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
1473 METLINGER, Bartholomäus ( – 1491)
Regiment der jungen Kinder.
This work has very little originality, being mainly derived from the Arabic physicians of 500 years before, but is noteworthy as being the first book on pediatrics printed in German. It includes what is probably the f…
GMN 6316 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8074
1481 GALEN, [Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; Galen of Pergamon] (129 – 216); RHAZES [MUHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYĀ AL-RĀZĪ (PERSIAN: محمد زکریای رازی ] (854 – 925); HIPPOCRATES, [Ἱπποκράτης; Hippocrates of Kos] (-460 – -370); MESUE, Yuhanna ibn Masawaih (يوحنا بن ماسويه) (777 – 857)
Liber ad Almansorem sive Tractatus medicinae I-X. Add: Liber divisionum; De aegritudinibus juncturarum; De aegritudinibus puerorum; De secretis sive aphorismi; De sectionibus et ventosis; Synonyma. Galenus: De medicinis experimentatis. Mesue (the elder): Aphorismi. Hippocrates: secreta; Capsula eburnea; De humana natura; De aere et aqua et regionibus; De pharmaciis. Tabula de herbis medicis.
Rhazes was the first to devote an entire treatise to diseases of children. Although he lived so many years before the advent of printing, he was still regarded as an authority in the 15th century and his works were am…
GMN 6313 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8065
1486 –1487 ROELANS DE MECHLINIA, Cornelius [Cornelis Roelants van Mechelen] (1450 – 1525)
Opusculum aegritudinum puerorum.
A work on disorders of pregnant women as well as on pediatrics. It describes 52 childhood diseases, providing the name, the causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatment of each, drawing on Greek authors, Arabs (especiall…
GMN 6316.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8077
1491 LOUFFENBURG, Heinrich von (Laufenberg) (1391 – 1460)
Versehung des Leibs.
Written in 1429, this didactic poem is the first known text to be devoted to the normal physiology and common illnesses of children. It was written in old Swabian, and its author was a monk. The poem was probably inte…
GMN 6314 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8066
1502 –1503 BONACCIOLI, Ludovico [Lodovico; Bonaciolus] (1475 – 1536)
Enneas muliebris.
This work was prepared for and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia by her physician, Bonaccioli, who guided her through 14 pregnancies, the last of which was fatal to both mother and child. The first three chapters concern f…
GMN 9325 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11507
1533 MATTIOLI, Pietro Andrea Gregorio (Matthiolus) (1500 – 1577)
Morbi gallici novum ac utilissimum opusculum quo vera et omnimoda ejus cura percipi potest.
Mattioli considered mercury a specific in the treatment of syphilis. He was probably the first to work extensively on syphilis of the newborn. He is better known for his commentary on Dioscorides.
GMN 2366 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3203
1544 PHAER, Thomas [PHAYER; PHAYR] (1510 – 1560); GOEUROT, Jean (1500 – 1551)
The regiment of life, whereunto is added a treatise of the pestilence, with the boke of children.
The “boke of children” is the first work on diseases of children to be written by an Englishman the English language. Phaer enabled Englishmen to read and think of pediatrics in their own language. The edition include…
GMN 6317 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8081
1563 WÜRTZ, Felix [WIRTZ] (1510 – 1590)
Practica der Wundartzney.
Würtz was a friend of Gessner and an admirer of Paracelsus; his book went through many editions and was translated into English, French, and Dutch. It describes the treatment of gunshot wounds, fractures, and dislocat…
GMN 5563 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6933
1565 VALLAMBERT, Simon de [VALLEMBERT] (1525 – 1565)
Cinq livres, de la manière de nourrir et gouverner les enfans dès leur naissance.
The first French work on pediatrics. Vallambert considered a wider range of diseases than any previous writer, including the first reference to syphilis in children, and gave the best commentary up to his time on infa…
GMN 6318 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8085
1577 FERRARI, Ognibene (Omnibonus Ferrarius) ( – 1599)
De arte medica infantium libri quatuor. Quorum duo Priores de tuenda eorum sanitate, posteriores de curandis morbis agunt.
An early illustrated work on pediatrics. The three parts of his book deal with the management of the nurse and her milk, the care and feeding of the new-born, and diseases of children, including skin diseases, and cha…
GMN 7990 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10166
1614 PLATER, Felix [PLATTER] (1536 – 1614)
Observationum in hominis affectibus plerisque, corpori & animo, functionum laesione, dolore, aliave molestia & vitio incommodantibus, libri tres.
First known report of a case of death from hypertrophy of the thymus, in an infant, is reported on p. 172; it is reproduced on p. 239 of J. Ruhräh’s Pediatrics of the past, New York, 1925. Platter first described flex…
GMN 3789 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4706
1645 WHISTLER, Daniel (1619 – 1684)
Disputatio medica inauguralis, de morbo puerili Anglorum, quem patrio idiomate indigenae vocant The Rickets.
In his 26th year Whistler published his graduation thesis at Leiden; this was the first description of rickets as a definite disease manifesting itself by a more or less constant association of symptoms. Still (No. 63…
GMN 3727 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4502
1652 PANAROLI, Domenico (1587 – 1657)
Iatrologismorum seu medicinalium observationum pentecostae quinque utilibus praeceptis.
Panaroli described hemolytic jaundice of the newborn.
GMN 3050 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3657
1653 PEMELL, Robert ( – 1653)
De morbis puerorum, or, a treatise of the diseases of children.
The second work in English on pediatrics, published more than 100 years after the publication of Phaer’s book. Pemell was a general practitioner living at Cranbrook in Kent; he was buried only five days after the publ…
GMN 6320 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8087
1671 –1674 LE BÖE, Franz de [FRANCISCUS SYLVIUS] (1614 – 1672)
Praxeos medicae idea nova. 4 vols.
Sylvius was a supporter of the Iatrochemical School. At Leiden he established the first university chemical laboratory in Europe. His extensive treatise on the diseases of children was first published as volume 4 of t…
GMN 2197 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1514
1674 WELSCH, Georg Hieronymous (Velschius) (1624 – 1677)
Exercitatio de vena Medinensi, ad mentem Ebn Sinae [Ibn Sina] sive de dracunaculis veterum. Specimen exhibens novae versionis ex Arabico, cum commentario uberiori. Cui accedit altera, de vermiculis capillaribus infantium.
An exhaustive survey of dracontiasis, or guinea worm disease, based on the Arabic writings of Avicenna. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 5336.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6702
1684 BLANKAART, Steven [BLANCARD] (1650 – 1702)
Verhandelinge van de opvoedinge en ziekten der kinderen. Vertoonende op wat wyse de kinderen gezond konnen blyven, en ziek zijnde, bequamelyk konnen herstelt werden. Zeer nodig voor alle huyshoudende lieden.
A book intended for a popular audience on raising, educating, and caring for health problems of children. Blankaart offered advice and instructions to parents for treating all sorts of children's illnesses as well as …
GMN 12044 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14252
1689 HARRIS, Walter (1647 – 1732)
De morbis acutis infantum.
Harris was physician to William and Mary. His book served for nearly a century as a standard work on pediatrics. He anticipated the modern treatment of tetany by using calcium salts in infantile convulsions. For a stu…
GMN 6321 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8089
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
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
1741 ANDRY, Nicolas (1658 – 1742)
L’orthopédie ou l’art de prévenir et de corriger dans les enfans, les difformités du corps. 2 vols.
The first book specifically on orthopedics, which term Andry himself introduced. He advised attention to proper posture in the prevention and correction of spinal curvature; he had a practical knowledge of body mechan…
GMN 4301 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5456
1748 CADOGAN, William (1711 – 1797)
An essay upon nursing, and the management of children, from their birth to three years of age.
Cadogan’s famous essay laid down rules on the nursing, feeding, and clothing of infants, and filled a great need at a time when infant welfare was much neglected through the ignorance of those concerned. As a result o…
GMN 6322 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8092
1752 FATIO, Johannes (1649 – 1691)
Der Arzney Doctor, Helvetisch-Vernünftige Wehe-Mutter, oder Gründlicher Unterricht, wie mit den Schwangern, Gebährenden, Kindbetterinnen und neugebohrnen Kindern umzugehen, selbige gebührend zu verpflegen, und in allerhand ihnen zustossenden Kranckheiten zu begegnen seye: Samt einer ausführlichen Beschreibung von Fortpflanzung des menschlichen Geschlechts, und aller weiblichen Leibes-Theilen, auch der Empfängniß, Formir- und Bildung der Frucht im Mutterleibe. Nebst des Verfassers curiösen Anmerckungen, selbst-bewährten Handgriffen, Curen und dazu dienlichen Arzney-Mitteln. Dem löblichen Frauenzimmer, geschwohrnen Weibern, und andern ehrbaren Frauen zu Nutz, mit besonderm Fleisse in fünf Abschnitte eingetheilt. Mit vielen Kupfern und dreyen Registern.
Fatio was probably the first surgeon to study and treat surgical conditions of children in a systematic fashion. His book, first published over 60 years after his death, is divided into five parts: 1) the anatomy of w…
GMN 6357.51 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8217
1764 ROSÉN VON ROSENSTEIN, Nils (1706 – 1773)
Underrättelser om barn-sjukdomar och deras botemedel.
Sir Frederic Still considered this work “the most progressive which had yet been written”; it gave an impetus to research which influenced the future course of pediatrics. Rosén was particularly interested in infant f…
GMN 6323 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8094
1766 MORAND, Sauveur-François (1697 – 1773)
Sur un enfant auquel il manquoit les deux clavicules, le sternum et les cartilages, qui dans l’état naturel l’attachent aux côtes.
First description of cleido-cranial dysostosis.
GMN 4302.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5465
1767 ARMSTRONG, George (1719 – 1789)
An essay on the diseases most fatal to infants.
One of the best pediatric works of the period. Armstrong is noteworthy as the founder of the first children’s dispensary in Europe, the Dispensary for Sick Children, London, in 1769.
GMN 6324 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8096
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
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
1784 UNDERWOOD, Michael (1737 – 1820)
A treatise on the diseases of children.
Underwood laid the foundation of modern pediatrics. His work was superior to anything that had previously appeared and remained the most important book on the subject for sixty years, passing through many editions. Th…
GMN 2734.4 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8101
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
1790 FRANCO, Francisco de Mello (1757 – 1822)
Tratado da educação fysica dos meninos, para uso da naçaõ Portugueza publicado por ordem da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa.
The first work on pediatrics written by a Brazilian physician. Digital facsimile from Biblioteca digital Luso-Brasileira at this link.
GMN 11783 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13984
1804 HEBERDEN, William Jr. (1767 – 1845)
Morborum puerilium epitome.
English translation, Uttoxeter, 1805. Like his father, Heberden junior was a great clinician. It is probable that the above was compiled from notes left by Heberden senior.
GMN 6327 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8104
1810 BERTIN, René Joseph Hyacinthe (1757 – 1828)
Traité de la maladie vénérienne chez les enfans nouveau-nés, les femmes enceintes et les nourrices.
The first systematic work on congenital syphilis.
GMN 2378.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3269
1811 TYLER, Mary Hunt Palmer (1775 – 1866)
The maternal physician; a treatise on the nurture and management of infants, from the birth until two years old. Being the result of sixteen years' experience in the nursery. Illustrated by extracts from the most approved medical authors
The first American book on pediatrics, in the tradition of "advice books" or childcare manuals for mothers. This was the first American printed book on a medical subject written by a woman. Pages 248-75 publish a list…
GMN 7801 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9973
1813 WATT, Robert (1774 – 1819)
Treatise on the history, nature, and treatment of chincough: Including a variety of cases and dissections. To which is subjoined an inquiry into the relative mortality of the principal diseases of children, and the numbers who have died under ten years of age, in Glasgow, during the last thirty years.
Probably the second book on whooping cough, written after two of Watt's children died from the disease. After vaccination for smallpox was introduced, Watt found, as he had expected, that the number of deaths from tha…
GMN 5086.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5963
1814 WILLAN, Robert (1757 – 1812); SMITH, Ashby ( – 1831)
Practical treatise on porrigo, or scald head, and on impetigo, the humid or running teter
This treatise on infantile eczema is the only fascicule of the second volume of Willan’s On cutaneous diseases (No.4018) that ever appeared in print. It was edited for publication after Willan's death by his stepson-i…
GMN 4021.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5282
1815 CLARKE, John (1761 – 1815)
Commentaries on some of the most important diseases of children. Part the first.
First account of infantile tetany is given on pp. 86-97. Clarke died before this work was published. In it he also gave a clear description of laryngismus stridulus. This disease, which consists in a sudden onset of d…
GMN 4825 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1648
1815 –1818 GOELIS, Leopold Anton [GÖLIS] (1765 – 1827)
Praktische Abhandlungen über die vorzüglichen Krankheiten des Kindesalters. Vol. 1: Von der hitzigen Gehirnhöhlen-Wassersucht; Vol. 2: Vom inneren chronischen Wasserkopfe....
"In 1818, Leopold Anton Gölis (1765-1827, Austrian physician and pathologist), a paediatrician and dissector in the Institute for the Sick Children of the Poor in Vienna, described the clinical and autopsy findings of…
GMN 6329 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8112
1817 DAVIS, John Bunnell (1780 – 1824)
A cursory inquiry into some of the principal causes of mortality among children. With a view to assist in ameliorating the state of the rising generation, in health, morals, and happiness. To which is added an account of the universal dispensary for sick indigent children.
Davis called attention to the high infant mortality rate, especially in London. His suggestion that poor mothers should be instructed in the care of their infants resulted in a system of health-visiting by benevolent …
GMN 6330 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8115
1821 BARTON, John Rhea (1794 – 1871)
Remarks on certain injuries of the bones in children.
On bending fractures in children.
GMN 4411.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6178
1825 DEWEES, William Potts (1768 – 1841)
Treatise on the physical and medical treatment of children.
First American textbook on pediatrics.
GMN 6331 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8120
1826 CHAUSSIER, François (1746 – 1828)
Mémoire médico-légal sur la viabilité de l'enfant naissant.
Chaussier introduced a procedure for the revival of near-dead infants. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.
GMN 13410 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15682
1828 BILLARD, Charles-Michel (1800 – 1832)
Traité des maladies des enfans nouveau-nés et à la mamelle. 1 vol. and atlas.
The first significant work on the pathological anatomy of infants. Billard performed several hundred autopsies on infants and children and correlated the data obtained with clinical observations he had made. This pion…
GMN 2285.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2908
1834 GERHARD, William Wood (1809 – 1872)
Cerebral affections of children.
Accurate clinical description of tuberculous meningitis.
GMN 4636 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/701
1837 TERME, Jean-François (1791 – 1847); MONFALCON, Jean-Baptiste (1792 – 1874)
Histoire statistique et morale des enfants trouvés.
A thorough analysis of the problem of foundling children from a social, medical, legal and historical standpoint. The work begins with a history of the treatment of abandoned children from antiquity to the time of wri…
GMN 11813 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14015
1838 SORANUS OF EPHESUS (ΣΩΡΑΝΌΣ) (100 – 150); DIETZ, Friedrich Reinhold (1805 – 1836)
De arte obstetricia morbisque mulierum quae supersunt. Ex apographo Friderici Reinholdi Dietz, nuper fato perfuncti primum edita.
Greek editio princeps of Soranus, based on manuscripts Dietz discovered in Paris and Rome, and published after the early death of the editor. Soranus was the leading authority on the gynecology and obstetrics of antiq…
GMN 6008 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7178
1838 VALLEIX, François Louis Isidore (1807 – 1855)
Clinique des maladies des enfants nouveau-nes.
The first work on the diseases of newborns and the first work on child neurology and pediatric neurosurgery.
GMN 13150 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15409
1841 MATTSON, Morris
The American vegetable practice, or, a new and improved guide to health: Designed for the use of families. : In six Parts. Part I. Concise view of the human body, with engraved and wood-cut illustrations. Part II. Glance at the old school practice of physic. Part III. Vegetable materia medica, with colored Illustrations. Part IV. Compounds. Part V. Practice of medicine, based upon what are deemed correct physiological and pathological principles. Part VI. Guide for women, containing a simplified treatise on childbirth, with a description of the diseases peculiar to females and infant. 2 vols.
The first American book with chromolithographed illustrations printed in America. The chromolithographed images depict American medicinal plants. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 10723 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12917
1843 LEVER, John Charles Weaver (1811 – 1858)
Cases of puerperal convulsions, with remarks.
Lever, of Guy’s Hospital, was the first to report the finding of albuminous urine in connection with puerperal convulsions.
GMN 6176 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7773
![GALEN, [Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; Galen of Pergamon] (129 – 216)](/media/portraits/21)
![HIPPOCRATES, [Ἱπποκράτης; Hippocrates of Kos] (-460 – -370)](/media/portraits/50)
