1472 BAGELLARDO, Paolo (1420 – 1494)
De infantium aegritudinibus et remediis.
The first printed book dealing exclusively with pediatrics. This was also the first medical treatise, and probably also the first scientific treatise, to make its original appearance in printed form rather than having…
GMN 6315 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8068
1740 RÉAUMUR, René Antoine Ferchault de (1683 – 1757)
Avis pour donner du secours à ceux qui l’on croit noyez.
In this unsigned 4-page pamphlet the author argued that those who had been drowned for several hours could be resuscitated. His ideas inspired the formation of the Amsterdam Society (No. 2028.51). This anonymous work …
GMN 2028.5 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2076
1742 WINSLOW, Jacques-Bénigne [Jacob Benignus Winsløw] (1669 – 1760)
An mortis incertae signa minus incerta a chirurgicis quam ab aliis experimenti?
Between the mid-1700s and the early 1900s many physicians lost confidence in their ability to declare legal death. This phenomenon was in part sparked by Winslow, whose dissertation claimed the existence of a death-li…
GMN 11407 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13606
1752 LOUIS, Antoine (1723 – 1792)
Lettres sur la certitude des signes de la mort où l'on rassure les citoyens de la crainte d'être enterrés vivans ; avec des observations et des expériences sur les noyés.
In this work in the pathophysiology of drowning, resuscitation and the legal diagnosis of death Louis sought to reassure the public that the risk of being buried alive was very low. He rejected a proposal for late bur…
GMN 11504 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13703
1768
Historie en Gedenkschriften van de Maatschappy, tot Redding von Drenkelingen, Opgerecht Binnen Amsterdam 1768.
AMSTERDAM SOCIETY
The first of many volumes of reports by the first society to save people drowned in the waterways of Amsterdam, established in 1767. Before 1767 anyone taken from the water was presumed dead and no attempts were made …
GMN 2028.51 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2078
1773 JOHNSON, Alexander (1715 – 1799)
A short account of a society at Amsterdam instituted in the year 1767 for the recovery of drowned persons…
An English summary of No. 2028.51, and the first detailed report on the society’s work published in England. Johnson proposed the formation of a similar society in England. The Royal Humane Society was formed by T. Co…
GMN 2028.52 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2087
1780 TESTA, Antonio Giuseppe (1756 – 1814)
Della morte apparente degli annegati.
The first Italian work on resusciation. Testa’s work is also one of the earliest on the subject published after the foundation in 1767 of Amsterdam’s pioneering Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen, the first org…
GMN 11874 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14078
1787 LATHROP, John (1740 – 1816)
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…
GMN 7214 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9381
1788 GOODWYN, Edmund (1756 – 1829)
The connexion of life with respiration; or, an experimental inquiry into the effects of submersion, strangulation, and several kinds of noxious airs, on living animals.
Goodwyn emphasized the importance of ventilation in resuscitation.
GMN 2028.53 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2092
1788 KITE, Charles (1768 – 1811)
An essay on the recovery of the apparently dead.
Kite recommended the use of artificial respiration and was probably the first to recommend electric shock for resuscitation.
GMN 2028.54 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2096
1817 MORICHEAU-BEAUPRÉ, Pierre-Jean (1778 – 1857)
Des effets et des propriétés du froid, avec un aperçu historique et médical sur la campagne de Russie.
Relative to the suffering of Napoleon's soldiers during the bitter cold of Russian winters, includes methodology of resucitation of victims of freezing. Digital facsimile of thesis issue of the 1817 edition from the I…
GMN 11154 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13351
1818 ORFILA, Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure (1787 – 1853)
Secours à donner aux personnes empoisonnées ou asphyxiées, suivis des moyens propres à reconnaître les poisons et les vins frelatés et à distinguer la mort réelle de la mort apparente.
Translated into English by B. H. Black and published in 1819 as Directions for the treatment of persons who have taken poison, and those in a state of apparent death: Together with the means of detecting poisons and a…
GMN 9508 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11693
1825 WATERTON, Charles (1782 – 1865)
Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824.
Waterton traveled to the Guyana region of South America to obtain curare. He provided a detailed description of its paralyzing effects, its preparation by distillation, and the blowpipe and darts used to deliver it. O…
GMN 2074 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2541
1827 LEROY D’ETOILLES, Jean Jacques Joseph (1798 – 1860)
Recherches sur l’asphyxie.
“Leroy invented a two-bladed instrument to aid in the insertion of a laryngeal tube by the ability to control the direction of its tip. He also invented a limiting mechanism for the bellows, to enable given amounts of…
GMN 2028.55 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2099
1856 HALL, Marshall (1790 – 1857)
On a new mode of effecting artificial respiration.
Marshall Hall’s method of artificial respiration.
GMN 2028.56 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2102
1858 SILVESTER, Henry Robert (1828 – 1908)
A new method of resuscitating still-born children, and of restoring persons apparently drowned or dead.
Silvester’s method of artificial respiration.
GMN 2028.57 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2104
1869 HOWARD, Benjamin ( – 1900)
Plain rules for the restoration of persons apparently dead from drowning.
Howard’s method of artificial respiration is taught for resuscitation from drowning.
GMN 2028.58 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2107
1904 SHARPEY-SCHAFER, Sir Edward Albert (1850 – 1935)
Description of a simple and efficient method of performing artificial respiration on the human subject especially in cases of drowning. To which is appended instruction for the treatment of the apparently drowned.
GMN 2028.59 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2110
1904 SCHÄFER, Edward Albert (1850 – 1935); ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON
An inquiry into the phenomena attending death by drowning and the means of promoting resuscitation in the apparently drowned. Report of a committee appointed by the Society, drawn up by Professor Schäfer, chairman of the committee.
The Schäfer method of artificial respiration. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 11700 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13901
1932 NIELSEN, Holger Louis (1866 – 1955)
En oplivingsmethode.
Holger Nielsen (“arm-lift”) method of artificial respiration.
GMN 2028.6 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2114
1960 KOUWENHOVEN, William Bennett (1886 – 1975); JUDE, James R. (1928 – 2015); KNICKERBOCKER, G. Guy (1932 – 2022); ET AL
Closed-chest cardiac massage.
Kouwenhoeven and colleagues developed closed-chest cardiac massage without thoracotomy. Kouwenhoeven has been called "the father of cardiopulmonary resuscitation."
GMN 2883.4 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4266
1961 KOUWENHOVEN, William Bennett (1886 – 1975); JUDE, James R. (1928 – 2015); KNICKERBOCKER, G. Guy (1932 – 2022)
A new approach to cardiac resuscitation.
"The pioneers of modern cardiopulmonary resucitation describe their breakthrough technique of combining mouth-to-mouth ventilation, closed chest compressions, and transthoracic defibrillation to treat cardiac arrest" …
GMN 11671 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13872
1976 HUSTON, Kenneth Garth Sr. (1926 – 1987)
Resuscitation: an historical perspective. Catalogue of an exhibit at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists…
GMN 2028.9 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2123
1997 EISENBERG, Mickey S.
Life in the balance: Emergency medicine and the quest to reverse sudden death.
GMN 10169 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12358
2007 BASKETT, Peter John Firth (1934 – 2008); BASKETT, Thomas F. (1941 – )
Resuscitation greats. Edited by Peter Baskett and Thomas Baskett.
GMN 12330 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14554
![WINSLOW, Jacques-Bénigne [Jacob Benignus Winsløw] (1669 – 1760)](/media/portraits/708)
