In the first patrt of this work, Della digestione dissertazione prima Spallanzani confirmed earlier doctrines of the solvent property of the gastric juice and discovered the action of the saliva in digestion. He stated that gastric juice can act outside the body and can prevent or inhibit putrefaction. He obtained gastric juice by tying a sponge on a piece of string, then allowing it to be swallowed. The second part contains Spallanzani's experimental researches on reproduction in animals and plants in which he demonstrated the role of seminal fluid in generation. The second part also includes his investigations into artifical fertilization, in which he recorded the first case of artificial insemination in a viviparous animal.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. English translation, as Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals and vegetables (1784). Digital facsimile of the 1784 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Intenet Archive at this link.

Prochaska introduced the idea of a “sensorium commune” in the central nervous system, a consistent and comprehensive theory of reflex action. English translation, London, Sydenham Society, 1851.

The first book on therapeutic exercise as the term is understood today. English translation with facsimiles in reduced format of 18th century translations into German, Italian and Swedish, New Haven, [1964].

First important clinical description of anthrax. For some time after the appearance of Chabert’s short book, the condition was known as “Chabert’s disease”. Chabert was Directeur & Inspecteur général of the Écoles Royales-Vétérinaires. Digital facsimile from BiuSanté at this link.

Bylon described an epidemic of dengue which appeared in the Dutch East Indies in 1779, the first definite description of the disease. O. H. P. Pepper published a photographic reproduction of the article in Ann. med. Hist., 1941, 3rd ser., 3, 363-68. Digital facsimile of the 1780 edition from Google Books at this link.

The first collection of British medical biographies.

Includes the first description of the value of digitalis in the treatment of patients with heart failure, with discussion of several successful cases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.  Darwin and Withering were associated through the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Revised and expanded edition, 1781; digital facsimile of the 1781 edition from Google Books at this link.

Very distinctive engravings with the captions included within the engraved surfaces. Printed and sold by the artist.

Born was commissioned in 1776, by Maria-Therese, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, to inventory and arrange the imperal collection that formed the foundation of the imperial museum, now the Naturhistorische Museum in Vienna. Owing to Maria-Therese's death in 1780 this volume was the only one published. Copies were issued with the plates colored or uncolored. Digital facsimile of an uncolored copy from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first Italian work on resusciation. Testa’s work is also one of the earliest on the subject published after the foundation in 1767 of Amsterdam’s pioneering Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen, the first organization devoted to rescuing and reviving persons apparently drowned. Prior to 1767 anyone taken from the water apparently lifeless was presumed dead and no attempts were made to revive them; however, after the Amsterdam society began publishing reports in 1768 its methods were rapidly adopted throughout Europe. Testa’s book contains three references to the Maatschappi, as well as to numerous other authorities on drowning both ancient and contemporary. He carefully described the symptoms of drowning—water in the lungs, cessation of respiration, accumulation of blood in the head and chest—but denied that these were the cause of death, instead ascribing drowning deaths to phlogiston (inflammable air) retained in the lungs. Testa believed that drowning was a gradual death, therefore resuscitation was possible even if all perceptible signs of life were absent. Testa’s hypothesis on the causes of drowning was not widely accepted. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Blumenbach, Professor of Medicine at Göttingen, was the founder of modern anthropology. In the above work he rejected the “preformation” theory and advanced the theory of epigenesis as the true explanation of the phenomenon of embryological development. English translation, London, [1792?].

Classic discussion of childhood shoe-induced deformities. There was also an edition in Dutch published the same year. Digital facsimile of the edition in French from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation in Dowie, The foot and its covering, London, 1861. Digital facsimile of Downie's book from the Internet Archive at this link.

Fulton (No. 6785) points out that this work contains the “most complete bibliographical study of the literature of head injury that had been brought together up to that time”. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Baudelocque invented a pelvimeter and advanced the knowledge of pelvimetry and of the mechanism of labor. The external conjugate diameter is known as “Baudelocque’s diameter”. English translation, London, 1790.

Laforest was the first to describe and illustrate the condition of hallux valgus. The second edition of this work (1782), "Augmentée d’un chapitre sur la manière de soigner les pieds des soldats en garnison & dans les mouvemens, & de deux planches pour l’intelligence de cet ouvrage, " was the first illustrated book on podiatry. Translated into English by D. Low, who falsely claimed authorship, and published as Chiropodologia, or a scientific enqury into the causes of corns, warts, onions, and other painful or offensive cutaneous excrescences (1785). Digital facsimile of the 1781 edition from Google Books at this link; of the 1782 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the 1785 translation from Google Books at this link.

Pioneering study of tropical termites, their mounds, and their behavior, well illustrated with engravings. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Brambilla was a personal physician to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II and the first director of the Vienna hospital and the Josefinum school for military surgeons (now a medical museum). Brambilla provided a history of surgical instruments from antiquity to his own time. His work includes 67 plates illustrating over 600 surgical and dental instruments in their original size. Brambilla commissioned three sets of instruments corresponding to the plates in his book. These instrument sets are preserved at the Museo Gaileo, at Vienna, and at the University of Pavia museum. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In the first part of this work Kratzenstein described how the vowels could be produced in the vocal tract. In the  second part he described the construction of a new kind of organ with pipes for each of the vowels. Each pipe had a characteristic resonant cavity which should emulate the vocal tract for the corresponding vowel. In order to excite these resonators he made use of free reeds which at that time were little known. Kratzenstein demonstrated this instrument in Saint Petersburg in 1780; it was damaged and disappeared shortly afterwards. Digital facsimile from digitale-sammlungen.de at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomelibrary.org at this link.

Gennari was the first to demonstrate the laminar structure of the cerebral cortex when he discovered the line of Gennari, a macroscopically white band in the cerebral cortex of the occipital lobe.
This he observed on 2 February 1776 in the course of examining frozen sections of unstained human brain while in medical school. He referred to it as lineola albidior. Gennari's discovery was the first evidence that the cerebral cortex is not uniform in structure.

First record of the clinical use of cod liver oil in England.

Vol. 1, pp. 113-16, “No author before the time of Sonnerat gives us so distinct an account of the epidemic prevalence of cholera, so full a description of its varieties or has attributed it so positively to the physical misery of the natives of the country” (Macpherson, No. 5111.2). English translation, 1788-89.

Best historical account to the time. 2nd ed., 1806.

Chabert, the most celebrated veterinarian of his time, left a fine account of glanders.

Having dissected five orang-outang cadavers, Camper showed that the Bornean orang-outang was a previously undescribed species, and showed that the structure of its vocal organs did not permit speech. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The only published installment of the catalogue of William Hunter's magnificent collection of coins, a collection regarded as one of the finest in the world. Hunter began collecting coins around 1770, and by the time of his death had spent over £22,000 on this pursuit— an enormous sum of money by the standards of the day. After Hunter's death, by the terms of his will, the coin collection, together with Hunter's books, pictures and anatomical models, remained in the care of three trustees for thirty years, after which time they became the property of the University of Glasgow.

Nummorum veterum populorum et urbium was compiled by Charles Combe (1743-1817), a physician and coin dealer who became acquainted with Hunter in 1773, and greatly assisted Hunter in forming his collection. Combe was one of the three trustees appointed in Hunter's will to administer his collections, the other two being Dr. George Fordyce and Dr. David Pitcairne. Combe had originally intended to prepare a catalogue of the complete Hunterian coin collection, but was able to publish only this installment. The work is illustrated with 68 plates that Combe took care to make "more faithful to the original coins than the illustrations in previous numismatic works" (DNB). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1792 printing from the Internet Archive at this link.

Includes two plates printed in color by Edouard Dagoty. These were not included in later editions.  Digital facsimile of th 1782 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the 1787 edition at this link.

Privately printed catalogue of Cobres’ natural history library, comprising descriptions, with collations and notes, of about 2500 books on botany, zoology, geology, etc. The catalogue is divided into subject sections and includes sections on conchology, microscopy and ‘Musea’ or Wunderkammern. On this topic it lists 107 titles listed, and is one of the earliest bibliographies of museum catalogues.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first German book on nursing--a manual of instructions for male nurses. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

(Thanks for Webb Dordick for this reference.)

Monro discovered the communication between the lateral ventricles of the human brain with each other and with the third ventricle, the “foramen of Monro”. Alexander secundus was the greatest of the three Monros.

Thomas Braidwood (1715-1806) founded the first British school for the deaf and dumb, in Edinburgh. His method consisted of a combination of lip-reading and signs.

Woofendale was the first professional dentist to travel to the American colonies (1766) and to set up practice there. During his two years of practice in America he may have made the first set of artificial teeth contructed in what is now the United States. He returned to England in 1769. The above work was “the most important [English] dental text of the time after Berdmore’s” (Ring).

Bell studied under the Monros at Edinburgh. He was surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, for 29 years. He improved the methods of amputation, introducing the “triple incision of Bell”. Above is his best work.

The earliest bibliography and history of ophthalmology.

Includes detailed abstracts of periodical literature.

English translation of Linneus's Species plantarum (No. 99.1), edited by Charles Darwin's grandfather. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Records on pp. 80-104 Spallanzani's work on the torpedo. In the 1780's Spallanzani turned to marine biology, making several trips to the Mediterranean region. On his visit to Portovenere in 1783 "he instituted the first marine zoologial laboratory. . . . He refuted the claim that the torpedo fish was attracted by magnets, intrepidly showing that its greatest shock was delivered when the fish was laid on a glass plate. Excising the heart did not lessen the shock until the circulation began to fail "(DSB).

Denman "was the first physician whose authority made the practice general in England of inducing premature labour in cases of narrow pelvis and other conditions, in which the mother's life is imperilled by the attempt to deliver at the full-time" (DNB). This handbook emphasizing the solution to obstretric complications underwent 7 editions in England, 3 American editions, and a translation into French. Digital facsimile of the first American edition (1803) from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

This is illustrated with a small cameo portrati of Haller drawn and engraved by William Blake. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Cavendish isolated hydrogen in 1766, and later demonstrated the composition of air.

These workers invented an ice calorimeter, with it measured the respiratory quotient of a pig, and demonstrated the analogy between respiration and combustion.

Camper, an artist of skill, made his mark as an anthropologist and craniologist. He discovered the processus vaginalis of the peritoneum and the fibrous structure of the eye, and made several other important contributions to medical science. English translation, 1794.

The first work on aviation medicine, a pamphlet of 18pp. issued as a thesis for the medical degree, published one year after the first balloon ascent by Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier in 1783. Leulier Duché speculated on ways that ballooning might be used in medicine, quoting an anecdote privately communicated to him by Montgolfier describing the “high” experienced by the aeronauts on a particular ascent.

This essay on the signs of murder in illegitimate children is, in Garrison’s view, the most important early contribution to forensic medicine by a British writer.

Herder’s history has long been regarded as a very strong statement of Darwinian evolution before Darwin: many single passages come close to the evolution theory. Among the passages most often regarded as anticipating Darwin are those on the temporal sequence of forms from simpler to more highly organized, and on the overabundance of nature with the ensuing struggle for existence between species and individuals.

Three cases of congenital heart disease recorded. Two plates are opposite pp. 417-18 of the journal.

The Abbé de L’Épée met two deaf girls, decided to educate them, and soon had a class of 60 devoted pupils, whom he supported and amongst whom he lived. He based his methods on those of Bonet and Amman, and was the first to attach great importance to signs. This is l’Épée’s most definitive work. It contains a reprint of No. 3358.

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

Responding to Mesmer’s growing notoriety, the Medical Faculty of Paris became alarmed, and urged the King to appoint a blue-ribbon committee of inquiry. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Michael Joseph Majault, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean d'Arcet. Finding no evidence of a magnetic fluid, these scientists attributed the power of mesmerism to the “imagination” and so drove Mesmer from Paris. Lavoisier may have been the author of the report. English translation, London, 1785. Digital facsimile of the 1784 edition from BnFgallica at this link.

Moore revived the ancient concept of nerve compression, developing a special clamp for its use. John Hunter used Moore’s clamp in a leg amputation in 1784 in which analgesia was successfully obtained.

Biographies of papal physicians. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First clinical description of phlegmasia alba dolens. White ascribed it to destruction of the lymphatics due to pressure of the foetal head.

Underwood laid the foundation of modern pediatrics. His work was superior to anything that had previously appeared and remained the most important book on the subject for sixty years, passing through many editions. The first edition (p.76) includes the first description of sclerema neonatorum (“Underwood’s disease”). That edition also contains a description of "aphthae of thrush."

In the second edition (1789, volume 2, pp. 122-27) Underwood presented a description of congenital heart disease in children. This was the first pediatric treatise to do so. Also, in the second edition, volume 2, pp. 53-57 entitled "Debility of the lower extremities," Underwood was the first to consider poliomyelitis as an entity.

An annotated bibliography of recommended books for the aspiring physician, arranged by subject, and chronologically by date of publication within each subject, with an author index at the end. Digital facsimile of the 1788 edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of Masdevall's work on occupational medicine from helvia.uco.es at this link. Digital facsimile of the complete epidemiological work from Google Books at this link.

Pennant had "intended to write a "Zoology of North America" but as he explained in the "Advertisement", since he felt mortified by the loss of British control over America, this was changed to Arctic Zoology.^[22] The book was published, with illustrations by Peter Brown, in 1785–1787. The first volume was on quadrupeds and the second on birds. Compilation of the latter was assisted by an expedition Sir Joseph Banks had made to Newfoundland in 1786. The work was translated into German and French, and part of it into Swedish. The volumes were much acclaimed and Pennant was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1787, a supplementary volume was published which included extra information on the reptiles and fishes of North America.^{[23] " (Wikipedia article on Thomas Pennant).} 

Pennant never visited the regions described, but relied on information derived from the accounts of explorers such as Captain Cook, Hearne, and communications with other learned zoologists, including Peter Simon Pallas, and on specimens supplied from various private collections, such as that of Andrew Graham of Hudson's Bay, Thomas Hutchins, Ashton Blackburn, Alexander Garden, and Benjamin Smith Barton.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"The first two volumes, devoted to shells of the South Seas, were originally published as a separate work in 1784. Martyn then extended the work to four volumes with an additional 80 plates. ‘From the introduction to The universal conchologist we learn that it was 'to commence with the figures of shells (most of them rare and nondescript) which have been collected by several officers of the shipsunder the command of Captain Byron, Wallis, Cook, and others made to the South Sea' ... When the Resolution and the Discovery returned from the third and last voyage in 1780 [the dealer] Humphrey purchased some more shells, but the bulk of the conchological spoils went this time to Thomas Martyn, a knowledgeable dealer, versatile writer and gifted artist ... Unlike Humphrey and other dealers who snapped up the Cook shells Thomas Martyn had more than a pecuniary interest in his purchases. Martyn’s reason for wanting to corner the market in South Seas shells was entirely praiseworthy; although he sold many of the shells he had bought, he illustrated the finest in The Universal Conchologist, his magnum opus [and] a work which, for beauty, has seldom been surpassed in the history of conchological iconography’ (Dance, A history of shell collecting).

"Martyn purchased shells brought back from Cook’s third voyage, although, as he wrote to Henry Seymer on 9 December 1780, ‘I have purchased, amounting to 400 gns, more than 2 thirds of the whole brought home, Nevertheless I do not abound either in the variety of the new or many duplicates of the known ones that are valuable’. As a result, he modified his project and instead of presenting two shells on each plate, presented only one but depicted in two different views. Besides the specimens deriving from Cook’s voyages, Martyn included specimens from the collections of the Duchess of Portland, the Countess of Bute, John Hunter, the Forsters, and others. The fine plates were drawn by Martyn and engraved and coloured by his 'Academy' of young men whom he had trained as natural history artists. The plates, each showing a single species in two positions, were engraved in soft aquatint and printed lightly inked, so that when hand-coloured they would resemble watercolours" (William P. Watson, Science, medicine and natural history books exhibited at the New York International Antiquarian Bookfair...2020).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A history of hospitals in France from the earliest times, through charitable care for the poor by monks and nuns, to their evolution through legislation of the 16th and 17yh centuries. Includes a list of charitable institutions for the care of the poor no longer in existence by Recalde's time, arranged alphabetically by town from Aix to Verdun, and articles drawn from 17th and 18th century legislation, covering  hospital personnel, the keeping of records and accounts, attendance to the sick by doctors, surgeons and their students, bandaging of the wounded, patients’ diet (comprising meat of good quality, bread, cereal, red or white wine or beer, salt, vinegar, eggs, rice, and prunes), hospital beds and linen; spring cleaning (whitewashing, eradicating insects etc.)

On poisonous plants in Germany, for prevention of tragic household accidents, and remedies for the poisons. Illustrated with 16 plates. 
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

William Hunter recommended Blane as private physician to Admiral Rodney; Blane sailed with him to the W. Indies and became physician to the British Fleet. He was held in great esteem in the navy and was instrumental in effecting improvements in living conditions among seamen. He strongly supported Lind’s views on scurvy. In 1799 he made recommendations which formed the basis of the Quarantine Act of that year. Later he became physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital. With Lind he stands predominant in the history of naval medicine.

Although Blane added nothing to the knowledge on scurvy, he demonstrated the value of fresh lemons, limes, and oranges; through his influence the issue of lemon juice in the British Navy was ordered in 1795, after which scurvy soon disappeared. Blane’s extreme coldness of manner earned him the nickname “Chilblain”.

Like his cousin, John Bartram (No. 1832), Marshall maintained a private botanical garden. According to W. Darlington the above work is “the first truly indigenous botanical essay published in the Western Hemisphere”. It contains some information about medicines.

Text in Latin and German. Includes an accurate description of peritonitis.

Before  publication of Withering's book digitalis was a widely used folk remedy, occasionally mentioned in the literature. Withering established the correct dosages, and the action of digitalis in edema and on the heart became generally recognized. Withering did not know of the distinction between renal and cardiac edema. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link The copy reproduced does not appear to contain the engraving of the purple foxglove.

Plenck provided the first classification of poisons based on origin: 1. Animal poisons. 2. Vegetable poisons. 3. Mineral poisons. 4. Poisonous vapors, gases, and dust. Plenck also issued this work in German from the same publisher during the same year as Toxikologie oder Lehre von den Giften und Gegengiften. Digital facsimile of the Latin edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library 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.

Jefferson wrote Notes on the State of Virginia in response to a series of questions sent in 1781 to various members of the Continental Congress by François Barbé-Marbois, then secretary to the French legation at Philadelphia. Joseph Jones forwarded the questionnaire received by the Virginia delegation to Jefferson, who was then completing his term as Governor of Virginia.

By the time the book was first published Jefferson was serving as U.S. trade representative in Paris, having been sent there in 1784. Jefferson issued the first edition of this work privately, and anonymously, in Paris in 1785, in an edition limited to 200 copies. The first edition begins with an unconventional first page that combines a statement of the title with a table of contents, and no place, publisher or publication date specified. A conventionally printed French translation by the Abbé André Morellet appeared in 1786. The first conventionally published English-language edition was issued by John Stockdale in London in 1787. In her catalogue of The Library of Thomas Jefferson  Sowerby devoted 30 pages to her description and annotations of this work (Vol. 4, no. 4167; pp. 301-330).

Jefferson divided the text into 23 chapters called "Queries," each describing a different aspect of the state of Virginia. They are:

 When I wrote this entry in January 2020 I did not find a digital facsimile of the first edition online; however the Massachusetts Historical Society preserves and has digitized Jefferson's autograph manuscript for the work. It is available from masshist.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The earliest bibliography of mineral springs. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

(Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

Includes John Hunter’s observations on the secondary sexual characteristics in birds, on the descent of the testis, on the air sac in birds, on the structure of the placenta, etc., together with the original description of the olfactory nerves. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The most accurate neuroanatomical work produced before the advent of microscopic staining techniques. Vicq d’Azyr identified accurately for the first time many of the cerebral convolutions, along with various internal structures of the brain. This was the first volume of an ambitious study of anatomy and physiology which remained unfinished at Vicq d’Azyr’s premature death.

With Hunter and Hewson, Cruikshank laid the foundation of modern knowledge concerning the lymphatics. He was Dr. Johnson’s physician and William Hunter’s assistant.

The first flight by a physician, the first crossing of the English channel by balloon, and the first international flight. Jeffries, an American, made a series of carefully planned scientific observations, emphasizing meteorology.

Müller was the first to attempt a systematic classification of infusoria. He published several papers on the subject, the best being the above posthumous work. Muller described 8 species of the genus Vibrio (included in Infusoria).

By 1776, pellagra had attained serious proportions in Italy; Strambio was placed in charge of a hospital for the treatment of pellagrins, and he left an important account of the disease. He and Casal y Julian (No. 3750) first pointed out that pellagra might occur without the cutaneous lesions, till then regarded as characteristic.

First description of John Hunter’s method of treating popliteal aneurysm. This consisted in a single ligature of the artery at a distance high in the healthy tissues. Recorded by his brother-in law. See also Trans. Soc. Improve. med. Knowl.,1793, 1,138. Reprinted in Medical Classics, 1940, 4,449-57.

Wichmann definitely established the parasitic aetiology of scabies.

Haüy founded the first school for the blind. To him belongs the honor of being the first to emboss paper as a means of creating raised type that could be read by the blind. His Essai originated modern methods of teaching and caring for blind persons. English translation by the celebrated blind poet, Thomas Blacklock (1721-91), who lost his sight at the age of 6 months, in Poems by the late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock, together with an essay on the education of the blind. To which is prefixed a new account of the life and writings of the author, Edinburgh, 1793. Digital facsimile of the 1786 edition from BnF Gallica at this link.

In Hunter's day venereal diseases were thought to be due to a single poison. To test this theory Hunter experimented with matter taken from a gonorrhoeal patient who, unknown to Hunter, also had syphilis. Hunter maintained that gonorrhoea and syphilis were caused by a single pathogen. Backed by the weight of his authority, this experiment retarded the development of knowledge regarding the two diseases. Contrary to legend, however, there is no proof that Hunter actually inoculated himself with venereal disease. The hard (“Hunterian”) chancre eponymizes Hunter; his book also contains the first suggestion of lymphogranuloma venereum as a separate disease, and this work also makes a major contribution to urological surgery. Hunter issued this book at his private press at his anatomy school, the address for which he provided on the title page. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

An annotated subject bibliography of the history of medicine, arranged chronologically from antiquity to Blumenbach’s time.

Massive and early study of puberty among Europeans, with comparative data including mortality tables. Daignan was especially interested in the plight of urban youth. He concluded his work with tables of life expectancy based on variables of age, constitution, stature, physique, climate and soil, sex, occupation and disease. He reported the survey of 10,000 individuals with respect to mortality according to sex, age and occupation. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Dupont proposed replacing large city hospitals with smaller institutions similar to those then being tried in England. Du Pont studied medicine before devoting himself to political economy. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Bertin practiced medicine in the West Indies, and wrote about the physical effects of the voyage there, the causes of diseases and their cures, and the effects of the Caribbean climate and humidity on health. The imprint suggests that Bertin wrote the book in Santo Domingo (Haiti), and likely hoped to market it there, as it was of practical use in the West Indies. Digital facsimile (of a copy lacking the title page) from Google Books 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.

Stoll was one of the few physicians of the Viennese school who supported Auenbrugger's views on percussion. In this treatise on fevers Stoll referred favorably to the practice, and it is thought that Corvisart became familiar with the procedure when he translated this work into French. Corvisart's edition of Stoll appeared eleven years later as Aphorismes sur la connaissance et la curation des fievres (Paris, 1797).

Digital facsimile of the 1786 edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1797 edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Lavoisier was a member of the committee appointed by the French Academy of Sciences to report on the state of Parisian hospitals and on the plan to construct a new hospital on the Isle des Cygnes. The committee's report described the wretched conditions found in the Hôtel-Dieu-- overcrowding, filth, indiscriminate mixing of contagious and non-contagious diseases, high mortality rate-- and called for immediate reform; however, the committee rejected the Isle de Cygnes plan in favor of four smaller hospitals, which the King ordered to be constructed on June 22, 1787. The report was signed by Lassone, d'Aubenton, Tenon, Bailly, Lavoisier, LaPlace, Coulomb, and d'Arcet. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The first French book on nursing. Digital facsimile of the 1787 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

(Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

Mascagni, Professor of Anatomy at Siena, made several discoveries regarding the lymphatics. His beautiful atlas contained 41 engravings of the lymphatics and gained him lasting fame. He had previously published a Prodrome, in French, 1784; this contained only four plates.

Schoepff came to America in 1777 as a surgeon with the Hessian troops employed by the British Forces. He returned to Germany in 1784 and compiled the first full American materia medica, describing about 400 plants, including a few references to native American remedies. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Fabbroni was the first to promote modern ideas on the nature of fermentation. He showed that air was not considered necessary for fermentation to take place; he was first to regard the ferment as an albumenoid substance. Pasteur considered Fabbroni’s work the beginning of modern ideas on the subject. Fabbroni’s theory of the fermentation of wine was influential throughout the 19th century. Several of the terms used by him are in use today.

In the first significant anthropological work produced in America, Smith argued that racial differences were produced by environment, contradicting the prevalent theories of separate creations of discrete and different races. Reprint of 2nd., enlarged edition, 1810, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965.

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

The first separate work on resuscitation published in the United States. A list of “Methods of Treatment to be used with Persons apparently dead from drowning, &c.” appears on p. iv; these methods included warming the body, rubbing the skin with flannel and sprinkling it with spirits, blowing tobacco smoke up the rectum and gently moving the limbs. The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (founded 1785) was the first society formed in the U.S. for resuscitating victims of drowning and other accidents such as suffocation, strangulation and lighting strikes. The reports of this society provide the earliest documentation of the history of resuscitation in America. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link.

This catalogue of Carrbean fish was the first scientific treatise printed in Cuba and also the first illustrated book printed in Cuba. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This work was not illustrated. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

An idiosyncratic collection of rarely reproduced images with explanatory commentaries in English and French, concerning reproduction and obstetric complications in animals and humans. Topics include:

The Funis of a nut.- The Chrysalis of the Phaena Atlas. - The eggs of the Cuttle Fish.
A display of the internal parts of a frog, with the ovaria.
A section of a hen, shewing the Ovarium, with an egg perfected in the Infundibulum.
A part of the Uterus of a cow, with one of the Cotyledons, and a portion of the membranes.
Three human abortions, one of which contains twins.
A morbid human Ovum.
A human Ovum, about the third month of pregnancy.
The Uterus, containing the child of a woman, who died in the act of parturition.
A twin Placenta with the membranes.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Posthumously published classified listing of the immense museum of natural history specimens collected by Gevers, member of the town council, may of Rotterdam, and director of the Dutch East-Indian Company (VOC). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first scientific book printed in Cuba. The striking illustrations are by the author's son, and depict fish, turtles, and crustacieans observed along the Cuban shoreline. The final section contains three alarming illsutrations of an enslaved man identified as Domingo Fernández, who is suffering from scrotal lymphedema.
Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first serious study of this subject and the most original anatomical work by the greatest of the Monro dynasty. See No. 1385.

Reforms quickly followed Tenon’s disclosures of the dreadful conditions prevailing in the hospitals of Paris in the 18th century. He was also instrumental in the foundation of a special hospital for children. English translation as Memoirs on Paris  hospitals. Edited and with an introduction, notes and appendices by Dora B. Weiner (1996). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Goodwyn emphasized the importance of ventilation in resuscitation.

Kite recommended the use of artificial respiration and was probably the first to recommend electric shock for resuscitation.

Baillie recorded a case of congenital dextrocardia with complete situs inversus viscerum. Reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 257-62.

First textbook in English on medical jurisprudence.

Cawley was the first to suggest a relationship between the pancreas and diabetes, observing that the disease may follow injury to that organ.

First American case report on congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Cases and observations by the Medical Society of New-Haven County…was the first American medical periodical. Only one volume was published. Beardsley’s paper was reprinted in Arch. Pediat, 1903, 20, 355-57. and also in M.M. Ravitch, The story of pyloric stenosis, Surgery, 1960, 48, 1117- 1143. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

In his doctoral thesis Ekman gave an account of osteogenesis imperfecta in three generations. For extensive translation see No. 4404.1. K.S. Seedorff, Osteogenesis imperfecta, Copenhagen, 1949.

Venel stressed the necessity for prolonged periods of recumbency, rather than exercise, in the correction of spinal curvature. He invented a corset and extension bed for treating spinal deformities. His extension bed gave an entirely new direction to treatment and was widely adopted. In 1790 he founded at Orbe, Switzerland, the first orthopedic hospital. The pamphlet was reprinted in Mém. Soc. Sci. phys. Lausanne, 2, 66-, 197-. (1789). Digital facsimile of the 1788 pamphlet from Google Books at this link.

Dubois de Chémant was the first dentist to manufacture porcelain teeth by a process modified from that originally invented by an apothecary named Alexis Duchâteau in 1776. His book was translated into English as A Dissertation on Artifical Teeth. Evincing the Advantages of Teeth Made of Mineral Paste over Every Denomination of Animal Substance.... The earliest edition of this translation cited by OCLC WorldCat in May 2015 was the London, 1804 edition, described as a 4th edition. Digital facsimile of 1818 5th edition from Google Books at this link.The title page of the 1818 edition indicates that he maintained an office in London.

Girtanner’s important textbook on the venereal diseases contains some history.

Primarily concerning the diseases of black slaves. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The Cercle des Philadelphes, of which Charles Arthaud was president, was an academic scientific society in Saint-Domingue, in existence between 1784 and 1791. It was the most prominent academic society in the Americas prior to the French Revolution. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

A treatise on the psychosomatic aspects of certain diseases. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first bibliography of historical medical literature in Portuguese. The preliminary leaves evaluate the status of medical history and bibliography. Part 1 describes the history of medicine to 1600; part 2, its history from 1600 to 1731; the third, its history from 1731 to 1783. Each is a narrative with copious annotations, including bibliographical citations. The work was based on Portal’s Histoire de l’anatomie et de la chirurgie, Paris 1770-1773, but has substantial additions on Portuguese medicine and on the years 1773-1783. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. 

Falconbridge was a surgeon in the slave trade before becoming an abolitionist. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The final section addresses maladies affecting the residents of Saint-Domingue. Unlike many of his contemporaries Bourgeois assiduously recorded the medical practices of the enslaved and subjugated African and Indigenous residents of the island. Rather than simply impose contemporary European medical notions onto tropical diseases and maladies, as well as those injuries commonly endured by enslaved laborers, Bourgeois observed the ways Afro-Caribbean communities adapted medical knowledge and herbalist practices to the native flora of the West-Indies. He recognized that enslaved people arrived in the West-Indies with their own understanding of medicine.  Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link

Weaver, Karol Kovalovich. "The enslaved healers of eighteenth-century Saint Domingue," Bull. Hist. Med., 76 (2002) 429-460.

One of the earliest medical publications printed in Haiti. Duvivier, Bibliographie générale et méthodique d'Haiti, 2, p. 206.

In this paper on the operation of the water-cycle in meteorology Hutton hypothesized that rain was caused by a mixture of air currents of differing temperatures, either saturated or nearly saturated with moisture. "His Theory of Rain proposes the rule that 'the action and effect of heat and cold' lies at the base of all rainfall. As he says, he seeks to 'form a theory of rain upon that investigated rule, concerning the evaporation and condensation of water' . . . Backed with a considerable array of facts on humidity, temperature, wind currents, and precipitation, Hutton propounds that the amount of humidity in the atmosphere increases proportionally to an increase in the temperature; precipitation occurs where a colder air mass collides with a hotter air mass, thereby cooling it and forcing it to expel its moisture" (Farnsworth, Mediating order and chaos: The water-cycle in the complex adaptive systems of romantic culture [2002] 23-24).  Hutton noted that mountain ranges can cause precipitation by raising and cooling warmer moisture-bearing air and claimed that rain could be predicted scientifically by carefully studying geographical features and wind currents.

Rush was considered the ablest American clinician of his time. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His many writings are distinguished for their classical style.

Following on his work for the improvement of the conditions in prisons, Howard travelled extensively in Europe, carrying out an elaborate investigation into the conditions of hospitals. Digital facsimile of the second edition (1791) from the Hathi Trust at this link.

An expansion of Cullen’s “Lectures on materia medica”, 1773.

Scarpa made important researches concerning the auditory and olfactory apparatus of fishes, birds, reptiles, and man. See L. Sellers and B. Anson, [Scarpa’s] Anatomical observations on the round window, Arch. Otolaryng., 1962, 75, 2-45.

Hirsch considered this the first important work on cretinism and goitre. See also Malacarne’s Lettre, in J. P. Frank: Delectus opusculorum medicorum, 1789, 6, 241-58. Digital facsimile of Malacarne's pamphlet from Google Books at this link.

Chiarugi’s regulations for the Bonifazio mental asylum mark the first appearance in print of his landmark reforms in the humane treatment of the mentally ill. Chiarugi was the first to practise the humanitarian treatment of the insane.

The first separate book on ophthalmic surgery.

Matthew Baillie’s notable anatomico-pathological studies on dermoid cysts of the ovary. Also published in Lond. med. J., 1789, 10, 322-32.

One of the first important accounts of dengue (“breakbone fever”). Rush described the Philadelphia outbreak of 1780.

Black analyzed the London bills of mortality from 1701-1776. His work was the only study to provide a numerical account of insanity, a disease on people's minds because of George III's illness.

The first edition of part 2, preceded part 1, being published in 1789. This poem was the chief source of Erasmus Darwin's literary fame during his lifetime. Like his other works, this poem contains a great deal of frequently advanced scientific information in the nearly 300 footnotes and 115 pages of appendices. This work also contains five plates engraved by William Blake, including "The fertilisation of Egypt" after a design by Henry Fuseli, and 4 engravings of the Portland Vase.

Full text available from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Jussieu was the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants, basing his system on a extensive unpublished work by his deceased uncle, the botanist Bernard de Jussieu.

"In his study of flowering plants, Genera plantarum (1789), Jussieu adopted a methodology based on the use of multiple characters to define groups, an idea derived from naturalist Michel Adanson. This was a significant improvement over the "artificial" system of Linnaeus, whose most popular work classified plants into classes and orders based on the number of stamens and pistils. Jussieu did keep Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature, resulting in a work that was far-reaching in its impact; many of the present-day plant families are still attributed to Jussieu. Morton's 1981 History of botanical science counts 76 of Jussieu's families conserved in the ICBN, versus just 11 for Linnaeus, for instance" (Wikipedia article on Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, accessed 3-2020).

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Probably the first significant work on military medicine by a Spanish physician. Canivell’s work, prepared for the use of students at Cadiz’s Royal College of Surgery, deals with contusions, wounds and fractures caused by gunshots, starting with wounds to the head and progressing downward through the various parts of the body to the legs and feet. Digital facsimile from the Wellcomecollection.org at this link.

"This describes the former Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, originally designed in 1664 by John Webb as a palace, and afterwards adapted for use as a Naval Hospital by Sir Christopher Wren, with the assistance of Nicholas Hawksmoor (1696-1752). The Painted Hall was decorated by James Thornhill (1708-1727), and the Chapel remodelled by James Stuart (1779-1789). At the centre of this magnificent baroque complex stands Inigo Jones's earlier Queen's House (1616-1638). The buildings were in use as a Naval Hospital from 1705 to 1869" (https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/an-historical-account-of-the-royal-hospital-for-seamen-at-greenwich).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Trained in horticulture at Syon House, London, Paterson was sent in 1777 to the Cape of Good Hope to collect plants for the estate of the Countess of Strathmore, undertaking four journeys into the South African interior, partly in the company of Robert Jacob Gordon and Jacob van Reenen. In the course of his travels the author penetrated as far as Namaqualand on the west, and the Great Fish River on the south-east. Although the principal feature of the work is a description of the botanical specimens collected ... there are many interesting notes respecting the natives, with a few remarks on the Dutch Colonists. The colored plates mainly depict botanical specimens. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.