1672 HUGHES, William ( – 1683)
The American physician : or, a treatise of the roots, plants, trees, shrubs, fruit, herbs, etc., growing in the English Plantations in America ; ... whereunto is added a discourse of the Cacao-nut-Tree, and the use of its fruit ; with all the ways of making Chocolate
The earliest work in English on the medicinal virtues of North American tropical plants. Based on first-hand observations made in the West Indies, Evidence suggests that Hughes began his career in 1651 with a privatee…
GMN 7007 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9173
1707 –1725 SLOANE, Sir Hans (1660 – 1753)
A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica: With the natural history of the herbs and trees, four-footed beasts, fishes, birds, insects, reptiles, &c. of the last of those islands; to which is prefix'd, an introduction, wherein is an account of the inhabitants, air, waters, diseases, trade, &c. of that place, with some relations concerning the neighbouring continent, and islands of America. Illustrated with figures of the things described, which have not been heretofore engraved. In large copper-plates as big as the life. 2 vols.
As a youth Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities. This led him to the study of medicine, which he went to London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecti…
GMN 9914 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12102
1735 ATKINS, John (1685 – 1757)
A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies; in His Majesty's ships, the Swallow and Weymouth: Describing the several islands and Settlements, viz, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape de Verd, Sierraleon, Sesthos, Cape Apollonia, Cabo Corso, and others on the Guinea coast; Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c. in the West-Indies; the colour, diet, languages, habits, manners, customs, and religions of the respective natives, and inhabitants. With remarks on the gold, ivory, and slave-trade; and on the winds, tides and currents of the several coasts.
Atkins, surgeon on the voyage, included information about the slave trade and the natural history of the Gold Coast. "Atkins describes the manatee accurately, and tells much about fetish worship. He shows that there w…
GMN 8483 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10660
1745 CADWALADER, Thomas (1708 – 1779)
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…
GMN 2094 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2586
1756 BROWNE, Patrick (1720 – 1790)
The civil and natural history of Jamaica. In three parts, containing 1. An accurate description of that Island, its situation and soil; with a brief account of its former and present state, government, revenues, produce, and trade. II. A history of the natural productions, including the various sorts of native fossils, perfect and imperfect vegetables, quadrupedes, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; with their properties and uses in mechanics, diet, and physic. III. An account of the nature of climate in general, and their different effects upon the human body; with a detail of the diseases arising from this source, particularly within the tropics....illustrated with fifty copper-plates...in natural size....
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 13448 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15721
1763 JACQUIN, Nikolaus Joseph von (1727 – 1817)
Nicolai Josephi Jacquin Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia, in qua ad Linneanum systema determinatae descriptaeque sistuntur plantse illae, quas in insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Domingo, aliisque, et in vicinae continentis parte, observavit rariores; : adjectis iconibus in solo natali delineatis. 2 vols.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8288 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10464
1791 JACKSON, Robert (1750 – 1827)
A treatise on the fevers of Jamaica, with some observations on the intermitting fever of America, and an appendix containing some hints on the means of preserving the health of soldiers in hot climates.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 10111 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12300
1801 DANCER, Thomas (1750 – 1811)
The medical assistant, or Jamaica practice of physic: Designed chiefly for the use of families and plantations.
Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
GMN 9897 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12085
1820 THOMSON, James
A treatise on the diseases of Negroes, as they occur in the island of Jamaica: with observations on the country remedies.
Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.
GMN 7055 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9222
1916 SCOTT, Sir Henry Harold (1874 – 1956)
On the ‘vomiting sickness’ of Jamaica.
Discovery of the cause of the “vomiting sickness of Jamaica”: ackee poisoning.
GMN 2085 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2564
2017 TURNER, Sasha
Contested bodies: Pregnancy, childrearing, and slavery in Jamaica.
"It is often thought that slaveholders only began to show an interest in female slaves' reproductive health after the British government banned the importation of Africans into its West Indian colonies in 1807. Howeve…
GMN 12587 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14826
