Isolation of bufagin. Preliminary communication in J. Amer. med. Assoc., 1911, 56, 1531-35.

Isolation of histamine from animal tissues.

A monumental encyclopedia of ethnopharmacology.

Bourquelot did important work on the synthesis of glucosides; several more papers followed the one given above.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Eusol and chloramine-T.

“Dakin’s solution” was employed by Carrel (No. 5642) in the Carrel–Dakin method of irrigation of wounds.

An important analysis of the action of digitalis on the isolated heart.

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

Includes detailed accounts of the history of each drug.

Introduction of tryparsamide.

Introduction of mercurochrome. With E. C. White and E. O. Swartz.

Isolation of ergotamine.

Lysozyme, an antimicrobial enzyme that is a component of secretions such as tears and saliva.

Digital facsimile from royalsocietypublishing.org at this link

Churchman demonstrated the selective bactericidal action of gentian violet against staphylococci. See also J. exp. Med., 1912, 16, 221-47; J. Urol., 1924, 11, 1-18.

Cushny made important contributions concerning the pharmacological action of optical isomers over a period of nearly twenty years. He summarized this work and that of others in his Charles E. Dohme Lectures, 1925.

Introduction of dilaudid (Hydromorphone)

Republished in book form, Baltimore, 1927.

Study of the effect of twelve different substances in neurosyphilis and trypanosomiasis.

Proof that histamine occurs in certain organs in amounts sufficient to account for the depressant action of extracts of these organs. With H. H. Dale, H. W. Dudley, and W. V. Thorpe.

Gaddum produced concentration-effect curves of antagonistic drugs, showing the dose-ratio linearly related to antagonistic concentration. See also No. 1925.1

A digest of the literature, together with an excellent bibliography. By their earlier work (J. Pharmacol., 1924, 24, 339-57) Chen and Schmidt aroused worldwide interest in ephedrine.

Isolation of digoxin from Digitalis lanata.

R. N. Chopra, J. C. Gupta, and B. Mukherjee demonstrated the sedative and hypotensive effect of an alkaloid isolated from Rauwolfia serpentina (reserpine).

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

Vialli and Erspamer reported “enteramine”, which Erspamer and B. Asero (Nature, Lond., 1952, 169, 800-01) found to be identical with 5-hydroxytryptamine, isolated and named serotonin by M. M. Rapport et al. in 1948 (J. biol. Chem.,176, 1243-51).

Prostaglandins. Von Euler reported that a lipid fraction of human seminal fluid had potent activities on smooth muscle, hence the name. Later, prostaglandins were found to be widely distributed in mammalian tissues and body fluids.

First description of structure and action of an antihistamine.

In 1957 Bovet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles.”

Gaddum was the first to formulate the theory of competitive drug antagonism. See also No. 1917.

G. A. H. Buttle, T. Dewing, G. E. Foster, W. H. Gray, S. Smith, and D. Stephenson discovered the potency of dapsone (DDS).

Synthesis of pethidine (dolantin) (Demoral).

Synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Nitrofuran (nitrofurazone).

Müller introduced Dichlordiphenyltrichlorethane (DDT) as an insecticide. With H. Martin and P. Läuger. 

In 1948 Müller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."

Purification and concentration of Tillett and Garner’s (No. 1924.1) substance to produce streptokinase.

British Anti-Lewisite BAL (dimercaprol), a medication used to treat acute poisoning by arsenic, mercury, gold, and lead, was discovered during the 1939-45 war. With L. A. Stocken and R. H. S. Thompson. 

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

Streptodornase. See also W. S. Tillett et al., Proc. Soc. exp. Biol. (N. Y.), 1948, 68, 184-88.

Methonium compounds. See also the same journal, 1948, 162, 810.

Described the concept of α and β adrenergic receptors in the sympathetic nervous system, and placed specific receptors into pharmacologic mechanisms.

Discovery of bradykinin. With W. T. Beraldo and G. Rosenfeld.

The first clinical trial of lithium.

Isolation of reserpine. With E. Schlittler and H. J. Bein.

Chlorpromazine. With J. Foumel, R. Ducrot, M. Kolsky, and P. Koetschet. Chloropromazine was later marketed in the United States as Thorazine.

First practical demonstration of an oral contraceptive.

Librium. With four co-authors.

In this and subsequent papers Bergström and Samuelsson elucidated the chemical structure of prostaglandins. 

In 1982 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Sune K. Bergström, Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane "for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances."

Development of Propranolol, the first beta-blocker effectively used in the treatment of coronary heart disease and hypertension.  R. G. Shanks, L. H. Smith and A. C. Dornhorst.

In 1988 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment."

In 1970 Axelrod shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation."

With J. Stevenson and B. Samuelsson.

The immunosuppressive cyclosporin A, instrumental in the success of organ transplants. With C. Feurer, H.U. Gubler & H. Strähelin.

Includes useful historical information.

Tyndall observed the selective bacteria-inhibiting effect of Penicillium and the resistance of Ps. pyocyanea to it. See No. 2495.

Discovery of Vibrion septique (Cl. septicum), the first pathogenic anerobe to be found. Pasteur and Joubert were probably the first to realize the practical implications of antibiosis. They noted the antagonism between Bacillus anthracis and other bacteria in cultures.

Emmerich and Löw prepared a water-soluble antibiotic substance, pyocyanase, from Pseudomonas pyocanea. It inhibited pathogenic cocci and the organisms responsible for diphtheria, plague, cholera, and typhoid.

First recorded scientific observations on the action of a penicillin. Gosio produced an antibacterial crystalline substance from Penicillium glaucum.

Discovery of the growth-inhibiting action of Penicillium on certain bacteria. 

In 1945 Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases." See also Nos. 10784 and 12599.

Isolation of gramicidin.

Isolation of griseofulvin. With H. Raistrick and P. Simonart.

Penicillinase.

Proof of the therapeutic action in vivo of penicillin against streptococcal and other bacterial infections. Building upon Fleming’s work (No. 1933 and 10784), the consequences of which had originally been widely unappreciated, even by Fleming himself, Chain and his co-workers concentrated penicillin and showed that it was probably the most effective chemotherapeutic drug known, and that it was relatively non-toxic. This led to mass production of the drug, which has saved untold millions of lives. Biography of Florey by G. Macfarlane, 1979.

In 1945 Chain and Florey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Fleming "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases."

First report of the chemotherapeutic action of penicillin on humans (10 cases). 

With W. Baker.

Introduction of streptomycin. Order of authorship: Schatz, Gregory, Waksman.

In 1952 Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for ingenious, systematic, and successful studies of the soil microbes that led to the discovery of streptomycin." See also No. 1944.

With H. Anker and F. L. Meleney.

Discovery of aerosporin (polymyxin). With A. M. Brown and G. Brownlee.

Production of chloramphenicol from Streptomyces venezuelae. With Q. R. Bartz, R. M. Smith, D. A. Joslyn and P. R. Burkholder.

Procaine benzylpenicillin also known as penicillin G procaine was developed by Herrell and colleagues. With D.R. Nichols.

Introduction of chloramphenicol, used in treatment of typhus.

With R. G. Shepherd and H. J. White.

Brotzu showed that a Cephalosporium acremonium filtrate inhibited the growth of Gram-positive and -negative organisms.

Isolation of neomycin.

Isolation of fumagillin, an antibiotic with amoebicidal activity. See also Science, 1951, 113, 202-3.

Oxtetracycline (terramycin).

Isolation of viomycin. With 11 co-authors.

Isolation of nystatin (fungicidin).

Discovery of erythromycin. With R. L. Bunch, R. C. Anderson, H. E. Boaz, E. H. Flynn, H. M. Powell, and J. W. Smith.

With G. G. F. Newton and C. W. Hale.

With six co-authors.

Isolation of mitomycin C, effective in Hodgkin’s disease and lymphoma. With six co-authors.

With nine co-authors.

With nine co-authors.

Para-aminobenzenesulfonamide (sulphanilamide) first prepared.

Introduction of Prontosil, the first drug containing sulfanilamide.
 
In 1939 Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil."

The Tréfouëls and colleagues assumed that the sulfonamide group was responsible for the results obtained with Domagk’s Prontosil. Their work led them to introduce sulfanilamide.

Experimental proof of the efficacy of sulfapyridine (M & B 693) in pneumococcal pneumonia.

Clinical proof of the value of sulphapyridine. M & B 693 (sulphapyridine) treatment of pneumonia. This followed the experimental work of L. E. H. Whitby (see No. 1951).

First important clinical trial of sulfathiazole.

Sulphaguanidine was introduced by E. K. Marshall, A. C. Bratton, H. J. White, and J. T. Litchfield.

Synthesis of sulphamerazine, by R. O. Roblin, J. H. Williams, P. S. Winnek, and J. P. English.

Isolation of p-aminobenzoic acid, a structural analog of sulfanilamide.

Introduction of sulphadiazine. With E. Strauss and O. L. Peterson.

Introduction of sulfasuxidine.

Sulfadimidine (also spelled Sulphadimidine) with G. S. Smith, R. W. Luxton, W. A. Ramsay, and J. Goldman. [Also designated as Vol. 239 by publishers of The Lancet.]

The first separately published Latin translation from the Greek by Thomas Linacre. Galen's Method of medicine was a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Galen’s greatest and most influential works. Enlivening the detailed case studies Galen presented are many theoretical and polemical discussions, acute social commentary, and personal reflections. The British physician, scholar and humanist Linacre was one of the first Englishmen to study Greek in Italy and to bring the "new learning" of Renaissance humanism back to his native land. As few English printers issued books in Latin, Linacre had his translation published in France. It was reprinted many times during the 16th century. Reflecting demand for the work, the Greek editio princeps of Methodus medendi was published at Venice from the press of Z. Callierges in 1500--one of the earliest of Galen's works to appear in the original Greek. Books 3-6 of the 14 were published in an English translation by T. Gale, in London, 1566. The complete Method of medicine was translated into English by Ian Johnston and G. H. R. Hosley for the Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Galen’s shorter textbook on these subjects, Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo, was translated into French by C. Daremberg in Oeuvres anatomiques, physiologiques et médicales de Galien, Paris, 1856, 2, 706-784.

From a clinical point of view, the two works of Caelius Aurelianus, which were translated into Latin from Greek originals by Soranus of Ephesus that were later lost, represent the high-point of Graeco-Roman medical achievement. Soranus (fl. circa 150 CE), was the chief representative of the methodic school of medicine. Besides his writings on gynecology and obstetrics that survived, Soranus left works on chronic and acute maladies—Tardae or Chronicae passiones, in five books, and Celeres or Acutae passiones in three books, which were preserved through Caelius's translations. The Latin translations show that Soranus possessed considerable practical skill in the diagnosis of both ordinary and exceptional diseases. The translations are also important for their references to the methods of earlier medical authorities.

This is first edition of Caelius's Tardarum passionum (Chronic diseases ), edited by Johannes Sichard. On the verso of the title page the editor provided a list of about 50 ancient Greek physicians referred to in Caelius's text.

Garrison described Caelius / Soranus as a 5th century neurologist who gave one of the best early descriptions of epilepsy, including its convulsive and comatose forms, and the tendency of victims of vertigo to become epileptic. Caelius also distinguished between sensory and motor impairment, and between spastic and flaccid paralysis.

The first edition of Caelius's / Soranus's other work—Acute diseases – Liber celerum vel acutarum passionum, was edited by Johann Guinter von Andernach and published in Paris at the press of Simon de Colines in 1533. Both that and Sicart's edition of 1529 were based on Latin manuscripts that have since disappeared. No other medieval codices of these texts survived.

The four works by Oribasius also edited by Sicard for this 1529 printing represent the first editions in Latin of the texts involved. Like Caelius and Soranus, Oribasius was also a major compiler. Oribasius, a pagan, was physician to the Emperor Julian (the Apostate) in the period of Late Antiquity. Digital facsimile of the 1529 edition from Google Books at this link.

The first printed book on wine, its production and preservation, translated from the Latin by Wilhelm von Hirnkofen. It discusses the value of wine in diet and as a medication. Wine has been called the oldest documented human-made medicine. Egyptian papyri and Sumerian tablets dating back to 2200 BCE detail the medicinal role of wine. Wine was used variously as a safe alternative to drinking water, as an antiseptic for treating wounds, as a digestive aid, and as a cure for a wide range of ailments including  lethargy, diarrhea and pain from child birth. 

In 1943 medical historian Henry Sigerist issued a facsimile of the first edition, with an English translation and introduction, entitled The Earliest Printed Book on Wine. ISTC no. ia01080000. Digital facsimile of the first printed edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, München at this link. 

Probably originating about 1160, the Regimen sanitatis from the medical school at Salerno (where medicine was first treated as a separate science) had greater popular influence than virtually any other medieval medical tract. This collection of very sensible dietary and hygienic precepts was first printed with the famed commentary on the Regimen by Arnald of Villanova. The citation (ISTC no. ir00061000) is one of six undated editions, of which four were issued by Johannes de Westfalia. All were probably printed around 1480-85; no order of priority can be definitely established. English translation by Thomas Paynel, [London, 1535]. See Nos. 49-51. Digital facsimile of the edition printed between 1477 and 1483 from the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf at this link.

One of the most popular medical books of the Middle Ages; first written about 1260. After its first printing about 1492 it was reprinted many times in the next 100 years. "Petrus Hispanus was the only practicing physician ever to become Pope (1276-77). By all accounts he was an interim choice when rival French and Italian Cardinals could not elect one of their own nationality. Although not clearly responsible for any major political actions by the Church, Petrus was famous for several centuries after his death because of his secular writings - a text on logic (Summulae logicales) and a handbook on medicine (Thesaurus pauperum). The latter is noteworthy because it contains two sections on coitus - how to enhance the sexual act and how to subdue sexual urges. Promoting coitus seems an odd topic for a medieval Catholic cleric-writer and raises the question as to whether the first section may have been added by a later copyist or editor, but an examination of a very early manuscript of the Thesaurus gives assurance that the two sexual sections were written by Petrus, probably around 1270." (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24585747). ISTC no. ij00242000. Digital facsimile from Biblioteca Corsiniana, Roma (BEIC) at this link.

The first separately printed treatise on diet was written by the Egyptian-Jewish physician and philosopher Isaac Judaeus who lived from about 832 to 932 CE. He was also known as Isaac Israeli ben Solomon and Abu Ya'qub Ishaq Sulayman al-Israili. The Latin edition was a translation made from the Arabic, circa 1070, by Constantine the African (Constantinus Africanus). De particularibus diaetis was a portion of " 'Kitab al-Adwiyah al-Mufradah wa'l-Aghdhiyah,' a work in four sections on remedies and aliments. The first section, consisting of twenty chapters, was translated into Latin by Constantine [the African] under the title 'Diætæ Universales,' and into Hebrew by an anonymous translator under the title 'Ṭib'e ha-Mezonot.' The other three parts of the work are entitled in the Latin translation 'Diætæ Particulares'; and it seems that a Hebrew translation, entitled 'Sefer ha-Mis'adim' or 'Sefer ha-Ma'akalim,' was made from the Latin" (Wikipedia article on Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, accessed 06-08-2009). A more complete printed edition of the text appeared in Basel in 1570. Campbell, Arabic Medicine and its Influence on the Middle Ages I (1926) 73. ISTC no. ii00176000. Digital facsimile from Regensburger Reichsstädtische Bibliothek Online (RRBO) at this link.

Elsholtz’s book on the venous infusion of medicaments was one of the first works to deal with blood transfusion. Latin edition in 1667; English translation in 1677. Reprint of Latin 1667 edition, Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1966.

Major, the first Professor of Medicine at Kiel, was the first to make successful intravenous injections of drugs into the human body, in 1662. Sir Christopher Wren in 1656 had injected wine and ale into the veins of a dog. These procedures probably represented the origins of the hypodermic needle concept.

A detailed record of Stoll’s practice year by year, between 1777 and 1790, giving numerous case histories and providing descriptions of diseases.

Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, embodied his theories in the Organon. The minute doses set down by him did much to correct the evils of the polypharmacy of his time, in which overdosage was pervasive. Hahnemann professed to base medicine on a knowledge of symptoms, regarding investigation of the causes of symptoms as useless; he thus rejected the lessons of pathology. Digital facsimile of the 1810 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. There are several English translations, the first of which was made from the 4th German edition: The Homoeopathic Medical Doctrine, or "Organon of the healing art;" A new system of physic translated from the German of S. Hahnemann by Charles H. Devrient, with notes by Samuel Stratton. Dublin: W. F. Wakeman. 1833. Digital facimile of the 1833 English edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of Hahnemann's personal copy of the 5th edition of the Organon (1833) with his autograph revisions for the 6th edition (completed 1842) from UCSF Library at this link. 

"Hahnemann completed his work for the 6th edition in 1842, a year before his death. After Hahnemann’s death in 1843, his widow had a hand-written copy made of Hahnemann’s volume and notes. In 1920, James Ward and William Boericke, American homeopaths based in San Francisco, purchased both the interleaved volume and the manuscript copy. Richard Haehl, a German homeopath, acted as their agent. Haehl used the hand-written copy as the basis for the 6th edition, published in Germany in 1921. The interleaved volume was sent to Boericke in San Francisco, and he used it as the basis of the 1922 English-language edition" (https://www.library.ucsf.edu/archives/homeopathy/digital/).

“A valuable work of reference, containing a large amount of information on the various articles or the materia medica, collected from the best authorities, interspersed with much original matter” (Waring).

Rynd, an Irish physician, invented the hollow needle used in hypodermic syringes. The description of his instrument is given in Dublin Quart. J. med. Sci., 1861, 32, 13.

Wood of Edinburgh was the first (1853) to employ hypodermic injection that used a true syringe and hollow needle as a therapeutic procedure. He referred to his invention as "subcutaneous" rather than hypodermic. See also Brit. med. J., 1858, 721-23, for a later paper by him. A full account of his work is given by Howard-Jones (No. 2063). Digital facsimile from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov at this link.

Wood was a professor of botany (1866-76), therapeutics (1875-1907) and nervous diseases (1875-1901) in the University of Pennsylvania. In his book the effects of various drugs in small doses was first discussed; it also contains a standard classification of drugs.

One of the best known of Lauder Brunton’s works.

Huchard and Fiessinger suggested that actual drug therapy should be limited to 20 medicaments.

Report of a method of removal of plasma from the living animal, with return of the corpuscles after washing and separation by centrifugalization. See the authors' earlier papers in the same journal, 1914, 5, 275-316, 611-23.

Haldane initiated oxygen therapy.

The Drinker respirator (“iron lung”).

Eve’s method of artificial respiration.

The B. L. B. (Boothby-Lovelace-Bulbulian) mask. See also No. 1981.

Tocantins demonstrated the possibility of transfusion of fluids via the bone marrow. See also later paper with J. F. O’Neill, Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1941, 73, 281-87.

The Greek physician Asclepiades acquired a great reputation in Rome. His remedies included change of diet, friction, bathing, and exercise. The above edition includes Greek, Latin, and German texts. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Written in 47 CE, this is an important compilation of drugs and prescriptions. Among the 271 remedies are the first use of electrotherapy (for headaches) using the shock of the torpedo fish. and it records the drinking of one’s own blood as a therapeutic rite. Scribonius was the first to describe accurately the preparation of true opium. G. Helmreich edited a Latin edition of the book, published in 1887, while a German version by W. Schonack appeared in 1913. The standard Latin edition is by S. Sconocchia, Leipzig, 1983.

English translation by R. M. Green, Springfield, Ill., 1951.

This is a collective work, incorporating the writings of more than 70 authorities, among whom may be mentioned Avicenna, Averroës, Avenzohar, Guainerio, Gesner, Savonarola, Petrus de Abano, and Maimonides. It gives an extensive history of balneology and an exact description of all the then known watering-places (about two hundred). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A history, based on extensive study of the classical literature, of the attitudes and practices of the Greeks and Romans concerning diet, hygiene, bathing, and exercise. This is one of the earliest books to discuss the therapeutic value of gymnastics and sports generally for the cure of disease and disability, and an important study of gymnastics in the ancient world. 

The second edition, De arte gymnastica libri sex, Venice, Juntas, 1573, was the first illustrated book on gymnastics. It contains 20 unsigned woodcuts usually attributed to Christoph Lederer of Nuremberg, who assumed the name of Coriolanus after moving to Italy. These illustrations drawn by Pirro Ligorio "can now be shown to be the result of imaginative reconstruction, or straightforward forgery...unknown to his [Mercuriale's] readers, who assumed that images confirmed the truth of what Mercuriale had deduced from the evidence of texts.... The argument and illustrations in De arte gymnastica demonstrated the prime place of gymnastics in Greece and Rome, and later, convinced Winckelmann of the importance of nudity in Greek civilization and art" (Vivian Nutton, "Mercurale, Girolamo", Grafton et al (eds.), The classical tradition [2010] pp. 582-83.) Digital facsimile of the 1573 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

A comprehensive study of mineral waters, dealing with all the spas of the then-known world. Besides exhaustive coverage of the baths of antiquity and of Bacci’s own time, the work gives considerable attention to wines, especially in relation to their medical use. This work was reprinted several times, into the 18th century. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

The first English book on the power of exercise in treating disease. Fuller also recommended exercise for aid in the recovery from psychological and emotional disorders. In this he preceded Cheyne (No. 4840).

The treatment of fevers by means of the cold pack was revived by S. Hahn and by his son J. S. Hahn; in his treatise, the latter advised the use of water in all diseases. A seventh edition of the book appeared as recently as 1938.

A student of Johann Gottlob Krüger (No. 1987.2), Kratzenstein was apparently the first to publish a treatise on electrotherapy, although he may have been publishing experiments devised by Krüger. Second edition, Halle, C.H. Hemmerde,1745. English translation in E. Snorrason, C.G. Kratzenstein and his studies on electricity during the eighteenth century, Odense, 1974.

Along with Kratzenstein, is the one of the first two works to discuss the possible therapeutic uses of electricity. Krüger predicted that the best results would be with paralyzed limbs. See No. 1987.1. Second edition, with additions, 1745.

Discovery of stimulation of muscles by electricity, and the first proof that paralysis could be successfully treated by electricity.

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].

Currie was among the first in Britain to use cold water packs in the treatment of fever. He made some original observations on the clinical use of the thermometer. It was Currie who first edited Robert Burns’s Collected Works.

Grapengiesser was the first physician to use Volta’s “pile”, the first battery, which Volta first described in print in 1800. Grapengiesser “noted that in paralyzed muscle excitability could be so poor that 150 elements were necessary to produce contraction. He placed conductors on moistened skin and found by trial and error that the best results were obtained with the zinc pole placed over the nerve trunk and the other pole over the branches of the nerve. He also noted that contraction occurred on the make and break of the circuit”. (Licht).

One of the first works in the English language entirely devoted to medical electricity. Carpue also played a key role in the development of rhinoplasty. See No. 5737.

Nephew of Galvani (see No. 593), Aldini developed and promoted animal electricity. His sensational experiments on the body of a criminal executed at Newgate, conducted with Carpue (No. 1989) were significant for the prehistory of the later development of cardiac electrostimulation. He also was among the first to treat melancholy (schizophrenia) with electricity, precursing modern shock therapy.

Döbereiner was the first to treat the subject of light therapy on a scientific basis.

Edwards studied the influence of environmental factors on animal life, concluding that vital processes depend on external physical and chemical forces but are not entirely controlled by them. The work includes an account of Edwards’ important experimental work regarding the effect of light on the body. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.  For the English translation by Thomas Hodgkin, with important additional material by Hodgkin and others see No. 12197.

Priessnitz, a peasant farmer in Gräfenberg, Austrian Silesia, is generally considered the founder of modern hydrotherapy, which is used in alternative and orthodox medicine. Priessnitz stressed remedies such as suitable food, air, exercise, rest and water, over conventional medicine, and is also credited with laying the foundations of what became known as the "Nature Cure," though his main focus was on hydrotherapeutic techniques

The foundation of modern gymnastics and therapeutic massage. Ling established the Swedish school of physiotherapy with his institute for training gymnastics teachers in Stockholm in 1813. He developed the ancient Greek art of calisthenics into a science based on sound anatomical and physiological principles. “After Ling, scientific body building by rational calisthenics became a recognized procedure not only for the weak child or adult, but, of even greater consequence, as an integral part of the plans for preventative medicine which were taking form in the schools and gymnasia of all civilized nations” (Bick).

Crusell began to use electrolysis as a cauterizing agent in 1839. See No. 5604.

Duchenne classified the electrophysiology of the entire muscular system and summed up his findings in the above work. The application of his results to pathological conditions marks him as the founder of electrotherapy. An Album de photographies pathologiques was published in 1862 to accompany the text of the second edition, 1861. Engl, trans. of 3rd ed., Philadelphia, 1871. See Nos. 1993 & 4543.

Duchenne, most famous of the electrotherapists, employed faradic current in treating patients as early as 1830. An English translation of the third edition of his book appeared in 1871.

Discovery of the motor points, the entry points of the nerves into the muscles – essential for stimulating the muscles by electricity.

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

Remak was a pioneer of galvanotherapy. Having treated some 700 patients with galvanic current, he believed that it was superior to faradic current for electrotherapy.

Busqué developed the modern concept of rehabilitation.

Althaus introduced Duchenne’s methods into England. He was the first to employ electrolysis for medical purposes. Greatly expanded third edition, 1873.

Beard and Rockwell were the leading American electrotherapists of the 19th century. This is the most influential American treatise ever published on electrotherapy. It is of especial value today for its comprehensive and carefully documented historical analysis. In a nontherapeutic application of medical electricity Rockwell invented the electric chair.

Downes and Blunt were the first to demonstrate the bactericidal action of sunlight; they regarded the germicidal property of light as depending on oxidation.

Introduction of high-frequency currents in electrotherapy.