Boston, MA
172 entries published in this place. (Boston, US)
#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.
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.
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 …
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
#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…
1808
#10067
The pharmacopoeia of the Massachusetts Medical Society,
The first state pharmacopeia issued in the United States. Jackson and Warren were the "Committee for the Pharmacopoeia." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1809
#10602
Cases of organic diseases of the heart. With dissections and some remarks intended to point out the distinctive symptoms of these diseases.
The first monograph on heart disease written and published in the United States. Digital text from Project Gutenberg at this link.
1814
#3679.3
A treatise on the management of the teeth.
The first full-length book on dentistry published in the United States, and the first American book on the subject with a dental illustration.
1815
#13487
Sketches of epidemic diseases in the state of Vermont; from the first settlement to the year 1815, with a consideration of their causes, phenomena, and treatment. To which is added remarks on pulmonary consumption.
Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link:
1817 –1820
#1842
American medical botany, being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts. 3 vols.
Bigelow was professor of materia medica and botany at Harvard. This work included native American remedies. It was the first book printed in the United States to include color plates printed in color. See R.J. Wolfe, …
1820
#1845
Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America. 1820
The first official US pharmacopoeia. Spalding began campaigning for a national pharmacopeia in 1815. His efforts finally bore fruit in a national convention that met in 1820 and adopted a pharmacopeia based mainly on …
1822
#6988
New guide to health; or botanic family physician, containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan entirely new; with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and adminstering them to cure disease. To which is prefixed a narrative of the life and medical discoveries of the author.
The "Bible" of Thomsonism or "Thomsonian medicine", which employed botanical remedies, often based on native American medicines. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.
1822
#10068
A treatise on the materia medica, intended as a sequel to the Pharmacopoeia of the United States: Being an account of the origin, qualities and medical uses of the articles and compounds, which constitute that work, with their modes of prescription and administration.
Bigelow, who with Lyman Spalding, was largely responsible for the creation and publication in 1820 of the first U.S. pharmacopeia, published this valuable explanatory and supplementary volume two years later. It was p…
1822
#10751
A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson: Containing an account of his system of practice, and the manner of curing disease with vegetable medicine, upon a plan entirely new; to which is added an introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician containing the principles upon which the system is founded, with remarks on fevers, steaming, poison &c.
Thomson issued this introductory work shortly before publication of his New Guide. Three issues appeared in 1822: one with 180 pages, another with 182 pages including testimonials, and a 204 page issue with the introd…
1823
#6584.9
A military journal during the American Revolutionary War, from 1775-1783…
The first American medical historian, Thacher gave the best contemporary account of medicine during the Revolutionary War, as well as an important history of the war in general. See No. 6710.
1828
#6710
American medical biography. 2 vols.
Thacher was the first American medical historian. The above biography is a valuable source of information on the early medical history of the United States. Reprinted, New York, Da Capo Press, 1967.
1829
#11760
Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy
The petition to the Massachusetts legislature to legalize "the procuring of subjects for anatomical dissections" (from George Hayward's printed notice on the verso of the title page). Nine members of the Massachusetts…
1831
#11759
Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives ... legalizing the study of anatomy.
This was the first law passed in the United States consigning the bodies of those who died in workhouses, hospitals, and similar institutions, the bodies of whom were "unclaimed," to medical schools for dissection. "S…
1832
#7036
Fruits of philosophy, or the private companion of young married people,
First edition published privately and anonymously. Second edition, with additions, Boston, 1833. Many times reprinted. Republished by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant, 1891. Edited, with an introductory notice by No…
1834
#12900
The conchologist.
The first American manual of conchology. The author, John Warren, was an Englishman who sold shells and other collectibles in Boston as well as to other collectors in the United States. His book organized shells accor…
1835
#2212
A discourse on self-limited diseases.
Bigelow was attached to the Massachusetts General Hospital. The above “did more than any other work or essay in our own language to rescue the practice of medicine from the slavery of the drugging system which was par…
1835
#12688
Memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M. D. with extracts from his letters to his father: and medical cases, collected by him.
Jackson published this biography of his son, James Jackson, Jr. after his son's premature death in 1834. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1835
#13744
Observations on the influence of religion upon the health and physical welfare of mankind.
Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
1836
#9524
The Indian vegetable family instructer: Containing the names and descriptions of all the most useful herbs and plants that grow in this country, with their medicinal qualities annexed; also, a treatise on many of the lingering diseases to which mankind are subject, ... with a large list of recipes, which have been carefully selected from Indian prescriptions ... Designed for the use of families in the United States.
1837
#2611.1
Surgical observations on tumours, with cases and operations.
The first North American book on tumors, with 16 hand-colored plates by David Claypoole Johnston (1799-1865).
1837
#10411
The family nurse; or companion of the frugal housewife. Revised by a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Child was was an abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism. Her journals, both fiction and domestic manuals, reached wide audie…
1838
#1739
A treatise on the medical jurisprudence of insanity.
The first authoritative and comprehensive treatise in English on forensic psychiatry. Ray became the most influential American writer on forensic psychiatry in the 19th century. He put the above work through five edit…
1839
#2292
Elements of pathological anatomy. 2 vols.
In his day Gross was the most famous surgeon in the U.S.A. He was for a time Professor of General Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathological Anatomy at Cincinnati Medical College and while there published his Elements, the…
1839
#9305
Lectures on the science of human life. 2 vols.
The Reverend Sylvester Graham was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread. "Around 1829, Graham invented th…
1839
#12011
Anatomical, pathological and therapeutic researches on the yellow fever of Gibraltar of 1828, by P. Ch. A. Louis. From observations taken by himself and M. Trousseau as memebers of the French Commission at Gibraltar. Translated from the manuscript by G. C. Shattuck.
The Translator's Introduction begins as follows: "The work now presented to the public has heretofore existed in manuscript only. Circumstances have delayed its publication in France, and some years may yet elapse bef…
1841
#10723
The American vegetable practice, or, a new and improved guide to health: Designed for the use of families. : In six Parts. Part I. Concise view of the human body, with engraved and wood-cut illustrations. Part II. Glance at the old school practice of physic. Part III. Vegetable materia medica, with colored Illustrations. Part IV. Compounds. Part V. Practice of medicine, based upon what are deemed correct physiological and pathological principles. Part VI. Guide for women, containing a simplified treatise on childbirth, with a description of the diseases peculiar to females and infant. 2 vols.
The first American book with chromolithographed illustrations printed in America. The chromolithographed images depict American medicinal plants. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
1842
#11260
Homoeópathy, and its kindred delusions; Two lectures delivered before the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1843
#13612
Memorial. To the Legislature of Massachusetts.
Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill in various U.S. states. This was probably the first of her many publications advoca…
1846
#5652
Circular. Morton’s Letheon.
Unaware of Crawford Long’s results with ether, Morton, having been informed of the anesthetic effects of ether by Charles T. Jackson, promoted its anesthetic effects. To do so he published the above circular, in which…
1846
#8587
The young stethoscopist; or, the student's aid to auscultation.
Through this book Bowditch established the stethoscope as a diagnostic tool in America. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.
1846
#11724
Physical education and the preservation of health.
An expanded version of a lecture first delivered and published as a pamphlet in 1830. This is the first edition in book form, and one of the first American works on the value of exercise for the preservation of health…
1847
#5653
Remarks on the proper mode of administering sulphuric ether by inhalation.
This 44-page pamphlet was the first American manual on the administration of anesthesia. In it Morton announced that his method of producing anesthesia was obtained by the inhalation of sulphuric ether. He subsequentl…
1847
#7602
A descriptive catalogue of the Anatomical Museum of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
1847
#11913
Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice. [Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, April 12, 1847.]
Hayward's case report of the first major operation performed under ether anesthesia, which he performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital on November 7, 1846, three weeks after Warren's first operation using ether…
1848
#5730
Ether and chloroform: a compendium of their history, surgical use, dangers and discovery.
Bigelow’s speedy publication of Morton’s discovery (No. 5651), and his subsequent advocacy of ether as an anesthetic assured its adoption throughout the civilized world. The above work deals with the priority claims o…
1848
#5661
A treatise on etherization in childbirth.
Channing was an early advocate of anesthesia in obstetrics. In his book, and in several earlier papers, he brought the importance of this branch of anesthesia into the foreground.
1848
#11727
Etherization: With surgical remarks.
Warren performed the first surgical operation under anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846. This work presents his experience with anesthesia in the year following. Digital facsimile from U.S…
1849
#14327
Effects of chloroform and of strong chloric ether, as narcotic agents.
“On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Warren participated in the first public demonstration of anesthesia for surgery. He was the surgeon for the first surgical patient given ether anesthesia, and W…
1850
#1609
Report of a general plan for the promotion of public and personal health, devised, prepared, and recommended by the commissioners appointed under a resolve of the legislature of Massachusetts relating to a sanitary survey of the State.
Compiled by a team, but entirely written by Shattuck, this report was the first general blueprint for the promotion of public health presented to an American governmental body. Its first proposal was for the creation …