryside, and recording notes on the inhabitants, the fauna, and the flora of the region. Among his companions on a trip into the back country of New York was American naturalist John Bartram. Returning to his native Stockholm, Kalm published the first edition of his observations between 1753 and 1761. Translated into English by John Reinhold Forster as Travels into North America; containing Its natural history, and a circumstantial account of Its plantations and agriculture in general, with the civil, ecclesiastical and commercial state of the country, the manners of the inhabitants, and several curious and important remarks on various subjects. 3 vols. London, 1770-1771.

Digital facsimile of the original Swedish edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link; of the English translation, also from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Economo’s classic description of epidemic encephalitis (“von Economo’s disease”) was published on 10 May 1917; see No. 4649.

Isolation of the St. Louis encephalitis virus. With C. Armstrong and H. A. McCordock.

Robertson improved the accuracy and reliability of encephalography and reduced its discomforts.

In book III, chapter 8 Riolan discusses the heart and presents his views on the circulation of the blood. "Riolan's opinion of the blood movement seems to have arisen from his attempt to reconcile strict Galenic belief with Harvey's theory of the circulation. The resulting inconsistences and contradictions Harvey was not slow to point out. Indeed, so little of either truth or sense is there in the whole passage, that one can only admire Harvey's patience and his reply. What is abundantly clear from the passage is that Riolan is theorizing without looking, and his theorizing is dictated by his passionate desire to see the medicine of Galen kept intact and his fear lest Harvey's doctrine overturn its foundations" (Whitteridge). "The significance of the volume is that it stimulated William Harvey to extend his experiments and to publish a detailed critique of Riolan's work. Whitteridge summarizes the content of Harvey's first letter (published in Cambridge, England, in 1649)....She indicated that Harvey had two goals: 'To refute Riolan on every point and to show that his own doctrine of the total circulation of the blood does not destroy the ancient physic but further[s] it. Whitteridge goes on to explain that the second letter from Harvey to Riolan 'partakes of a totally different character from the first'. She continues, 'The greater part of Harvey's Second Letter is a restatement of his hypothesis concerning the circulation of the blood, supported by further experimental proof" (W. Bruce Fye). Whitteridge, William Harvey and the circulation of the blood (New York, 1971).

Translated into English as A sure guide, or, The best and nearest way to physick and chyrurgery that is to say, the arts of healing by medicine and manual operation : being an anatomical description of the whol body of man and its parts : with their respective diseases demonstrated from the fabrick and vse of the said parts : in six books ... at the end of the six books, are added twenty four tables, cut in brass, containing one hundred eighty four figures, with an explanation of them : which are referred to in above a thousand places in the books for the help of young artists / written in Latine by Johannes Riolanus ...; Englished by Nich. Culpeper ... and W.R. ...London: Printed by peter Cole, 1657. Digital text available from Early English Books Online at this link

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link. Translated into English by Caspar Bruchhausen and Robert Nelson as Manual of the practice of medicine: The result of fifty years' experience. London: Hippolyte Baiilière, 1844. Digital facsimile of the 1855 New York edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

One of the earliest pharmacopeias, and one which exerted a great influence on later pharmacopeias. Several new editions followed the first, and that of 1613 was adopted as the official pharmacopeia of Augsburg, the famous Pharmacopoeia Augustana. Occo, the third of a famous medical family, was town physician of Augsburg. The book was reprinted in facsimile, with notes, edited by T. Husemann, by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, (1927). Digital facsimile of the 1564 edition from Google Books at this link.

Introduction of cerebral arteriography. See also Presse méd., 1928, 36, 689-93. English translation in J. Neurosurg., 1964, 21, 145-56.

Spectacular collection of color photographs of wax models in the Museo la Specola, Florence. Text in English, French and German.

Second edition, significantly revised and expanded, 2016.

One of the first encyclopedias of sexuality, published when relevant information was difficult to obtain, especially in English.

Some of the articles in this work include historical references, useful for the recent history of this rapidly evolving field.

A valuable list of medical eponyms and original sources, arranged alphabetically by authors’ names.

Describes the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, preparation, and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants and fungi. The encyclopedia also offers information on ritual and medicinal use. Also includes 168 detailed monographs on the major psychoactive plants (e.g., Cannabis, Datura, and Papaver) as well as 20 full monographs on psychoactive fungi (e.g., Psilocybe and Amanita).

With contributions by Richard Hughes of England; Constantine Hering of Philadelphia; Carroll Dunham of New York; Adolph Lippe of Philadelphia and others. This massive work is almost a complete record of all provings and poisonings recorded to date.

http://agora.qc.ca/thematiques/mort/

Full text available from Jamesrachels.org at this link.

First to isolate Strep viridans in cases of bacterial endocarditis, Schottmüller named the condition Endocarditis lenta.

Goldzieher dealt very fully with the history, theory, and practice of endocrinology.

"As a history of the subject, this work is unsurpassed in detail and accuracy" (L.T. Morton).

Thematic historical essays written by pioneers in the field, edited by McCann.

Jacobaeus introduced adhesion-section with the cautery, to secure collapse in artificial pneumothorax.

First reported case.

First important work dealing with pelvic deformities since the time of van Deventer. It is a pioneer work in the literature dealing with pelvic architecture; Michaelis was one of the first to differentiate between the non-rachitic flat pelvis and the rachitic pelvis. This book was completed and published by C.C.T. Litzmann (No. 6260) three years after Michaelis’s death.

First extensive application of a mechanical computer to medical statistics. The appendix details the use of the Scheutz version of Charles Babbage’s calculating machine in the construction of English Life Table No. 3. However, the machine required constant attention, and the G.R.O. soon reverted to manual calculations employing logarithms until conversion to mechanical calculation methods in 1911. See J.M. Eyler, Victorian social medicine: the ideas and methods of William Farr, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, [1979].

Cheyne attributed hypochondria (“Cheyne’s disease”) to the moisture of the air and variability of the weather in the British Isles. Cheyne himself suffered from this disease and the work includes a careful account of his own case history.

Publishes for the first time the surviving partial English text of Glisson's book on the liver, and of the work's postscript on the lymphatic system. Glisson wrote in English, but his text was translated into Latin for publication by George Ent, with the expectation that it would receive a wider international readership in Latin than in English. The editor added explanatory notes.

FitzPatrick Lectures, 1903.

Reprinted with biographical sketch by J. L. Thornton, London, 1967.

This reprint of Culpeper’s popular work on herbal remedies was the first medical book (94pp.) printed in North America.

"Culpeper attempted to make medical treatments more accessible to laypersons by educating them about maintaining their health. Ultimately his ambition was to reform the system of medicine by questioning traditional methods and knowledge and exploring new solutions for ill health.... He was one of the most well-known astrological botanists of his day,^[5]pairing the plants and diseases with planetary influences, countering illnesses with nostroms that were paired with an opposing planetary influence. Combining remedial care with Galenic humoral philosophy and questionable astrology, he forged a strangely workable system of medicine; combined with his "Singles" forceful commentaries, Culpeper was a widely read source for medical treatment in his time" (Wikipedia article on Nicolas Culpeper, accessed 01-2017).  See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plants_in_The_English_Physitian (accessed 01-2017).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Simon "viewed the state as provider of the basic conditions needed for subsistence (without interfering in the iron law of wages) through sanitary reform of the environment, prevention of epidemic diseases, and the regulation of unadulterated food and drugs" (Dorothy Porter, Doctors, the state, and the ethics of political medical practice [2007]).  

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

http://estc.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-estc

"The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists over 480,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly but not exclusively, in English, published mainly in the British isles and North America, from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries."http://estc.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-estc, accessed 12-2016.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Based upon an examination of the Album of Students at Leiden from 1575 to 1875.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Revised edition, 1958.

Bell’s atlas of the bones, muscles and joints was issued as a separate work a year after his text, The Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints. Bell’s illustrations are some of the most striking in the entire literature. “Certainly they have the immediacy of drawings made in the dissecting rooms of late Georgian Edinburgh. Some are quite gruesome and even perverted . . . In their context, however, they are admirable, for they were intended to be used to supplement the teacher’s demonstrations, to remind the student of what he had seen, and to be a guide when the student sat down with the prosected material. It was under the Bells . . . that the extramural schools brought the aspiring surgeon much closer to the cadaver, allowing the student opportunities for actual dissection” (Roberts & Tomlinson, The Fabric of the Body [1992] 491).

This work was prepared for and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia by her physician, Bonaccioli, who guided her through 14 pregnancies, the last of which was fatal to both mother and child. The first three chapters concern female genital anatomy, sexual intercourse, fertilization, formation of the embryo, development of the fetus (and infusion of the soul). The final six chapters concern signs of pregnancy, its difficulties and their cures, causes of abortion, vaginal discharge, gestation, the mechanics of birth, midwifery, lactation, care of the newborn, dentition, etc.

Kjeldahl, a Danish chemist, devised a method of determining the amount of nitrogen in an organic compound (“Kjeldahl’s method”). A German translation is in Z. anal. Chem., 1883, 22, 366-82.

One of the earliest accurate descriptions of diphtheria. Osler considered the book “an American classic of the first rank”.

Bard was personal physician to George Washington.

First clear and complete clinical description of diphtheria.

Text in English and French on facing pages. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

The first book on dermatology published in Portuguese. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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

Azeredo noted that the tropical fevers found in Brazil and Angola were very similar. He claimed to have achieved excellent results with his “new method” of treatment, which included the use of quinine, nux vomica, arsenic, and the inside of the coconut rind. The Ensaios has separate sections dealing with the causes and cures of dysentery and tetanus. In the introduction, Pinto de Azeredo attacks the excessive use of bleeding in Angola and in America (“com particularidade na Bahia”). Lengthy footnotes include citations of authoritative references and recipes for cures such as various kinds of tea. (Richard Ramer). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Sprengel demonstrated for the first time that the whole structure of nectar-bearing flowers is adapted for fertilization by insects. In his study of the Rose-bay Sprengel discovered dichogamy – that in some plants the two sexes (stigmas and anthers) while occurring in one blossom, mature at different times. This prevents the flowers from being fertilized by their own pollen, and necessitates fertilization by the pollen carried to them by insects.

A translation into German by Preyer of a previously unpublished work on the history of hypnosis by James Braid. 

Senn, Professor of Surgery at Chicago, was one of the first to investigate experimentally the subject of gastro-intestinal anastomosis.

Digital facsimiel from WellcomeLibrary.org at this link.

The first original British work on podiatry, with several illustrations, one hand-colored. Disappointed at being refused a medical degree, Lion, a German Jewish émigré, wrote this book, taking the unusual step of having his name published in both English and Hebrew characters on the title page. “His odd and arrogant writing led to the book being generally derided by the lay and professional press. In fact it is first class and was based completely on his personal experiences and observations. Stripped of its padding it can be seen to be a great improvement on Laforest’s book…. The greatest praise we can give to Lion’s book is to say that every chiropodial writer since has used and borrowed from Upon Spinæ Pedum” (Dagnall, “The history of chiropodial literature,” Journal of the Society of Chiropodists, 20, 1965). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
    

In this work co-written with Geoffroy, Fourcroy presented a major contribution to the systemization of entomology. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Cobbold suggested (p. 36) that a mollusc was the intermediate host in bilharziasis.

Cobbold was the most distinguished helminthologist of his time. He named Filaria bancrofti, Bilharzia haematobia, and several other parasites. He was a friend of Manson, several of whose papers he communicated to the Linnean Society and the Quekett Microscopical Club.

First description of trichinosis in the pig.

A system of helminthology. Rudolphi gave the name “echinococcus” to the common vesicular hydatid, describing three species. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link .

In 1889, nearly 20 years before Horsley and Clarke published their paper on the use of stereotaxy to examine the brain, Dmitrii Zernov, a professor of anatomy at Moscow University, invented the first prototype of a stereotaxic instrument, an arc-based device for cerebral mapping that he called an encephalometer. Zernov briefly described this device in  preliminary communication published in the Russian journal Trudy Fiziko-meditsynskogo Obshestva Moscovskogo Universiteta (Vol. 2 [1889]: 70-80).

Two years later Zernov’s student Nikolai Altukhov provided a complete description of the encephalomete, including six detailed projection maps based on 40 post-mortem examinations. “Projections of anterior and posterior parts of the corpus callosum, insula and some basal ganglia (thalamus, nucleus lenticularis and caput nuclei caudate) were localized on the surface of the head. [Altukhov] also noted similarity in female and pediatric brains and concluded that the former are underdeveloped” (Lichterman, p. 3). Since both Zernov and Altukhov’s papers were published only in Russian, Western scientists did not learn of Zernov’s encephalometer until much later. Lichterman, “The first instrument for cerebral mapping: Zernov’s encephalometer and its modifications,” Kopf Carrier no. 61 (April 2005): 1-5.

Wegener originated the theory of continental drift in this paper on the origin of continents, which he conceived after being struck by the apparent correspondence in the shapes of the coastlines on the west and east sides of the Atlantic, and supported with extensive research on the geological and paleontological correspondences between the two sides. He postulated that 200 million years ago there existed a supercontinent (“Pangaea”), which began to break up during the Mesozoic era due to the cumulative effects of the “Eötvös force,” which drives continents towards the equator, and the tidal attraction of the sun and moon, which drags the earth’s crust westward with respect to its interior. Wegener’s theory attracted little interest until 1919, when he published the second edition of his treatise Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane.

Ribbert was the modern protagonist of the theory of the embryonal origin of cancer.

A very thorough history of the discovery of the Wasserman reaction, and its acceptance by the scientific community. English translation: Genesis and development of a scientific fact, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1979.

An important investigation of the origin of hypernephroma (“Grawitz tumor”). See also Arch. klin. Chir., 1884, 30, 824-34.

See Karbe, "The significance of A.C.L. Halfort's work on The development, course and treatment of diseases in artists and tradesmen (Berlin 1845)," Z. Gesamte Hyg. 21 (1975) 74-8. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"This final summary of brain development, published in the year of his death, contains a wealth of classic illustrations that have been adapted ever since in textbooks" (Larry W. Swanson).

Bischoff contributed important original work on the development of the rabbit.

While still a young man Virchow founded the above journal. He wrote a fine paper on cancer and suggested that the exciting cause is local irritation.

Waldeyer confirmed the work of Thiersch (No. 2618) on the epithelial origin of cancer, disproving Virchow’s theory (No. 2617). So great was the authority of the latter that it was not until the appearance of the second of the above papers that Virchow’s error was finally recognized.

Detailed study, organized by specialty, of the vital role that German universities played in the invention and promotion of medical specialties.

Revised English translation by H. and C. Epstein, ed. by G. Cottrell, as Ornithology from Aristotle to the present, with a foreword and an epilogue on American ornithology by Ernst Mayr. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1975.

Traces the development of pathological anatomical illustration, and includes a chronological bibliography of all important publications known to Goldschmid containing illustrations of pathological conditions, and an index of artists, printers, and publishers. Fine color plates.

“Rathke’s pouch”, a diverticulum from the embryonic buccal cavity.

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

First book on comparative embryology.