North America
3,694 entries published in North America.
#12486
Medicine's moving pictures: Medicine, health, and bodies in American film and television. Edited by Leslie J. Reagan, Nacy Tomes, and Paula A. Treichler.
#13458
Mélanges d'histoire de la médecine hébraïque. Études choisies de la Revue d'histoire de la médecine hébraïque (1948-1985). Edited by Gad Freudenthal and Samuel Kottek.
#13766
Profiles in science.
https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ "Explore digitized archival collections to learn about prominent scientists, physicians, and other 20th-century leaders in biomedical research and public health."
#13767
FDA Notices of Judgment Collection, 1908-1966.
https://fdanj.nlm.nih.gov/ "The FDA Notices of Judgment Collection is a digital archive of the published federal notices of judgment (a summary of the final outcome of a court case) for manufacturers and products pros…
1570
#5372
Opera medicinalia.
Opera medicinalia was the first medical book printed in the Western Hemisphere, and its botanical images were the first illustrations of plants printed in the Western Hemisphere. Of the original edition only two copie…
1578
#8023
Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, muy util y provechosa.
Second edition, Mexico, 1595: Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, y examen de barberos ... va añadido en esta segunda impresion el origen ... de las reumas. López de Hinojos was a barber-surge…
1579
#1819.1
Tractado breve de anathomia y chirurgia.
Includes some of the first studies of the plants and botanic remedies of the New World. Second edition, Tractado breve de medicina (1592). This is an abridgement of manuscripts left in Mexico by Francisco Hernández. S…
1591
#8850
Primera parte de los problemas y secretos maravillosos de las Indias. (All published).
Includes plant and mineral remedies of New Spain as well as natural history details. See DEUCHLER, W. Juan de Cárdenas. Eim Beitrag zur Geschichte der spanischem Naturbetrachtung und Medizin im Mexiko während des 16. …
1607
#8844
Verdadera medicina, cirugía y astrologia en tres libros dividida.
Concerns medicine of the Aztecs, etc. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1615
#1820.1
Quatro libros. De la naturaleza, y virtudes de las plantas, y animales que estan receuidos en el vso de medicina en la Nueua España, y la methodo, y correccion, y preparacion, que para administrallas se requiere con lo que el doctor Francisco Hernandez escriuio en lengua latina. : Muy vtil para todo genero de gente q[ue] viue en esta[n]cias y pueblos, de no ay medicos, ni botica.Traduzido, y aumentados muchos simples, y compuestos y otros muchos secretos curatiuos, por Fr. Francisco Ximenes....
Physician to Philip II of Spain, Hernández travelled to Mexico by order of the king, and studied the natural history of the region from 1570-77. His Works, which filled six folio volumes of text and 10 volumes of pain…
1618
#9052
Sitio, naturaleza y propriedades de la Ciudad de Mexico: Aguas y vientos a que esta suieta, y tiempos del año. Necessidad de su conocimiento para el exercicio de la medicina, su incertidumbre y difficultad sin el de la astrologia assi para la curacion como para los prognosticos.
The first book printed in Mexico with engraved illustrations.
1667
#6823
Gods terrible voice in the city of London wherein you have the narration of the two late dreadful judgements of plague and fire, inflicted by the Lord upon that city; the former in the year 1665. The latter in the year 1666
This edition of a plague tract by English puritan minister Thomas Vincent was the first medical or biological publication in North America. It was issued by printer Samuel Green, using a press in Cambridge, Massachuse…
1677
#5406
A brief rule to guide the common-people of New-England how to order themselves and theirs in the small pocks, or measels.
The first medical publication of North America and the only one to appear in the 17th century. Only one copy of the original printing of this broadside survived, written by Thacher, a Boston minister. The sheet was re…
1708
#1828.1
The English physician.
This reprint of Culpeper’s popular work on herbal remedies was the first medical book (94pp.) printed in North America.
1720
#1828.2
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis; or the London dispensatory…
The first herbal printed in North America, and the first full-length medical book published in North America. From the 1653 London edition.
1721
#5410.1
Some account of what is said of inoculating or transplanting the small pox by the learned Dr. Emmanuel Timonius, and Jacobus Pylarinus. With some remarks theron. To which are added, a few queries in answer to the scruples of many about the lawfulness of this method.
An abridgement of Nos. 5409 & 5410 together with Boylston’s remarks. From internal evidence this 24-page pamphlet would appear to be the first North American publication on inoculation. See No. 5415. Digital facsimile…
1721
#5411
Some observations on the new method of receiving the smallpox by ingrafting or inoculating.
This work offers general support for the practice of Zabdiel Boylston, detailing some of Boylston’s cases, including accounts of occasions when patients died. Reprinted with additional material by Daniel Neal, as A na…
1722
#5412
Inoculation of the smallpox as practised in Boston.
1722
#5413
The abuses and scandals of some late pamphlets in favour of inoculation of the small-pox.
Douglass at first opposed inoculation for smallpox, but by 1730 he had changed his views and had become an advocate of inoculation.
1727
#7362
Cursus medicus Mexicanus juxtà sanguinis circulationem, & alia recentiorum inventa ad usum studentium....Paris prima physiologica [All Published]
The first textbook of physiology published in the Western hemisphere. Digital facsimile from Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.
1734
#9675
Every man his own doctor: or, The poor planter's physician. Prescribing plain and easy means for persons to cure themselves of all, or most of the distempers, incident to this climate, and with very little charge, the medicines being chiefly of the growth and production of this country.
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" wi…
1736
#5076
The practical history of a new epidemical eruptive miliary fever, with an angina ulcusculosa, which prevailed in Boston New England in the years 1735 and 1736.
Douglass left the first adequate clinical description of scarlet fever, which he called angina ulcusculosa, in his account of New England’s first scarlet fever epidemic. He was one of the first American physicians to …
1744
#9341
M. T. Cicero's Cato major, or his course of old-age: with explanatory notes.
This work was Banjamin Franklin's personal favorite of the works printed by him, and is one of the finest books to emanate from a Colonial American press. It was the first classical text printed in North America, and …
1745
#2094
An essay on the West-India dry-gripes… to which is added, an extraordinary case in physick.
Cadwalader, an American pupil of Cheselden, left a classical account of lead colic and lead palsy. This was later shown by Benjamin Franklin, printer of the above work, to be due to the consumption of Jamaica rum whic…
1750
#5418
A discourse on the preparation of the body for the small-pox; and the manner of receiving the infection.
Thomson, a physician in Philadelphia, was the originator of the American method of inoculation against smallpox. Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Digital facsimile from dla.library.upenn.edu at this link.
1751
#1832
Descriptions, virtues, and uses of sundry plants of these northern parts of America, and particularly of the newly discovered Indian cure for the venereal disease.
Bartram founded one of the first botanical gardens in America (at Kingsessing). Linnaeus referred to him as the “greatest natural botanist in the world”. A few copies of this 7-page work printed by Benjamin Franklin w…
1754
#7429
Some account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, from its first rise, to the beginning of the fifth month, called May 1754.
Franklin was a prime mover in establishing the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first permanent hospital built in the future United States. This publication included the text of most of the founding documents of the hospita…
1761
#7430
Continuation of the account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, from the first of May 1754, to the fifth of May 1761.
Written in Franklin's absence, this continuation was printed in the same style and format as Franklin's 1761 work. Rhoads was an American architect who served as the 59th mayor of Philadelphia.
1765
#1766.5
A discourse upon the institution of medical schools in America.…
The first American publication on medical education. Morgan founded the first medical school in the United States, in connection with what is now the University of Pennsylvania.
1769
#1763
A discourse upon the duties of a physician, with some sentiments, on the usefulness and necessity of a public hospital: Delivered before the president and governors of King's College, at the commencement, held on the 16th of May, 1769. As advice to those gentlemen who then received the first medical degrees conferred by that university.
The first American treatise on medical ethics, and the first treatise on medical ethics published in the English language. Samuel Bard was one of the founders of King’s College, New York. Digital facsimile from the Na…
1769
#6380
A medical discourse, or an historical inquiry into the ancient and present state of medicine: The substance of which was delivered at opening the medical school, in the city of New York. Printed by Desire.
The first American publication on medical history. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
1770
#9204
Syllabus of a course of lectures on chemistry.
Rush inaugurated the first regular course of lectures on chemistry taught in America, at the College of Philadelphia. Includes much on pharmaceutical chemistry. Facsimile reprint with an introduction by L. H. Butterfi…
1771
#5052
An enquiry into the nature, cause and cure of the angina suffocativa, or sore throat distemper, as it is commonly called by the inhabitants of this city and colony.
One of the earliest accurate descriptions of diphtheria. Osler considered the book “an American classic of the first rank”. Bard was personal physician to George Washington.
1774
#6451.90
An oration…containing an enquiry into the natural history of medicine among the Indians in North-America; and a comparative view of their diseases and remedies, with those of civilized nations.
Rush was the first American physician to publish a detailed study of native American medicine. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.
1775
#2155
Plain, concise, practical remarks, on the treatment of wounds and fractures; to which is added an appendix, on camp and military hospitals; principally designed for the use of young military surgeons in North America.
The first surgical work written by an American and printed in North America. Jones’s work was the accepted guide to surgical practice during the American Revolutionary War.
1776
#13364
Traité des pians.
One of the earliest medical publications printed in Haiti. Duvivier, Bibliographie générale et méthodique d'Haiti, 2, p. 197.
1778
#1834
Pharmacopoeia simpliciorum et efficaciorum.
The first original pharmacopeia published in the USA. Reproduced in facsimile, with translation, in The Badger Pharmacist, 1938. No. 22-25.
1778
#2157
Directions for preserving the health of soldiers: recommended to the consideration of the officers of the Army of the United States. Published by order of the Board of War.
A reprint from the Philadelphia Packet, No. 284. The pamphlet was reprinted by the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance in Boston, 1865, for distribution to the Union soldiers.
1780
#9466
Observations on the diseases which appeared in the army on St. Lucia....To which are prefixed remarks calculated to assist in ascertaining the causes, and in explaining the treatment of those diseases.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Revised and expanded edition, 1781; digital facsimile of the 1781 edition from Google Books at this link.
1781
#5422
The new method in inoculating for the small pox.
1785
#1836.1
Arbustrum Americanum: the American grove, or, an alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs…
Like his cousin, John Bartram (No. 1832), Marshall maintained a private botanical garden. According to W. Darlington the above work is “the first truly indigenous botanical essay published in the Western Hemisphere”. …
1785
#13086
Observations générales sur les maladies des climats chauds, leurs causes, leur traitement, et les moyens de les prévenir.
Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.
1786
#10266
Idées sur les secours à donner aux pauvres malades dans une grande ville.
Dupont proposed replacing large city hospitals with smaller institutions similar to those then being tried in England. Du Pont studied medicine before devoting himself to political economy. Digital facsimile from BnF …
1786
#11099
Des moyens de conserver la santé des blancs et des négres, aux Antilles ou climats chauds et humides de l'Amerique. Contenant un exposé des causes des malades propres....
Bertin practiced medicine in the West Indies, and wrote about the physical effects of the voyage there, the causes of diseases and their cures, and the effects of the Caribbean climate and humidity on health. The impr…
1786
#11534
The first American edition, An abridgement of the practice of midwifery: and a set of anatomical tables.
An abridgement of Smellie's obstetrical writings, with plates engraved by the editor and publisher, John Norman, was the first medical book with engraved illustrations published in North America, and also the first bo…
1787
#156.1
An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species.
In the first significant anthropological work produced in America, Smith argued that racial differences were produced by environment, contradicting the prevalent theories of separate creations of discrete and differen…
1787
#7214
A Discourse before the Humane Society, ... Delivered on the Second Tuesday of June, 1787.
The first separate work on resuscitation published in the United States. A list of “Methods of Treatment to be used with Persons apparently dead from drowning, &c.” appears on p. iv; these methods included warming the…
1787
#8026
Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natural las mas del ramo maritimo.
This catalogue of Carrbean fish was the first scientific treatise printed in Cuba and also the first illustrated book printed in Cuba. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.
1787
#13908
Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natura, las mas del ramo maritimo.
The first scientific book printed in Cuba. The striking illustrations are by the author's son, and depict fish, turtles, and crustacieans observed along the Cuban shoreline. The final section contains three alarming i…
1788
#9896
Recherches, mémoires et observations sur les maladies épizootiques de Saint-Dominique, recueillis & publiés par le Cercle des Philadelphes du Cap-François.
The Cercle des Philadelphes, of which Charles Arthaud was president, was an academic scientific society in Saint-Domingue, in existence between 1784 and 1791. It was the most prominent academic society in the Americas…