"... the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the Hippocratic Corpus. The recipes, found mostly in the gynaecological and nosological treatises, are here examined both from a philological and a sociocultural point of view. Drawing on studies in the fields of classics, social history of medicine, and anthropology, this book offers new insights into the production and use of pharmacological knowledge in the classical world. In particular, it assesses the deep interactions between oral and written traditions in the transmission of this knowledge. Recipes are addressed as texts, but the existence of ‘missing links’ in the written tradition are acknowledged" (publisher).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First critical edition of the sole extant copy of the Middle English herbal written in 1373 by John Lelamour, a Herefordian schoolmaster, who is otherwise unknown.

"This book contains the extant tradition of Benvenutus Grassus’ Treatise on the eye and six philological related studies. The tradition in Latin (Metz, Bibliothèques- Médiatèques, MS 176) is displayed with the four known versions in Middle English (Glasgow, Glasgow University Library, Hunter MSS 503 and 513); London, British Library, Sloane MS 661, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 1468) along with one in Provençal (Basel, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität, MS D.II.11). The diplomatic transcriptions of the manuscripts are synoptically arranged to ease the researchers’ consultation and comparison. The philological studies deal with the versions of the Latin tradition and with the common and diverging features of the English vernacular tradition, mainly in the Hunter MSS. Both the synoptic edition and the philological studies are the result of a collaborative edition and joint research on Hunter MSS providing a state-of-the-art approach to the treatises" (Publisher).

"Odo de Meung’s De Viribus Herbarum was one of the most widely known pieces of Fachliteratur in the latter part of Middle English, corroborated on account of the number of translations hitherto preserved in the different European vernacular languages such as French, German and Danish. In Middle English, there are up to nine complete versions of Macer Floridus’ rendering, together with a number of fragmentary pieces. Still, Glasgow University Library, MS Hunter 497 (ff. 1r-92r) is the only English version of the text which remains so far unedited. The present edition offers the diplomatic transcription of MS Hunter 497, also accompanied by a glossary, notes and introduction. The latter has been conceived as a state of the art of the Hunterian witness, containing the textual transmission of the text, a codicological/palaeographic description together with a comprehensive analysis of its linguistic provenance and scribal practices" (Publisher).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

English translation as A history of child psychoanalysis (London and New York: Routledge, 1998).

http://digiliblt.lett.unipmn.it/index.php

"The Digital library of late-antique Latin texts – digilibLT – publishes prose texts written in Latin in the late antiquity (from the 2nd to the 7th century AD). The library intends to make available all the works of pagan content. Only a few works of Christian authors and themes are included, by now, in order to allow the necessary comparisons of linguistic uses in late antiquity.The texts are annotated according to the XML-TEI standards, and are offered free of charge to the public for reading and research. The library also offers a complete canon of authors and works, including detailed information on the critical editions on which the digital texts are based, and listing, if the case, editorial changes which deviate from the critical editions chosen as reference. Search windows are designed to allow users to search either the entire collection of texts or a selection of them (by author, period, or type of text) or single authors and works. Texts can be downloaded freely, which allows individual scholars to work on their areas of interest with maximum flexibility. The library also provides short entries on late-antique authors and works, bibliographies, and canon entries. Finally, the library also includes some important works on late-antique Latin prose authors, offering the texts in PDF form or listing links to websites where these works can be found."

Pratt's bizarre orificial surgery emerged from the the practice of homeopathy. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work edited by John Murray and Charles Wyville Thomson, and completed by Murray after Thomson's death, was published over a 15 year period, and included about 29,500 pages and more than 3,280 plates. It treated in unprecedented detail the currents, temperatures, depths and constituents of the oceans, the topography, geology and biology of the sea bottom, and animal life in the ocean depths. It included many observations on other natural history topics including fauna of the countries visited. Some of the notable papers include Birds, by P.L.Sclater,with 30 hand-col.plates; Bones of Cetacea, by W.Turner, with 3 plates; Collections of Eggs described by P.L.Sclater; Essay on the Green Turtle by W.K.Parker with 13 plates; Essay on Shore Fishes, with 32 plates and Deep Sea Fishes, with 73 plates, both by A.Gunther; Deep-Sea Fauna of New Zealand, by A.Hamilton.

Digital facsimiles of the entire set are available from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Includes descriptions of the natural history of Teneriffe, St. Thomas, Bermuda; Azores, Madeira, Cape Verdes; St. Paul’s Rocks and Fernando Do Norhona; Bahia; Tristan Da Cunha, Inaccessible Island; Nightingale Island; Cape of Good Hope; Prince Edward Island, The Crozet Islands; Kerguelen’s Land; Heard Island; Amongst the Southern Ice; Victoria, New South Wales; New Zealand, The Friendly Islands, Matuku Island; Fiji Islands; New Hebrides, Cape York, Torres Straits; Aru, Ke, Banda, Amboina, Ternate; The Philippine Islands; China, New Guinea; The Admiralty Islands; Japan, The Sandwich Islands; Tahiti, Juan Fernandez; Chile, Magellan’s Straits, Falkland Islands, Ascensions; life on the ocean Surface and in the deep sea. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Neander described tobacco, its processing, and medical-pharmaceutical use. His book Includes images of the plants, of Indian, Oriental and European types of pipes, as well as depictions of cultivation and processing by native Americans. Digital facsimile of the 1626 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. French translation, Lyon, 1626. Digital facsimile of the French translation from Google Books at this link.

Of the 71 editions of Cicero's classical work on aging and death printed in the 15th century, Cato major de senectute, the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue cites 71, indicating the extreme popularity of Cicero's works in the early years of printing. This is the earliest edition with a definite date, and this and two other editions that might have been printed slightly before 1469 represent some of the very first works with a medical aspect that were printed. ISTC ic00579500. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

"With chapters on 25 different countries, this practical and succinct guide to the world's major health systems explores what lessons can be drawn from each to improve health worldwide. Each chapter is an essay designed to give the reader essential knowledge of the history, strengths, weaknesses and lessons of each health system and provide a truly global health perspective – all in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee" (Publisher).

The first American book on neurosurgery, published the same year as Macewen's pioneering neurosurgical classic (No. 4872). Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

An early study of medicine in Denmark, including local botanic drugs and folk medicine. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Photomicrographs by Leaming. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Première section: Persistance des impressions sur la rétine.

Deuxième section: couleurs accidentelles ordinaires du succession.

Troisième section: images qui succèdent à la contemplation d'objets brillants.

Quatrième section: irradiation (1878).

Cinquième section: phénomènes ordinaires de contrast.

Sixième section: ombres coloreés, avec supplement.

Deuxième supplement à la bibliographie analytique pour 1878-1879, Ibid, Tome XLIII.

Troisième supplement pour 1880-1881-1882, Ibid, Tome XLV.

Henry wrote that he had been a captive of the Indians during the Creek War and that he incorporated what he learned during his captivity. His work was one of the first illlustrated herbals published in the United States. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

To drive home the dangers of arsenic in wallpaper Kedzie took the step of publishing one of the most unusual books ever issued: Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers, a large volume measuring about 22 x 30 inches containing a title page and an 8 page preface followed by 86 samples cut from rolls of arsenic impregnated wallpaper. These volumes Kedzig donated to libraries throughout the State of Michigan. On May 12, 2012 The Ann Arbor Chronicle reported that only two of the one hundred copies remain extant in Michigan, one at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the other at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Both copies remain toxic. The copy in Ann Arbor has all leaves encapsulated for safety, and can be handled only with gloves. 

Two other copies of Shadows, also toxic, are preserved at Harvard University Medical School, and the National Library of Medicine. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Building on the theory of mechanics as formulated by Aristotle and Galileo, and countering objections expressed by Stephani degli Angeli among others, Borelli presented a completely mechanical account of the action of muscles and analyzed the way the center of gravity of an animal shifts in locomotion. Translated into English by Paul Maquet as Borelli's on the movement of animals - On the force of percussion. Berlin: Springer, 2015. Digital facsimile of the 1667 edition from Google Books at this link.

Henderson-Hasselbalch equation for the determination of pH concentration in the blood. See Hasselbalch's paper. Digital facsimile of Henderson's paper from the American Journal of Physiology at this link.

Henderson's 2nd paper on this subject was: "The theory of neutrality regulation in the animal organism," Amer. J. Physiol., 21, 427-448. Digital facsimile from the American Journal of Physiology at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Sperry's chemoaffinity hypothesis, which states that neurons make connections with their targets based on interactions with specific molecular markers^[1] and, therefore, that the initial wiring diagram of an organism is (indirectly) determined by its genotype. The markers are generated during cellular differentiation and aid not only with synaptogenesis, but also act as guidance cues for their respective axon."  Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Sperry and colleagues, including Michael Gazzaniga, conducted extensive experiments on an epileptic patient who had had his corpus collosum, the "bridge" between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, split so that the connection was severed. At first the patient seemed normal, but experimentation showed that certain activities, such as naming objects or putting blocks together in a prescribed way, could only be done when using one side of the brain or the other. (Since the right eye connects to the left brain, the left hand to the right brain, and so on throughout the body, the stimulus would be given to the side of the body opposite the brain hemisphere being tested.) These abilities were not absolute, but it seemed that the left hemisphere specializes in language processes and the right is dominant in visual-construction tasks. Sperry's work helped chart the brain and opened fields of new psychological and philosophical research. For his "left brain - right brain" research Sperry shared the Nobel prize in 1981.

McCulloch indicated on the title page that he was "assisted by numerous contributors." Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.  Fourth edition, revised with an appendix of tables (2 vols., 1854). Digital facsimile of the 1854 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

French and English text. The French text was first published in France as the 7th volume of Reaumur's Mémoires, Paris, 1928.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Goldmann was the first to demonstrate the blood-brain barrier. "By the intravenous and intrathecal administration of trypan blue he found that the barrier was impermeable to its large molecules, and he concluded that the choid plexuses were the sight of the holdup" Clarke & O"Malley, The human brain and spinal cord, 749).  Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Translated into English by C. Jon Delogu as The metamorphosis of fat: A history of obesity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).

Volume 1: Invertebrates; Vols. 2 & 3: Vertebrates. An unusually elaborate and finely printed, illustrated and bound set funded by the Department of Defense. Over 2000 pages. The first 155pp of Vol. 1 are a "History of marine zootoxicology."

Grévin's work "marks the beginning of a new era in biotoxinological studies. With Grévin we see a crude attempt being made to compile systematically and evaluate the total knowledge of toxic organisms which had accrued to that time. He provided the foundation and the historical departure point from which subsequent researchers began their investigations" (Halstead, Poisonous and venomous marin animals of the world I, 37). Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The first well-illustrated medical military manual on toxic marine organisms. Text in French and Russian.

The first systematic work on the venom organs of fishes.

One of the first naval manuals to include discussions of zootoxicology. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. Much expanded second edition (1877); digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Discusses all then known posionsous and venomous fishes, including freshwater and marine species, and includes a "thorough review of practically all the early literature on poisonous and venomous fishes, a list of all the species incriminated, symptomatology, treatment, and origin of the poisons in nature" (Halstead, Poisonous and venomous marine animals of the world, 68). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

http://naeb.brit.org/

"As noted, In the spring of 2003, substantial revisions of the database were made, revising its looks, and adding links to the US Department of Agriculture PLANTS database. This means that complete botanical information on useful plants, plus pictures, range maps, and endangered status, are immediately available.

The online database, and the book mentioned above, were largely completed in the late 1990s. The database now contains 44,691 items. This version added foods, drugs, dyes, fibers and other uses of plants (a total of over 44,000 items). This represents uses by 291 Native American groups of 4,029 species from 243 different plant families. About half of them are medicinal. . . ." (http://naeb.brit.org/about, accessed 02-2018).

The first medical hand-book for lay persons written and published in America. It is probable that this book was first published in 1734, though the earliest recorded copy or copies appear to be the "second edition" with that date. Digital facsimile of the 1971 type facsimile of the 1734 edition from Google Books at this link.

The "first comprehensive manual of comparative anatomy based on the original and literary researches of a working anatomist. Blasius's observation on human anatomy are followed by eighty five pages devoted to the anatomy of the dog. Regarding the anatomy of dog (Anatome Canis, pages 168 to 252), this is the first comprehensive and original treatise on a verterbrate since the publication of Ruini's volume on the horse in 1598" (Cole). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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

Reprinted, with continuous pagination, and index from the Pharmaceutical Journal for July and August, 1860, for November and December, 1861, and for February 1862. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Includes 185 hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Includes 42 hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Concerns the history of all anti-infectives, including  antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiprotozoal and anthelminthic agents.

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

This illustrated compendium of anatomy, physiology, and internal medicine was first medical work in Turkish printed by letterpress in the Ottoman Empire. It was also one of the first medical works in Turkish to draw throughly on western science. Digital facsimile of the 1867 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

This account of the resurrection men, Burke and Hare, is the first comic book version of a history of medicine story of which I am aware.

The first medical book written in the British colonies of North America. The introduction, "To all ingenious students and practitioners in physick and chyrurgery", is signed Robert Couch, but the extent of additions in the rest of the book by the book's London editor and publisher, the chemist Christopher Packe, is difficult to determine. Couch emigrated from England to Boston in 1663 and spent the remainder of his life in the colonies. After his death prior to 1680 his manuscript was acquired by Francis Willis of Ware River, Virginia, who sent it to Packe, who arranged for its publication with a dedication to Willis.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Includes four "Photo-relief" (Woodburytype) plates. Possibly the only book on this subject. One may assume that the special earth contained some anti-bacterial mold such as penicillin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.