Of limited value, but the only available history of early American ophthalmology.

Most of this work is a very carefully documented history of the subject. Bibliography of 451 references.

Revised and enlarged English translation with deceptive title: Tonometry: physical fundamentals, development of methods and clinical application, New York, Hafner, 1966.

English translation by F.C. Blodi as The history of optical instruments for the examination of the eye, Bonn: J. P. Wayenborgh, 1986.

A collection of articles by various authors, including partial reprint of No. 5768.1 and 6005.

Greek editio princeps of Soranus, based on manuscripts Dietz discovered in Paris and Rome, and published after the early death of the editor. Soranus was the leading authority on the gynecology and obstetrics of antiquity. He recognized atresia of the vagina as being congenital or acquired from inflammation. He packed the uterus for hemorrhage and performed hysterectomy for prolapse. He described podalic version. Soranus also included full instructions on the care and management of infants.Translated into English, with an introduction by Oswei Temkin, with the assitance of Nicholson J. Eastman, Ludwig Edelstein, and Alan F. Guttmacher as Soranus' Gynaecology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1956. Digital facsimile of the 1838 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Standard Greek edition of the works of Soranus. Digital facsimile from the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum at this link.

First printed edition of the gynecological writings attributed to the woman physician, Trota, who is frequently called Trotula after the name of the collection of works with whom she is associated. Trota is said to have taught at Salerno during the 12th century. Trota was the earliest woman physician to write significant medical treatises. Her writings were Liber de sinthomatibus mulierum ("Book on the Conditions of Women"), De curis mulierum ("On Treatments for Women", and De ornatu mulierum ("On Women’s Cosmetics"). "The Trotula was published not because it was still of immediate clinical use to learned physicians (it had been superseded in that role by a variety of other texts in the 15th century), but because it had been newly "discovered" as a witness to empirical medicine by a Strasbourg publisher, Johannes Schottus. Schottus persuaded a physician colleague, Georg Kraut, to edit the Trotula, which Schottus then included in a volume he called Experimentarius medicinae ("Collection of Tried-and-True Remedies of Medicine"), which also included the Physica of Trota of Salerno's near contemporary, Hildegard of Bingen. Kraut, seeing the disorder in the texts, but not recognizing that it was really the work of three separate authors, rearranged the entire work into 61 themed chapters. He also took the liberty of altering the text here and there. As [Monica] Green has noted, "The irony of Kraut's attempt to endow "Trotula" with a single, orderly, fully rationalized text was that, in the process, he was to obscure for the next 400 years the distinctive contributions of the historic woman Trota" (Wikipedia article on Trotula, accessed 08-03-15). 

Giacomo Berengario da Carpi (Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, Jacopo Barigazzi, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi or simply Carpus) introduced iconography and independent anatomical observation into the teaching of anatomy. His Commentaria, a thick quarto of over 1000 pages, included 21 full-page woodcut text illustrations plus an architectural title-border, which included an image of a dissection scene. It was the first work since the time of Galen to display any considerable amount of anatomical information based upon personal investigation and observation. The Commentaria contains the first mention of the vermiform appendix, as well as the first good account of the thymus. The description of the male and female reproductive organs, the process of reproduction and the fetus were more extensive than any earlier account, and Berengario was the first to call attention to the greater proportional capacity of the female pelvis to the male pelvis. On fol. ccxxv Berengario gives the first authentic report of vaginal hysterectomy for prolapse. He describes two cases, one performed by himself in 1507 and the other by his father.  

For further details see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

The first encyclopedia of gynecology and obstetrics, originally conceived by Conrad Gesner, who collected material for the purpose. Wolff, Gesner’s literary executor, added material and published the collection one year after Gesner’s death. It contains the first edition of Moschion (No. 6136). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A hugely enlarged version of No. 6011, with texts in Greek as well as Latin. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from Google Books at this link.

Spach was the editor of this collection of gynecological writings. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Schenck compiled the first bibliography of gynecology, entitled Pinax auctorum in re medica, Graecorum, Latinorum priscorum, Arabum Latinobarbarorum, Latinorum recentiorum, tum & peregrinis liniguis cluentium, Exstantium, MS. promissorum vel desidetatorum: qui gynaecia, sive muliebria plento argumento sive ex instituto scriptis exceluerunt & illustrarunt. It covered writings on the subject from the earliest times to the beginning of the 17th century. This he appended to his posthumous first edition of Guinter’s treatise on gynecology. Neither Guinter's nor Schenck's work was particularly long; the entire book contains 56 pages, of which Schenck's bibliography occupies pp. 37-56. Digital facsimile of the author's presentation copy to H. Rapp from the Internet Archive at this link.

Roonhuyze’s book is regarded as the first work on operative gynecology in the modern sense. He successfully performed caesarean section several times, and he used retractors for the repair of vesicovaginal fistulae. English translation, London, 1676.

Houstoun was the first to treat ovarian edema by tapping the cyst, 1701. For biographical note, see J. Obst. Gynaec. Brit. Comw., 1973, 80, 193-200.

Atlas of bipartite and double uterus.

Mettler considers this “the most pretentious gynecologic work of the [eighteenth] century… chiefly useful for its historical orientation”. English translation, 3 vols., London, 1762-67.

First accurate description of retroversion of the uterus.

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

Soemmerring enumerated the bad effects of tight corsets on the internal organs of women. His book created much interest and resulted in a great decline in the fad of tight lacing and hoop skirts. This is the second edition, with one copperplate illustration at the end. The first, unillustrated, edition was published at Leipzig, 1788. Digital facsimile of the 1793 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

McDowell was a pioneer ovariotomist. Although not the first to perform this operation, he deserves credit for putting it upon a permanent basis. The above records his first ovariotomy, performed in 1809, together with two later cases. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 651-53.

Smith was the first in the U.S.A. after McDowell to perform ovariotomy, for ovarian edema. Smith was apparently without knowledge of the previous operations of McDowell.

Classic account of cancer of the uterus.

Lizars performed the first (unsuccessful) ovariotomy in Britain. His book made generally known the practical possibility of this operation.

First American textbook on gynecology.

First successful excision of the cervix in America. Reported by T. F. Gillan.

Boivin and Dugès practiced amputation of the cervix for chronic ulceration. On page 648 of vol. 2 is the first recorded case of cancer of the female urethra. English translation, 1834.

Gosset repaired a vesicovaginal fistula of eleven years’ duration, using silver gilt-wire, removed after 9, 12 and 21 days respectively.

Roux was the first to suture the ruptured female perineum.

Hayward’s successful treatment of vesicovaginal fistula was performed after Mettauer’s, although reported earlier.

The first successful operation for vesicovaginal fistula is believed to be that performed in August 1838, by Mettauer, a Virginian gynecologist. He introduced metallic sutures and a retention catheter.

First report of a chorionic tumor.

Clay, pioneer ovariotomist in Great Britain, introduced the word “ovariotomy”. (See also his later paper, No. 6054.)

Description of the speculum invented by Récamier.

First successful double oöphorectomy. Communicated in a letter to the editor by J. M. Foltz.

Simpson introduced many important procedures into gynecology and obstetrics; among them may be mentioned his use of the uterine sound for diagnosing retro-positions of the uterus

Bennet was the first to differentiate between benign and malignant uterine tumors.

Original description of Sims’s operation for the treatment of vesicovaginal fistula; also describes “Sims’s position, the knee–chest position. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 677-712.

Atlee is said to have performed ovariotomy 387 times; with his brother John he firmly established the operation in the U.S.A.

Atlee was among the first to study the surgical removal of uterine fibroids.

First successful abdominal hysterectomy, 25 May, 1853. An account of Burnham’s work is given by J. C. Irish in Trans. Amer. med. Ass. 1878, 29, 447-61.

Simon is perhaps best remembered as being the first in Europe to excise the kidney; he also wrote a fine monograph on vesico-vaginal fistula.

First successful abdominal hysteroscopic myomectomy (for fibromyoma), 1 September 1853.

Fergusson’s vaginal speculum is described on p. 724.

Chapter 5 includes a lengthy description of the “Hodge pessary”. See No. 6185.

Noeggerath, who devised the operation of epicystotomy, spent many years in America, where he became a leading gynecologist and obstetrician.

In this work Wagner presented the first important contribution to the knowledge of the gross pathology of uterine cancer.

First successful plastic operation for exstrophy of the female bladder.

Atlee’s operation for vesicovaginal fistula.

One of the most important texts on the subject during the mid-nineteenth century. English translation, New Sydenham Society, 1867.

Sims’s method for amputating the cervix.

The introduction of ovariotomy into France was in part due to Koeberlé. He made great advances in gynecological operative technique.

First successful excision of uterus and ovaries for tumor.

For many years Clay was the most eminent ovariotomist in Great Britain. In all, he performed 395 ovariotomies, with a mortality of 25 percent.

Emmet, a disciple of Sims, was an outstanding gynecological surgeon.

Wells was perhaps the greatest of the pioneer ovariotomists; he performed his first ovariotomy in 1858. The title page to this work states that a second volume would be published. By the time Wells issued the intended Volume two he considered it an entirely separate work and not a continuation of his 1865 treatise. The second work, published in 1872, has frequently been miscatalogued as Volume two because it bears the same title and was issued by the same publisher. However, it is not called Volume two on its title page.

A revolutionary and controversial work, written in Paris while Sims was in voluntary exile because of the U.S. Civil War, and first serialized in Lancet 2 (1864) and 1 (1865). Includes, pp. 16-18, the description of Sims’s duck-billed speculum. Also includes important and pioneering work on the treatment of infertility, including analysis of the conditions essential to conception, and record of a successful artificial insemination. American edition, N.Y., 1866.

A comprehensive account of the management of vesicovaginal fistula based on Sims’s technique.

Surgical repair of lacerations of the cervix.

The most complete and systematic treatise on the subject in its day.

First vaginal ovariotomy.

Battey’s ovariotomy operation for the treatment of non-ovarian conditions. This operation later acquired a greater significance in connection with more modern work on endocrinology. Preliminary communication in J. gynaec. Soc. Boston, 1872, 7, 331-35.

Vaginal cystotomy for chronic cystitis.

Noeggerath was the first to point out the late effects of gonorrhoea in women, particularly its role in the production of sterility.

First report of cases of Mittelschmerz.

Choriocarcinoma first reported.

Hegar developed Battey’s operation (No. 6062) and employed it for the treatment of various ovarian conditions.

Le Fort’s operation for prolapse.

Freund performed the first successful abdominal hysterectomy for cancer. Although removal of the uterus by the abdominal route had been carried out earlier, to Freund belongs the credit for the invention of the operation, in which he utilized Lister’s antiseptic method. His first paper describing the operation was published on 3 April 1878.

Freund published two shorter accounts of the procedure later in 1878:

"Zu meiner Methode der totalen Uterus-Exstirpation," Zbl. Gynäk., 2/12, 265-69. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1878. This appeared on 8 June.

"Eine neue Methode der Exstirpation des ganzen Uterus," Berl. klin. Wschr., 15/28, 417-18. Berlin: August Hirschwald, 1878. This appeared on 15 July.

Lawson Tait reported that he had performed Battey’s operation on 1 August 1872, 16 days before Battey. See No. 6062.

First total hysterectomy by the vaginal route.

The operation of enucleation of subperitoneal uterine fibroids by the vaginal route was introduced by Czerny. In the second paper the words “Fibromyome” and “Myomotomie” replace “Fibrome” and “Myoniotomie” in the title.

Oöphorectomy, February 1881.

Adams devised an operation for retroversion of the uterus, similar to that performed by Alexander (No. 6077).

Alexander’s suspension operation for retroversion of the uterus, first performed by him in 1881.

First description of Emmet’s technique for perineorrhaphy.

Apostoli was the first to employ the double faradic current in the electrotherapy of uterine diseases.

Tait was probably the greatest of the ovariotomists. He abandoned Listerian principles of antisepsis, relying on “scrupulous attention to cleanliness of every kind and in all directions”.

Although not the first to describe kraurosis vulvae, Breisky left an important account, and the condition became known as “Breisky’s disease”.

First account of Olshausen’s operation for retroversion of the uterus.

Péan’s method of morcellement of the uterus for the removal of tumors.

Pyelitis complicating vesical and fecal fistulae in women was successfully treated by Bozeman.

Tait devised a flap-splitting operation for retocele which, with some modifications, is in use today.

Includes an account of his attempt, 1886, to cure hydronephrosis by a plastic operation – the first recorded surgical intervention for the relief of this condition.

Includes description of the “Trendelenburg position”. Reprinted with translation, in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 936-88. The first description of Trendelenburg’s elevated pelvic position was given by one of his students, W. Meyer, in Arch. klin. Chir., 1885, 31, 494-525.

Baer’s operation.

Lawson Tait was apparently the first to describe what is now known as Meigs’s syndrome (ovarian fibroma combined with pleural effusion).

A detailed classification of “deciduomata”, chorionic neoplasms, and a review of the literature.

Henrotin’s method of removing the uterus.

Granulosa cell tumor first described.

Marchand’s theory of the histogenesis of choriocarcinoma (chorionepithelioma). He considered that such tumors derived from trophoblast and not from decidua.

The operation of excision of the vagina was introduced by Olshausen.

Wertheim emphasized the importance of latent uterine gonorrhoea.