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924 entries match Physiology & Embryology [G07 / G02.149]
1759
#470
Theoria generationis.
Wolff observed in great detail the early processes of embryonic differentiation. He disposed of the “preformation” theory, substituting his view that the organs are formed from leaf-like (blastodermic) layers. He thus…
1762
#472
Considérations sur les corps organisés. 2 vols.
Bonnet’s theory of generation offered the best synthesis of 18th century ideas of development and remained a leading authority until von Baer. Bonnet believed in the preformation of the embryo. He used many of Haller’…
1768
#471
De formatione intestinorum praecipue.
One of the acknowledged classics of embryology. Wolff’s description of the formation of the chick’s intestine by the rolling inwards of a leaf-like layer of the blastoderm was important as proving his theory of epigen…
1768
#11710
Dell' azione del cuore ne' vasi sanguigni nuove osservasioni.
In this response to Haller's Deux mémoires sur le mouvement du sang (1756) (No. 11607) Spallanzani outlined his own findings on the action of the heart upon the blood vessels. "Haller's microscopic observations of blo…
1768
#11733
The works of Robert Whytt, M.D. Late physician to his Majesty.... Published by his son.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1773
#589
Of the electric property of the torpedo.
The first accurate study of the electrical organs of the torpedo fish were made by Walsh, who was given the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his work on the subject. Walsh proved that the shock of the torpedo was…
1773
#11706
De' fenomeni della circolazione osservata nel giro universale de' vasi; de' fenomeni della circolazione languente; de' moti del sangue independenti dall'azione del cuore; e del pulsar delle arterie.
In four memoirs on the dynamics of the circulatory system resulting from 337 experiments recorded in this workSpallanzani studied the role of the circulation in every stage from embryo to adult, and it was through his…
1775
#590
Experiments and observations in an heated room.
First demonstration of the importance of perspiration in the maintenance of constant body temperature.
1781
#104
Ueber den Bildungstrieb und das Zeugungsgeschäft.
Blumenbach, Professor of Medicine at Göttingen, was the founder of modern anthropology. In the above work he rejected the “preformation” theory and advanced the theory of epigenesis as the true explanation of the phen…
1781
#13253
Tentamen resolvendi problema ab Academia Scientiarum Imperial Petropoitana ad annum 1780 public propositum. 1) Qualis fit natura et character sonorum litterarum vocalium a, e, i, o, u tam insigniter inter se diversorum. 2) Annon construi qutans instrumenta ordini tuiborum organicorum, sub termino vocis humane noto, similia, quae literarum vaclium a, e, i, o, u sonos exprimant.
In the first part of this work Kratzenstein described how the vowels could be produced in the vocal tract. In the second part he described the construction of a new kind of organ with pipes for each of the vowels. Eac…
1783
#12037
Lettera dell' Abate Spallanzani al Sig. Marchese Lucchesini.
Records on pp. 80-104 Spallanzani's work on the torpedo. In the 1780's Spallanzani turned to marine biology, making several trips to the Mediterranean region. On his visit to Portovenere in 1783 "he instituted the fir…
1783
#12689
Memoirs of Albert de Haller, M.D. Member of the Sovereign Council of Berne; President of the University, and of the Royal Society of Gottingen; Fellow of the Royal Society of London, &c. Compiled, chiefly, from the elogium spoken before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and from the tributes paid to his memory by other foreign societies
This is illustrated with a small cameo portrati of Haller drawn and engraved by William Blake. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1789
#1453
Anatomicae disquisitiones de auditu et olfactu.
Scarpa made important researches concerning the auditory and olfactory apparatus of fishes, birds, reptiles, and man. See L. Sellers and B. Anson, [Scarpa’s] Anatomical observations on the round window, Arch. Otolaryn…
1791
#593
De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius.
In the course of his experiments on irritable responses caused by static electricity applied to frog muscles, Galvani produced electric current from the contact of two different metals in a moist environment. Galvani …
1791
#13254
Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst Beschreibung seiner sprechenden Maschine.
Kempelen built the first successful speech synthesizer that produced not only some speech sounds, but also whole words and short sentences. His final version of the machine, which differs slightly from the version sho…
1794
#594.1
Dell’uso e dell’attività dell arco conduttore nelle contrazioni dei muscoli.
The first account of Galvani’s electrical experiments without the presence of metals, in which he demonstrated the presence of electrical energy in living tissue by showing that convulsions in frog nerve-muscle prepar…
1795
#595
Experiments on the insensible perspiration of the human body.
Demonstration that carbon dioxide is given off by the skin. This book was first privately printed in 1779; above is the corrected edition.
1796
#596
Von der Lebenskraft.
Reil advanced the doctrine of the life-force as the chemical expression of physiological function. Like Glisson and Hunter, he recognized irritability as a specific property of tissue. He founded the Archiv für die Ph…
1796
#13243
De corporis humani viribus conservatricibus dissertatio.
Young's thesis for his medical degree from Göttingen on the conservation of strength in the human body, which also contains, on the final four pages, the only extant fragment of Young's brief thesis on the human voice…
1797
#7119
Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser: nebst Vermuthungen über den chemischen Process des Lebens in der Thier- und Pflanzenwelt. 2 vols.
Digital facsimile from The Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.
1799
#473
Icones embryonum humanorum.
Soemmerring met William Hunter during a visit to London in 1778. The latter’s classic work on the pregnant uterus (No. 6157) dealt only with the latter half of pregnancy. Soemmerring therefore decided, in a supplement…
1800
#597
Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort.
When Volta questioned the validity of experiments claiming to show responsiveness of an ex vivo heart, devoid of blood flow and nervous connections, Bichat obtained permission to experiment upon the freshly killed bod…
1801
#403
Anatomie générale, appliquée à la physiologie et à la médecine. 4 vols.
Bichat revolutionized descriptive anatomy. Where Morgagni and others had conceived of whole organs being diseased, Bichat showed how individual tissues could be separately affected. He covered tissue pathology, system…
1801
#1988.1
Versuche des Galvanismus zur Heilung einiger Krankheiten.
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 elemen…
1803
#1989.1
An account of the late improvements in galvanism…
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 p…
1806
#1455
Abbildungen der menschlichen Organe des Geschmackes und der Stimme.
1809
#1454
Abbildungen der menschlichen Organe des Geruches.
1810
#4969.2
A letter to Henry Cline, Esq. on imperfect developements (sic) of the faculties mental and moral, as well as constitutional and organic; and on on the treatment of impediments of speech.
The first book on mental deficiency. Thelwall recognized that sensory deprivation could be a cause of apparent mental defect through his work with handicapped children. He established criteria for distinguishing betwe…
1812
#1389.2
Expériences sur le principe de la vie.
Le Gallois described the action of the vagus nerve on respiration. He showed that bilateral section of the vagus can produce fatal bronchopneumonia. The above work includes (p. 37) his location of the respiratory cent…
1815
#765.2
An inquiry into the causes of the motion of the blood; with an appendix, in which the process of respiration and its connexion with the circulation of the blood are attempted to be elucidated.
Carson recognized the vital effect on venous return played by the negative pressure in the pleural cavity.
1816 –1817
#1041.1
Précis élémentaire de physiologie. 2 vols.
The first modern physiology textbook, in which doctrine gave way to simple, precise descriptions of experimental facts. Vol. 2 contains Magendie’s classic demonstration of the importance of nitrogenous food, or protei…
1816
#2742
An experimental inquiry into the nature, cause and varieties of the arterial pulse: And into certain other properties of the larger arteries, in animals with warm blood.
This work "included a summary of more than two dozen experiments he [Parry] conducted on a variety of mammals. In this book he discussed the pulsatile expansion of the arteries and importance of collaterals. Parry ref…
1816
#11178
Anatomie und Bildungsgeschichte des Gehirns im Foetus des Menschen: nebst einer vergleichenden Darstellung des Hirnbaues in den Thieren.
Digital facsimile from Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg at this link.
1817
#474
Dissertatio sistens historiam metamorphoseos, quam ovum incubatum prioribus quinque diebus subit.
Pander’s doctoral thesis (unillustrated) in which he announced his discovery of the trilaminar structure of the chick blastoderm, a term that he coined. Pander's discovery stimulated von Baer’s research. Also in 1817 …
1818
#9692
Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus. 3 vols.
The full digitized text of the 1818 is available from the Internet Archive at this link.
1821
#598
Mémoires sur le mécanisme de l’absorption chez les animaux à sang rouge et chaud.
Magendie, the pioneer of experimental physiology in France, demonstrated the absorption of fluids and semisolids to be a function of the blood-vessels, as well as of the lymphatics. He was the founder, in 1821, of the…
1821
#3253
Osphrésiologie, ou traité des odeurs, du sens et des organes de l’olfaction. 2me. éd.
An exhaustive work which discusses olfaction, diseases of the nose, membranous occlusion of the nostrils, deviations of the septum, rhinoplasty, coryza, vasomotor rhinitis, rhinorrhoea, etc. The first edition was enti…
1822
#6171
Mémoire sur l’auscultation appliquée à l’étude de la grossesse.
Although not the first to record the auscultation of the fetal heart sound, Le Jumeau (Kergaradec), a pupil of Laennec, brought the importance of this diagnostic procedure to the notice of the medical profession. Laen…
1822 –1823
#10070
Traité de physiologie appliquée à la pathologie. 2 vols.
Broussais was the inventor of "physiological medicine", a crucial step in the development of modern scientific medicine. (Ackerknecht, Bull. Hist. Med. 27, 320). Translated into English by John Bell and R. La Roche as…
1824
#474.1
Deuxième mémoire sur la génération. Rapports de l’oeuf avec la liqueur fécondante. Phénomènes appréciables, résultant de leur action mutuelle. Développement de l’oeuf des Batraciens.
Prévost and Dumas proved that the frog egg is fertilized by the entry of spermatozoa.
1824
#1493
Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux, dans les animaux vertébrés.
Experimental proof that vision depends on the integrity of the cerebral cortex. See No. 1391 for his first paper on the subject. Partial English translation in von Bonin, Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfiel…
1824
#145.56
De l’influence des agens physiques sur la vie.
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 acco…
1825
#4618
Recherches cliniques propres à démontrer que la perte de la parole correspond à la lésion des lobules antérieurs du cerveau.
Classic account of aphasia. Bouillaud was the first to suggest that injuries of the frontal lobe were a cause of aphasia.
1825
#475
Ueber die Entwickelung der Eier im Eierstock bei den Gespenst-heuschrecken.
Discovery of the Müllerian duct.
1825
#476
Symbolae ad ovi ovium historiam ante incubationem.
First description of the germinal vesicle in the embryo, “Purkynĕ’s vesicle” This is located on the spot of the yolk where the embryo develops. Later identified with the cell nucleus, this formed a bridge between the …
1825
#766
Wellenlehre auf Experimente gegründet oder über die Wellen tropfbarer Flüssigkeiten mit Anwendung auf die Schall- und Lichtwellen.
The first work to apply hydrodynamics to the circulation of the blood.
1826 –1840
#599
Die Physiologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft. Edited by Karl Friedrich Burdach. 6 vols.
Burdach’s great textbook of physiology was planned to run to 10 vols., but the death of his wife quenched his enthusiasm for the task. Parts of the text were written by von Baer, Rathke, Johannes Müller, R. Wagner and…
1826
#1257
Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der Thiere.
Includes Müller’s law of specific nerve energies. For an English translation, see his Elements of physiology, transl. W. Baly, London, 1838, vol. 1, pp. 766-67. Includes (p. 73) his explanation of the color sensations…
1826
#1456
Ueber die phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen.
Müller’s early studies on specific nerve energies are included in the above work. Later he stated, in his Handbuch der Physiologie, Coblenz, 1840, 2, 258, his law of specific nerve energies – each nerve of special sen…
1827
#477
De ovi mammalium et hominis genesi.
Announces Baer’s discovery of the mammalian ovum, the culmination of a search begun by scientists at least as early as the work of de Graaf in the 17th century (No. 1209). The pamphlet was reprinted in facsimile in Is…