This book, which showed Pott’s extensive knowledge of surgical literature, systematized the treatment of head injuries. It shows what a variety of injuries of the head could be sustained even before the advent of the motor-car. Includes the first description of “Pott’s puffy tumor”. Pott was bom in Threadneedle Street, where the Bank of England now stands; he succeeded Cheselden as the greatest surgeon of his day. The book was altered and re-published under a different title in 1768.

Probably the first example in the literature of a definite localization of function in the brain. In the first memoir Lorry examined the normal movements of the brain; in the second memoir he set out specifically, systematically, and experimentally to find “which particular organ within the bony casing of the brain, can produce sudden death” (Neuburger, Historical development of experimental brain and spinal cord physiology [1981] p. 97). As explained by Neuburger Chapter 6, Lorry systematically eliminated the cerebrum, cerebellum, and most of the spinal cord, and so focussed in on the medulla. He found that sudden death occurred in dogs only when the rostral spinal cord was punctured between the first and second vertebra in small animals and between the second and third vertebra in large animals. Puncture caudal to this level produced paralysis but not death. He had damaged the phrenic nucleus, the origin of the phrenic nerve controlling contraction of the diaphragm and thus breathing. “These precise data constitute probably the first example in the literature of a definite localization of function. This was the first center to be established, the earliest identification of ‘the ganglion of life’ ” (Neuburger p. 98). (communication from Larry W. Swanson)

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"Störck is remembered for his clinical research of various herbs, and their associated toxicity and medicinal properties. His studies are considered to be the pioneering work of experimental pharmacology and his method can be regarded as forming a blueprint for the clinical trials of modern medicine. He was convinced that plants regarded as poisonous still had medicinal applications if employed in carefully controlled quantities. Störck was particularly interested in the medical possibilities of plants such as hemlock, henbane, jimsonweed and autumn crocus. His experiments with these plants involved a three-step process; initially used on animals, followed by a personal trial, and finally given to his patients, all the while maintaining a "sliding-scale" approach to determine the optimum dosage" (Wikipedia article on Anton von Störck, accessed 03-2018). Digital facsimile from Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf at this link.

Because Derham died in 1735 this biography would have been written in the early part of the 18th century after the death of Ray in 1705. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Title pages in both French and Latin. One of the earliest systematic treatises on birds by a contemporary of Linnaeus. The work treats 1336 species of which Brisson claimed to recognize more than 800 by sight. The plates were engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

First printed catalogue of the anatomical preparations in the Anatomical Theatre and Institute directed by the professor of anatomy, Andreas Westphal.

This work is typically referred to as Disquisitio de sexu plantarum. Translated into English as A dissertation on the sexes of plants translated from the Latin of Linnaeus by James Edward Smith. London: Printed for the author, and sold by George Nicol, 1786.

A tract on medicine written for the lay public; it ran through many editions and was translated into all European languages. It has been called "the greatest medical best-seller of the eighteenth century" (Singy,  "The Popularization of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century: Writing, Reading, and Rewriting Samuel Auguste Tissot's Avis au peuple sur sa santé". Journal of Modern History, 82 (2010) 769–800).

English translation in 1765. Digital facsimile of the 1761 edition from Google Books at this link.

Morgagni was the founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work was completed in Morgagni’s 79th year and consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could, he correlated the clinical record with the post–mortem finding. Morgagni gave the first descriptions of several pathological conditions. He was Professor of Anatomy at Padua. Selections from the above work are reproduced in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 640-839. English translation by B. Alexander, 3 vols., London, 1769, (facsimile reprint, New York, Hafner, 1960; Mount Kisco, N.Y., Futura, 1980).

Classic descriptions of mitral stenosis (Letter III) and heart block, Stokes–Adams syndrome (vol. 1, p. 70) are reprinted in English translation in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 177-82. In Volume one, p. 282 Morgagni also reported an authentic case of angina pectoris is recorded by Morgagni; he observed it in 1707.

Cotugno is sometimes accredited with the discovery of the “liquor Cotunnii”, the labyrinthine fluid, first noted by Pyl in 1742. He did, however, make important contributions to the knowledge on the structure and function of the ear, including the discovery of the aural aqueducts. The naso-palatine nerve and the columns in the osseous spiral lamina are named after him.

First clinical report (pp. 30-31) of an association between tobacco and cancer, in this case “polypusses” of the nose caused by taking snuff. Hill was a distinguished botanist and apothecary, although regarded by some as a quack. See D.E. Redmond, Jr., Tobacco and cancer: the first clinical report. New Eng. J. Med., (1970), 282, 18-23.

Digital facsimile of the second edition, also published in 1761, from the Internet Archive at this link.

The greatness of Auenbrugger’s discovery of the value of immediate percussion of the chest as a diagnostic measure was not recognized until many years after he first published. His little book met with a cold reception, while a French translation by Rozière de la Chassagne in 1770 attracted little notice. But Auenbrugger lived to see the appearance in 1808 of J. N. Corvisart’s classic translation of the book, after which the value of percussion was universally recognized. It should be noted that recognition did not occur until nearly 50 years after Auenbrugger first published.

English translation by J. Forbes, 1824 (reprinted in Willius and Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941., pp. 193-213); also with introduction by H. E. Sigerist, in Bull. Hist. Med., 1936, 4, 373-403. For bibliography of the Inventum novum see P.J. Bishop, Tubercle, 1961, 42, 78. The facsimile reprint by Max Neuburger (Vienna, 1922) includes a facsimile of the original edition, and translations into English, French and German.

Mettler considers this “the most pretentious gynecologic work of the [eighteenth] century… chiefly useful for its historical orientation”. English translation, 3 vols., London, 1762-67.

Written in Franklin's absence, this continuation was printed in the same style and format as Franklin's 1761 work. Rhoads was an American architect who served as the 59th mayor of Philadelphia.

Twenty years after publication of the first edition (No. 1691), Süssmilch published a second edition "that was so different from the earlier book that it may well be called a separate work. While maintaining his original demographic theses, Süssmilch enlarged the scope of demographic enquiry to the field of social and economic policies. Many commentators have alluded to the differences between these two editions (Arisawa, 1979, p. 23; Hecht, 1980, p. 670; Rohrbasser, 1996, p. 984; Dreitzel, 1986a, p. 43). Still, the evolution of Süssmilch’s work has not yet been adequately highlighted and even less explained in the context of the population debates of his time.... Süssmilch radically changed his project and his outlook on the purpose of assembling demographic material in the twenty years between the two separate editions. The latter one deliberately forms part of the German political and economic discourse of the second third of the eighteenth century, while his previous intervention showed no signs of knowledge of this discourse and little interest in contributing to it. This reading of Süssmilch is informed by the assumption that the erudite discourse on population development and the debates about population politics were largely separated in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, thus differing from the situation in Western Europe" (Nipperdey, "Johann Peter Süssmilch: From divine law to human intervention," Population, 66 (2011/3) 611-636).

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Lyonet’s monograph on the goat moth caterpillar remains a famous example of anatomical examination. It is also a thorough treatise on the microscope and lenses that Lyonet used. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Redi was a leading physician in Italy. He is best remembered for his experiments discrediting the theory of spontaneous generation and for his pioneer work in the field of parasitology (see No. 2448.1); see also the article on Redi by R. Cole in Annals of Medical History 1926, 8, 347-59.

Bonnet’s theory of generation offered the best synthesis of 18th century ideas of development and remained a leading authority until von Baer. Bonnet believed in the preformation of the embryo. He used many of Haller’s arguments to support his own opinions. J. Needham (No.533) calls him an organicistic preformationist, for his objection to epigenesis lay in the fact that it apparently did not allow for the integration of the organism as a whole.

The first recognizable description of pellagra is included on pp. 327-60 of this book, which was written in 1735 but not published until 1762, after the writer’s death. He called the disease mal de la rosa. Reprinted, Oviedo, 1900.

Nicholls was the first to describe dissecting aneurysm of the aorta, the patient being King George II, to whom he was physician from 1753-60. Nicholls was also the first to give a correct description of the mode of production of aneurysm. Nicholls' pa;er was illustrated with two folding plates of the heart engraved by J. Mynde and printed in two colors (brown and sanguine). These were probably the first color-printed plates in a major scientific periodical.

This "case was that of a rupture of the right ventricle of the heart showing an effusion of blood into the pericardium and an aneurism of the aorta. The King had complained for some years of frequent distress about the region of the heart. His death was due to tamponade by the extravasated blood from a tear in the myocardium, probably caused by a coronary occlusion. Though complicated by a 'transverse fissure in the trunk of the aorta, one and a half inches long' Nicholls' report may be regarded as a contribution to the history of myocardial infaraction" (Leibowitz, The history of cononary heart disease, 83).

Also published in Gentleman's Magazine (issue of November 1762, 520-523.

The first formally published pamphlet (45pp.) on podiatry or chiropody. Rousselot argued that podiatry should become a specialty of surgery. Author's first name is unknown. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

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.

Classic description of hydrocele.

White’s method of reducing shoulder dislocations by means of suspending the patient from the affected arm. This method either reduced the dislocation entirely, or moved the head of the humerus into a position where it could be reduced by traditional methods such as applying the surgeon’s heel to the axilla.

An exhaustive study of typhoid, which the writers confused with dysentery and relapsing fever.

A case of osteomalacic pelvis was reported to Hunter by a country practitioner.

Sauvages de Lacroix, a friend of Linnaeus, adopted the botanical system of Linnaeus for the classification of diseases. His classification system listed 10 major classes of disease, which were further broken down into numerous orders, 295 genera, and 2400 species (individual diseases). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Louis was a pioneer of French medical jurisprudence. Above is a classic discussion on the differential signs of murder and suicide in cases of hanging.

Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, discovered that the bark of the willow tree (active ingredient: salicylic acid) was effective in reducing a fever. This was the first report in the scientific literature of a traditional remedy known since antiquity, and an ethnobotanical remedy widely used by native Americans, and perhaps other native peoples. Remarkably the remedy seems to have been forgotten or unknown to the scientific establishment until Stone published. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bayes's paper enunciated Bayes's Theorem for calculating "inverse probabilities”—the basis for methods of extracting patterns from data in decision analysis, data mining, statistical learning machines, Bayesian networks, Bayesian inference. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Of the 19,798 lots in the auction catalogue of Falconet's library, which at its peak contained around 60,000 volumes, there were 3,672 lots of medical books, including a major cross-section of significant medical works published up through his time. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Clossy, an Irish physician, previously at Trinity College, Dublin, gave the first anatomy classes and dissections at King’s College in New York City (now Columbia) in 1763. Clossy worked closely with other King’s College faculty, including Samuel Bard, to professionalize the study of medicine in the United States. He is understood to have dissected the bodies of deceased slaves in his lectures. His Observations, which he wrote during the 1750s, was the first treatise on anatomy and pathology published by a physician working in America. Clossy had it printed in London. Some of Clossy's innovative observations bear a relationship to similar kinds of observations made by Morgagni (1761). Clossy had his book printed in London. He returned to Europe in 1780

Huxham, a Devonshire man, was a pupil of Boerhaave. His most important contributions to medicine were in connection with fevers and infectious diseases.

The best book of the century regarding military sanitation.

An attempt to set the minimum and maximum time limits of duration of human pregnancy. Supplement published in 1764.

This description of an abdominal pregnancy, successfully operated on by Bard was “the first scientific paper on a surgical subject to come from the North American Colonies” (Earle). John Bard was the father of Samuel Bard.

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 feeding. The Underrättelserwere originally published in the calenders of the Academy and were later collected and issued in book form in 1764. English and German translations in 1776. For a biography, bibliography, and essays on this book, see Nils Rosen von Rosenstein and his textbook on paediatrics, ed. B. Vahlquist and A. Wallgren. Acta paediat., 1964. Suppl. 156.

Cotugno published a classic description of sciatica, which is useful even today. He recognized two types – arthritic and nervous; the latter has been called “Cotugno’s disease”, and his book is confined to that type. It includes the first clear description of the association of edema with proteinuria.

Valsalva in 1692 briefly mentioned the cerebrospinal fluid, but “Cotugno was the first to describe the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and to suggest tht it was in continuity with the ventricular and cerebral subarachnoid fluids. However, his concept of the cerebral and spinal fluid, which is the beginning of its modern physiology, remained in obscurity until rediscovery by Magendie some 60 years later” (Clarke & O’Malley). For more information regarding this book and a translation of the section dealing with the cerebrospinal fluid, see the article by H. R. Viets in Bull. Inst. Hist. Med., 1935, 3, 701-38. English translation, London, 1775.

Donald Monro was the second son of Alexander Monro (primus). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Though the title suggests tropical medicine in general, this work mainly concerns the selection and medical care of slaves. Digital facsimile of the second edition (Edinburgh, 1802) expanded "with practical notes and a Linnean index") from the Internet Archive at this link.

"Grainger first travelled to the West Indies in 1759 as a companion to a former patient. While there he married Miss Burt whose uncle Daniel Mathew owned estates and enslaved people in St Kitts, Tobago and Antigua. Grainger managed Mathew's St Kitts' estates as well as practising as a physician. Although he never owned an estate, Grainger is reported to have bought enslaved people" (https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/james-grainger).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English as Observations on diseases incidental to seamen. Translated from the Latin edition printed at Leyden. London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, jun, 1772. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

See also his supplementary papers on the subject, in Phil. Trans., (1767), 1768, 57, 118-31; (1770), 1771, 60, 30-35. Revised edition in book form, Shrewsbury, 1771.

The “Gasserian ganglion”, already described by Santorini and others, was named after Johann Ludwig Gasser (fl. 1757-65), Professor of Anatomy at Vienna, by his pupil Hirsch. Also published in Ludwig, C. F., Scriptores, 1791, vol. 1, pp. 244-62.

An investigation of how and why the iris contracts. See P.K. Knoefel, Felice Fontana: life and works, Trento, [1984], See also No.2103.

The first American publication on medical education. Morgan founded the first medical school in the United States, in connection with what is now the University of Pennsylvania.

“First important English work on neurology after Willis” (Garrison).

Probably the greatest English classic of colon-rectal surgery. Pott recommended the practice of simple division rather than the newer, more complicated methods proposed by Cheselden and Le Dran, and audaciously pointed out that there were lessons regular practitioners might learn from quacks apropos of this subject.

First clear and complete clinical description of diphtheria.

Spallanzani, a believer in preformation theory, found that he could prevent contamination by microorganisms in strongly heated infusions protected from aerial contamination, but he observed that as soon as air was allowed to enter the flask, microorganisms proliferated. He was one of the first to dispute the doctrine of spontaneous generation. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first original work on equine anatomy after Ruini (No. 285). Stubbs, the great painter of animals, prepared his own dissections of horse carcasses, and personally engraved the 24 double folio plates for this work, a task that took him seven or eight years to complete. Besides the first issue of this work, copies with text leaves identical to the first edition exist with the plates printed on paper watermarked 1798, 1813, and 1815. See No. 6610.54.

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 Channing, concerning whom see E. Savage-Smith, "John Channing: Eighteenth-century apothecary and arabist," Pharmacy in history, 30 (1988) 63-80. For an English translation see Medical Classics, 1939, 4, 22-84. A translation was also published by the Sydenham Society, 1848. See Nos. 2527 & 5441. In his Treatise on the smallpox and measles, Rhazes stated that survival from smallpox infection prevented an individual from ever acquiring the disease again. His explanation for why the disease does not strike the same individual twice is the first theory of acquired immunity.

First description of cleido-cranial dysostosis.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Harris drew and engraved his own illustrations. The second edition (1778) was considerably expanded, and with four more plates than the first, for a total of 45. Some of the hand-colored copies were hand-colored by the author. "Harris began to take an active interest in entomology about the age of twelve and ... was an accurate and original observer. He was, it is believed, the first to draw attention to the importance of wing neuration [the arrangement or distribution of nerves] in the classification of lepidoptera and upon this principle he arranged the species in his published works, illustrating them in colour with a high degree of accuracy. Harris certainly contributed much to the knowledge of the science and was one of the leading entomologists of his century. He was also a miniature painter of no mean accomplishment" (Lisney p.156). Lisney identifies different states of plates in the first edition, and different issues of the second edition.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"After suffering the loss of his only child, 15-year-old Elizabeth, in April 1763, Smollett left England in June of that year. Together with his wife, he traveled across France to Nice. In the autumn of the next year, he visited Genoa, Rome, Florence and other towns of Italy. After staying in Nice for the winter he returned to London by June 1765. Travels Through France and Italy is his account of this journey.

"Smollett describes in great detail the natural phenomena, history, social life, economics, diet and morals of the places he visited. Smollett had a lively and pertinacious curiosity, and, as his novels prove, a very quick eye. He foresaw the merits of Cannes, then a small village, as a health-resort, and the possibilities of the Corniche road.

"The writing is often characterized by spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness. Smollett quarrels with innkeepers, postilions and fellow travelers and holds many (though by no means all) foreigners he meets in contempt. He derides the Roman Catholic faith, dueling, petty and proud nobility, such domestic arrangements as the cicisbeo, and many other French and Italian customs.

"Laurence Sterne, who met Smollett in Italy, satirized Smollett's jaundiced attitude in the character of Smelfungus in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, which was written in part as an answer to Smollett's book" (Wikipedia article on Travels Through France and Italy, accessed 4-2020).

Baker demonstrated that the cider of Devonshire contained lead, while that made in other parts of England did not. He further showed that it was common practice in Devon to line cider presses with lead, and proved that lead poisoning was the cause of Devonshire colic. He was responsible for the abandonment of lead in the making of cider presses, and thus for the disappearance of the colic. See also his paper in Med. Trans. Coll. Phys. Lond., 1768, 1, 175-256. Facsimile reprint, 1958.

The starting point of modern investigations of serpent venoms and their antidotes. This work also includes Fontana’s description of the ciliary canal in the eye of an ox. This structure does not appear in the human eye, but certain spaces in the trabecular meshwork are often referred to as the spaces of Fontana. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

In 1781 Fontana issued a greatly expanded 2-volume edition in French, including vegetable poisons, and a section on "American poisons": Traité sur le vénin de la vipere, sur les poisons americains, sur le laurier-cerise et sur quelques autres poisons vegetaux. On y a joint des observations sur la structure primitive du corps animal. Différentes expériences sur la reproduction des nerfs et la description d'un nouveau canal de l'oeil. Digital facsimile of the French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. In 1787 the French edition was translated into English by Joseph Skinner in 2 vols. as Treatise on the venom of the viper, on the American poisons, and on the cherry laurel, and some other vegetable poisons. To which are annexed, observations on the primitive structure of the animal body, different experiments on the reproduction of the nerves, and a description of a new canal of the eye .... Digital facsimile of the second English edition (1795) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Jourdain reported a method of washing out the antrum of Highmore through the natural opening.

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 (London, 1771). Digital facsimile of the 1767 edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link. Digital facsimile of the English translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

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 in England. Dimsdale used material from the inoculated site of another patient.

Harvie, Smellie’s successor, advocated external expression of the placenta instead of traction on the cord, anticipating Credé in this connection by almost a century (see No. 6183). Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic contributions to obstetrics and gynecology, 1935, pp.131-38.

Balfour is said to have been the first to re-affirm the duality of gonorrhoea and syphilis.

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.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. First published as Hortus Britanno-Americanus (1763).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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.

Describes 8,096 mineral specimens from a wide range places, including a suite of specimens from Potosí, Bolivia, as well as many items from Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay. The catalog also lists 5,253 shells, 600 preserved animals, 101 plants, 3,915 fossils, 154 bezoars and calculi, 402 books, over 12,000 prints and engravings, 1,741 original artworks, 441 maps, as well as various scientific instruments and precious stones.

"Pedro Francisco Dávila, possessor of the largest collection of natural history specimens in Paris, and wishing to establish an institution in Spain to preserve it, approached King Carlos III of Spain. But political difficulties and an approaching war with England distracted the king, who declined the purchase. Because of debts incurred building the collection, creditors forced Dávila to put the accumulation up for auction in Paris. For this purpose, a detailed collection catalog was required. Dávila had already written many descriptions, but it was his introduction through Balthasar Sage to the young Romé de l'Isle that created this remarkable record of the collection. 

"Romé de l'Isle took the existing material, added considerably to the mineralogical descriptions, and put the catalog into publishable form. In this task he was assisted by Abbé Duguat who helped with the mineralogical descriptions and Abbé Gua de Malves [1712-1786] who described the shells. Through their efforts, two volumes describing natural history specimens were produced, one of which was entirely devoted to minerals. In addition, a third volume written by Romé de l'Isle probably with assistance from Pierre Remy, describes the fossils, artwork and books" (The Mineralogical Record).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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 of the pulse, and he attributed its various manifestations to the presence of a serous exudate in the brain.

One of the acknowledged classics of embryology. Wolff’s description of the formation of the chick’s intestine by the rolling inwards of a leaf-like layer of the blastoderm was important as proving his theory of epigenesis. A German translation by J. F. Meckel was published in 1812.

In this preliminary to a larger work on regeneration which was never published, Spallanzani described regenerative capacities of remarkable complexity and repetitiveness in the land snail, salamander and toad and frog, establishing the general law that an inverse ratio obtains between the regenerative capacity and age of the individual. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. English translation as An essay on animal reproductions (London, 1769). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Reprints and updates Haller’s earlier essays on various malformations. This work marks the beginning of scientific teratology, placing it on a foundation of sound anatomical description.

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 at resuscitation. News of the success of this organization spread rapidly through Europe, and similar societies were formed in other countries. French translation, Amsterdam, 1768. English translation by T. Cogan, London, 1773. See No. 2028.52.

One of the most important works on military surgery during the 18th century. Ravaton, a skilful army surgeon, was the first to employ a tin boot, suspended on four rings, for the “hanging” position of broken bones. He was also first to adopt the double-flap method in amputations.

Lind came near to discovering the connection between malaria and mosquitoes. He is best remembered for his work on scurvy (No. 3713), but the above book is one of the more important early works on tropical medicine.

Osler, Allbutt, and several other authorities believe this to be the description of an authentic case of angina, thus preceding Heberden’s classic account. Other eminent authorities consider the patient to have suffered from pulmonary emphysema. This little book of 55 pages is extremely rare; the whereabouts of only 2 copies is known.

First recorded description of multiple neurofibromatosis. Akenside was better known as a poet;  he was caricatured as the republican doctor of Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

Earliest English dental textbook. Berdmore was the first to mention the use of the microscope for the study of the minute structure of teeth.

Records, p. 161, a successful operation for temporo-sphenoidal abscess, 1752. The patient, a monk, had otorrhoea followed by a mastoid abscess, which Morand opened.

The methods outlined by Pott in his classic work on fractures and dislocations were eventually adopted all over the world. He described (pp. 57-64) “Pott’s fracture” in this book, and he stressed the necessity for the immediate setting of a fracture and the need for relaxation of the muscles in order that the setting should be carried out successfully. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1936, 1, 332-37.

A classic description of nyctalopia. Report of a single case.

In a paper read before the (Royal) College of Physicians on 11 August 1767, Heberden first definitely differentiated chickenpox from smallpox.

"Laurenti is considered the auctor of the class Reptilia (reptiles) through his authorship of Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena (1768) on the poisonous function of reptiles and amphibians. This was an important book in herpetology, defining thirty genera of reptiles; Carl Linnaeus's 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758 defined only ten genera. Specimen Medicum contains a description of the blind salamander (amphibian): Proteus anguinus, purportedly collected from cave waters in Slovenia (or possibly western Croatia); this description represented one of the first published accounts of a cave animal in the western world, although the Proteus anguinus wasn't recognized as a cave animal at the time" (Wikipedia article on Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti, accessed 9-2017). Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English by James Kirkpatrick as An essay on the disorders of people of fashion, and a treatise on the diseases incident to literary and sedentary persons. With proper rules for preventing their fatal consequences, and instructions for their cure. (London: J. Nourse, 1769). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

In this response to Haller's Deux mémoires sur le mouvement du sang (1756) (No. 11607) Spallanzani outlined his own findings on the action of the heart upon the blood vessels. "Haller's microscopic observations of blood movements had been made by refracted light on midium-sized vessels in the isolated mesontery of the frog. Splallanzani, using P. Lyonet's novel dissecting apparatus, conducted his observations mostly in a darkened room with reflected light from sunbeams impinging upon exposed parts of the aquatic salamander. He systematically noted now the cardiac systolic force motivated the blood circulation. The rhythmic inequality of blood flow in the aorta and large vessels disappeared in medium and small arteries, becoming regular and uniform. The velocity diminished in the smaller vessels, but sinuosities did not retard the flow. In the smallest vessels, individual red corpuscles negoiated acute angles and folds by elastically changing shape. The blood velocity in the venous sytem increased as the caliber of the vessels enlarged. Haller responed to the many amplifications and corrections of his work by securing Spallanzati's election to the Royal Society of Sciences of Gottingen" (Dolman, DSB 12, 553).

 Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work made Cullen’s reputation. In it he divided diseases into fevers, neurosis, cachexias and local disorders. Cullen was the foremost British clinical teacher of his time, one of the first to give clinical lectures in Great Britain. (See also No. 76.) Several English translations are available. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated as Nosology: Or, a systematic arrangement of diseases, by classes, orders, genera, and species ... and outlines of the systems of Sauvages, Linnaeus, Vogel, Sagar, and Macbride (London, 1800). Digital facsimile of the 1800 edition from Google Books at this link.

The first American treatise on medical ethics, and the first treatise on medical ethics published in the English language. Samuel Bard was one of the founders of King’s College, New York. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.

Includes Millar’s original description of laryngismus stridulus (“Millar’s asthma”).

Prosser gave the prescription of a powder containing calcined sponge, to be taken for the cure of goitre. This is probably the first recorded use of an iodine preparation in England.

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.

The first American publication on medical history. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

This pioneering medical self-help book was an instant success, selling 80,000 copies in Buchan's lifetime— a huge number for that time, and was translated into all the major European languages. Digital facsimile from Harvard Library at this link.

Jean-Denis Duplanil (1740-1802) translated Buchan's work into French as Médecine domestique (Paris, 1775). This single volume French edition Duplanil gradually expanded with new material. Duplanil's fifth edition in French reached 5 vols. (Paris, 1802). Digital facsimile of the 5th edition from Google Books at this link.

Buc'hoz applied his father-in-laws theories of music therapy to the treatment of depression. Digital facsimile from loc.gov at this link.

A treatise specifically concerning the health of sailors of the Real Compañia Guipuzcoana de Caracas (Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas)-- Basque traders who had a monopoly on the Venezuelan trade. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.