1722 DOUGLASS, William (1691 – 1752)
The abuses and scandals of some late pamphlets in favour of inoculation of the small-pox.
Douglass at first opposed inoculation for smallpox, but by 1730 he had changed his views and had become an advocate of inoculation.
GMN 5413 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7315
1722 MATHER, Cotton (1663 – 1728)
An account of the method and success of inoculating the small pox in Boston in New England.
Mather republished reports of earlier writers on inoculation. He persuaded Boylston to adopt the practice in June 1721, and he supported Boylston during a period of great opposition to inoculation.
GMN 5414 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7318
1722 MAITLAND, Charles (1668 – 1748)
Mr. Maitland’s account of inoculating the small pox.
Maitland inoculated the children of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in 1721, and also inoculated six condemned prisoners as part of the so-called “Royal Experiment”. Success with these trials lead to his inoculation of the …
GMN 5414.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7321
1722 DEFOE, Daniel (1660 – 1731)
A journal of the plague year: Being observatrions or memorials, of the most remarkable occurrences, as well publick as private, which happened in London during the last great visitation in 1665. Written by a citizen who continued all the while in London. Never made publick before.
Though he may be most widely remembered as a novelist--especially for Robinson Crusoe, Defoe was an English trader, writer of non-fiction as well as fiction, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. This book is an account of…
GMN 10199 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12388
1723 JURIN, James (1684 – 1750)
A letter … containing, a comparison between the mortality of the natural small pox, and that given by inoculation.
Jurin was an enthusiastic supporter of inoculation against smallpox, and proved statistically that the fatality of inoculated smallpox is very much less than the fatality of natural smallpox. This is one of the earlie…
GMN 1689 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2406
1726 BOYLSTON, Zabdiel (1679 – 1766)
An historical account of the small-pox inoculated in New-England, upon all sorts of persons, whites, blacks, and of all ages and constitutions: With some account of the nature of the infection in the natural and inoculated way, and their different effects on human bodies; with some short directions to the unexperienced in this method of practice .
Boylston was the first in America to inoculate for smallpox, at Boston on 26 June 1721. "During a smallpox outbreak in 1721 in Boston, he inoculated about 248 people[5] by applying pus from a smallpox sore to a small …
GMN 5415 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7324
1730 MARTINE, George (1702 – 1741)
Account of the operation of bronchotome, as it was performed at St. Andrews.
Martine was the first to perform tracheotomy for diphtheria.
GMN 5048 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5836
1730 FULLER, Thomas (1654 – 1734)
Exanthematologia ; or, an attempt to give a rational account of eruptive fevers, especially of the measles and small pox, In two parts. Parts I Of the blood, the air, venoms, Infection: fever of all kinds in general with their varieties, descriptions, names & C but more professedly and fully of the measles ... Part II Of the small pox ... To which is added. An appendix concerning inoculation.
Includes the first clear account of chicken pox as a distinct disease, and the first distinction between the spots made by flea bites from those seen in eruptive fevers.
GMN 10109 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12298
1734 ATKINS, John (1685 – 1757)
The navy-surgeon, or a practical system of surgery.
Atkins was an English naval surgeon. His book includes some useful case reports and contains the first English description of African trypanosomiasis.
GMN 2148 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2737
1736 DOUGLASS, William (1691 – 1752)
The practical history of a new epidemical eruptive miliary fever, with an angina ulcusculosa, which prevailed in Boston New England in the years 1735 and 1736.
Douglass left the first adequate clinical description of scarlet fever, which he called angina ulcusculosa, in his account of New England’s first scarlet fever epidemic. He was one of the first American physicians to …
GMN 5076 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5925
1736 ASTRUC, Jean (1684 – 1766)
De morbis venereis libri sex.
A comprehensive book on the subject, including a careful review of the existing literature. Astruc stated that syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1493. The book was translated into English in 1737. Digital facsimile…
GMN 5195 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7100
1736 TURNER, Daniel (1667 – 1742)
Aphrodisiacus. Containing a summary of the ancient writers on the venereal disease ... Extracted from the two tomes of Aloysius Luisinus, which by the direction of Dr. Boerhaave, were lately revised and reprinted at Leyden. Together with an index of all others omitted in that collection ... from the beginning of the sixteenth century down to the present time. With a large preface, by Daniel Turner.
A partial English translation of Luisinus's, De morbo gallico omnia quae extant (1566-67) as expanded by Boerhaave (1728). Digital facsimile of the 1736 work from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 10978 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13174
1743 KILPATRICK, James (Kirkpatrick) (1696 – 1770)
An essay on inoculation, occasioned by the small-pox being brought into South Carolina in the year 1738.
After its initial popularity, inoculation fell into disuse in England. Kirkpatrick, who became a prominent inoculator in England after experience in America, helped considerably in reviving its popularity. He attempte…
GMN 5416 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7327
1744 PLATNER, Johann Zacharias (1694 – 1747)
De iis, qui ex tuberculis gibberosi fiunt.
Platner affirmed the tuberculous nature of humpback, which had earlier been surmised by Hippocrates and confirmed by Galen.
GMN 4302 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5460
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
1747 RHAZES [MUHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYĀ AL-RĀZĪ (PERSIAN: محمد زکریای رازی ] (854 – 925); MEAD, Richard (1673 – 1754)
De variolis et morbillis liber.
Includes a Latin translation of Rhazes’s commentary on smallpox. Mead favored inoculation, and his great authority and influence contributed to a more general acceptance of this measure. English translation entitled A…
GMN 5417 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7330
1748 FOTHERGILL, John (1712 – 1780)
An account of the sore throat attended with ulcers.
First authoritative account of both diphtheria and scarlatinal angina, although failing to differentiate between the two conditions. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1940, 5, 58-99.
GMN 5049 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5928
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
1750 THOMSON, Adam ( – 1767)
A discourse on the preparation of the body for the small-pox; and the manner of receiving the infection.
Thomson, a physician in Philadelphia, was the originator of the American method of inoculation against smallpox. Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Digital facsimile from dla.library.upenn.edu at this link.
GMN 5418 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7334
1751 BARTRAM, John (1699 – 1777)
Descriptions, virtues, and uses of sundry plants of these northern parts of America, and particularly of the newly discovered Indian cure for the venereal disease.
Bartram founded one of the first botanical gardens in America (at Kingsessing). Linnaeus referred to him as the “greatest natural botanist in the world”. A few copies of this 7-page work printed by Benjamin Franklin w…
GMN 1832 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2171
1755 WESZPRÉMI, Stefan (1723 – 1799)
Tentamen de inoculandi peste.
Weszprémi proposed preventive inoculation against plague.
GMN 5124 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6111
1755 INGRAM, Dale (1710 – 1793)
An historical account of the several plagues that have appeared in the world since the year 1346. With an enquiry Into the present prevailing opinion, that the plague is a contagious distemper, capable of being transported in merchandize, from one country to another. In which the absurdity of such notions is exposed, and the arguments that have been made use of to support them, refuted. To which are added a particular account of the yellow fever, shewing its periodical appearance to be similar to the plague. Also observations on Dr Mackenzie's letters; read before the Royal Society on this subject. And an abstract of Capt. Isaac Clemens's voyage in the Sloop Fawey, from their arrival in the Mould of Algiers, to the sinking of her, on a supposition that the plague was on board her. Taken from his log-book
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 10510 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12703
1756 RUSSELL, Alexander (1715 – 1768)
Natural history of Aleppo and parts adjacent.
Includes (Chap, iv) a good account of “Aleppo boil”, which Russell found to be endemic in Aleppo. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 5290 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6404
1757 HUXHAM, John (1692 – 1768)
A dissertation on the malignant, ulcerous sore-throat.
Huxham’s reputation rests mainly on his Essays on fevers, but he also left an excellent account of diphtheria. Although he failed to differentiate the disease from scarlatinal angina, he was the first to observe the p…
GMN 5050 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5841
1758 HOLWELL, John Zephaniah (1711 – 1798)
A genuine narrative of the deplorable deaths of the English gentlemen and others who were suffocated in the Black Hole in Fort-William, at Calcutta, in the Kingdom of Bengal, in the night succeeding the 20th day of June, 1756, in a letter to a friend.
Holwell was a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in Fort William, Calcutta , a poorly ventilated dungeon measuring 4.30 × 5.50 metres (14 × 18 feet), in which troops of Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, hel…
GMN 12396 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14625
1759 HILLARY, William (1697 – 1763)
Observations on the changes of the air and the concomitant epidemical diseases, in the Island of Barbados.
Hillary included good accounts of lead colic and infective hepatitis, and probably the first description of sprue (celiac disease).
GMN 1770 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3314
1759 FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706 – 1790)
Some account of the success of inoculation for the small-pox in England and America. Together with plain instructions, by which any person may be enabled to perform the operation.
Franklin’s statistical account of smallpox inoculation in Boston during the epidemic of 1753-54, showing the beneficial effects of the practice, was written for William Heberden, who contributed the “Plain instruction…
GMN 5419 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7337
1759 HOME, Francis (1719 – 1813)
Medical facts and experiments.
Experimental human transmission of measles (pp. 266-88). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 5442 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7476
1759 ASTRUC, Jean (1684 – 1766)
Traité de tumeurs et des ulcères, où l'on a tâché de joindre à une théorie solide, la pratique la plus sûre et la mieux éprouvée ; avec deux lettres : I. Sur la composition de remèdes dont on vante l'utilité et dont on cache la préparation : II. Sur la nature et le succès des nouveaux remèdes qu'on propose pour la guérison des maladies vénériennes. 2 vols.
The earliest French work on dermatology, and one of the earliest works in dermatopathology, including tumors of the skin. Digital facsimile of the 1768 second edition from Google Books at this link.
GMN 11137 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13333
1762 PLENCIZ, Marc Angon von (1705 – 1786)
Opera medico-physica in quatuor tractatus digesta.
Plenciz was the first to grasp the significance of Leeuwenhoek’s animalculae for the etiology of contagious disease. Part III of the above is concerned with scarlatina.
GMN 5078 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5931
1762 ROEDERER, Johann Georg (1727 – 1763); WAGLER, Carl Gottlieb (1731 – 1778)
De morbo mucoso.
An exhaustive study of typhoid, which the writers confused with dysentery and relapsing fever.
GMN 5021 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6723
1762 MEAD, Richard (1673 – 1754)
The medical works of Richard Mead.
GMN 11523 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13722
1765 HOME, Francis (1719 – 1813)
An enquiry into the nature, cause, and cure of the croup.
First clear and complete clinical description of diphtheria.
GMN 5051 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5845
1766 RHAZES [MUHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYĀ AL-RĀZĪ (PERSIAN: محمد زکریای رازی ] (854 – 925); CHANNING, John (1703 – 1775)
De variolis et morbillis commentarius.
The first medical description of smallpox was written by Rhazes, about the year 910… The above work is the first edition of the Arabic text with a parallel Latin translation by the English pharmacist and scholar, John…
GMN 2527.99 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3481
1767 ZIMMERMANN, Johann Georg Ritter von (1728 – 1795)
Von der Ruhr unter dem Volke im Jahr 1765.
The first important monograph on bacillary dysentery. Translated into English by C. R. Hopson as A treatise on the dysentery, with a description of the epidemic dysentery that happened in Switzerland in the year 1765 …
GMN 5090 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5994
1767 DIMSDALE, Thomas (1712 – 1800)
The present method of inoculating for the small-pox.
Dimsdale is notable as having inoculated Catherine of Russia and her son. For this he received a fee of £10,000 and a life pension. His reputation and the exalted rank of his patient helped in popularizing the measure…
GMN 5420 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7341
1767 BALFOUR, Francis ( – 1812)
De gonorrhoea virulenta.
Balfour is said to have been the first to re-affirm the duality of gonorrhoea and syphilis.
GMN 5196 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7779
1767 HOLWELL, John Zephaniah (1711 – 1798)
An account of the manner of inoculating for the small pox in the East Indies: With some observations on the practice and mode of treating that disease in those parts.
Holwell's account of smallpox variolation in India prior to Jenner has been disputed by historians. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 12397 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14626
1768 WHYTT, Robert (1714 – 1766)
Observations on the dropsy in the brain.
The first account of the clinical course of tuberculous meningitis in children. This work is notable for its fullness of detail and its accuracy. Whytt divided the disease into three stages, according to the character…
GMN 4634 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/696
1768 HEBERDEN, William Sr. (1710 – 1801)
On the chickenpox.
In a paper read before the (Royal) College of Physicians on 11 August 1767, Heberden first definitely differentiated chickenpox from smallpox.
GMN 5438 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7454
1769 BANCROFT, Edward (1774 – 1821)
Essay on the natural history of Guiana, in South America. Containing a description of many curious productions in the animal and vegetable systems of that country. Together with an account of the religion, manners, and customs of several tribes of its Indian inhabitants. Interspersed with a variety of literary and medical observations. In several letters....
Bancroft was an English physician who lived for many years in South America. He noted the transmission of yaws by flies (p. 385 of his book). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 5304 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6554
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
1770 MONGIN
Sur un ver trouvé sous la conjunctive, à Maribou, isle Saint-Domingue.
First description of the worm Loa loa. Mongin was a French surgeon working in the West Indies. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).
GMN 5336.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6706
1771 BARD, Samuel (1742 – 1821)
An enquiry into the nature, cause and cure of the angina suffocativa, or sore throat distemper, as it is commonly called by the inhabitants of this city and colony.
One of the earliest accurate descriptions of diphtheria. Osler considered the book “an American classic of the first rank”. Bard was personal physician to George Washington.
GMN 5052 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5847
1772 LEAKE, John (1729 – 1792)
Practical observations on the child-bed fever.
Leake insisted on the contagious nature of puerperal fever. Reprinted, London, Sydenham Society, 1949.
GMN 6269 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7978
1773 WHITE, Charles (1728 – 1813)
A treatise on the management of pregnant and lying-in women, and the means of curing, but more especially of preventing the principal disorders to which they are liable. Together with some new directions concerning the delivery of the child and placenta in natural births. illustrated with cases.
White was the first to state clearly in a text on midwifery the necessity of absolute cleanliness in the lying-in chamber, the isolation of infected patients, and adequate ventilation. He instituted the principle of u…
GMN 6270 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7980
1773 BUTTER, William (1726 – 1805)
A treatise on the kinkcough. With an appendix. Containing an account of hemlock, and its preparation.
Probably the first book on whooping cough, proceeding Watt's book by 40 years. Butter proposed hemlock as a treatment for whooping cough. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. (Thanks to Webb Dordick for t…
GMN 14117 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16428
1774 GRUNER, Christian Gottfried (1744 – 1815)
Morborum antiquitates.
Pp. 85-100: “Lists 191 semeiological varieties of syphilis described in the period” (Garrison).
GMN 2376 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3260
1776 DIMSDALE, Thomas (1712 – 1800)
Thoughts on general and partial inoculations: Containing a translation of two treatises written when the author was at Petersburg, and published there in the Russian language; also outlines of two plans: One, for the general inoculation of the poor in small towns and villages. The other, for the general inoculation of the poor in London and other large and populous places.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 9520 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11705
