1536 CARDANO, Girolamo [Gerolamo; Hieronymus Cardanus] (1501 – 1576)

De malo recentiorum medicorum medendi usu libellus.

Includes (cap. XXXVI) an early account of typhus, morbus pulicaris. English translation in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1945, p. 163.

GMN 5370 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7006

1546 FRACASTORO, Girolamo [FRACASTORIUS] (1478 – 1553)

De sympathia et antipathia rerum liber unus. De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione.

Though Fracastoro wrote this book more than a century before Leewenhoek invented the microscope, and could only express the theory of contagion in very general terms, this book represents a landmark in the development…

GMN 2528 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3485

1570 BRAVO, Francisco (1530 – 1594)

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…

GMN 5372 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7014

1578 COYTARD DE THAIRÉ, Jean (Johannes Coytarrus) ( – 1590)

De febre purpura epidemiali et contagiosa libri duo.

Coytard distinguished between petechial typhus and typhoid.

GMN 5372.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7016

1598 WATESON, George

The cures of the diseased, in remote regions. Preventing mortalitie, incident in forraine attempts, of the English nation.

This book is the earliest work in English devoted to tropical medicine. It discusses sunstroke, tabardilla (possibly typhus or yellow fever), prickly heat, dysentery, erysipelas and scurvy. Facsimile reproduction, wit…

GMN 2262 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2805

1685 COBER, Tobias (1625 – )

Observationum medicarum Castrensium Hungaricarum.

Pp. 49-51: Cober, a German physician, reported the relationship between typhus and pediculosis.

GMN 5373 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7020

1750 HUXHAM, John (1692 – 1768)

An essay on fevers.

Huxham’s best work. He was well known in the west of England and wrote important monographs on diphtheria and on Devonshire colic. Huxham seemed to appreciate that a difference existed between typhus and typhoid, at t…

GMN 2201 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1609

1750 PRINGLE, Sir John (1707 – 1782)

Observations on the nature and cure of hospital and jayl-fevers.

Pringle was a strong advocate of better ventilation in prisons and hospitals as a means of preventing typhus, which he showed to be identical with “hospital fever”.

GMN 5374 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7023

1770 RUTTY, John (1698 – 1775)

A chronological history of the weather and seasons and of the prevailing diseases in Dublin. With their various periods, successions, and revolutions, during the space of forty years. With a comparative view of the difference of the Irish climate and diseases, and those of England and other countries ...

Rutty kept continuous records of weather and diseases in Dublin from 1724-64. On page 75 of this work is the first clear description of relapsing fever. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

GMN 1772 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6572

1810 HILDENBRAND, Johann Valentin von (1763 – 1818)

Ueber den ansteckenden Typhus.

Hildenbrand gave a classic description of typhus. The French literature sometimes refers to the condition as “Hildenbrand’s disease”. English translation by S. D. Gross, 1829.

GMN 5375 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7026

1836 PERRY, Robert (1783 – 1848)

Observations on continued fever, as it occurs in the city of Glasgow hospitals.

Perry correctly described many of the distinctions between typhus and typhoid.

GMN 5023.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6736

1837 GERHARD, William Wood (1809 – 1872)

On the typhus fever which occurred at Philadelphia in the spring and summer of 1836; illustrated by clinical observations at the Philadelphia Hospital; showing the distinction between this form of disease and dothinenteritis, the typhoid fever with alteration of the follicles of the small intestine.

Gerhard, a pupil of Louis, correctly differentiated between typhus and typhoid. Part of his paper is reproduced in R. H. Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 174.

GMN 5024 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6740

1840 STEWART, Alexander Patrick (1813 – 1883)

Some considerations on the nature and pathology of typhus and typhoid fever, applied to the solution of the question of the identity or non-identity of the two diseases.

Typhoid and typhus were often confused. Stewart made a careful analysis of a number of cases of both fevers and clearly demonstrated that there were in Britain two distinct fevers – typhoid and typhus.

GMN 5025 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6744

1842 BARTLETT, Elisha (1804 – 1855)

The history, diagnosis, and treatment of typhoid and of typhus fever: With an essay on the diagnosis of bilious remittent and of yellow fever.

Bartlett's book contains the first complete description of typhoid fever in English. In 1908 Osler wrote, "The chief interest of the work today lies in the remarkably accurate picture which is given of typhoid fever--…

GMN 10064 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12253

1843 CORMACK, Sir John Rose (1815 – 1882)

Natural history, pathology and treatment of the epidemic fever at present prevailing in Edinburgh and other towns.

The epidemic of relapsing fever in Edinburgh in 1843 was well described by Cormack. He was first editor of the Association Medical Journal which later became the British Medical Journal.

GMN 5310 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6575

1843 CRAIGIE, David (1793 – 1866)

Notice of a febrile disorder which has prevailed at Edinburgh during the summer of 1843.

Relapsing fever was given its name by Craigie, in his description of the Edinburgh epidemic.

GMN 5311 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6577

1844 HENDERSON, William (1810 – 1872)

On some of the characters which distinguish the fever at present epidemic from typhus fever.

Henderson, professor of pathology at Edinburgh, gave a good account of relapsing fever seen during the epidemic in 1843. He was one of the first to differentiate it from typhus.

GMN 5311.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6582

1846 –1847 RITCHIE, Charles (1799 – 1878)

Practical remarks on the continued fevers of Great Britain, and on the generic distinctions between enteric fever and typhus.

Introduction of the term “enteric fever”, a term for typhoid. Ritchie carefully differentiated the symptoms of typhus and typhoid.

GMN 5026 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6748

1848 VIRCHOW, Rudolf Ludwig Karl (1821 – 1902)

Mittheilungen über die in Oberschlesien herrschende Typhus-Epidemie.

Virchow was one of the first to identify medicine as a social science. He developed a theory of epidemics that emphasized the social circumstances permitting spread of illness. This approach has been called sociologic…

GMN 12083 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14292

1849 JENNER, Sir William (1815 – 1898)

On typhoid and typhus fevers, – an attempt to determine the question of their identity or non-identity, by an analysis of the symptoms, and of the appearances found after death in 66 fatal cases observed at the London Fever Hospital from Jan. 1847–Feb. 1849.

Despite Stewart’s work, there was still controversy as to the identity of typhoid and typhus. Jenner’s paper demonstrated that the etiology of the two was quite different, that one did not communicate or protect again…

GMN 5027 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6752

1849 BLACKWELL, Elizabeth (1821 – 1910)

Ship fever. An inaugural thesis, submitted for the degree of M.D., at Geneva Medical College, Jan. 1849.

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate M.D. in the United States. This paper on typhus was her first publication, and is thus the first publication in America by a woman physician educated in the United S…

GMN 11948 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14153

1861 BRAND, Ernst (1827 – 1897)

Die Hydrotherapie des Typhus.

Brand’s cold bath treatment of typhoid fever consisted of total immersion in water at 65°F. and the pouring of cold water over the neck and shoulders. The cold bath treatment of fevers was instituted by Currie (see No…

GMN 5028 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6758

1868 VIRCHOW, Rudolf Ludwig Karl (1821 – 1902)

Ueber den Hungertyphus und einige verwandte Krankheitsformen.

Virchow was instrumental in introducing into Germany an epidemiology based on the study of multiple factors – sociological as well as bacteriological. In the above report on the reappearance of typhus in Berlin and Ea…

GMN 5376 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7033

1869 SILLIAU, Pierre Marie (1813 – 1871)

Fièvre à rechutes. (Thesis.)

Silliau gave a good account of the epidemic of relapsing fever at Réunion, 1865. He showed the contagious nature of the disease.

GMN 5312 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6585

1870 PARRY, John Stubbs (1843 – 1876)

Observations on relapsing fever, as it occurred in Philadelphia in the winter of 1869 and 1870.

Parry called attention to infection from articles of clothing worn by victims of the epidemic of relapsing fever in Philadelphia in 1869.

GMN 5313 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6589

1873 OBERMEIER, Otto Hugo Franz (1843 – 1873)

Vorkommen feinster, eine Eigenbewegung zeigender Fäden im Blute von Recurrenskranken.

Discovery (in 1868) of Borrelia recurrentis, causative agent in relapsing fever.

GMN 5314 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6602

1879 MOCZUTKOWSKI, Osip Osipovich (Józef Broislaw Moczutkowski) (1845 – 1903)

Materialien zur Pathologie und Therapie des Rückfallstyphus.

By inoculating healthy subjects with blood of patients suffering from replapsing fever, and producing the fever in the former, Mochutkovski demonstrated not only the communicability of the disease but also the specifi…

GMN 5315 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6604

1882 CARTER, Henry Vandyke (1831 – 1897)

Spirillum fever.

Asiatic relapsing fever; original work on this disease by Carter is remembered by the eponym “Carter’s fever” and the name Borrelia carteri. He reproduced the disease in the monkey.

GMN 5316 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6607

1894 BOGHURST, William (1631 – 1685); PAYNE, Joseph Frank (1840 – 1910)

Loimographia. An account of the great plague of London in the year 1665

This work was written in 1666 and first published as above. Boghurst, an apothecary, did good work during the great plague; in his book he differentiated plague from typhus. Payne’s introduction to the book contains s…

GMN 5120 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6092

1897 KRAUS, Rudolf (1868 – 1932)

Über specifische Reactionen im keimfreien Filtraten aus Cholera, Typhus und Pestbouillonculturen, erzeugt durch homologes Serum.

The precipitin reaction, employed for the qualitative identification of antigens and antibodies. English translation in Bibel, Milestones in immunology,(1988) pp. 265-68.

GMN 2550.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3665

1903 KOCH, Robert Heinrich Hermann (1843 – 1910)

Die Bekämpfung des Typhus.

The prophylactic measures for the control of typhus suggested by Koch have been adopted almost everywhere.

GMN 5040 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5814

1904 ROSS, Philip Hedgeland (1876 – 1929); MILNE, Arthur Dawson (1867 – 1932)

“Tick fever”.

Ross and Milne discovered the causative agent in the African variety of relapsing (tick) fever.

GMN 5317 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6608

1905 DUTTON, Joseph Everett (1877 – 1905); TODD, John Lancelot (1876 – 1949)

The nature of tick fever in the eastern part of the Congo Free State.

Independently of Ross and Milne, Dutton and Todd demonstrated relapsing fever in monkeys conveyed by infected ticks, Omithodorus moubata. The organism was named Sp. (now Borrelia) duttoni. Both Dutton and Todd contrac…

GMN 5318 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6610

1906 NORRIS, Charles (1867 – 1935); ET AL

Study of a spirochete obtained from a case of relapsing fever in man, with notes on morphology, animal reactions, and attempts at cultivation.

Spirochaete causing the American variety of relapsing fever first isolated. With A. W. Pappenheimer and T. Flournoy.

GMN 5319 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6613

1906 NOVY, Frederick George (1864 – 1957); KNAPP, Richard Edward (1884 – )

Studies in Spirillum obermeieri and related organisms.

Novy and Knapp made important observations on the spirochaete isolated by Norris et al. from a case of (American) relapsing fever, proving it to be different from Borrelia obermeieri, sometimes referred to as “Novy’s …

GMN 5320 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6616

1907 MACKIE, Frederick Percival (1875 – 1944)

The part played by Pediculus corporis in the transmission of relapsing fever.

Proof that relapsing fever is conveyed by the body louse, Pediculus corporis.

GMN 5321 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6617

1909 WILSON, William James (1879 – 1954)

On heterologous agglutinins more particularly those present in the blood serum of cerebro-spinal fever and typhus fever cases.

The reaction described by Wilson was later developed by Weil and Felix and named after them (see No. 5390). See also the paper by Wilson in J. Hyg., 1920, 19, 115-30.

GMN 5381 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7072

1910 RICKETTS, Howard Taylor (1871 – 1910); WILDER, Russell Morse (1885 – 1959)

The relation of typhus fever (tabardillo) to Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Ricketts and Wilder differentiated Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus.

GMN 5380 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7064

1910 RICKETTS, Howard Taylor (1871 – 1910); WILDER, Russell Morse (1885 – 1959)

The etiology of the typhus fever (tabardillo) of Mexico City. A further preliminary report.

Demonstration of the causal organism of typhus.

GMN 5380.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7067

1910 BRILL, Nathan Edwin (1860 – 1925)

An acute infectious disease of unknown origin. A clinical study based on 221 cases.

“Brill’s disease” – recrudescent typhus; first description.

GMN 5382 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7077

1910 CONOR, Alfred Leon Joseph (1870 – 1914); BRUCH, A

Une fièvre éruptive observée en Tunisie.

First description of fievre boutonneuse, a form of tick-borne typhus found in Tunisia.

GMN 5383 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7084

1910 –1911 NICOLLE, Charles Jules Henri (1866 – 1936)

Recherches experimentales sur le typhus exanthématique.

Nicolle demonstrated the transmission of typhus by the body louse Pediculus corporis. He also produced the disease in monkeys and guinea-pigs by the injection of infected blood. Preliminary communication in C. R. Acad…

GMN 5384 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7096

1915 PROWAZEK, Stanislaus Joseph Matthias von (1875 – 1915)

Ätiologische Untersuchungen über den Flecktyphus in Serbien 1913 und in Hamburg 1914.

Prowazek, like Ricketts and Wilder, demonstrated the specific causal agent in typhus. Like Ricketts he died of the disease.

GMN 5384.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7107

1916 SAXL, Paul (1880 – 1932)

Ueber die Behandlung von Typhus mit Milchinjektionen.

GMN 5043 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5819

1916 ROCHA-LIMA, Henrique da (1879 – 1956)

Zur Aetiologie des Fleckfiebers.

Rickettsia prowazeki, cause of epidemic typhus, was first isolated by the Brazilian microbiologist Henrique da Rocha-Lima, who named it after Ricketts and Prowazek, both of whom died of the disease.

GMN 5388 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7136

1916 FELIX, Arthur (1887 – 1956); WEIL, Edmund (1880 – 1922)

Zurserologischen Diagnose des Fleckfiebers.

Weil-Felix reaction for the diagnosis of typhus. See also the later paper in the same journal, 1916, 29, 974-78.

GMN 5390 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7144

1921 LOEWE, Leo (1896 – ); ET AL

Cultivation of rickettsia-like bodies in typhus fever.

Isolation of Rickettsia prowazeki from the blood. With S. A. Ritter and G. Baehr.

GMN 5392 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7151

1922 TODD, John Lancelot (1876 – 1949); WOLBACH, Simeon Burt (1880 – 1954); PALFREY, Francis Winslow (1876 – 1953)

The etiology and pathology of typhus. Being the main report of the Typhus Research Commission of the League of Red Cross Societies to Poland.

The carefully controlled experiments of Wolbach, Todd, and Palfrey eliminated all doubt that R. prowazeki was the causal agent in typhus. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

GMN 5393 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7155

1925 FLETCHER, William ( – 1938); LESSLAR, J. E.

Tropical typhus in the Federated Malay States, with a compilation on epidemic typhus.

Bull. Inst. med. Res., F. M. S., No. 2. Drew attention to scrub typhus in Malaya.

GMN 5394 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7160

1926 FLETCHER, William ( – 1938); LESSLAR, J. E.

The Weil-Felix reaction in sporadic tropical typhus.

Bull. Inst. Med. Res., F. M. S., 1926, No. 1. Demonstration that scrub-typhus patients developed agglutinins against the OX-K strain of B. proteus but not the OX-19 strain.

GMN 5395 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7165