The presence of fluorine in fossil bones was first reported in 1803 by Italian chemist Domenico Morichini, and by the 1840s scientists had determined that (a) fluorine occurs in teeth and bone; (b) the fluorine content of teeth and bones is variable; and (c) the fluorine content of fossil teeth and bone is higher than that of fresh tissues. Middleton’s article discusses the possiblity of fluorine dating: “Having lately devoted some time and attention to the analyses of bones, both recent and fossil, I trust some of the results at which I have arrived may not be unacceptable . . . I took up the subject with the view of ascertaining, if possible, the law by which fluoride of calcium becomes augmented or developed in fossil bones, as, should this be established, an important step would, I conceived, be thereby made towards the ascertainment of geological time” (p. 285). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Exposure of the Piltdown fraud. Weiner, Oakley and Le Gros Clark found ample evidence of forgery in the Piltdown remains, including the use of artificial abrasion and staining; they also applied fluorine and nitrogen analysis to determine the relative ages of the Piltdown fragments, finding that “whereas the Piltdown cranium may well be Upper Pleistocene . . . the mandible, canine tooth and isolated molar are quite modern” (p. 143). 

Ikeya introduced electron spin resonance dating; the first application dated a speleothem in Akiyoshi Cave, Japan. See R. Grün and C. B. Stringer, "Electron spin resonance dating and the evolution of modern humans," Archaeometry 33 (1991) 153-199.

Includes an account of the discovery by Bagford’s friend and fellow antiquarian John Conyers of a flint handaxe in London, unearthed circa 1680 near the bones of what was then thought to be an elephant, as neither the mammoth nor the entire concept of extinction existed, and there was no concept of prehistory. The illustration of the handaxe in Bagford’s letter is one of the earliest published images of a handaxe. Bagford called it ". . . a British Weapon made of a Flint Lance like unto the Head of a Spear, fastened into a Shaft of good length, which was a Weapon very common amongst the Ancient Britains. . . they not having at that time the use of Iron or Brass, as the Romans had" (p. lxiv).

What made this particular find remarkable to those at the time was the presence of the “elephant” bones, which Bagford attempted to explain this way:

"Mr. John Conyers, an apothecary . . . who made it his chief Business to make curious observations, and to collect such Antiquities as were daily found in and about London . . . discovered the body of an Elephant, as he was digging for Gravel in the Fields . . . not far from Battlebridge, and near to the River of Wells. . . .How this Elephant came there? is the Question. I know some will have it to have layn there ever since the Universal Deluge. For my own part I take it to have been brought over with many others by the Romans in the Reign of Claudius the Emperour, and conjecture . . . that it was killed in some Fight by a Britain" (p. lxiv).

The DNA sequence of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) discovered. The function of the interrupted clustered repeats was not known at the time. With  H. Shinagawa, K Makino, M Amemura, and A Nakata. Digital facsimile available at this link.

Lund, a student of Cuvier, excavated extensively in the region of Lagoa Santa, an area rich in caves and karst formations comprising the northern part of Greater Belo Horizonte in Brazil. Between 1835 and 1843 he  collected, classified and studied more than 20,000 bones of extinct species, such as mastodons and ground sloths, and was the first to describe dozens of species, among them the Saber-tooth cat (Smilodon populator). In 1843 Lund discovered fossilized skulls and bones of 30 humans deep in a flooded cave, intermixed with the remains of extinct species. These were the first documented remains of fossil humans discovered by a trained paleontologist in South America, or anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.Since these individuals were found among the remains of long-extinct species, this finding led Lund to realize that humans and the prehistoric animals had co-existed, something which was in frontal opposition to Cuvier's catastrophic theory.

Lund's first summary of his research appeared in the C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 20 (1845) 1368-1370 as "Sur l'antiquité de la race américaine, et sur les rapports qu'on peut lui supposer avec les races de l'ancien monde." This was a letter from Lund to Elie de Beaumont that Beaumont read to the Académie.

A detailed and extensively illustrated summary, with detailed bibliographical references, of the state of knowledge of prehistory in Europe as of 1926. Appendix 1: "Stratigraphic Study of Paleolithic Sites" is a very useful inventory of sites then known with detailed bibliographies of literature on each site. Appendix 2: "Repertory of Paleolithic Art" provides a similar reference for this aspect.

Milankovitch cycles, first exposition (176 pages). Milankovitch theorized that variations in eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession of the Earth's orbit determined climatic patterns on Earth through orbital forcing, leading to periodic Ice Ages.

The first fossil human discovered in Africa: Homo rhodesiensis, commonly referred to as the Broken Hill Skull or the Kabwe Cranium.The skull, which most current experts classify as Homo heidelbergensis, was discovered in 1921 in a lead and zinc mine in Kabwe, Zambia (formerly Broken Hill, Rhodesia).

U.S. Patent No. 4848, issued to Charles T. Jackson and William T. G. Morton on November 12, 1846 for the discovery of sulfuric ether as a surgical anesthetic. This was the first truly significant medical patent ever issued. Few copies of this broadside were printed. Though the patent was formally issued on November 12, 1846 it is likely that the patent was first printed (as a broadside) in 1847.

Critics of Jackson's role in the discovery should remember that he shared the patent for the discovery with Morton, as Jackson discovered the scientific effects of ether in surgery while Morton deserves credit for introducing them to the surgical community. However, the patent proved unenforceable and the famous long-running dispute between Morton and Jackson over priority in the discovery ensued.

"Be it known that we, Charles T. Jackson and William T. G. Morton of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented or discovered a new and useful improvement in surgical operations on animals, whereby we are enabled to accomplish many, if not all operations . . . without any, or with very little pain....

"It has never (to our knowledge) been known until our discovery, that the inhalation of [chemical ethers] (particularly those of sulphuric ether) would produce insensibility to pain, or such a state of quiet of nervous action as to render a person or animal incapable to a great extent, if not entirely, of experiencing pain while under the action of the knife or other instrument of operation of a surgeon, calculated to produce pain.

"This is our discovery, and the combining it with, or applying it to any operation of Surgery, for the purpose of alleviating animal suffering, as well as of enabling a surgeon to conduct his operations with little or no struggling, or muscular action of the patient, and with more certainty of success, constitutes our invention...."

First published account of the discovery of the first anthropomorphic fossil ape. Lartet's discovery, made in 1836 at Sansan, was the first to challenge Cuvier’s assertion that both humans and apes were products of the present geological epoch; it opened Lartet’s mind to the possibility of discovering “antediluvian” human remains. The fossil was named Pithecus Antiquus by de Blainville in 1840 and later placed in the new genus Pliopithecus by Paul Gervais.

Bazin proved the fungal origin of favus and tinea; this was the first work to incorporate mycotic skin diseases into dermatological literature. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The first textbook of dermatopathology. "Simon dated the preface of his book April 1st, 1848 and wrote (p. vi and vii) that much has been achieved by meticulous clinical description of diseases of the skin but now attention has to be given to the „Bestandtheile des so zusammengesetzten Hautorgans bei den einzelnen Krankheiten", that is, attention to the „parts of which the skin is composed in different diseases", with the aid of anatomo-pathological investigations. His treatise comprises of 400-odd pages and on some matters gives admirably detailed descriptions and sketches. His most important discovery, which made him an immortal of dermatopathology, was the discovery of the demodex folliculorum, the acne mite, in 1842. The coverage of the different areas of dermatopathology was very unbalanced, John Crissey, our grand master of dermato-history has remarked on that. We should keep in mind, however, that sections were made by hand, i.e. with a knife and not by microtome, and there were no stains yet. Especially the epidermal hypertrophies and neoplasms, the blisters of the skin and the parasites were well covered" (http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/sfhd/ecrits/euroderm.htm, accessed 7-2-2016).  Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The first textbook on dermatopathology in English. Digital facsimile from Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1825 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. The second, posthumous, edition published in English in Naples by Fibreno in 1834 includes additional chapters by Bell that were not included in the first edition, as well as notes added by the translator of the edition in Italian. Digital facsimile of the 1834 edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A classic on immunofluorescence of the skin.

Classic paper on the prognosis of melanoma. Digital facsimile available from PubMedCentral at this link.

Rauwolf provided the first modern descriptions of the flora of the area east of the Levantine coast. He was also the first to describe the riparian flora of the Euphrates, and the first European to publish an account of the preparation and drinking of coffee. Charles Plumier named the tropical plant genus Rauwolfia in his honor. A member of this genus Rauvolfia serpentina s. lat. (East Indian snake root) contains alkaloids including reserpine, used in the treatment of hypertension and schizophrenia.  

The first edition of Rauwolf's book contained three books and was unillustrated except for three woodcut vignettes showing Rauwolf in different stages of his journey. For the third edition of 1583 Rauwolf added a fourth book containing 42 woodcut illustrations of plants. Digital facsimile of the 1582 edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first monograph on the preparation of anatomical specimens for museums, from various parts of the human body. Includes a method for injecting colored solutions to show the blood vessels of the head, and a method for showing the distribution of the nerves, along with many others. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Pacini was the first to provide an accurate description of all the layers of the retina. Digital facsimile of the separate (offprint) edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first American medical book illustrated with photomechanically reproduced plates. Oliver Wendell Holmes praised the book for its remarkable photomicrographs, which may be the first published of brain cross-sections. On pp. 66-69 Dean described his method of preparing specimens using a modified Clarke technique, and photographing with a common camera fitted with an adapter of his design to his Smith & Beck microscope.

The most outstanding American neurological atlas of the nineteenth century and one of the best American photographically illustrated medical books of the period. The atlas reproduces the specimens, which Dalton prepared himself, in natural size.

"The foundational article of modern cellular neuroscience. . . . this is where Cajal first demonstrated with the Golgi method how neurons interact by contact not continuity in the adult central nervous system—in this case the avian cerebellum, and more specifically between  'basket cell' axons and Purkinje cell bodies. Over the course of the next decade he went on to show how this principle of interaction, the 'neuron doctrine' applies throughout the vertebrate (and invertebrate) nervous system, championing the idea that the nervous system is not a reticulum, but instead individual units or neurons interact by way of articulations, or as Sherrington soon called them, “synapses”. In doing this he displayed a combination of technical, observational, synthetic, and artistic genius never matched in neurohistology....Major discoveries contained in this brief paper include, a) dendritic spines (on Purkinje cells), b) the descending fringes (later called basket endings) of stellate cells in the molecular layer, which he interpreted as axons ending on (and not anastomosing with) Purkinje cells, the first clear evidence in the adult brain of what came to be known as the neuron doctrine, and leading him to hypothesize that “each element [nerve cell] is an absolutely autonomous canton”, and c) the ascending mossy fiber input to the cerebellum (Larry W. Swanson).

In this paper on neuroblasts (young neurons) and their development in the embryonic spinal cord, His coined the term, “dendrite,” for what had been called protoplasmic processes since the term was introduced by Deiters in 1865 (Larry W. Swanson).

Considered a masterpiece of compilation of the new scientific evidence for the neuron theory. "Also contains Gertrude Stein’s first publication, which consists of a quote and further description of her developmental work on a series of sagittal sections from the brain of a several week-old baby (pp. 725-726), in and around the region of the nucleus of Darkschewitsch. She was at the time a medical student at Johns Hopkins" (Larry W. Swanson). Digital facsimile of the 1901 printing from the Internet Archive at this link.

First edition of Aranzi's Anatomicarum observationum published with the third edition of De humano foetu. In the Anatomicarum observationum Aranzi pointed out that the eye muscles arise from the margin of the optic cavity, not from the dura mater as was thought previously; and he described the extensor indicis proprius, obturator externus, genioglossus, coracobrachialis, and tensor fascia latae. Most importantly, he provided the first description of the hippocampus in the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle, which he referred to as the hippocampal ventricle, and the inferior extension of the lateral ventricular choroid plexus. He called the elevation in the floor of the inferior horn the “sea horse/hippocampus” or “white silkworm/bombycinus” and observed that it extends rostrally as the fornix. Overall, his description of the ventricular system was a clear improvement on that of Vesalius, who had also described the inferior horn. (Clarke and O’Malley 719-21; Larry W. Swanson). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Limited to 325 copies, including material not previously published.

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

Describes and illustrates with photographs the cerebral cortex of over 50 species of primate, including prosimians, monkeys, and apes.. 

Bolk studied some 69 species of mammals, both in the adult and during development, and elaborated a basic plan for the cerebellum that remains influential today. "Lodewijk Bolk and the comparative anatomy of the cerebellum,"Trends in Neuroscience 18, 206-210, 1995.

"Using comparative and developmental approaches he examined dorsal root ganglion cells in the embryos of 18 vertebrate species, and adults of 56 species—using a variety of histological stains, particularly those of Golgi, Cajal, and Ehrlich. A year after it was published, Bardeleben wrote, 'without fear of contradiction, one can say that there has never been such a comprehensive work on the ganglia of the brain and spinal cord' " (Larry W. Swanson).

"Ted Jones, in his encyclopedic The Thalamus (1985, p. 27), wrote that this is one of the best descriptive accounts of the thalamus, illustrated with photographic plates as elegant as any being produced today, with subdivisions essentially the same as those now used, although the terminology was somewhat clumsy and based on that introduced by von Monakow in 1895. Vogt’s parceling of the thalamus into some 40 subdivisions was greeted quite skeptically by the great Ludwig Edinger and others who could barely imagine this type of differentiation in a structure they thought of as acting holistically" (Larry W. Swanson).

"Malone was a strict adherent to the cytoarchitectonic method, and ascribed similar function to neurons with similar shape in different parts of the nervous system. He named the nucleus reuniens (thalamus) here, and ascribed visceral function to it because similar cells were noted in sympathetic ganglia. He also coined the term paraventricular nucleus (hypothalamus), which had been discovered but not illustrated by Ziehen in 1901. This was the first detailed cytoarchitectonic study of the human hypothalamus" (Larry W. Swanson).

Considered the most extensive account of human cerebellar development. "Hochstetter carried out detailed work on the embryology of the human brain, and his beautiful figures have been reproduced in textbooks ever since. According to Kuhlenbeck, 'There is little doubt that, as regards the ontogenetic development of certain features in the human brain, particularly of hemispheric stalk and lamina terminalis, the documentary material and the descriptions provided by Hochstetter have few if any equals in the neuroanatomical literature…' (The CNS of Vertebrates 3(II):633, 1973). 

In this paper Loewi proved that the cardioexcitatory neurotransmitter of the sympathetic nerves is adrenaline, or actually noradrenaline.

"Classic atlas of the human brain (excluding the cerebral and cerebellar cortex). Each structure has a blurb with varying amounts of useful historical and factual information. There is also a very useful bibliography arranged according to major CNS regions. Most importantly, there are over 250 meticulously labeled photographs of sections in the three standard planes of section" (Larry W. Swanson).

Foundation of ethology, the scientific study of animal behavior. "It was based on a series of six lectures at Columbia University in 1947 and presented a general model of animal behavior. Basically, it was about methodology, about behavior as an outcome of conflicting 'drives,' about the hierarchical organization of behavior as a hierarchy of nervous centers, and about communication between animals" (Larry W. Swanson). 

Large folio. Images reproduced from contact prints recorded on 14 x 17 inch Kodak high-contrast metallographic plates. The first volume was by Alvin L. Berman; the second volume was by Berman and Edward G. Jones.

A massive contribution to comparative vertebrate neuroanatomy, the life-work of the authors. Includes a comprehensive account of the structural organisation of all vertebrate groups, ranging from amphioxus and lamprey through fishes, amphibians and birds to mammals. It organizes and synthesizes one and a half century's research, placing it in the context of findings obtained with modern techniques.

A superb atlas is based on sagittal sections. This was an innovative approach for the time as almost all previous illustration of the adult human brain was typically based on frontal or horizontal sections: “in consequence of the inherently axiate organization of the vertebrate body, sagittal sections conform more to the logic of structure of the neuraxis than do other sections.” (p. 3). 

"This is an exceptionally systematic, beautifully produced atlas of the mouse central nervous system in the three standard planes, with alternating cell-stained (Nissl method with cresyl violet) sections and myelin-stained (Loyez method) sections. It is almost certainly the most comprehensive atlas of any species up to the time of its publication.. Cell groups, fiber tracts, and other features are not outlined—instead, they are identified by lines with one end in roughly the center of the structure and the other end outside the tissue and associated with an abbreviation for the structure" (Larry W. Swanson).

The first computer graphics atlas of the brain of any species, with the illustration files also available separately (1993). The work included a complete and systematic, hierarchically organized set of annotated nomenclature tables, the first of its kind. It also presented a bilateral flatmap of the rat central nervous system, displaying the gray matter regions outlined in the atlas and presented in the annotated nomenclature tables. The first edition was followed by the following: 

1. Swanson, Brain maps: computer graphics files, professional version 1.0, with 4 floppy discs (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1993).
2. Swanson,  Brain maps: structure of the rat brain. A laboratory guide with printed and electronic templates for data, models and schematics , 2nd revised edition (Amsterdam: Elsevier) with double CD-ROM, Brain maps: labeling toolkit & graphics files, including Computer graphics files 2.0, with Interactive brain maps 2.0 (the instruction booklet dated 1998/1999).
3. Swanson. Brain maps: structure of the rat brain. A laboratory guide with printed and electronic templates for data, models and schematics, 3rd revised edition (Amsterdam: Elsevier. 2004)  with CD-ROM, Brain maps: computer graphics files 3.0 and including Interactive brain maps 3.0. 

This paper described the McCulloch-Pitts neuron, the first mathematical model of a neural network. Digital text available at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first textbook of physiology published in the Western hemisphere. Digital facsimile from Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Hamilton's Itinerarium was first issued by Albert Bushnell Hart in an edition privately printed by William K. Bixby, St. Louis, Missouri, 1907. It was republished as Gentleman's progress: the Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton, 1744. Edited with an introduction by Carl Bridenbaugh, Chapell Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948. Digital facsimile of the 1907 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This work described many Australian species for the first time. It includes natural history illustrations after watercolor paintings by Sarah Stone. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link

Wittman described the plague and other epidemics that afflicted both the Ottoman and British armies. In the Appendix he provided medical suggestions for treatment, together with a history of the plague. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Mortillet rejected the fauna-based cultural subdivisions of the Pleistocene (cave bear, mammoth, reindeer) that had been introduced by Edouard Lartet in favor of a system based on tools and artifacts (“données industrielles”). During the 1860s Mortillet “extended the geological system of period and epochs into the recent past, characterizing each by a series of archaeological ‘type-fossils’ and naming them after a ‘type-site.’ . . . By 1869 his scheme for European prehistory was fairly well elaborated and included: the Thenasian (for the now obsolete Eolithic), Chellean, Mousterian, Solutrean, Aurignacian, Magdalenian, and Robenhausian. Many of these remain in use as cultural-historical labels for bodies of material, but whereas de Mortillet saw each as a block of time they are now seen as geographically as well as chronologically defined entities” (Darvill, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology [2003], 271).

Thomsen's work established the "Three-Age system," according to which artifacts were first made of stone, then bronze, and then iron. This basic chronology underpins the archaeology of most of the "Old World.”  

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.

Later issue: Paris: chez l'auteur, Joubert, 1869.

The first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. Wallace concluded that the Earth was the only planet in the solar system that could possibly support life, mainly because it was the only one in which water could exist in the liquid phase. More controversially, Wallace maintained that it was unlikely that other stars in the galaxy could have planets with the necessary properties, as the existence of other galaxies had not yet been proved. 

The Miller–Urey experiment or Miller experiment, a classic experiment investigating abiogenesis, simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested the chemical origin of life under those conditions. The experiment confirmed Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's hypothesis that putative conditions on the primitive Earth favored chemical reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors.  

Oparin’s central thesis was that the first organisms to emerge in the anaerobic environment of the primitive Earth must have been heterotrophic bacteria. He proposed that life had been preceded by a lengthy period of abiotic syntheses and accumulation of organic compounds that had led to the accumulation he called the primordial soup. Reprinted and translated in J. D. Bernal, The Origin of Life, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967. Also translated by NASA as The origin and development of life (NASA TTF-488) Washington, D.C., 1968. See Lascano, "Historical development of origins research", Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 Nov; 2(11). doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a002089 .

Definitive 386-page throughly documented study of the carcinogenic and pulmonologic effects of smoking, and the addictive aspects of nicotine. It was published under the supervision of Surgeon-General Luther Terry. Digital facsimile from profiles.nlm.nih.gov at this link.

Discovery of the Calvin cycle, also known as the Calvin–Benson–Bassham (CBB) cycle, or reductive pentose phosphate cycle or C3 cycle — a series of biochemical redox reactions that take place in the stroma of chloroplast in photosyntheticorganisms. This is also known as the light-independent reactions. The series of discoveries were first reported in a series of 21 papers from 1948 to 1954. The first, with Andrew. A. Benson was "The path of carbon in photosynthesis", Science, 107 (1948) 476-480. The last, with J. A. Bassham, A. A. Benson , L. D. Kay, A. Z. Harris, and A.T. Wilson was "The path of carbon in photosynthesis XXI. The cyclic regeneration of carbon dioxide acceptor in photosynthesis," J. Am. Chem. Soc.,76 (1954)1760--1770. See Melvin Calvin 1911-1996, A biographical memoir by Glenn T. Seaborg and Andrew A. Benson, Washington, D.C. National Academies Press, 1998.

In 1961 Calvin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants."

Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Preliminary report, describing the use of the Scheutz Engine no. 3, a Babbage-style difference engine, to prepare life tables. The report's table B1, "Life-Table of Healthy English Districts," printed from stereotype plates produced by the calculator, represents the very first application of a difference engine to medical statistics.

The first monograph on the subject, illustrated with drawings by the author.

Kelman introduced phacoemulsification in 1967.

Translated into English by Angus McNab as The bacteriology of the eye  (London: Ballière, Tyndall & Cox, 1908, and New York: William Wood & Co, 1908).

The first comprehensive book on gonioscopy.

During and after Japan’s war with Russia (1904-1905 ) Inouye tested the visual fields in wounded soldiers for insurance purposes, and set out his observations in this work. English translation: Glickstein, M. & Fahle, M .: T. as "Visual disturbances following gunshot wounds of the cortical visual area," Brain 123 (2000) Special Supplement, 1-101. 

Photographs by Diane Beeston.