1524 ELLENBOG, Ulrich (1435 – 1499)
Von den gifftigen besen Tempffen und Reuchen.
Written in 1473 but not published until 1524, this pamphlet on the diseases of miners is the first known work on industrial hygiene and toxicology. A reprint of the text appears in Münch. Beitr. Lit. Naturwiss. Med., …
GMN 2118 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2628
1556 AGRICOLA, Georgius (Georg Bauer) (1494 – 1555)
De re metallica.
Agricola, a physician, wrote several pioneering works on physical geology, systematic minerology, and mining technology. The twelve books of his masterwork, De re metallica (On Metals), illustrated with over 270 woodc…
GMN 13252 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15517
1567 PARACELSUS, [Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim] (1493 – 1541)
Von der Bergsucht oder Bergkranckheiten drey Bücher…
Paracelsus’s book on the diseases of miners was the first full monograph on the diseases of an occupational group. The first section covers the diseases, mainly pulmonary affections, of miners, including the etiology,…
GMN 2118.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2630
1589 –1591 PARACELSUS, [Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim] (1493 – 1541); HUSER, Johannes (1545 – 1604)
Der Bücher und Schriften des Edlen, Hochgelehrten und Bewehrten Philosophi und Medici, Philipi Thephrasti Bombast von Hohen hem, Paracelsi genannt. Edited by Johannes Huser. 10 vols.
First edition of Paracelsus's collected works. Though all the autographs of Paracelsus's writings were later lost, Huber, who was born shortly after Paracelsus's death, was able to collect a great number of autographs…
GMN 8466 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10643
1614 PANSA, Martin (1580 – 1626)
Consilium Peripneumoniacum: Das ist Ein getrewer Rath in der beschwerlichen Berg und Lungensucht : darinnen verfasset, was die fürnemsten Ursachen seyn beyderley Beschwerungen, beydes der gifftigen, die vom Bergwerck entstehet: so wol der gemeinen, die von Flüssen herrühret: Zuvor aber, wie der Mensch mit der kleinen Welt, und mit dem Bergwerck artlich zu vergleichen, und wie beyde Suchten zu vertreiben seyn.
Martin Pansa, a pupil of Georg Agricola, wrote the most important work on occupational disease before Ramazzini. He described the symptoms of the lung diseases of miners and smelters. Digital facsimile from the Bayeri…
GMN 2119 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2631
1656 STOCKHAUSEN, Samuel (1619 – 1656)
Libellus de lithargyrii fumo noxio morbifico eiusque metallico frequentiori morbo vulgo dicto: Die Hütten Katze Oder Hütten Rauch: Cum Appendice de montano ffaectu asthmatico metallicidis familiari, quem Germanica lingua appellamus Die Bergsuche oder Berg Kranckheit.
Stockhausen had considerable experience in treating the diseases of miners. His book on industrial diseases did much to clarify contemporary knowledge regarding the relative toxicity of lead, mercury, arsenic, cobalt,…
GMN 2120 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2632
1700 RAMAZZINI, Bernardino (1633 – 1714)
De morbis artificum diatriba.
Ramazzini's study of the diseases of workers, De morbis artificium diatriba, was the first comprehensive and systematic treatise on occupational medicine; it was also the foundation work in ergonomics. It deals with p…
GMN 2121 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/79
1745 HENCKEL, Johann Friedrich (1678 – 1744)
Berg-Raths Medicinischer Aufstand und Schmelz-Bogen Von der Bergsucht und Hütten-Katze auch einigen andern, Denen Bergleuten und Hütten-Arbeitern zustoßenden Krankheiten, Vor dieselben und diejenigen So in Stein, Erz, Metall und Feuer arbeiten, ausgestellet.
A key early work on the Bergsucht or miner's phthisis.
GMN 10474 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12667
1846 HUTCHINSON, John (1811 – 1861)
On the capacity of the lungs, and on the respiratory functions, with a view of establishing a precise and easy method of detecting disease by the spirometer.
Invention of the spirometer, making possible the determination of the vital capacity of the lungs. Hutchinson used the spirometer while evaluating candidates for life insurance as a physician for Brittania Life. Parti…
GMN 930 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/149
1851 BROCKMANN, Carl Heinrich
Die metallurgischen Krankheiten des Oberharzes.
Brockmann's book on the pulmonary disease of miners, including black lung disease, was first book on occupational health published in Germany. Brockmann published a preliminary paper on the subject in 1845. Digital fa…
GMN 8942 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11121
1912 LLEWELLYN, T. Lister
The causes and prevention of miners' nystagmus.
Abstract "Miners' nystagmus is an occupational neurosis which is confined to workers in coal mines. The chief symptom and physical sign is a rotatory oscillation of the eyeballs, which prevents the miner from accurate…
GMN 12589 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14829
1928 SEILER, Henry Edmund (1899 – 1978)
A case of pneumoconiosis. Result of the inhalation of asbestos dust.
Seiler established an unequivocal relationship between asbestos and pulmonary fibrosis.
GMN 2134.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2671
1937 CRONIN, Archibald Joseph (1896 – 1981)
The Citadel.
This novel was "groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics. It has been credited with laying the foundation in Great Britain for the introduction of the NHS a decade later.[1] "For hi…
GMN 10198 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12387
1943 ROSEN, George (1910 – 1977)
The history of miners’ diseases. A medical and social interpretation.
GMN 2136 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2677
1948 TELEKY, Ludwig (1872 – 1957)
History of factory and mine hygiene.
GMN 2137 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2679
1953 CAPLAN, Anthony
Certain unusual radiological appearances in the chest of coal-miners suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.
Caplan's syndrome, originally identified in coal miners with progressive massive fibrosis. It is a combination of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and pneumoconiosis that manifests as intrapulmonary nodules, which appear hom…
GMN 11839 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14043
1971 CARTWRIGHT, Alan Patrick
Doctors of the mines: A commemorative volume published in 1971 to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Mine Medical Officer's Association of South Africa. With a history of the work of mine medical officers.
GMN 8501 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10678
1988 DERICKSON, Alan (1948 – )
Worker's health, workers' democracy: The Western miners' struggle, 1891-1925.
"The most dangerous work in North America at the turn of the century may have been extracting metal-bearing ore from mountains of hard rock. Beginning in the 1890s miners in the West worked through local unions both t…
GMN 13296 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15562
1992 FRAZIER, Claude Albee (1920 – 2005)
Miners and medicine: West Virginia memories.
"The coal-company doctors of Appalachia fought the health hazards of the coal fields, arguably the most dangerous and diseased working environment of the modern world. Often the doctors were held accountable for evils…
GMN 13297 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15563
1998 DERICKSON, Alan (1948 – )
Black lung: Anatomy of a public health disaster.
GMN 13294 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15560
2020 BOHATA, Kirsti; JONES, Alexandra; MANTIN, Mike; THOMPSON, Steven
Disibility in industrial Britain: A cultural and literary history of impairment in the coal industry.
GMN 12590 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14830
