1501 HUNDT, Magnus (1449 – 1519)
Antropologium de ho[min]is dignitate, natura, et p[ro]prietatibus.
Includes the first illustrations of the viscera in a printed book. The four woodcuts are derived with modifications from Peyligk (No. 363.2). This work also contains the first mention ever of the word anthropology (in…
GMN 363.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/337
1586 DONATI, Marcello (1538 – 1602)
De medica historia mirabili.
An early history of diseases, with extensive sections on ophthalmology (ff. 66-77) and urology (ff. 260-271). Lib. IV, Cap. iii, page 196 contains the first recorded case of gastric ulcer. Lib. VI. cap. iii contains t…
GMN 3417 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5319
1651 PECQUET, Jean (1622 – 1674)
Experimenta nova anatomica, quibus incognitum chyli receptaculum, et ab eo per thoracem in ramos usque subclavis vasa lactea deteguntur.
Pecquet discovered the thoracic duct in dogs and its relation to the lacteals. Using a dog that was digesting, he described the thoracic duct, its entry into the subclavian veins, and the receptaculum chyli or chyle r…
GMN 1095 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/929
1661 BOYLE, Robert (1627 – 1691)
Certain physiological essays.
In this prelude to Boyle’s Sceptical chymist Boyle describes his corpuscular view of digestion, “giving recognition to the existence of the agents now designated the ‘enzymes’ ” (Fulton, Bibliography of Robert Boyle […
GMN 665.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/542
1662 STENO, Nicolas [Niels Steensen, Nicholaus Stenonis] (1638 – 1686)
Observationes anatomicae, quibus varia oris, oculorum & narium vas describuntur novique salivae, lacrymarum & muci fontes deteguntur.
Includes the first account of the excretory duct of the parotid gland (“Stensen’s duct”), discovered by Stensen. He first reported his discovery in a letter to his teacher, Thomas Bartholin, dated April, 22, 1661. Ste…
GMN 1543 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/567
1664 GRAAF, Regnier de (1641 – 1673)
De succi pancreatici natura et usu exercitatio anatomico-medica.
De Graaf was an early investigator of the pancreatic secretion. He collected the pancreatic juice of dogs by means of artificial pancreatic fistulae, commenting on the small quantity of juice secreted and on its alkal…
GMN 974 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/570
1679 WEPFER, Johann Jacob (1620 – 1695)
Cicutae aquaticae historia et noxae.
This is primarily a work on the poisonous water hemlock, its dangerous effects, its medicinal uses, and antidotes to counter the poison. However, it also contains the first description of the tiny glands in the mucosa…
GMN 974.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/576
1684 BARTHOLIN, Caspar Junior (1655 – 1738)
Du ductu salivati hactenus non descriptio.
“Bartholin’s duct” and “gland”, the sublingual salivary gland and ducts.
GMN 974.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/588
1687 BRUNNER, Johann Conrad (1653 – 1727)
De glandulis in intestino duodeno hominis detectis.
“Brunner’s glands”, earlier described by Wepfer (No. 974.1).
GMN 975 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/592
1707 PIMENTA, Miguel Dias (1661 – 1715)
Noticias do que he o achaque do bicho, diffiniçam do seu crestame[n]to, subimento corrupçaõ, sinaes, & cura atè, o quinto grao, ou intensaõ delle, suas differenças, & co[m]plicaços, com que se ajunta.
This book has been "considered by some authors to be the first reference to the chagasic megaesophagus and megacolon that appeared in history. In descriptions considered to refer megaesophagus, although dysphagia, the…
GMN 8938 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11116
1717 BLAIR, Patrick (1660 – 1728)
An account of the dissection of a child.
First description of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Reprinted in Mark M. Ravitch, "The story of pyloric stenosis," Surgery, 48 (1960) 1117-1143.
GMN 3419 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5338
1720 VATER, Abraham (1684 – 1751)
Dissertatio anatomica qua novum bilis diverticulum circa orificium ductus choledochi ut et valvulosam colli vesicae felleae constructionem ad disceptandum proponit.
Following Vater’s classic description of the ampulla of the bile duct, it was named the “ampulla of Vater”.
GMN 976 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/600
1724 BOERHAAVE, Herman (1668 – 1738)
Atrocis, nec descripti prius, morbis historia: Secundum medicae artis leges conscripta.
Boerhaave's syndrome: complete, transmural laceration of the lower part of oesophagus with exit of the gastric content into the mediastinum in the patient with a pre-existing oesophageal disease. This typically occurs…
GMN 13643 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15924
1727 RAWLINSON, Christopher
A preternatural perforation found in the upper part of the stomach, with the symptoms it produced.
First reported case of perforating gastric ulcer.
GMN 3420 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5341
1730 POUPART, François (1661 – 1709)
Suspenseurs de l’abdomen.
“Poupart’s ligament”, the inguinal ligament.
GMN 977 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/609
1733 CALDER, James
Two examples of children born with preternatural conformations of the guts.
First description of congenital atresia of the ileum.
GMN 3422 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5345
1742 VELSE, Cornelius Henrik
De mutuo intestinorum ingressu.
First recorded successful operation for intussusception in an adult. The paper is also included in Haller’s Disputationes, vol. 1.
GMN 3423 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5347
1745 LIEBERKÜHN, Johann Nathanael (1711 – 1756)
De fabrica et actione villorum intestinorum tenuium hominis.
“Lieberkühn’s glands” or “crypts” described. They were discovered by Malpighi in 1688.
GMN 978 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/613
1746 HAMBERGER, Georg Erhard (1697 – 1755)
De ruptura intestini duodeni.
First description of duodenal ulcer.
GMN 3424 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5349
1756 RÉAUMUR, René Antoine Ferchault de (1683 – 1757)
Sur la digestion des oiseaux.
Using a pet buzzard, de Réaumur succeeded in isolating the gastric juice and demonstrating its solvent effect on foods.
GMN 979 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/619
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
1777 STEVENS, Edward (1755 – 1834)
Dissertatio physiologica inauguralis de alimentorum concoctione.
First isolation of human gastric juice. Stevens was also the first successfully to perform an in vitro digestion, proving the presence in the gastric juice of the active principle necessary for the assimilation of foo…
GMN 980 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/625
1777 ARMSTRONG, George (1719 – 1789)
An account of the diseases most incident to children, from their birth till the age of puberty.
This is an enlarged and more important (third) edition of his An essay on the diseases most fatal to infants (1767) No. 6324. Page 49: Important description of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.
GMN 3425 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5358
1780 SPALLANZANI, Lazzaro (1729 – 1799)
Dissertazioni di fisica animale e vegetable. 2 vols.
In the first patrt of this work, Della digestione dissertazione prima Spallanzani confirmed earlier doctrines of the solvent property of the gastric juice and discovered the action of the saliva in digestion. He state…
GMN 981 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/628
1788 BEARDSLEY, Hezekiah (1748 – 1790)
Case of a scirrhus in the pylorus of an infant.
First American case report on congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Cases and observations by the Medical Society of New-Haven County…was the first American medical periodical. Only one volume was published. Beard…
GMN 3426 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5363
1793 BAILLIE, Matthew (1761 – 1823)
The morbid anatomy of some of the most important parts of the human body.
Baillie was a nephew and pupil of William Hunter. The above is the first systematic textbook of morbid anatomy, treating the subject for the first time as an independent science. See also Nos. 2736, 3167.1. Baillie wa…
GMN 2281 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2898
1793 PENADA, Jacopo (1748 – 1828)
Saggio d’osservazioni, e memoire sopra alcuni case singolari riscontrati nell’esercizio della medicina, e della anatomia pratica.
Includes (pp. 33-56) an account of perforating duodenal ulcer.
GMN 3428 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5373
1794 BAYFORD, David (1739 – 1790)
An account of a singular case of obstructed deglutition.
Bayford reported a a fatal case of "obstructed deglutition" caused by compression of the oesophagus by an aberrant right subclavian artery. This he called Dysphagia lusoria. See the account by N. Asherson in Ann. roy.…
GMN 3428.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5375
1803 YOUNG, John Richardson (1782 – 1804)
An experimental inquiry into the principles of nutrition, and the digestive process.
Young, one of the first American experimental physiologists, showed the solvent principle in the gastric juice to be an acid, but wrongly inferred that it was phosphoric acid. He also deduced the association and synch…
GMN 982 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/630
1805 SMITH, Thomas (1785 – 1831)
An essay on wounds of the intestines.
The first serious attempt at repairing intestinal injuries in America, and the first use of dogs for experimental surgery in America.
GMN 3430.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5384
1806 HESSELBACH, Franz Kaspar (1759 – 1816)
Anatomisch-chirurgische Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Leistenbrüche
Includes description of “Hesselbach’s hernia” and “triangle”. He wrote a further volume on the subject in 1814.
GMN 3582 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5360
1809 MECKEL, Johann Friedrich (1781 – 1833)
Ueber die Divertikel am Darmkanal.
“Meckel’s diverticulum”.
GMN 984 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/639
1810 MERREM, Daniel Carl Theodor (1790 – 1859)
Animadversiones quaedam chirurgicae experimentis in animalibus factis illustratae.
Experimental excision of the pylorus.
GMN 3431 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5387
1812 –1813 PHYSICK, Philip Syng (1768 – 1837)
Account of a new mode of extracting poisonous substances from the stomach.
Physick was the first, in 1805, to use a stomach tube for gastric lavage in a case of poisoning. He acknowledged the priority of Monro secundus in the invention of a similar instrument in 1767. For history of the stom…
GMN 3432 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5391
1812 TRAVERS, Benjamin (1783 – 1858)
An inquiry into the process of nature in repairing injuries of the intestines.
Travers’s researches on intestinal sutures recorded the first accurate knowledge on this subject.
GMN 3433 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5395
1813 MAGENDIE, François (1783 – 1855)
Mémoire sur le vomissement.
Physiologists still consult Magendie’s classic description of the physiology of deglutition and vomiting. Magendie proved, against the current theory of Haller, that the stomach was passive rather than active in vomit…
GMN 985 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/642
1813 MAGENDIE, François (1783 – 1855)
Mémoire sur l’usage de l’epiglotte dans la déglutition …
Magendie showed that the epiglottis is not necessary for swallowing, which disproved the accepted doctrine that the epiglottis was necessary to cover the glottis to prevent food from entering the trachea.
GMN 985.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/647
1814 BRODIE, Sir Benjamin Collins (1783 – 1862)
Experiments and observations on the influence of the nerves of the eighth pair on the secretions of the stomach.
Before turning to surgery, Brodie did important work in physiology. Above is his study of the influence of the pneumogastric nerve on gastric secretion.
GMN 986 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/655
1816 –1817 MAGENDIE, François (1783 – 1855)
Précis élémentaire de physiologie. 2 vols.
The first modern physiology textbook, in which doctrine gave way to simple, precise descriptions of experimental facts. Vol. 2 contains Magendie’s classic demonstration of the importance of nitrogenous food, or protei…
GMN 1041.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1048
1824 PROUT, William (1785 – 1850)
On the nature of the acid and saline matters usually existing in the stomachs of animals.
Proof that the gastric juice contains free hydrochloric acid.
GMN 987 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/660
1825 BEAUMONT, William (1785 – 1853)
A case of wounded stomach [by Joseph Lovell].
Beaumont’s first report on Alexis St. Martin was accidentally published under the name of Joseph Lovell, Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army. See No. 989.
GMN 987.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/666
1826 BEAUMONT, William (1785 – 1853)
Further experiments on the case of Alexis San Martin, who was wounded in the stomach by a load of buckshot.
In this and No. 987.1 Beaumont first described his revolutionary experiments on Alexis St. Martin. He continued these researches and published his monograph in 1833. See No. 989.
GMN 987.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/672
1826 –1827 TIEDEMANN, Friedrich (1781 – 1861); GMELIN, Leopold (1788 – 1853)
Die Verdauung nach Versuchen. 2 vols.
Confirmation of the work of Prout.
GMN 988 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/680
1826 LEMBERT, Antoine (1802 – 1851)
Mémoire sur l’entéroraphie avec la description d’un procédé nouveau pour pratiquer cette opération chirurgicale.
Description of what is now known as Lembert’s suture, which ensures that serous surface is applied to serous surface in suturing intestine – the foundation of all modern gastric and intestinal surgery. Dieffenbach (se…
GMN 3435 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5400
1829 JOBERT DE LAMBALLE, Antoine Joseph (1799 – 1867)
Traité théorique et pratique des maladies chirurgicales du canal intestinal. 2 vols.
Jobert, famous French surgeon, made his reputation on this book. He was at one time Consulting Physician to Louis XVIII.
GMN 3439 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5433
1833 BEAUMONT, William (1785 – 1853)
Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion.
Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian half-breed who had sustained a gastric fistula, was treated and investigated by Beaumont. With his human medium, Beaumont as the first to study digestion and the movements of the stomach …
GMN 989 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/685
1835 WILSON, John R. W.
A case of introsussception in which an operation was successfully resorted to…in December, 1831.
First operation for intussusception in the United States, performed in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The patient was a negro slave; the operation was a complete success. Reported by Wilson’s pupil, W.W. Thompson.
GMN 3440.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5440
1836 MÜLLER, Johannes Peter (1801 – 1858); SCHWANN, Theodor (1810 – 1882)
Versuche über die künstliche Verdauung des geronnenen Eiweisses.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 990 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/689
1836 SCHWANN, Theodor (1810 – 1882)
Ueber das Wesen des Verdauungsprocesses.
William Beaumont recognized that the gastric juice contained some other active chemical substance besides hydrochloric acid. Schwann proved this to be pepsin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 991 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/692
1836 DIEFFENBACH, Johann Friedrich (1792 – 1847)
Glückliche Heilung nach Ausscheidung eines Theiles des Darms und Netzes.
First account of a resection in which Lembert’s suture was successfully employed.
GMN 3441 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5441
