1749 LINNAEUS, Carl (Linné) (1707 – 1778)

Materia medica, liber I: De plantis.

Linnaeus’s physician’s reference on pharmacology. Linnaeus classified medicinal plants according to his botanical system and described the therapeutic value of the drugs derived from each plant. He was instrumental in…

GMN 7597 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9769

1752 KNOLL, Johann Christian Friedrich (1726 – 1757)

Sendschreiben von den Wirkungen des Kafeetranks.

Discussing the consumption and reception of coffee from Britain to Turkey, Knoll dismissed criticisms of coffee, including that it reduced beauty and virility, or that it was contrary to Islam, instead promoting the m…

GMN 11719 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13920

1761 HILL, (Sir) John (1714 – 1775)

Cautions against the immoderate use of snuff. Founded on the known qualities of the tobacco Plant; and the effects it must produce when this way taken Into the body: And by instances of persons who have perished miserably of diseases, occasioned, or rendered incurable by its use,

First clinical report (pp. 30-31) of an association between tobacco and cancer, in this case “polypusses” of the nose caused by taking snuff. Hill was a distinguished botanist and apothecary, although regarded by some…

GMN 2607.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3063

1763 STONE, Edward (1702 – 1768)

An account of the success of the bark of the willow in the cure of agues.

Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, discovered that the bark of the willow tree (active ingredient: salicylic acid) was effective in reducing a fever. This was the first report in the scientific literatu…

GMN 6970 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9135

1764 GRAINGER, James (1721 – 1766)

An essay on the more common West-India diseases and the remedies which that country itself produces: To which are added some hints on the management, &c. of negroes.

Though the title suggests tropical medicine in general, this work mainly concerns the selection and medical care of slaves. Digital facsimile of the second edition (Edinburgh, 1802) expanded "with practical notes and …

GMN 9509 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11694

1770 POUPPÉ DESPORTES, Jean-Baptiste-René (1704 – 1748)

Histoire des maladies de S. Domingue. 3 vols. Title of vol. 3: Traité ou abregé des plantes usuelles de S. Dominique.

Posthmously published; vol. 1 contains a life of the author. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

GMN 9913 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12101

1770 ALSTON, Charles (1683 – 1760); HOPE, John (1725 – 1786)

Lectures on the materia medica: Containing the natural history of drugs, their virtues and doses: Also directions for the study of the materia medica; and an appendix on the method of prescribing. Published from the manuscript of the late Dr. Charles Alston...by John Hope. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 12733 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14979

1772 LETTSOM, John Coakley (1744 – 1815)

The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and effects of tea-drinking.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

GMN 13627 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15907

1776 STÖRCK, Anton von (1731 – 1803)

Medicinisch-praktischer Unterricht für die Feld- und Landwundärzte der österreichischen Staaten. 2 vols. [& Supplement:] Die in dem medicinisch-praktischen Unterrichte für die Feld-und Landwundärzte vorkommende Arzneymittel.

This work on "Practical medical lessons for field and land surgeons of the Austrian states," includes a 91-page appendix containing 319 recommended pharmaceuticals for the treatments described in the text. The formula…

GMN 13549 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15826

1780 DARWIN, Erasmus (1731 – 1802)

Experiments establishing a criterion between mucaginous and purulent matter. An an account of the retrograde motions of the absorbent vessels of animal bodies in some diseases.

Includes the first description of the value of digitalis in the treatment of patients with heart failure, with discussion of several successful cases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Darwin and Withe…

GMN 8589 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10766

1781 BUC'HOZ, Pierre-Joseph (1731 – 1807)

Herbier ou collection des plantes médicinales de la Chine: D'après un manuscrit peint et unique qui se trouve dans la Bibliothèque de l'Empereur de la Chine, pour servir suitte [sic] à la collection des fleurs qui se cultivent dans les Jardins de la Chine et de l'Europe.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

GMN 13004 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15254

1782 PERCIVAL, Thomas (1740 – 1804)

Observations on the medical uses of the oleum jecoris aselli, or cod liver oil, in the chronic rheumatism, and other painful disorders.

First record of the clinical use of cod liver oil in England.

GMN 1835 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2181

1785 WITHERING, William (1741 – 1799)

An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses.

Before publication of Withering's book digitalis was a widely used folk remedy, occasionally mentioned in the literature. Withering established the correct dosages, and the action of digitalis in edema and on the hear…

GMN 1836 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8650

1787 SCHOEPFF, Johann David (1752 – 1800)

Materia medica Americana, potissimum regni vegetabilis.

Schoepff came to America in 1777 as a surgeon with the Hessian troops employed by the British Forces. He returned to Germany in 1784 and compiled the first full American materia medica, describing about 400 plants, in…

GMN 1837 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2194

1789 CULLEN, William (1710 – 1790)

A treatise of the materia medica. 2 vols.

An expansion of Cullen’s “Lectures on materia medica”, 1773.

GMN 1838 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2199

1790 –1794 WOODVILLE, William (1752 – 1805)

Medical botany, containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh: Accompanied with a circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed. 3 vols. & Supplement.

Issued in numbers from 1790-1795, this is the first edition in book form. This work, which underwent several later editions, remained the standard work on the plants of the British pharmacopoeia until the 1880s. Digit…

GMN 1838.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2205

1790 ADAIR, James Makittrick (1728 – 1802)

Essays on fashionable diseases. The dangerous effects of hot and crouded rooms. The cloathing of invalids. Lady and gentlemen doctors. And on quacks and quackery. With the genuine patent prescriptions of Dr. James's fever power, Tickell's aetherial spirit, & Godbold's balsam, taken from the Rolls in Chancery, and under the seal of the proper officers; and also the ingredients and compostion of many of the most celebrated quack nostrums, as analized by several of the best chemists in Europe. By James M. Adair, Formerly M.D.... With a dedication to Philip Thicknesse ... To which is added a dramatic dialogue. Published for the benefit of the tin-miners in Cornwal

An attack on quack medicines, etc. with one of the most verbose title pages of the 18th century. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

GMN 10002 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12191

1790 BAUMES, Jean Baptiste Timothée (1756 – 1828)

De l'usage du quinquina dans les fièvres rémittentes. Mémoire qui a remporté en 1785, au jugement de la Societé Royale de Médecine de Paris.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 13623 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15903

1790 CULPEPER, Nicholas (1616 – 1654); SIBLY, Ebenezer (1751 – 1799)

Culpeper's English physician; and complete herbal. To which are now first added upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult properties, physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind. To which are annexed rules for compounding medicine according to the true system of nature, forming a complete family dispensatory and natural system of physic. Beautified and enriched with engravings of upwards of four hundred and fifty different plants, and a set of anatomical figures....

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 13699 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15981

1792 LÓPEZ, Hipólito Ruiz (1754 – 1816)

Quinología o Tratado del árbol de la quina ó cascarilla:con su descripción y la de otras especies de quinos nuevamente descubiertas en el Perú....

Ruiz, a Spanish pharmacist and botanist, was appointed director of the Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú, during which he traveled extensively through Chile and Peru along with botanists José Pavón and Joseph…

GMN 13323 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15590

1793 CRUMPE, Samuel (1766 – 1796)

An inquiry into the nature and properties of opium: Wherein its component principles, mode of operation, and use or abuse in particular diseases, are experimentally investigated, and the opinions of former authors on these points impartially examined.

Crumpe undertook extensive experiments to understand the effects of opium. His book provided the first detailed description of the effects of narcotic withdrawal. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

GMN 10590 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12783

1794 BARHAM, Henry

Hortus Americanus, containing an account of the trees, shrubs, and other vegetable productions of South-America and the West-India islands, and particularly of the island of Jamaica; interspersed with many curious and useful observations, respecting their uses in medicine, diet, and mechanics.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 9989 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12178

1795 SOEMMERRING, Samuel Thomas von (1755 – 1830)

De morbis vasorum absorbentium corporis humani.

Soemmerring noted an association between pipe smoking and cancer of the lip (p. 109).

GMN 2609.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3088

1795 GOOD, John Mason (1764 – 1827)

The history of medicine, so far as it relates to the profession of the apothecary, ... the origin of druggists, their gradual encroachments on compound pharmacy, and the evils to which the public are from thence exposed.

The first history of pharmacy in Britain. Good’s History was commissioned by the General Pharmaceutical Association, formed in 1794, of which the author was a prominent member. It was intended to protect the trade of …

GMN 10016 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12205

1798 DONOVAN, Edward (1768 – 1837)

An epitome of the natural history of the insects of China: Comprising figures and descriptions of upwards of one hundred new, singular, and beautiful species: together with some that are of importance in medicine, domestic economy, &c. The figures are accurately, drawn, engraved, and coloured, from speciemsn of the insects; the descriptions are arranged accordig to the system of Linnaeus, with references to the writings of Fabricius, and other systematic authors.

The first work in a Western language on the insects of China, including pharmaceutical aspects. For this work Donovan obtained specimens and information from George Macartney a British envoy to China. Includes 50 colo…

GMN 9082 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11261

1798 BARTON, Benjamin Smith (1766 – 1815)

Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United States. Read before the Philadelphia Medical Society, on the twenty-first of February, 1798.

Digital facsimile of the 1798 edition from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link. Digital facsimile of the much-expanded third edition (1810) from Google Books at this link.

GMN 9309 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11491

1799 AZEREDO, José Pinto de (1766 – 1810)

Ensaios sobre algumas enfermidades d'Angola....

Azeredo noted that the tropical fevers found in Brazil and Angola were very similar. He claimed to have achieved excellent results with his “new method” of treatment, which included the use of quinine, nux vomica, ars…

GMN 9070 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11249

1799 FERRIAR, John (1761 – 1815)

An essay on the medical properties of the digitalis purpurea or foxglove.

"John Ferriar...published the first monograph on digitalis after William Withering (1785). Ferriar was the first to suggest that digitalis was beneficial in dropsy (severe congestive heart failure), in part because it…

GMN 11592 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13791

1801 STEARNS, Samuel (1741 – 1810)

The American herbal, or materia medica.

The first herbal both produced and printed in the United States, as opposed to those which were reprints of European works. Includes information on native American remedies. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage…

GMN 1838.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2218

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

1802 DEROSNE, Charles Louis (1780 – 1846)

Sur l’opium.

Isolation of alkaloids from opium.

GMN 1838.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2252

1805 SERTÜRNER, Friedrich Wilhelm Adam (1783 – 1841)

Darstellung der reinen Mohnsäure (Opiumsäure); nebst einer chemischen Untersuchung des Opiums, mit vorzüglicher Hinsicht auf einen darin neu entdeckten Stoff.

Isolation of morphine from opium. This was the first isolation of an active ingredient from a plant.

GMN 1839 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2269

1806 CADET DE VAUX, Antoine-Alexis (1743 – 1828); CADET, Charles-Louis (1769 – 1821)

Dissertation sur le café; son historique, ses propriétés, et le procédé pour en obtenir la boisson la plus agréable, la plus salutaire et la plus économique; Par Ant.-Alexis Cadet-de-Vaux...Suivie de son analyse; par Charles-Louis Cadet.

Cadet de Vaux discussed the history of coffee, including the origins of the coffee bean and plant, the proper climate for growing coffee, coffee drinking culture and its introduction to Europe. He also described the b…

GMN 11630 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13830

1806 COXE, John Redman (1773 – 1864)

The American dispensatory, containing the operations of pharmacy; Together with the natural, chemical, pharmaceutical and medical history of the different substances employed in medicine; illustrated and explained, according to the principles of modern chemistry: Comprehending the improvements in Dr. Duncan's second edition of the Edinburgh new dispensatory. The arrangement simplified, and the whole adapted to the practice of medicine and pharmacy in the United States. With several copperplates, exhibiting the new system of chemical characters, and representing the most useful apparatus.

Coxe's "formulary" was the first attempt at standarization of drugs and their preparation in the United States. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

GMN 12134 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14343

1808 STEARNS, John (1770 – 1848)

Accounts of the pulvis parturiens, a remedy for quickening child-birth.

The first use of ergot in the induction of labor in America. Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic Contributions to Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1935, pp. 21-23.

GMN 6164 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7751

1809 GOMES, Bernardino António (1769 – 1823)

Memoria sobre a canella do Rio de Janeiro offerecida ao Principe do Brazil nosso senhor: pelo Senado da Camara da mesma cidade no anno de 1798.

The earliest monograph on medicine published in Brazil. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

GMN 9064 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11243

1809 MAGENDIE, François (1783 – 1855)

Examen de l'action de quelques végétaux sur la moelle épinière. Lu a l'Institut, le vingt-quatre avril 1809.

In 1809 Magendie presented to the Académie des Sciences and to the Société Philomatique the results of his first experimental work, which he carried out in collaboration with the botanist and physician Alire Raffeneau…

GMN 9578 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11765

1810 GOMES, Bernardino António (1769 – 1823)

Ensaio sobre o cinchonino, e sobre sua influencia em a virtude da quina, e de outras cascas.

Gomes obtained a substance, which he named cinchonino, from cinchona bark. That it contained the active principle of cinchona was later proved by Pelletier and Caventou. For an English translation of the paper, see Ed…

GMN 1840 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2272

1811 TYLER, Mary Hunt Palmer (1775 – 1866)

The maternal physician; a treatise on the nurture and management of infants, from the birth until two years old. Being the result of sixteen years' experience in the nursery. Illustrated by extracts from the most approved medical authors

The first American book on pediatrics, in the tradition of "advice books" or childcare manuals for mothers. This was the first American printed book on a medical subject written by a woman. Pages 248-75 publish a list…

GMN 7801 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9973

1812 BUC'HOZ, Pierre-Joseph (1731 – 1807)

Traité usuel du chocolat, contenant la description et la culture du cacaotier ou cacaoïer, arbre qui produit le fruit avec lequel on fabrique le chocolat, celles de la canelle, de la vanille, du salep de Perse, de l'ambre gris, du sucre, et autres substances que l'on fait entrer dans la fabrication du chocolat, les différentes façons de préparer ce commestible pour en faire un aliment recherché et propre à flatter le goût de tous les consommateurs les plus distingués, ce qui lui a fait donner, avec just tire, le sur-non de METS Des DIEUX. On y fait voir assi son utilité précieuse dans médecine.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

GMN 13631 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15911

1813 AINSLIE, Whitelaw (1767 – 1837)

Materia medica of Hindoostan, and artisan’s and agriculturist’s nomenclature.

The first book in English on the materia medica of India, and a pioneering work in the field of Indian medical history. Ainslie joined the British East India Company as an assistant surgeon in 1788 and spent the next …

GMN 6975 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9141

1814 HENRY, Samuel

Botanic medicine: A new and complete American medical family herbal: Wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of the plants, indigenous to the United States of America, together with Lewis' secret remedy newly discovered, which has been found infallible in the cure of that dreadful disease hydrophobia, produced by the bite of a mad dog.

Henry wrote that he had been a captive of the Indians during the Creek War and that he incorporated what he learned during his captivity. His work was one of the first illlustrated herbals published in the United Stat…

GMN 9641 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11828

1817 –1819 BARTON, William Paul Crillon (1786 – 1856)

Vegetable materia medica of the United States. 2 vols.

Barton served as a naval surgeon and, in 1815, became Professor of Botany at Philadelphia. Along with Bigelow (No. 1842) Barton’s work is one of the first two botanical works with colored plates issued in the United S…

GMN 1841 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2277

1817 –1820 BIGELOW, Jacob (1786 – 1879)

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, …

GMN 1842 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2280

1817 MAGENDIE, François (1783 – 1855); PELLETIER, Pierre Joseph (1788 – 1842)

Mémoire sur l’émétine, et sur les trois espèces d’ipecacuanha.

Isolation of emetine. It was not until a century later that Vedder demonstrated its value in the treatment of amoebiasis. Also during 1817 Magendie and Pelletier published "Recherches chimiques et physiologiques sur l…

GMN 1843 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6304

1820 PELLETIER, Pierre Joseph (1788 – 1842); CAVENTOU, Joseph Bienaimé (1795 – 1877)

Recherches chimique sur les quinquinas.

Isolation of quinine.

GMN 5233 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7879

1820 –1821 RUNGE, Friedlieb Ferdinand (1795 – 1867)

Neueste phytochemische Entdeckungen zur Begründung einer wissenschaftlichen Phytochemie. 2 vols.

On pp. 144-146 of vol. 1 Runge reported the isolation of relatively pure caffeine for the first time. He called it "Kaffebase." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. In 1821 the French chemists Pierre-Jose…

GMN 11411 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13610

1821 –1829 DESCOURTILZ, Michel Étienne (1777 – 1835); DESCOURTILZ, Jean-Théodore (1796 – 1855)

Flore pittoresque et médicale des Antilles, ou, Histoire naturelle des plantes usuelles des colonies françaises, anglaises, espagnoles et portugaises; par M. E. Descourtilz. Peinte par J. Th. Descourtilz. 8 vols.

Medical botany of the Caribbean, finely illustrated with colored plates after paintings by the author's son. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 8547 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10724

1821 ROQUES, Joseph R. (1772 – 1850)

Phytographie médicale, ornée de figures coloriées de grandeur naturelle, ou l’on expose l’histoire des poisons tirés du règne végétal, et les moyens de remédier a leurs effets délétères, avec des observations sur les propriétés et les usages des plantes héroïques. 2 vols.

Perhaps the most beautiful book on botanic poisons and their antidotes, including narcotics. Plates 1-15 cover mushrooms, and plate 175 depicts Cannabis sativa. With 180 plates printed in color à la poupée and finishe…

GMN 10647 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12840

1821 HUMBOLDT, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von (1769 – 1859); LÓPEZ, Hipólito Ruiz (1754 – 1816); LAMBERT, Aylmer Bourke (1761 – 1842); LAUBERT, Jean Charles (1762 – 1834)

An illustration of the genus cinchona; comprising descriptions of all the officinal Peruvian barks, including several new species. Baron de Humboldt's Account of the Cinchona forests of South America, and Laubert's Memoir on the different species of quinquina: To which are added several dissertations of Don Hippolito Ruiz on various medicinal plants of South America ... And a short account of the spikenard of the ancients.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

GMN 13324 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15591