Translated into English by John Tedeschi and Anne C. Tedeschi as Books of the body: Anatomical ritual and Renaissance learning, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 

An essential reinterpretation of the classics in the history of anatomical illustration, with many fine plates.

“Lieberkühn’s glands” or “crypts” described. They were discovered by Malpighi in 1688.

Detailed bibliographical information, ownership records, and worldwide census, including description of the handwritten annotations in the surviving copies of the first two editions of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica.

Papers by Diamond, including their illustrations, edited with an extensive annotated introduction.

The first U.S. Surgeon General's report on substance misuse and the wide range of adverse health effects from alcohol and both legal and illegal drugs. It brought together evidence on prevention; treatment; and recovery interventions, policies, and programs. In 2016 the full report could be downloaded at this link: https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/surgeon-generals-report.pdf .

Coburn demonstated that streptococcus is the infective agent in rheumatic fever that can lead to rheumatic heart disease.

Wijers showed that the tsetse fly is infected during its first or second blood meal, but not afterwards, information of considerable importance in determining the criteria for the transmission of trypanosomiasis.

"This pioneering monograph on the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease includes a detailed discussion of the recently recognized electrocardiographic features of myocardial infarction. Hyman invented a [external] cardiac pacemaker in 1932" (W. Bruce Fye).

In June 1899 Sjögren was the first successfully to use Roentgen rays in the treatment of cancer.

An important account of myocardial infarction, with a histological finding of myocardial necrosis. Abbreviated translation, in German, in Acta med. scand., 1930, 73, 448-50.

First recorded case of dermatomyositis, now regarded as a connective tissue disease.

Key performed his first successful embolectomy on December 4, 1912, and reported it to a meeting of the Svenska Läkaresällskapet on January 28, 1913. See also his review in Ergebn. Chir. Orthop.,1929, 22,1-94.

First description of influenzal meningitis.

First reported case of (infantile) splenic anemia.

The first modern mastoid operation was devised by von Tröltsch.

Quincke observed aneurysm of the hepatic artery in 1870.

Pheochromocytoma first described. Republished in book form.

In 1892 Ludwig Heusner (1846-1916) successfully sutured a perforated gastric ulcer, the first successful case on record. It was reported by H. Kriege.

First successful aortic embolectomy.

Heiberg suggested the microbic nature of endocarditis. He described what appeared to him to be the mycelia of Leptothrix in the vegetations of a case of ulcerative endocarditis.

First successful removal of the gallbladder.

Mycosis pharyngitis first reported.

Türck was the first to note the correlation of retinal hemorrhage with tumors of the brain.

Paroxysmalcold hemoglobinuria described. English translation in No. 2241.

Neumann was the first to note changes in the bone marrow in leukemia, and he proposed the term “myelogenous leukemia”.

“Engelmann’s disease”,  also known as "Camurati-Engelmann disease" — a very rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder that causes characteristic anomalies in the skeleton. It is a form of dysplasia, causing osteosclerosis. See No. 7832.

Rehn was the first successfully to suture a wound of the human heart.

First clear description of pulsus bigeminus. Translated in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 590-99.

Von Mikulicz was the first to make a plastic reconstruction of the oesophagus after the resection of its cervical portion for carcinoma.

First successful plastic operation for the relief of hydronephrosis.

Helferich described the association of microdactyly with myositis ossificans progressiva.

First description of coronary thrombosis with diagnosis before death. English translation of original report, Amer. J. Cardiol, 1978, 42, 849-52.

Fröhlich’s classic description of dystrophia adiposogenitalis, pituitary tumor, with obesity and sexual infantilism (“Fröhlich’s syndrome”). Reprinted (in German) in Research Publications, Association for Nervous and Mental Disease, XX: The hypothalamus, Baltimore, 1940, pp. xvi-xxviii. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

First description.

Hirschsprung first made the medical world aware of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis as a distinct clinical entity. In this paper he made no suggestions concerning therapy.

Revised second edition. Baltimore, 1971.

“Hailey–Hailey disease”, earlier described by H. Gougerot, Arch. derm. – syph. Clin. St Louis, 1933, 5, 255-57.

Successful exchange transfusion.

Over 7,000 quotations, arranged under broad subject headings; author and subject indexes.

Cystinosis described.

“Fanconi’s syndrome”, congenital hypoplasia of bone marrow with multiple congenital defects occurring as a familial disease.

Child was was an abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism. Her journals, both fiction and domestic manuals, reached wide audiences from the 1820s through the 1850s. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The text of the second edition (1678) is available from Early English Books Online at this link.

Extension of Ehrlich’s work on the differential blood count. By means of his methods of staining blood cells Ehrlich differentiated two types of leukemia, lymphatic and myelogenous.

An important description of colour phenomena in the fundus oculi. This paper won for Kussmaul the Karl Friedrich Medal of the University of Heidelberg.

The van den Bergh test.

Ziehl-Neelsen stain.

Iconographic reconstruction and original size facsimile in color of 127 sheets, including 97 preserved in Istanbul and 30 sheets dispersed in different institutional collections in Europe and the U.S., of this illuminated manuscript of the Arabic text of Dioscorides that was completed in 1224 in Baghdad, and preserved in Byzantium. For each plate Touwaide provided a commentary. He also provided an historical introduction in the first volume. 

Pepys and five co-authors showed that thermophilic actinomycetes, especially Micropolyspora faeni, were the cause of farmer’s lung due to mouldy hay.

A history of the founding and earliest years of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in England.

Sir Astley Cooper reported three cases of Eustachian obstruction deafness relieved by perforation of the membrana tympani (myringotomy), an operation first performed by Eli, a quack, in 1760. Cooper’s earlier paper on the subject appeared in vol. 90 of the Phil. Trans. He also demonstrated air and bone conduction by watch (precursor of Rinne’s test). For this work he received the Copley Medal.

This Italian translation contains an entirely new and more extensive series of woodcuts and additional text. The dramatically improved and more realistic illustrations, which were reproduced in the numerous later editions, are by an unknown artist, about whom there has been much speculation. He was certainly close to the school of Giovanni Bellini. The dissection scene appears in color only in this edition and is one of the first three known examples of color printing, its four colors having been applied by means of stencils. Facsimile edition with extensive commentary by Charles Singer, 2 vols., Milan, 1925. 

In the woodcuts prepared for the Italian edition we see the first evidence of the transition from medieval to modern anatomical illustration. In the 1491 edition, the woodcut of the female viscera—like those of the Zodiac Man, Bloodletting Man, Wound-Man, etc.—was derived from the traditional non-representational squatting figure found in medieval medical manuscripts. However, the illustrations for the Italian edition "included an entirely redesigned figure showing female anatomy. . . . The scholastic figure from 1491 must have irritated the eyes of the artistic Venetians to such a degree that they immediately abandoned it. After this the female figure actually sits in an armchair, so that the traditional [squatting] position corresponds to a real situation" (Herrlinger, History of Anatomical Illustration, 66).  ISTC no. ik00017000. Digital facsimile from Biblioteca Palatina, Parma (BEIC) at this link.

The work was reprinted with a volume of commentary: Fasiculo de Medicina in Volgare, Venezia, Giovanni e Gregorio De Gregori, 1494. Vol. I: Facsimile dell'esemplare conservato presso la Biblioteca del Centro per la storia dell'Università di Padova. Vol. 2: Tiziana Pesenti, Il "Fasciculus medicinae" ovvero le metamorfosi del libro umanistico. (Treviso: Antilia, 2001).

A detailed analysis of all the editions of Ketham's Fasciculus.

A collection of short medical treatises which circulated widely in manuscript, some as early as the 13th century, and was perhaps attributed by the printers to its former owner, Johannes von Kirchheim, a professor of medicine in Vienna about 1460. His name was probably corrupted by the printers to Ketham. The book includes the first printed anatomic illustrations of any kind. Singer’s edition, which includes his translation of the commentary by Karl Sudhoff, was published at Milan, 1924. The first English translation of Ketham’s text by Luke Demaitre, republishing Singer’s translation of Sudhoff’s commentary, was published at Birmingham by The Classics of Medicine Library, 1988. That edition reproduced the woodcuts in color from an original hand-colored copy at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, together with selected illustrations from the Italian 1493 edition, with Singer’s commentary. ISTC no. ik00013000. Digital facsimile  from Harvard University Libraries at this link.

Besler was the first to illustrate a natural history Wunderkammer in Germany. The engraved frontispiece  of this work, which Besler published himself, depicts Besler exhibiting the contents to a visitor. The first edition included 24 engraved plates. It was undated, but has been assigned the date of 1616 by most bibliographers. A chronogram date on the title page indicates 1622.

Includes full account of Weir Mitchell’s rest cure for nervous disorders.

Demonstration that the therapeutic properties of ultra-violet light could be effectively stored in foods and later released after consumption. With E. B. Hart, C. A. Hoppert, and A. Black.

Separation of vitamin A from vitamin D. With M. Sell and M. Van R. Buell.

First recorded case of extreme leucopenia.

Bright was the first to describe unilateral (“Jacksonian”) epilepsy.

The authors coined the name Fatal Familial Insomnia to describe a family cohort of individuals who were dying from a prion illness causing an inability to sleep. This disease has been characterized as one of the most cruel illnesses to affect mankind. Order of authorship in the original publication was Lugaresi, Medori, ... Gambetti.

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

In the same year as Pasteur, and independently, Sternberg discovered the pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) demonstrating its carriage in the healthy human mouth.

A collective work, edited by Knoeff and Zwijenberg, which includes several chapters of great interest. Relevant to the history of John Hunter's museum see Andrew Cunningham, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Or, what Richard Owen did to John Hunter's collection". Cunningham shows how Richard Owen (see No. 326), influenced by the new science of comparative anatomy developed by Cuvier in Cuvier's Leçons d’anatomie comparée (5 vols., 1800-05; No. 321) intentionally or unintentionally shaped Hunter's museum to fit the new paradigm.

Gibson and Medawar placed the laws of transplantation on a firm scientific basis. A later paper by Medawar (J. Anat. [Lond.], 1944, 78, 176- 99) demonstrated that the mechanism of rejection of transplanted tissues is immunological in character.

Mosso investigated muscular fatigue with the ergograph of his invention. He showed fatigue to be due to a toxin produced by muscular contraction. English translation, 1906.

Director of the Centers for Disease Control from 1977-1983, and President and Co-Founder of The Task Force for Global Heath, 1984-1999, Foege was instrumental in the eradication of smallpox, the generalization of immunization in developing countries and, among many other achievements, the transformation of the CDC from a program on malaria to the observatory of world epidemiology.

Coytard distinguished between petechial typhus and typhoid.

Sennert gave the first scientific description of scarlet fever. He was the first to mention the scarlatinal desquamation, the early arthritis, and post-scarlatinal edema, but made no mention of sore throat.

An important monograph on fevers.

An anthology of selected writings on fevers by Greek, Arab and Latin authors, including Hippocrates, Galen, Paul of Aegina, Alexander of Tralles, Aetius, Oribasius, Nonus, Actuarius, Avicenna, Rhazes, Avenzoar, Averroës, Isaac Judaeus, Serapion, Haly Abbas, Celsus, Serenus, Pliny, Gariopontus, Constantinus Africanus, Gordon, Peter of Abano, Arnold of Villanova, Nicolaus Nicolus, and the medical writings attributed to Philonius. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Eiseman, Silen, Bascom.... Report of the first "fecal transplant / fecal therapy," also known as "faecal microbiota transplanation," for recurrent / resistant C. difficile colitis. Eiseman and Bascom were surgeons; this could explain why this paper on infectious disease was published in the journal Surgery. When published in 1958 this treatment was considered "extremely radical" and was widely criticized. Several decades later the technique eventually became the "therapy of choice" in the 21st century for particularly virulent C. difficile infections.

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

Hopkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology with Eijkman in 1929 for his discovery of the growth-stimulating vitamins.

Gersdorff performed nearly 200 amputations. He opposed Paré’s abandonment of boiling oil for the cauterization of wounds. The book contains some instructive pictures of early surgical procedures and includes the first printed picture of an amputation. It also contains a famous image of a craniotomy. Reprinted, Darmstadt, 1967. Digital facsimile from Heidelberger historische Bestände at this link.

"From the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, American physicians treated women and girls for masturbation by removing the clitoris (clitoridectomy) or clitoral hood (female circumcision). During this same time, and continuing to today, physicians also performed female circumcision to enable women to reach orgasm. Though used as treatment, paradoxically, for both a perceived excessive sexuality and a perceived lack of sexual responsiveness, these surgeries reflect a consistent medical conception of the clitoris as a sexual organ. In recent years the popular media and academics have commented on the rising popularity in the United States of female genital cosmetic surgeries, including female circumcision, yet these discussions often assume such procedures are new..." (publisher).

"The original 1875 recipe called for unicorn root, life root, blach cohosh, pleurisy root, and fenugreek seed, but alcohol (18-20 percent) gave it a longer shelf life, and shrewd advertising assured its staying power. Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound capitalized on two prevalent 19th-century attitudes: distrust of doctors and genteel notions about women's ailments. The company--a family venture from the start--used the real Lydia's picture to attract customers, and continued to peddle her ultra-respectable image for years after she died. The Pinkham/Gove clan, aided by a prototypically slick advertising agent, adjusted and readjusted the essentially useless formula to changing times, toning down the exaggerated claims and adding ingredients to prevent its classification as an alcoholic beverage. But they failed to modernize its appeal sufficiently in the 1950s, and the company went under. Author Stage, who has taught American history at Williams, solidly charts the company's changing fortunes--responding to historical trends and periodic exposures--and she demonstrates that litigious family members undermined its financial health even more than tougher government regulations and rising consumer consciousness. More significantly, she firmly places Lydia Pinkham's durable formula within a larger context: as a patent compound, within the domestic medicine tradition, it made extravagant promises yet did less harm than current medical treatment--surgery or long bedrest. Quack medicine? One hundred percent. And presented in a fine blend of medical, biographical, and advertising history" (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sarah-stage/female-complaints-lydia-pinkham-and-the-busines/, accessed 02-2017).

The first handbook on female sex hormones. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile of a reprint of the 1864 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Reissued in 1865 as Nurse and spy in the Union Army: Containing the adventures and experience of a woman in hospitals, camps, and battle-fields. Digital facsimile of the 1865 version from the Internet Archive at this link.

Successful ligation of external iliac artery for femoral aneurysm, 1822.

Stapedectomy.

Bernard disbelieved Pasteur’s definition of a ferment as “a living form originating from a germ”.

See No. 2495.

Discovery of iron in the blood.

The birth of normal rabbits from in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer was the first proof that births resulting from this procedure are normal.

Discovery that maturation of the sperm in the mammalian female tract is a necessary step in reproduction. This was co-discovered and called capacitation by Austin in the same year. See C.R. Austin, Observation on the penetration of the sperm into the mammalian eggs. Aust. J. sci. Res., 1951, B4, 581-.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Thompson, Holmes, Gottesfeld, Taylor. This was the first paper on the use of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology published in the United States.

Schlesinger showed that the fundamental constituents of bacteriophages consist mainly of approximately equal amounts of protein and DNA.

Order of authorship in the original paper: Yu, Liang, Zhang. Discovery of a new virus, suspected by the authors to be tick-borne. The authors named the virus, "severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus" (SFTSV Bunyavirus). Digital facsimile from nejm.org at this link.

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

Introduction of the intensifying screen.

MacWilliam discovered that fibrillar contraction of the heart is due to “a rapid succession of incoordinated peristaltic contractions.” He clearly described auricular and ventricular fibrillation, and showed that ventricular fibrillation could be caused by the injection of certain poisons into the blood stream. His paper is included, with an account of his life, in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 666-678.

Tillett and Garner discovered a substance elaborated by a strain of haemolytic streptococcus which promoted lysis of fibrin and is now known as streptokinase.

Recklinghausen gave an important description of generalized osteitis fibrosa. His reference to the earlier case reported by Engel (see No. 4335) has led to this condition being sometimes referred to as “Engel–Recklinghausen disease” or “von Recklinghausen’s disease of bone”.

Digital facsimile of Vol. 2, pt. 1 from the Internet Archive at this link, of Vol. 3 at this link.

Franco, J. Martínez-Santamaria, and G. Toro-Villa described epidemics of yellow fever spread by mosquitoes other than Ae. aegypti. Later F. L. Soper, et al., Amer. J. Hyg., 1933, 18, 555-87, substantiated this.

Beauperthuy was the first protagonist of the mosquito theory of the transmission of yellow fever. Reprinted in Beauperthuy’s La Obra, Caracas, 1963, pp. 260-70; French translation in Travaux scientifiques de Louis-Daniel Beauperthuy, Bordeaux, 1891, pp. 131-42. Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Wellcome Library at this link.

This work incorporated Coues' A check list of North American birds (1873). Coues had the check list portion of this work printed with the versos blank so that users could enter in their own information. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In 1959 Biggs moved to the Houghton Poultry Research Station (HPRS) to form and head a unit to study lymphoid tumor conditions of the domestic fowl. He gave the name Marek’s disease to one of the tumor conditions, after the Hungarian veterinarian József Marek. Biggs and his group determined that it was caused by a herpesvirus, and later developed a vaccine for the disease. With six co-authors.

Silliau gave a good account of the epidemic of relapsing fever at Réunion, 1865. He showed the contagious nature of the disease.

An early account of “Weil’s disease”, Leptospirosis icterohaemorrhagica.

Yellow fever convalescent serum employed. With A. T. Salimbeni and P. L. Simond.

Landouzy first suggested the infective nature of herpes.

Wirsung, assistant to the celebrated German anatomist Johann Vesling, discovered the excretory duct of the pancreas named for him in 1642. To announce his discovery, Wirsung chose the extremely unusual method of publishing a single-sheet engraving with explanatory notes. On August 23, 1643, a year after publishing his plate, Wirsung was assassinated by a doctor from Dalmatia. Very few copies of Wirsung's print survived. Erik Waller owned a copy now at the University of Upsalla, listed as item 10362 in the catalogue of Waller's library, and illustrated as plate 48 in that catalogue. A different version of the plate was issued in Amsterdam in 1644 with the title Pancreatis, novique in eo ductus seu vasis a Io. Georgio Wirsung observati. . . . The creator(s) of the 1644 plate, while familiar with Wirsung's discovery, may never have seen the original 1642 plate as the images are quite different. Wirsung's plate focuses on the ductus pancreaticus, and is fairly simple and schematic, while the Amsterdam plate shows the pancreas in its entirety, and is much more artistic in its rendition. The Wikipedia reproduces an image of the 1644 plate at this link.

An important description of blackwater fever. Berenger-Féraud had experience of the disease in French West Africa.

A collection of several papers written by Manson.

Lewis made the critical connection/association of the worm, Filaria sanguinis,(Wuchereria bancrofti ) to Elephantiasis. This brief account appears to be a third person account summarizing Lewis's work written by an editor of the Indian Medical Gazette. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Lewis published a formal paper in Lancet: "Filaria sanguinis hominis (mature form), found in a blood clot in Naevoid Elephantiasis of the scrotum," Lancet, II (1877) 453-455.

(Thanks for Juan Weiss for these references.)

Report of "an intensive inquiry into the history of government-sponsored human radiation experiments and intentional environmental releases of radiation that occurred between 1944 and 1974. We have studied the ethical standards of that time and of today and have developed a moral framework for evaluating these experiments. Finally, we have examined the extent to which current policies and practices appear to protect the rights and interests of today's human subjects."

Digital facsimile from http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/ at this link.

A spectacular book on eight medical and natural history museums: text by Gould, superbly reproduced dramatic photographs by Purcell. Chapter 1: "Dutch treat: Peter the Great and Frederik Ruysch".

Auction catalogue of Brown's library, comprising 291 lots.

The use of fingerprints as identification marks was known to the Chinese, but Galton was among the first to explain their possibilities in the identification of criminals. “Galton’s delta” is a triangular area of papillary ridges on the distal pads of the digits.

Gerstmann’s syndrome, due to cerebral lesion. Translation in Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1971, 24, 475-76.

Firdous al-Hikmah is one of the oldest encyclopedias of Islamic medicine, based on Syriac translations of Greek sources (Hippocrates, Galen Dioscorides, and others). It is divided into 7 sections and 30 parts, with 360 chapters in total. The work was eclipsed by those of Rabban al-Tabari's more famous pupil, Muhammad ibn ZakarÄ«a Rāzi (Rhazes). After writing the work in Arabic Rabban a-Tabari also translated it into Syriac, to give it wider usefulness. However, the information in Firdous al-Hikmah never entered common circulation in the West because it was not edited until the 20th century, when Mohammed Zubair Siddiqui assembled an edition using the five surviving partial manuscripts. There is still no English translation. A German translation by Alfred Siggel of the chapters on Indian medicine was published in 1951. (adapted from the Wikipedia article on Ali ibn Sahl Rabban-al Tabari, accessed 12-2016.)

See Max Meyerhof, "Alî at-Tabarî's 'Paradise of Wisdom", one of the oldest Arabic compendiums of medicine," Isis, 16 (1931) 6-54. Available from Scribd at this link.

An abridgement of Smellie's obstetrical writings, with plates engraved by the editor and publisher, John Norman, was the first medical book with engraved illustrations published in North America, and also the first book on obstetrics published in the United States. Digital facsimile of the 1786 edition from Internet Archive at this link.

Facsimile copy and first publication in print of the original manuscript catalogue published to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of the National Library of Medicine, Washington, 1961. The first (manuscript) catalogue listed only 130 titles on 23 unnumbered leaves. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

First complete description of lymphatic chancre – “Nisbet’s chancre”.

Cullen introduced the term “neuroses” (pp. 121-23).

A biography of Michael Dillon, who in the 1940s was the first successful case of female-to-male gender reassignment surgery--operations done by Sir Harold Gilles. Dillon established himself as a medical student. The book describes how Dillon later fell in love with a male-to-female transsexual, Roberta Cowell, who was at the time the only other transsexual in Britain.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

"In the decade from 1935-1945, while the Second World War raged in Europe, a new class of medicines capable of controlling bacterial infections launched a therapeutic revolution that continues today. The new medicines were not penicillin and antibiotics, but sulfonamides, or sulfa drugs. The sulfa drugs preceded penicillin by almost a decade, and during World War II they carried the main therapeutic burden in both military and civilian medicine. Their success stimulated a rapid expansion of research and production in the international pharmaceutical industry, raised expectations of medicine, and accelerated the appearance of new and powerful medicines based on research. The latter development created new regulatory dilemmas and unanticipated therapeutic problems. The sulfa drugs also proved extraordinarily fruitful as starting points for new drugs or classes of drugs, both for bacterial infections and for a number of important non-infectious diseases...." (Publisher).

A detailed history of the “first American Negro medical society formed in America and probably in the world”. Cobb was the first black American medical historian of note.

Operation performed by Baldy in 1893. He refers to a claim in J. Amer. med. Ass., 1898, 30, 341-44 giving credit for the first excision of the stomach in America to A. C. Bernays (1854-1907). While Baldy probably deserves priority, the point is moot since neither Baldy’s nor Bernays’ operations were successful.

Davenport and Weeks produced strong evidence in support of the hereditary origin of epilepsy.

See also Arch. Surg. (Chicago), 1925, 10, 353-60, which reported that the patient was still living.

Digital facsimile from who.int at this link.

The publication of Chadwick's 1842 Report inspired the creation in 1843 of the Royal Commission for Inquiry into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts, in which Chadwick once again played a leading role, drafting the major part of the Commission's first report and supplying the administrative and operational proposals for the second. The Commission's two reports revealed the unhealthy sanitary and social conditions prevailing among the towns and proposed a number of recommendations to be embodied in new legislation, the most important being a proposal to grant the national government power to supervise the execution of all general measures for regulating the sanitary condition of larger urban communities.

Luciani distinguished three stages of starvation in man – hunger, physiological inanition, and pathological inanition. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Mosso made important investigations on respiration at high altitudes. He considered that the respiratory symptoms produced at high altitudes were due to lack of carbon dioxide. English translation, London, 1898.

5th edition (5 vols.), 1919-21; English translation (5 vols.), London, 1911-21. Luciani was professor of physiology successively at Siena, Florence, and Rome.

Records first use of telegraphy to record and measure the heart beat and pulse, written and published by the patient, who lived to the age of 45. This was done in Boston with an instrument placed against Groux’s chest, the other end of which was in contact with the circuit breaker of the telegraph. Dr. J. B. Upham called his device a sphygmosphone. Includes reprint of "Report of the Committee of the N.Y. Pathological Society, appointed to examine the case of Mr. E. A. Groux….", American medical monthly, 1859, 11, 35-40 with supplementary material, and new illustrations.  

See also Boewe's The life of C.S. Rafinesque a man of uncommon zeal. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2011.

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

Berthelot showed that bacteria acting in clay soils are able to fix nitrogen.

Introduction of acriflavine. With R. Gulbransen, E. L. Kennaway, and L. H. D. Thomton.

“Swanson prosthesis” – flexible silicone rubber finger-joint prosthesis.

Cephalin-cholesterol liver-function test.

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

The first comprehensive flora of any large continental area. It included descriptions of 8125 species. "Bentham prepared the flora from Kew; with Mueller, the first plant taxonomist residing permanently in Australia, loaning the entire collection of the National Herbarium of Victoria to Bentham over the course of several years. Mueller had been dissuaded from preparing a flora from Australia while in Australia by Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker since historic collections of Australian species were all held in European herbaria which Mueller could not access from Australia.^[2] Mueller did eventually produce his own flora of Australia, the Systematic Census of Australian Plants published in 1882 extended the work of Bentham with the addition of new species and taxonomic revisions.

Flora Australiensis was the standard reference work on the Australian flora for more than a century. As late as 1988, James Willis wrote that "Flora Australiensis still remains the only definitive work on the vascular vegetation of the whole continent."^[3] According to Nancy Burbidge, "it represents a prodigious intellectual effort never equalled."^{[4]" (Wikipedia article on Flora Austaliensis, accessed 02-2017).}

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first manual of Philippine botany published in the Philippines. The first two editions (1837 and 1845) were unillustrated. From 1877 to 1883 Celestine Fernandez Villar (1838-1907), together with others including Antonio Llanos, published an illustrated posthumous edition printed by C. Verdaguer of Barcelona.

Flora de Filipinas, según el sistema sexual de Linneo. Adicionada con el manuscrito inédito del. fr. Ignacio Mercado, las obras del fr. Antonio Llanos, y de un apéndice con todas las nuevas investigaciones botanicas referentes al archipiélago Filifino [sic]. Gran edicion. 4 vols. Manila: Establecimento Tipografico, 1877-1883.

Digital facsimile of the 1837 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Hamilton detailed the symptoms of poisoning, records of successful use of the plant, and a description of its homeopathic uses. Finely illustrated with hand-colored plates, mostly by Henry Sowerby and his sister Charlotte. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first comprehensive work on any part of the flora of China and Hong Kong. It included the first published description of Hong Kong Croton, or Croton hancei. 

Juan José Tafalla Navascués, a Spanish pharmacist, explored botany in Peru, Chile and Ecuador from 1780 to 1788 as part of the  Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú under the direction of Hipólito Ruiz López y José Pavón. Eduardo Estrella discovered the unpublished manuscripts of Tafalla's work, including beautiful paintings, in the Real Jardín Botánico archives in Madrid, and edited them for first publication roughly 200 years after they were created. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from Bibliotheca Digital Real Jardín Botánico CSIC at this link; of vol. 2 at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of the complete set from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first description published in Europe of an ecosystem of the Far East, including animals as well as plants, with particular attention to Chinese fruit bearing plants, and medicinal properties of Chinese plants. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

In 1664 Melchisédech Thévenot published a 15-page translation of Boym's text as Flora Sinensis, ou traité des fleurs, des fruits, des plantes et des animaux particuliers à la Chine IN: Relations de divers voyages curieux : qui n'ont point esté publiées, est qu'on a traduit or tiré des originaux des voyageurs françois, espagnols, allemands, portugais, anglois, hollandois, persans, arabes & autres orientaux. Digital facsimile from the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel  at this link.

"Sex in animals has been known for at least ten thousand years, and this knowledge was put to good use during animal domestication in the Neolithic period. In stark contrast, sex in plants wasn't discovered until the late 17th century, long after the domestication of crop plants. Even after its discovery, the "sexual theory" continued to be hotly debated and lampooned for another 150 years, pitting the "sexualists" against the "asexualists." Why was the notion of sex in plants so contentious for so long? "Flora Unveiled" is a deep history of perceptions about plant gender and sexuality, beginning in the Ice Age and ending in the middle of the nineteenth century, with the elucidation of the complete plant life cycle. 
Linc and Lee Taiz show that a gender bias that plants are unisexual and female (a "one-sex model") prevented the discovery of plant sex and delayed its acceptance long after the theory was definitively proven. The book explores the various sources of this gender bias, beginning with women's role as gatherers, crop domesticators, and the first farmers. In the myths and religions of the Bronze and Iron Ages, female deities were strongly identified with flowers, trees, and agricultural abundance, and during Middle Ages and Renaissance, this tradition was assimilated into Christianity in the person of Mary. The one-sex model of plants continued into the Early Modern Period, and experienced a resurgence during the eighteenth century Enlightenment and again in the nineteenth century Romantic movement. Not until Wilhelm Hofmeister demonstrated the universality of sex in the plant kingdom was the controversy over plant sex finally laid to rest. Although "Flora Unveiled" focuses on the discovery of sex in plants, the history serves as a cautionary tale of how strongly and persistently cultural biases can impede the discovery and delay the acceptance of scientific advances" (publisher)

In this treatise on the flowering plants in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden Hermann coined the term Angiospermae as the name of one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This division included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from what Hermann named "Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked" (Wikipedia article on Flowering plant, accessed 1-2020). Hermann used the term "Angiopolyspermae" on p. 1 of this work. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

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

Medical botany of the Caribbean, finely illustrated with colored plates after paintings by the author's son. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Starling put forward the idea that renal excretion of salt (and water) was conditioned by the volume of body fluids, particularly the blood volume. He suggested that the sum total of body fluids was arranged so that the blood supply to the brain was maintained at a point just equal to its need.

Radioactive isotopes used in neuroradiology. See also Science, 1948, 107, 569-71.

Fluorescent treponemal antibody test. With V. H. Falcone and A. Harris.

Fluorescence microscopy

Synthesis of 5-fluorouracil. With eight co-authors.

The authors describe the first direct recording of the blood flow in an intact fetus, a fetal lamb. The authors performed this experiment cooperation with Sir Joseph Bancroft and Dr. D. H. Barron.

As one of his last works Charcot published this 38-page pamphlet on faith healing.

Foucault's first major book, translated into English as Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason (1964).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Folk-Lore Society Publication No. 12. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

“Brill-Symmers disease” (see No. 3786).

Folliculitis decalvans of Quinquaud first described. At about the same time, P. A. Robert described it independently in his thesis, Paris, 1889.

Originally published in 1969.

Digital version available at this link.

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

Extensively illustrated history of nutrition in ancient Egypt. 

Darwin's teacher, John Stevens Henslow, had some of Darwin's letters to him published for private distribution as a pamphlet while Darwin was on the Beagle circumnavigation. Estimates of the number of copies printed vary from about 25 to about 200.

A visually spectacular panorama of extraordinary color photographs, with significant historical and interpretive text, of the Vrolik Museum at the University of Amsterdam, collected by Gerard Vrolik and his son Willem. This museum has been preserved intact, from its formation by the Vroliks in the 19th century, and with additions afterwards. Includes a bibliography of prior published literature about the museum.

Introduction of forcipressure in the control of hemorrhage. Republished in book form, 1875.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Discovery of the sinoatrial node, the “pacemaker of the heart”. Reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 747-62.

“Lederer’s anemia” first described.

Independently of Mudrow, H. E. Shortt, K. P. Menon, and P. V. Seetharama Iyer found pre-erythrocytic forms of P. gallinaceum in the tissues.

Stanton identified the bacillus of melioidosis and reproduced the disease in animals by feeding and inoculation of cultures.

Formalin first used for tissue fixation.

Kennaway produced carcinogenic tars by submitting acetylene or isoprene to high temperatures in an atmosphere of hydrogen, thus proving that some carcinogens are pure hydrocarbons.

Baldwin’s operation.

Darwin's last book, published only 6 months before his death, but reporting on a subject that he had studied for more than 50 years. "He showed the services performed by earthworms in eating leaves and grinding earth in their gizzards and turning it into fertile soil, which they constantly sift and turn over down to a depth of twenty inches form the surface, thereby aerating it. He calculating from the weight of worm-casting that on one acre in one year's time eighteen tons of soil are brought up to the surface by worms. This was a pioneer study of quantaitative ecology" (Gavin de Beer in D.S.B.)

In 1839 Purkynĕ was the first to use the term protoplasma, by which he described the embryonic ground substance. This fact is recorded in the inaugural dissertation of one of his students, J. Rosenthal.

One of the acknowledged classics of embryology. Wolff’s description of the formation of the chick’s intestine by the rolling inwards of a leaf-like layer of the blastoderm was important as proving his theory of epigenesis. A German translation by J. F. Meckel was published in 1812.

Fabricius wrote at great length on embryology, inventing many theories, some of which were false. His illustrations marked a great advance on previous work. Fabricius recorded for the first time the dissection of several embryos. Facsimile reprint with translation by H. B. Adelmann, 1942.

Litzmann devised a clinical classification of pelves which was for many years generally used, and he described various deformities of the female pelvis.

“Coats’s disease” (retinitis circinata).

Magendie was the pioneer of experimental physiology in France. His Formulaire introduced into medical practice several of the newly discovered alkaloids, notably morphine, veratrine, brucine, piperine, emetine, as well as quinine and strychnine. Digital facsimile of the 1821 edition from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English from the third French edition with an introduction and notes by Robley Dunglison, Philadelphia, 1824. Digital facsimile of the 1824 edition from the U. S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

In 1909 Imhoff devised the system of sewage purification which bears his name.

The founding work of paleoneurology based on Edinger's discovery that mammalian brains left imprints on fossil skulls, allowing paleoneurologists to discern their anatomy.

An anthology of 150 papers on anesthesia and related topics, from the 16th century to 1961.

14 classic contributions to embryology (in English translations where appropriate) with historical commentaries.

Readings, including translations, from classic texts, with commentary.

125 biographical essays, with portraits and bibliographies, documenting the history of child neurology from the 17th century to the present.

Neuroanatomists, neurophysiologists, neuropathologists, clinical neurologists and neurosurgeons are included. 1st ed., 1953, had 133 biographies; 2nd ed. has 146, 34 of which have been added. Because the 2nd edition deleted certain biographies, readers should also consult the 1st edition.

Lumbar puncture. Reprinted in Middx. Hosp. J., 1951, 51, 147.

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

The first in-depth study of the development of this field that had such a profound impact on patient care beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Hill and Hartree made valuable contributions to the knowledge of the thermodynamics of muscle. Hill shared the Nobel Prize with Meyerhof in 1922 for his discovery relating to the production of heat in muscle. See also Physiol. Rev., 1922, 2, 310-41, and Hill, A. V., Trails and trials in physiology: a bibliography 1909-1964, 1965.

First history of pharmacy by an American. Reprinted as The curious lore of drugs and medicines, New York, Garden City Publ. Co., 1936.

Posthumously published autobiography of one of the first transgender women, known prior to the sex change as the Danish painter Einar Wegener. Translated into English as Man into woman: An authentic record of a change of sex. By Lili Elbe. Edited by Niels Hoyer [i.e. E. Harthern]. Translated from the German by H.J. Stenning. Introduction by Norman Haire. London: Jarrold Publishers, 1933.

"In 2000, David Ebershoff wrote The Danish Girl, a fictionalised account of Elbe's life.^[35] It was an international bestseller and was translated into a dozen languages. In 2015, it was made into a film, also called The Danish Girl, produced by Gail Mutrux and Neil LaBute and starring Eddie Redmayne as Elbe. The film was well received at the Venice Film Festival in September 2015,^[36] although it has been criticised for its casting of an English cisgender man to play a Danish transgender woman.^[37] Both the novel and the film omitted topics including [Gerda] Gottlieb's sexuality, which is evidenced by the subjects in her erotic drawings,^[38] and the disintegration of Gottlieb and Elbe's relationship after their annulment^[39] "(Wikipedia article on Iili Elbe, accessed 1-2020).

Preliminary note in Biochem. J., 1954, 58, xxxix-xl. Porter received the Nobel Prize in 1972. See No. 2578.25.

Watson-Jones's textbook became known as "the bible."  It was reprinted 15 times during the author's lifetime and translated into  Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Polish. "Throughout its publication, Watson-Jones found unique ways to demonstrate his theories and techniques, including acetate and radiographic overlays, question-and-answer formats, and a writing style that was not only instructive but interesting." (helio.com/orthopedics).

“Bennett’s fracture” of the first metacarpal. He was Professor of Surgery at Trinity College, Dublin.

Holdsworth classification of spinal injuries.

Records the first successful employment of radium in the treatment of cancer.

Boveri argued that malignancy arises as a consequence of chromosomal abnormalities, and that multiplication is an inherent property of cells. He predicted the existence of tumor suppressor mechanisms and was perhaps the first to suggest that hereditary factors (genes) are linearly arranged along chromosomes. First English translation by Boveri's widow, Marcella O'Grady Boveri as The origin of malignant tumors. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1929. Later English translation: Concerning the origin of malignant tumours translated and annotated by Henry Harris. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2008. The second translation was also published in the Journal of Cell Science, 121 (2008) 1-84. This version may be read online at this link.

Schloffer’s Operation for acromegaly. He was the first successfully to operate upon a pituitary tumor in man (See No. 3892).

Wertheim’s radical operation for cancer of the uterus.

Otto discovered that a state of tolerance developed in animals that survived anaphylactic shock. He induced passive transfer of hypersensitivity.

The “cells of Kultschitzky” in the epithelium of the intestine, between the cells which line the gland of Lieberkühn.

Hahnemann's first published homeopathic book, his first title on Materia Medica and Repertory, and the first collection of drug provings on the healthy body. The book lists the health effects of 27 drugs in common use as recorded in the medical literature along with Hahnemann's own observations from taking the drugs himself. 

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First observations of entozoic amoebae.

Empedocles was a Greek philosopher, statesman, physician and reformer. His poem on Nature originally ran to 5,000 lines, of which only 400 are now left. He believed in four ultimate elements—fire, air, water and earth, these being brought into union and parted by the two powers, love and hate. Digital facsimile of the Chicago, 1908 edition in book form from the Internet Archive at this link.

This 24-page pamphlet is the first work by an American devoted entirely to American birds. It deals predominantly with migratory birds, arranged according to the dates throughout the year 1791 in which they were first seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Digital text available from Evans Early American Imprint Collection at this link.

The painter and printmaker Fragonard preserved the results of his dissections via means never divulged, but which may have been based on those of Jean-Joseph Sue. His pieces were often prepared for theatrical effect rather than scientific exhibition, as can be seen in the surviving pieces in the Musée Fragonard d'Alfort.

Full text available from PubMedCentral at this link.

"The Framingham Heart Study is a long-term, ongoing cardiovascular cohort study on residents of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study began in 1948 with 5,209 adult subjects from Framingham, and is now on its third generation of participants.^[1] Prior to it almost nothing was known about the "epidemiology of hypertensive or arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease".^[2] Much of the now-common knowledge concerning heart disease, such as the effects of diet, exercise, and common medications such as aspirin, is based on this longitudinal study. It is a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in collaboration with (since 1971) Boston University.^[1] "(Wikipedia article on Framingham Heart Study)

For further information regarding the Framingham Study, including the complete bibliography of publications from the study, see their website: https://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/

Digital facsimile of the 1968 paper from the Internet Archive at this link.

"The twenty-four year Framingham Study is a landmark in epidemiological investigation. Largely as a result of this study of the life habits and health of almost 6,000 men and women, atherosclerosis is no longer viewed as an inevitable result of the aging process, but rather a disease that may well be prevented or delayed if specific risk factors can be identified and controlled.

"Framingham project director Thomas Dawber now brings together in one comprehensive yet concise report the history of the study, from the development of hypotheses, to the selection of the population sample, to an examination of the methodological problems encountered in longitudinal research. Dr. Dawber’s presentation of the findings demonstrates the basis for current recommendations for decreasing blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, reducing weight, monitoring fat intake in diabetics, increasing physical activity, and discontinuing cigarette smoking" (publisher).

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

A continuation of No. 6303.