1847 HAYWARD, George (1791 – 1863)
Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice. [Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, April 12, 1847.]
Hayward's case report of the first major operation performed under ether anesthesia, which he performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital on November 7, 1846, three weeks after Warren's first operation using ether…
GMN 11913 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14118
1848 HANCOCK, Henry (1809 – 1880)
Disease of the appendix caeci cured by operation.
First recorded successful operation for peritonitis due to abscess in the appendix. Hancock was surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, London.
GMN 3563 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4077
1848 SYME, James (1799 – 1870)
Contributions to the pathology and practice of surgery.
Syme, one-time colleague of Liston, succeeded to the latter’s extensive practice in Scotland. He came to London for a short time as Professor of Surgery at University College, but soon returned to Scotland. He was a p…
GMN 5599 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7094
1849 HIPPOCRATES, [Ἱπποκράτης; Hippocrates of Kos] (-460 – -370); ADAMS, Francis (1796 – 1861)
The genuine works of Hippocrates. Translated from the Greek with a preliminary discourse and annotations by Francis Adams. 2 vols.
Francis Adams, surgeon of Banchory, Scotland, prepared this partial translation to acquaint his contemporaries with “the opinions of an author, whom I verily believe to be the highest exemplar of professional excellen…
GMN 14 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/914
1849 SÉDILLOT, Charles Emmanuel (1804 – 1883)
Opération de gastrostomie pratiquée pour la première fois le 13 novembre 1849.
First gastrostomy.
GMN 3451 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5571
1851 NÉLATON, Auguste (1807 – 1873)
De l’influence de la position dans les maladies chirurgicales.
GMN 5600 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7099
1851 –1854 PIROGOV, Nikolai Ivanovich (Pirogoff) (1810 – 1881)
Klinische Chirurgie. 3 pts.
Pirogov is considered the greatest Russian surgeon and one of the greatest military surgeons of all time. He was among the first in Europe to employ ether anesthesia. He served in the Crimean campaign and was responsi…
GMN 5601 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7101
1851 –1876 DAREMBERG, Charles Victor (1817 – 1872); ORIBASIUS (ὈΡΕΙΒΆΣΙΟΣ), [Oreibasius] (320 – 403); BUSSEMAKER, Ulco Cats (1810 – 1865); MOLINIER, Auguste (1851 – 1904)
Oeuvres d’Oribase, texte grec, en grande partie inédit…traduit pour la première fois en français; par les Drs. Bussemaker et Daremberg. 6 vols.
Oribasius was a compiler of existing knowledge rather than an original writer. His output was immense; he compiled the Synagoge, an encyclopedic digest of medicine, hygiene, therapeutics, and surgery from Hippocrates …
GMN 31 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8755
1852 GREEN, Horace (1802 – 1866)
The surgical treatment of polypi of the larynx and oedema of the glottis.
Green was one of the few to remove a laryngeal tumor before the invention of the laryngoscope.
GMN 3262 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3952
1852 –1855 HESSLER, Franz (1799 – 1890)
Commentarii et annotationes in Suśruta Āyurvedam. 2 vols.
Hessler, editor and translator of the first edition of Suśruta published in the West (3 vols., 1844-50) followed that edition with two separate volumes of commentary.
GMN 7168 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9335
1853 BUCK, Gurdon (1807 – 1877)
On the surgical treatment of morbid growths within the larynx, illustrated by an original case and statistical observations, elucidating their nature and forms.
Thyrotomy for removal of cancer of the larynx. The operation took place in May 1851, and the patient died in 1852.
GMN 3263 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3954
1853 RIEUX, Léon
Considérations sur l’étranglement de l’intestin dans la cavité abdominale et sur un mode d’étranglement non décrit par les auteurs. Thèse pour le doctorat en médecine.... No. 128.
Retrocaecal hernia (“Rieux’s hernia”) first described. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 3590 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4404
1853 ERICHSEN, Sir John Eric (1818 – 1896)
The science and art of surgery.
The most popular textbook on the subject for many years. Erichsen was surgeon to University College Hospital, London, and Lister served as his house surgeon.
GMN 5602 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7104
1853 PRAVAZ, Charles Gabriel (1791 – 1853)
Sur un nouveau moyen d’opérer la coagulation du sang dans les artères, applicable à la guérison des anéurismes.
Pravaz invented galvanocautery.
GMN 5603 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7108
1854 FENGER, Carl Emil (1814 – 1884)
Ueber Anlegung einer künstlichen Magenöffnung am Menschen durch Gastrotomie.
Fenger’s operation.
GMN 3452 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5572
1854 VELPEAU, Alfred Armand Louis Marie (1795 – 1867)
Traité des maladies du sein et de la région mammaire.
Velpeau was the leading French surgeon of the first half of the 19th century. His treatise on tumors of the breast, his best work, was the most important of its time on the subject. It includes a good account of hyper…
GMN 5771 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6803
1854 ROGER OF SALERNO, (Rogerius Salernitanus, Frugard, Frugardi, Roggerio Frugardo, Rüdiger Frutgard, Roger of Parma) (1140 – 1195); DAREMBERG, Charles Victor (1817 – 1872)
Glossulae quatuor magistrorum super chirurgiam Rogerii et Rolandi nunc primum ad fidem codicis Mazarinei edidit
In Roger of Salerno's Practica chirurgiae, which appeared about 1180, end-to-end suture is described, as is the value of mercurial inunction in chronic skin diseases; in his recommendation of seaweed for the treatment…
GMN 5551 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6850
1854 YPERMAN, Jehan (Jan; Johan) (1260 – 1330)
La chirurgie de maître Jean Yperman, le père de la chirurgie flamande (1295-1351). Mise au jour et annotée par J. M. F. Carolus.
Jan Yperman, became the first authority on surgery in the Low Countries during the 14th century. He was also the first medical writer in the Dutch language. He probably born in or near Ypres in Belgium, and may have s…
GMN 5555 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6882
1854 MIDDELDORPF, Albrecht Theodor (1824 – 1868)
Die Galvanokaustik.
Middeldorpf improved the galvano-cautery and introduced it in major surgery.
GMN 5604 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7114
1856 POLAK, Jakob Eduard (1818 – 1891)
Kitab-i jarrahi wa yak risalah dar kahhali [in Persian; English translation: Book on surgery with a treatise on ophthalmology]. Lithographed text.
The first Persian-language surgery and ophthalmology textbook based on Western medical science. Polak based his textbook on Joseph Maximilien Chelius’s Handbuch der Chirurgie (1830) and Handbuch der Augenheilkunde (18…
GMN 14062 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16372
1857 TREITZ, Václav (Wenzel) (1819 – 1872)
Hernia retroperitonealis. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte innerer Hernien.
Treitz described retroperitoneal hernia through the duodeno-jejunal recess – “Treitz’s hernia”.
GMN 3591 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4407
1857 MIDDELDORPF, Albrecht Theodor (1824 – 1868)
De polypis oesophagi atque de tumore ejus generis primo prospere exstirpato.
First operation for tumor of the esophagus.
GMN 3456 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5585
1857 COOPER, Elias Samuel (1820 – 1862)
Report of an operation for removing a foreign body from beneath the heart. Published by the San Francisco County Medico Chirurgical Association as an additional paper to its Transactions for the year 1857.
Perhaps the earliest separate publication on a surgical operation issued in California.
GMN 12322 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14545
1858 FORSTER, John Cooper (1824 – 1896)
Description of the operation of gastrotomy.
First gastrostomy in Britain.
GMN 3457 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5588
1858 SIMS, James Marion (1813 – 1883)
Silver sutures in surgery.
Sims, famous American gynecologist, introduced a silver wire suture, in order to avoid sepsis. See No. 6037.
GMN 5605 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7117
1859 MIDDELDORPF, Albrecht Theodor (1824 – 1868)
Commentatio de fistulis ventriculi externis et chirurgica earum sanatione.
First operation for gastric fistula.
GMN 3459 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5593
1859 GRÜNDER, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig (1819 – 1866)
Geschichte der Chirurgie von den Urzeiten bis zu Anfang des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts.
GMN 5791 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6868
1859 CHASSAIGNAC, Edouard Pierre Marie (1804 – 1879)
Traite pratique de la suppuration et du drainage chirurgical. 2 vols.
Chassaignac, who introduced india-rubber tubes to drain abscesses, put the whole subject of surgical drainage on a scientific and methodical footing.
GMN 5606 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7121
1859 GROSS, Samuel David (1805 – 1884)
A system of surgery; pathological, diagnostic, therapeutic, and operative. 2 vols.
A profound intellect in 19th-century American surgery, Gross was both a surgical innovator and an outstanding author of numerous works that became classics. This massive treatise containing nearly 2500 pages was inten…
GMN 5607 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7124
1859 BEANEY, James George (1828 – 1891)
Original contributions to the practice of conservative surgery; being a selection from the surgical cases occurring in the practice of James G. Beaney.
The first work on surgery written and published in Australia, and one of the first medical works on any subject written and published in Australia.
GMN 10891 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13087
1859 SMITH, Sir Thomas (1833 – 1909)
A manual of operative surgery on the dead body.
Smith's concept was the teaching of surgery in a manner analogous to the teaching of anatomy--i.e. from a cadaver. His book organizes and explains the operations that student surgeons could practice on a cadaver. Digi…
GMN 11364 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13563
1860 LEMAIRE, François Jules (1814 – 1886)
Du coaltar saponiné, désinfectant énergique, arrètant les fermentations, de ses applications a l'hygiène, la thérapeutique, a l'histoire naturelle.
Lemaire was first to point out the antiseptic properties of carbolic acid. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.
GMN 1864 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2420
1861 CHISOLM, Julian John (1830 – 1903)
A manual of military surgery: for the use of surgeons in the Confederate army: with an appendix of the rules and regulations of the medical department of the Confederate army.
Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
GMN 7811 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9983
1861 SCHUPPERT, Moritz (1817 – 1887)
A treatise on gun-shot wounds: written for and dedicated to the surgeons of the Confederate States Army.
Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 7814 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9986
1863 LISTER, Joseph, 1st Baron Lister (1827 – 1912)
On the coagulation of the blood.
In his Croonian Lecture Lister exploded the theory that blood coagulation is due to ammonia and showed that, in the blood vessels, it depends upon their injury. He further showed that by carrying out the strictest pre…
GMN 871 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/835
1863 GRUBER, Wenzel Leopold (1814 – 1890)
Ueber einen Fall nicht incarcerierter, aber mit Incarceration des Ileum durch das Omentum complicirter Hernia interna mesogastrica.
“Gruber’s hernia” – internal mesogastric hernia.
GMN 3592 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4410
1863 BILLROTH, Christian Albert Theodor (1829 – 1894)
Die allgemeine chirurgische Pathologie und Therapie.
Billroth, professor of surgery at Zürich and Vienna, was the founder of the Vienna School of Surgery. He has also been called the founder of modern abdominal surgery, and he was one of the first to introduce antisepsi…
GMN 5608 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7125
1863 HILTON, John (1804 – 1878)
On the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain.
Hilton, surgeon to Guy’s Hospital, suggested that symptoms are disordered reflexes. He advocated complete rest in the treatment of surgical disorders of all parts of the body. Second and later editions were entitled O…
GMN 5609 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7127
1863 KOEBERLÉ, Eugène (1828 – 1915)
Exstirpation de l’utérus et des ovaires.
First successful excision of uterus and ovaries for tumor.
GMN 6052 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7393
1863 WARREN, Edward (1828 – 1893)
An epitome of practical surgery for field and hospital.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 7812 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9984
1863 FORMENTO, Felix (1837 – 1907)
Notes and observations on army surgery.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 7813 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9985
1864 SIMPSON, Sir James Young (1811 – 1870)
Acupressure: A new method of arresting surgical haemorrhage and of accelerating the healing of wounds.
In 1858 Simpson described a new method of controlling blood loss during surgical operations – acupressure, not to be confused with the traditional Chinese medical technique similarly named. Simpson's technique, though…
GMN 11617 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13817
1865 SANDS, Henry Berton (1830 – 1888)
Case of cancer of the larynx, successfully removed by laryngotomy.
Laryngectomy for papillomata.
GMN 3272 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3976
1865 KOEBERLÉ, Eugène (1828 – 1915)
Documents pour servir à l’histoire de l’extirpation des tumeurs fibreuses de la matrice par la méthode suspubienne.
GMN 6053 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7396
1867 ALTHAUS, Julius (1833 – 1900)
On the electrolytic treatment of tumors, and other surgical diseases.
Althaus introduced Duchenne’s methods into England. He was the first to employ electrolysis for medical purposes. Greatly expanded third edition, 1873.
GMN 1996.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1861
1867 SOLIS-COHEN, Jacob da Silva (1838 – 1927)
Removal of a fibrous polyp from the inferior anterior surface of the right vocal cord with the aid of the laryngoscope.
First successful operation for cancer of the larynx.
GMN 3274 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3982
1867 PARKER, Willard (1800 – 1884)
An operation for abscess of the appendix vermiformis caeci.
Parker was the first American to operate for appendicitis. In this paper he described a case from 1864, but mentioned a case he had operated on as early as 1843. He advocated the opening of the appendicular abscesses …
GMN 3564 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4078
1867 LISTER, Joseph, 1st Baron Lister (1827 – 1912)
On a new method of treating compound fracture, abscess, etc., with observations on the conditions of suppuration.
Lister’s work on the antiseptic principle in surgery. He believed that bacteria could enter wounds and cause suppuration and putrefaction and that it was necessary to kill the bacteria already in wounds and to apply d…
GMN 4423.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6230
1867 FERGUSSON, Sir William (1808 – 1877)
Lectures on the progress of anatomy and surgery during the present century.
GMN 5793 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6873
1867 LISTER, Joseph, 1st Baron Lister (1827 – 1912)
On the antiseptic principle in the practice of surgery.
Having realized the significance of Pasteur’s work on fermentation, Lister evolved the idea of the antiseptic prevention of wound infection. This and the preceding entry represent two of the most epoch-making contribu…
GMN 5635 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7244
![HIPPOCRATES, [Ἱπποκράτης; Hippocrates of Kos] (-460 – -370)](/media/portraits/50)
