This collection of translations was partly reprinted with an introduction by G.E.R. Lloyd, and the addition of three new translations by I.M. Lonie as Hippocratic Writings, Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1978.

Acta Historica Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium, Vol. 7.

Demonstration that human blood diluted with equal volumes of 30% glycerol in Ringer’s lactate solution could be frozen at -79° C and thawed after eight weeks without damage.

Oxtetracycline (terramycin).

Skin grafting used to decide the relationship of identical twins who had been accidentally separated at birth.

Directional scintillation detector probe. Cassen assembled the first automated scanning system, comprised of a motor driven scintillation detector coupled to a relay printer. The scanner was initially used to image thyroid glands after the administration of radioiodine.  Later, with the development of organ-specific radiopharmaceuticals, the scanner was widely used during the late 50s until the early 70s to image body organs. With L. Curtis and C. W. Reed.

Bigelow pioneered surface-induced whole body hypothermia and temporary cardiac flow occlusion. With W.F. Greenwood.

In his study of the etiology of the collagen disease Selye developed the idea that animals react to stress or injury by a certain sequence of physiological reactions – the “general adaption syndrome”.

Fluorescent antibody technique.

With E. Corday, I. C. Brill, A. L. Seller, R. W. Oblath, W. A. Flieg, and H. E. Kruger.

A new classification proposed.

A case-control study proving an association between heavy prolonged cigarette smoking and bronchogenic carcinoma. See also the following paper on pp. 336-38. Reprinted in J. Amer. med. Assoc. 1985, 253, 2986-97.

A study of 1,465 cases of lung cancer and 1,465 matched controls, which confirmed and extended the studies of Wynder and Graham, and others. See also later papers by the same authors in Brit. med. J., 1952, 2,1271-86; 1956, 2, 1071-81; 1964, 1, 1399-1410.

With D. A. Karnofsky, J. H. Burchenal, and L. F. Craver.

Report of first human patient to survive a kidney transplant. The operation was on June 17, 1950, and the patient was discharged on August 26. With four co-authors. See No. 4257.

It has not been conclusively demonstrated whether fluoride serves a specific physiological role, but fluoridation of public water supplies was followed by a reduction in the incidence of dental caries. One of the first studies on mass control of dental caries. With F. A. Arnold, P. Jay, and J. W. Knutson. See No. 3681.2.

Zoon’s plasma cell balanitis.

Judet acrylic prosthesis.

First implantation of silicone rubber tube to replace urethra.

“A classic exposition of the non-operative approach” (Peltier).

Covers both normal and disease states. Suppl. No. 23 (1964), ed. M. Fink, covers the period 1951-62.

Isolation of the virus of Colorado tick fever. With M. S. Miller and E. R. Mugrage.

Publication No. 242.

For supplement see No. 6786.18.

Two quinquennial and one sexennial cumulations of annual volumes. 6 vols., 1950-54; 6 vols., 1955-59; 6 vols., 1960-65. Author and subject indexes. First series under title “U.S. Armed Forces Medical Library”. See also No. 6763; continued by No. 6786.9.

2nd edition, 1964.

Introduction of primaquine.

"Chargaff's rules." Between 1946 and 1950 Chargaff carried out chemical studies that revolutionized attitudes towards DNA.

A study of the earliest “scientific” theories of heredity and genetics.

Comprehensive analysis of German accomplishments in aviation and aerospace medicine during World War II, written by 56 mostly specialist German physicians and scientists from the Nazi regime who were brought to the United States after the war and made U.S. citizens through Project Paperclip. Thorough bibliographies with every chapter. Introductory overview and summary chapter by Hubertus Strughold. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Dyson designed one of the first usable interference microscopes  This optical system achieved interference imaging without requiring polarizing elements in the beam path.

"To gain insight into the physiology of starvation, in 1944 [Ancel] Keys carried out a starvation study with 36 conscientious objectors as test subjects in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. At the time, conscientious objectors were being placed in virtual concentration camps, with a few functioning like the Civilian Public Service, so that recruiting them would prove easier than seeking out volunteers in the general population.^[14][17] The original pool of 400 responders was reduced to 36 selectees, of whom 32 would go on to complete the study.^[23] The main focus of the study was threefold: set a metabolic baseline for three months, study the physical and mental effects of starvation on the volunteers for six months, and then study the physical and mental effects of different refeeding protocols on them for three months.^[14] The participants would first be placed on the three month baseline diet of 3200 calories after which their calories were reduced to 1800 calories/day while expending 3000 calories in activities such as walking. The final three months were a refeeding period where the volunteers were divided into four groups, each receiving a different caloric intake.^[14]

The war came to an end before the final results of the study could be published, but Keys sent his findings to various international relief agencies throughout Europe^[3]and, by 1950, he completed publication of his two-volume 1385-page Biology of Human Starvation." (Wikipedia article on Ancel Keys, accessed 01-2017).

The first comprehensive exposition of the relationship between genetics and natural selection in plants, and the most imporant book on plant evolution published during the 20th century.  Stebbins combined genetics and natural selection to describe plant speciation. His work was one of the main publications that formed the core of the modern evolutionary synthesis and still provides the conceptual framework for research in plant evolutionary biology.

"According to Ernst Mayr, 'Few later works dealing with the evolutionary systematics of plants have not been very deeply affected by Stebbins' work"^[2]....

"The 643-page book cites more than 1,250 references and was the longest of the four books associated with the modern evolutionary synthesis. The other key works of the modern evolutionary synthesis, whose publication also followed their authors' Jesup lectures, are Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species, Ernst Mayr's Systematics and the Origin of Species and George Gaylord Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution. The great significance of Variation and Evolution in Plants is that it effectively killed any serious belief in alternative mechanisms of evolution for plants, such as Lamarckian evolution or soft inheritance, which were still upheld by some botanists.^[2] Stebbins book Flowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species Level was published in 1974 and was based on the Prather Lectures which he gave at Harvard. It is considered as an update to Variation and Evolution." (Wikipedia article on Variation and Evolution in Plants, accessed 02-2017).

This research by Bigelow and collegues first made possible the use of hypothermia in cardiac surgery.

In this very attractively produced publication the authors called attention to the decreasing trend of death rates from infectious diseases and the increasing trend of death from chronic diseases such as cancer, cephritis, intracranial lesions of vascular origin, etc.

"In the summer of 1944 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, McClintock systematic studies on the mechanisms of the mosaic color patterns of maize seed and the unstable inheritance of this mosaicism.^[44] She identified two new dominant and interacting genetic loci that she named Dissociation (Ds) and Activator (Ac). She found that the Dissociation did not just dissociate or cause the chromosome to break, it also had a variety of effects on neighboring genes when the Activator was also present, which included making certain stable mutations unstable. In early 1948, she made the surprising discovery that both Dissociation and Activator could transpose, or change position, on the chromosome.^{[45][46][47][48]"}

"Between 1948 and 1950, she [McClintock] developed a theory by which these mobile elements regulated the genes by inhibiting or modulating their action. She referred to Dissociation and Activator as "controlling units"—later, as "controlling elements"—to distinguish them from genes. She hypothesized that gene regulation could explain how complex multicellular organisms made of cells with identical genomes have cells of different function.^[52] McClintock's discovery challenged the concept of the genome as a static set of instructions passed between generations.^[3] In 1950, she reported her work on Ac/Ds and her ideas about gene regulation in a paper entitled "The origin and behavior of mutable loci in maize" published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Wikipedia article on Barbara McClintock, accessed 3-2020). Digital facsimile from pnas.org at this link.

In 1983 McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements." See also Nos. 13560 and14072.

The standard Latin texts and English translations. Regretably the medieval manuscripts on which the 16th century editions of Caelius Aurelianus were based did not survive. Nor have any other medieval codices of these texts survived, limiting critical analysis of the texts to the early printed editions and the fragments of Soranus’ extant Gynaecia and fragments of Caelius’ Latin translation of the work, along with Caelius’ extant Medicinales responsiones.  

Covers from the California Gold Rush to 1949.

Latin text with French translation.

The first textbook of pediatric endocrinology.

"In 1950 and 1951, Drs. Cowen and Wolf published a series of 5 papers, super-titled, “Experimental Congenital Toxoplasmosis,” in which they demonstrated the intrauterine infection of placenta, fetus, and offspring with Toxoplasma, following its administration to pregnant mice intravaginally. They also elucidated the mechanism of disease transmission and the manifestations of toxoplasmosis in the mothers and in the products of their pregnancies, among other subjects. These investigations, which included the first histological demonstration of toxoplasmosis in the placenta of any species, together with the case reports that came before, brought them international recognition" (Geller, "In Memoriam," J. Neuropath & Exp. Neurol,. 62, 587-89).

I. Available from PubMedCentral at this link. II. Available from PubMedCentral at this link. III. Available from PubMedCentral at this link.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Discovery of phage λ (lambda phage). According to estherlederberg.com, only about 100 people received the first issue of Microbial Genetics Bulletin, a typed and mimeographed publication. Digital facsimile from estherlederberg.com at this link.

Esther Lederberg's discovery became much better known in a paper that she co-authored with her husband, Joshua Lederberg: "Genetic studies of lysogenicity in Escherichia coli," Genetics 38 (1953) 51-64. That paper was enhanced with photographs of the action of the phage on sensitive lysogenetic and resistant strains of E. coli. Digital facsimile of the 1953 paper from PubMedCentral at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

"The G-spot, also called the Gräfenberg spot (for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg), is characterized as an erogenous area of the vagina that, when stimulated, may lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and potential female ejaculation.^[1] It is typically reported to be located 5–8 cm (2–3 in) up the front (anterior) vaginal wall between the vaginal opening and the urethra and is a sensitive area that may be part of the female prostate.^[2]

"The existence of the G-spot has not been proven, nor has the source of female ejaculation.^[3][4] Although the G-spot has been studied since the 1940s,^[2] disagreement persists over its existence as a distinct structure, definition and location...."(Wikipedia article on G-spot, accessed 9-2021)

The "G-spot" was named in a paper published in 1981: Frank Addiego ,Edwin G. Belzer Jr., Jill Comolli, William Moger, John D. Perry & Beverly Whipple, "Female ejaculation: A case study," Journal of Sex Research, 17 (1981) 13-21.

Continuing his research on retinal pigments structure and function with emphais on rhodopsin, Wald deciphered the interconversion of rhodopsin to retinene to Vitamin A.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Revised English translation by H. and C. Epstein, ed. by G. Cottrell, as Ornithology from Aristotle to the present, with a foreword and an epilogue on American ornithology by Ernst Mayr. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1975.

An exhaustive list of books and papers.

Discovery that maturation of the sperm in the mammalian female tract is a necessary step in reproduction. This was co-discovered and called capacitation by Austin in the same year. See C.R. Austin, Observation on the penetration of the sperm into the mammalian eggs. Aust. J. sci. Res., 1951, B4, 581-.

An encyclopaedic presentation of kidney physiology, including the many contributions of the author.

A theoretical treatment of the countercurrent hypothesis accompanied by data from a working model.

The initial experimental evidence advanced in support of the countercurrent hypothesis. With B. Hargitay and W. Kuhn.

Supplements, in 1957 and 1963.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Isolation of viomycin. With 11 co-authors.

Isolation of nystatin (fungicidin).

The Heaf multiple-puncture tuberculin test.

Cytosine arabinoside, a pyramidine antagonist, used in acute myeloblastic anemia.

Hufnagel designed and inserted the first workable prosthetic heart valve in man.

Introduction of portal venography for investigation of portal hypertension.

First clinical trials of lente, ultralente, and semilente insulin zinc suspension. See also Science, 1952, 116, 394-98; and J. Amer. med. Assoc., 1952, 150, 1667. With M. Jersild, K. Peterson, and J. Schlichtkrull.

Synthesis of Carbimazole. With C. Rimington and C. E. Searle. For clinical application see Lancet, 1951, 2, 621.

Oliver’s work on the structural lesions associated with acute renal failure in which he differentiated between the two types of damage: nephrotoxic, due to toxic substances, and tubulorhexic, due to ischemia, established our present understanding of the morphological basis for this condition.

First successful resection of abdominal aortic aneurysm and insertion of a homologous graft. With M. Allary and N. Oeconomos.

Arterial homograft on aorta.

“Waardenburg’s syndrome”.

Artificial bladder.

Clinical use of succinylcholine chloride. With K. H. Ginzel, H. Klupp, F. Pfaffenschlager, and G. Werner.

Includes a bibliography of nearly 2,400 references, nearly all of which are secondary sources.

First description.

Ridley implanted the first intra-ocular lens on 19 November 1949. At the time of this first report the lens had remained in place for 17 months.

A continous history of the art and practice of medicine in Persia and bordering countries from the earliest times. Reprinted, with additions and corrections from the author’s copy: edited by G. van Heusden. Amsterdam, APA-Philo Press, 1979.

Forms Bd. 226 Heft 5, of Österr. Akad. Wtss., Sitzungsber. Phil.-hist. Kl.

Second edition, Dublin, Skellig Press, 1983.

1. The Beginnings: Tritheim, Champier, and Gesner.

2. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Medical Book Sales, à Beughem, Van der Linden, Haller, and the Rise of Medical Biobibliography.

3. Medical Subject Indices: Ploucquet, Forbes, Callisen, and Billings; Choulant and Osler; Keynes and the Rise of Personal Bibliography.

Appendiix I. The Gesner Bibliothecae

Appendix II. List of Early Medical Sales

Appendix III. The Haller Bibliothecae

Appendix IV: Works by Ludwig Choulant

Appendix V:  [Bibliographies by] Geoffrey Keynes

1. Primitive and archaic medicine. 2. Early Greek, Hindu and Persian medicine.

Chiefly from contemporary MS records.

Comprehensive account to end of ninteenth century.

Preparation and laboratory tests of pyrimethamine. With L. G. Goodwin, G. H. Hutchings, I. M. Rollo, and P. B. Russell.

Pyrimethamine (daraprim).

The first truly comprehensive work on the scientific study of twins. (1381pp., 547 illustrations, 161 tables). English translation of the first half of the work, with some revisions: Twins in history and science, Springfield, Charles C Thomas, [1961].

X-ray microscopy.

Pauling, his crystallographer R. B. Corey, and African-American physicist and chemist H.R. Branson announced the α-helix, a principal structural feature of proteins. Digital facsimile from the National Academy of Sciences at this link.

In 1954 Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances." See also Nos. 6914, 3154.1, 13298.

The first paper published in a scientific journal on the application of an electronic computer to computational biology. At the second English computer conference held in Manchester from July 9-12, 1951 computer scientist John Makepiece Bennett and biochemist and crystallographer John Kendrew described their use of the Cambridge EDSAC for the computation of Fourier syntheses in the calculation of structure factors of the protein molecule myoglobin. Their paper in Acta Crystallographica was an expansion of a briefer summary published in the Manchester University Computer Conference Proceedings (1951). It represents a more thorough presentation intended for x-ray crystallographers, and must have been submitted almost immediately after the Manchester Conference, since it was received by Acta Crystallographica on July 28, 1951.

Foundation of ethology, the scientific study of animal behavior. "It was based on a series of six lectures at Columbia University in 1947 and presented a general model of animal behavior. Basically, it was about methodology, about behavior as an outcome of conflicting 'drives,' about the hierarchical organization of behavior as a hierarchy of nervous centers, and about communication between animals" (Larry W. Swanson). 

New edition, with a foreward by Nicolaas A. Rupke and a new preface by the author (1996).

First translation into a modern language.

Digital facsimile from WHO.int at this link.

Covers the history of medicine in Detroit and Michigan between 1701 and 1837 when Michigan became a state. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

This play about the Scopes Trial that concerned creationism versus evolution was the subject of numerous film adaptations including the most famous one first screened in 1960 starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.

Edition and translation of a surviving fragment of Caelius Aurelianus's text that did not survive in its entirely. The fragment, preserved in the New York Academy of Medicine, fuses the text of Muscio with that of Caelius.

Dennis and colleagues performed the first human cardiac operation with total heart-lung bypass. The patient was a 6-year old girl with a huge atrial septal defect. Though she did not survive, this report encouraged others to attempt open-heart surgery using various oxygenators, including modifications of the Gibbon pump oxygenator. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

In collaboration with his father, S. G. Gorlin, a mechanical engineer who designed hydraulic systems for gasoline engines at the beginning of the century, Richard Gorlin developed a formula to calculate the area of stenotic cardiac valves and congenital heart chamber defects. The “Gorlin formula,” still considered the “gold standard” for diagnosis of critical heart valve obstruction, was crucial to the evolution of cardiac surgery because it allowed proper case selection and contributed greatly to the design of artificial valves.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

The first treatise on sociological theory that included an analysis of the function of medicine in society.

Pauling and Corey discovered the β-sheet, a principal structural feature of proteins. Digital facsimile from PNAS.org at this link. 

Includes chapters by Maj. Gen. Harry G. Armstrong, Wernher von Braun, Hubertus Strughold, Heinz Haber and others.

This "paper facilitated the later discovery of `actively acquired tolerance' and the definition of the principal laws of transplantation tolerance. Thus, it was in a series of classic experiments (stemming from this J. Exp. Biol. paper) that the field of transplantation biology was born....
This "paper is a self-contained manual for distinct forms of skin transplants in a variety of laboratory animals. There are very detailed discussions and illustrations concerning the anatomy of the mammalian integument. Importantly, the paper also provides unique information on regional variation of skin within a given animal and on the process of transplant survival or rejection. Specific discussions focus on principles of wound healing post-transplantation and on Billingham and Medawar's formative thoughts on transplantation immunity. The paper is most useful in discussing frankly the pros and cons of skin grafting as a laboratory procedure. There is considerable discussion of the pitfalls encountered in skin grafting, e.g. pigmentation and hair growth, but also the advantages, e.g. accessibility and availability for biopsy" (Santa Jeremy Ono, "The birth of transplantation immunology: The Billingham-Medawar Experiments at Birmingham University and University College London" (J. Exp. Biol, 207 (2004) 4013-4014). Digital facsimile of the 1951 paper from cob.silverchair-cdn.com at this link.

In 1960 Medawar shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Burnet for "the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance."  See also Nos. 2578.4, 2578.11, 2578.12, and 2578.24.

The Lowry protein assay, a biochemical assay for determining the total level of protein in a solution.  As of 2015 this paper was considered the most highly-cited paper in the scientific literature with over 310,000 citations. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Lwoff successfully explained how the process of lysogeny works. The bacteriophage’s genes are incorporated into the bacteria’s genetic material, but remain latent until a trigger factor causes a new phage to be formed. Lwoff also showed that ultraviolet light can be a trigger factor. See also Lwoff's "Lysogeny," Bacteriological Reviews, 17 (1953) 269-337. Digital facsimile of Lysogeny from PubMedCentral at this link.

First detailed account of lysosomes.

Includes 215 plates.

 On July 3, 1952 Dodrill completed the first successful open heart surgery on the left ventricle of Henry Opitek. He used a machine developed by himself and researchers at General Motors, the Dodrill-GMR, considered to be the first operational mechanical heart used while performing open heart surgery.  With E. Hill and R. Gerisch. This paper, which was published in August, 1952, was Dodrill's first report on the operation. In October the team published a second report with a more precisely worded title: "Temporary mechanical substitute for the left ventricle in man," J. Am med. Assoc., 150 (1952) 642-644.

Trial of gamma globulin in the prophylaxis of poliomyelitis. With L. L. Coriell, J. Stokes, P. F. Wehrle, and C. R. Klimt.

Successful immunization against poliomyelitis with a living attenuated virus vaccine. With G. A. Jervis and T. W. Norton.

Since 1968 this series of unnumbered volumes or multi-volume sets devoted to particular subjects has continued under the name of U.S. Army Medical Department

Isolation of aldosterone. With S. A. Simpson and J. F. Tait.

Synthesis of cortisone by Woodward and colleagues. With F. D. Taub, K. Heusler, and W. M. McLamore.

In 1970 Katz shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ulf von Euler and J. Axelrod "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation."

See also Katz, The release of neural transmitter substances, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1969.

Originally published in French, 1948.

The most comprehensive treatise available on plants and plant products mentioned in the Bible.

Isolation of reserpine. With E. Schlittler and H. J. Bein.

Discovery of erythromycin. With R. L. Bunch, R. C. Anderson, H. E. Boaz, E. H. Flynn, H. M. Powell, and J. W. Smith.

Introduction of isoniazid. With I. J. Selikoff and G. G. Omstein. See also Amer. Rev. Tuberc., 1952, 65, 257-442.

Introduction of plastic material to repair arterial defects. Voorhees later abandoned this material in favour of Dacron. With A. Jaretzki and A. W. Blakemore.

First tomogram of soft tissue.

Christmas disease, hemophilia B, due to lack of Factor IX. Named after the patient whose case was the first recorded example. With six co-authors.

Synthesis of 6-mercaptopurine. 

In 1988 Gertrude Elion shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George Hitchings and Sir James Black “for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.”

First report.

Discovery of leuco-agglutinins.

External cardiac pacemaker. "The medical world took notice when Zoll announced in 1952 that he had successfully kept a patient alive through numerous episodes of ventricular standstill using a bedside device that delivered electrical pulses to the heart." (Jeffrey, Machines in our hearts (2001) 37).
"There are two kinds of cardiac rhythm disturbances in patients who have cardiac arrest - the rhythm disturbance of a heart in standstill; and the rhythm disturbance of a 'fibrillating' heart, which are the commonest causes of death in acute heart attacks. The effective techniques that now help to control these disturbances are the pioneering contributions of Dr. Paul M. Zoll. Dr. Zoll demonstrated for the first time in 1952, that when a human heart stops, it can be induced, by externally applied electric stimulation, to resume beating. Dr. Zoll's later studies showed that externally applied alternating current countershocks are similarly effective in stopping ventricular fibrillation." Mary Lasker and Michael DeBakey, in "Citations" (quoted by W. Bruce Fye).

Introduction of lymphangiography.

Introduction of chlorpromazine in the treatment of psychosis. Chlorpromazine was later marketed in the United States as Thorazine.

A guide to the chief medical papyri, with particular attention to therapeutics.

Contains extensive bibliographies.

DNA shown to be the carrier of genetic information in virus reproduction.

In 1969 Hershey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with S. E. Luria and M. Delbrück for "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses."

Description of a new mechanism (“transduction”) for the transfer of genetic characters from one bacterial strain to another.

Proceedings of the first symposium on high altitude physics and medicine sponsored in the U.S. after World War II, summarizing research done in the nascent U.S. space program based on the V2 rocket, the WAC Corporal rocket and the Viking rocket, up to November, 1951.  Among the contributors were Fritz Haber, Heinz Haber, Herman J. Muller, Victor Regener, Hubertus Strughold, James A. van Allen, Wernher von Braun, and Fred Lawrence Whipple. All chapters included thorough bibliographies.

Urey coined the term cosmochemistry. He speculated that the early terrestrial atmosphere was probably composed of ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. One of his graduate students, Stanley Miller, showed in the Miller–Urey experiment  (No. 7383) that, if such a mixture is exposed to electric sparks and to water, it can interact to produce amino acids. 

Leukemia was the first cancer to be linked with radiation exposure in atomic bomb survivors.

First description of Zika virus, an arbovirus native to Africa. The authors named the virus after the Zika forest in Uganda, where they were searching for Yellow Fever. Instead they isolated a new virus in samples taken from a captive sentinel Rhesus monkey. The authors were slow to publish their work; they first isolated the virus in 1947 and again in 1948.

Recent issues may be viewed at http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/his/indice.html. 

In English and German.

Demonstration of the mutational basis of antibiotic resistance. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Kris trained as an art historian before becoming a psychoanalyst.

Dick's second paper on the Zika virus, immediately following his first paper in the same volume of the same journal (see no. 7864). First statement that the Aedes aegypti mosquito is the vector of transmission of the Zika virus. The author trapped the mosquitos on a tree platform in the area of the Zika forest where the viral infections occurred, and traced the virus to the mosquitos.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

First report of human illness caused by Zika virus, detected in Uganda and Tanzania. 38 patients had neutralizing antibodies to Zika virus in their blood serum, proving that they had been infected by the virus.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Order of authorship in the original publication: Weller, Enders, Robbins. In this paper the authors describe their improved method for culturing poliomyelitis viruses in "normal kidney tissue." 

Followed by Robbins, Weller, Enders, "Studies on the cultivation of poliomyelitis viruses in tissue culture II. The propagation of the poliomyelitis viruses in roller-tube cultures of various human tissues", J. Immunol., 69, 1952, 673-691. 

Publication of these techniques was instrumental in allowing Jonas Salk to develop the first polio vaccine.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for these references and their interpretation.)

This fully annotated catalogue of nearly 5000 items from the library of the U.S. President, while unillustrated, is perhaps the finest and most detailed annotated bibliographical catalogue of the library of any scientist. It appears to be exhaustive in all details regarding each work in Jefferson's library. Sowerby was hired in 1942 by the Library of Congress to prepare a fully annotated catalogue of the books that Jefferson sold to the U.S. government in 1815. Because of the complexity of the task the first volume did not appear until 1952. Prior to the Jefferson project Sowerby had an extensive career as a rare book cataloguer:

After graduating from Girton College, Cambridge, Sowerby worked in London as a cataloger for rare book dealer Wilfrid Michael Voynich, and then briefly as a librarian at Birkbeck College before serving as a counterintelligence agent in Paris during World War I. Upon her return to England in 1916, Sowerby worked as a cataloger at Sotheby's, the first woman in the 'expert' workforce of an auction house. She moved to the United States in 1923, finding employment as a cataloger with the American Art Association and then at the New York Public Library (until January 1925).In March 1925, she became a bibliographer for A. S. W. Rosenbach in Philadelphia and New York City where she was employed until February 1942.

Reprinted by the University of Virginia Press with a new Foreward, 1983.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Luria, Human. Luria and Human discovered the restriction modification system found in bacteria and other prokaryotic organisms. This system provides a defense against foreign DNA such as that carried by bacteriophages. They found that bacteriophage growing within an infected bacterium could be modified, so that upon their release and re-infection of a related bacterium the bacteriophage’s growth is restricted (inhibited). 

"It was found that, for a bacteriophage λ that can grow well in one strain of Escherichia coli, for example E. coli C, when grown in another strain, for example E. coli K, its yields can drop significantly, by as much as 3-5 orders of magnitude. The host cell, in this example E. coli K, is known as the restricting host and appears to have the ability to reduce the biological activity of the phage λ. If a phage becomes established in one strain, the ability of that phage to grow also becomes restricted in other strains" (Wikipedia article on Restriction enzyme, accessed 3-2020). 

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Printed on the title page: "This volume, although a separate publication, is a continuation of the work described in Antibiotics Volumes I and II, and may be read in conjunction with it."
(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference.)

The first edition was known as DSM-1; DSM-5 was published in 2013.

"Accepted by the American Dental Association."

Since the turn of the twentieth century, chromosomes prepared on microscope slides formed clumps that made it extremely difficult to distinguish them. Although the preparations made the identification of individual chromosomes difficult, by the 1920s cytologists consistently reported a diploid number of 48 human chromosomes. In April 1952, Hsu discovered a technique—the hypotonic solution—that separated the clumped chromosomes, allowing him to observe each one individually. Even though he now could distinguish human chromosomes to a much greater degree than his predecessors, Hsu still reported a diploid number of 48 human chromosomes (see Figure 14 in his 1952 paper). The correct diploid chromosome number of 46 human chromosomes was first reported three years later by Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan.

See Hsu, T. C. Human and mammalian cytogenetics: An historical perspective (1979). See also Kottler, Malcolm Jay, "From 48 to 46: Cytological technique, preconception, and the counting of human chromosomes," Bull. Hist. Med., 48 (1974) 465-502.

Working as a graduate student with Lederberg, Zinder discovered that a bacteriophage can carry genes from one bacterium to another. Initial experiments were carried out using Salmonella. Zinder and Lederberg named this process of genetic exchange transduction. Transduction is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector. It is a common tool used by molecular biologists to stably introduce a foreign gene into a host cell's genome. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Hayes "developed the concept of a donor–recipient partnership with uni-directional transfer of genetic material. The importance of this discovery was quickly emphasised and widely recognised when he found that only a part of the genetic material was transferred from the donor strain (male) to the recipient" (Wikipedia article William Hayes, accessed 7-22).

This paper gives the formulae for the Fourier transforms of a number of helical structures, and provides evidence that the structure of a synthetic polypeptide was based on the alpha helix of Pauling and Corey. "It was, I believe, the first fairly conclusive experimental evidence for the existence of a helical structure at the molecular level.... The value of this work, seen in retrospect, is that it was a first step on the road to the discovery of the structure of DNA by Jim Watson and Crick" (Cochran, "This week's citation classic," Current Contents, May 18, 1987, 16).

Following Max Delbruck's advice, Dulbecco visited the major centers of animal virus work in the US in order to discover a way to quantitatively assay animal viruses by a plaque technique, similar to the technique that had recently been developed for bacterial viruses (bacteriophages). Within less than a year Dulbecco worked out such a method for Western equine encephalitis virus, which then opened up animal virology to quantitative work. The technique was then used by Dulbecco and Vogt to study the biological properties of poliovirus. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

A cell biologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Gey propagated the HeLa cell line from Henrietta Lacks' cervical tumor. This cell line, which maintained a continuous growth phase, was the first immortal human cell line to be grown in culture. HeLa cells became the basis for countless significant scientific discoveries. When Gey and his lab assistant Kubicek published this brief report the cause of HeLa's "immortality" was not understood. 

Lacks was a 31-year-old African-American mother of five who died of cancer on October 4, 1951. Because Gey propagated the cell line from Lacks' tumor without her knowledge or consent, as was common in the U.S. at the time, the story may be viewed as an example of medical injustice to a black person. See Rebecca Skloot, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (2010). 

Order of authorship in the original publication: Gey, Coffman, Kubicek.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Defines for the first time the various functions of the parietal lobes.

Killed-virus vaccine. With four co-authors.

Discovery of the second thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Synthesis of oxytocin. With C. Ressler, J. M. Swan, C. W. Roberts, P. G. Katsoyannis, and S. Gordon.

In 1955 Vigneaud was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone."  

See also No. 1175.4.

Chlorpromazine. With J. Foumel, R. Ducrot, M. Kolsky, and P. Koetschet. Chloropromazine was later marketed in the United States as Thorazine.

First practical demonstration of an oral contraceptive.

Chlorambucil (a nitrogen mustard) used in the chemotherapy of cancer. With J. R. Roberts and W. J. C. Ross.

TEPA. With five co-authors.

The sensitivity of tumour cells to x rays shown to be much enhanced when irradiated in a well-oxygenated medium. With A. D. Conger, M. Ebert, S. Hornsey, and O. C. A. Scott.

Discovery of adenoviruses. With R. J. Huebner, L. K. Gilmore, R. H. Parrott, and T. G. Ward.

Clinical introduction of 6-mercaptopurine in treatment of acute leukemia and chronic myelocytic leukemia. With nine co-authors.

Introduction of myleran (busulphan). For results, see pp. 208-13.

With C. Zarafonetis, N. Smith, I. Woldow and D. C. H. Sun.

Proof of Burnet and Fenner’s theory of immunity. For their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance Medawar and Burnet (No. 2578.7) shared the Nobel Prize in 1960.

Immunoelectrophoresis.

M. Kuroya, N. Ishida, and T. Shiratori isolated the first recognized Sendai (para-influenza) virus.

Percutaneous arterial catheterization.

Demonstration of the beneficial effect of hypophysectomy in cancer of the breast and of the testis.

Transmeatal exposure of the middle ear.

Contains 143 classic descriptions of cutaneous diseases by 93 writers. Many portraits are also included.

First electrically-induced osteogenesis. Yasuda demonstrated that small amounts of electric current applied to bone stimulated osteogenesis at the cathode. He was also the first to describe stress generated potentials in bone. Abridged English translation in Clin. orthop., 1977, 124, 5-8.

Fluroxene, first fluorine-containing anesthetic. With C. J. Carr, Go Lu and F. K. Bell.

Isolation of the varicella-herpes virus.

The great lyric poet’s screenplay based on the notorious career of Robert Knox, the anatomist who purchased bodies for dissection from the resurrectionists/murderers, Burke and Hare. This was the first screenplay that was published before the film was produced. More than 30 years after it was published the film was produced by Mel Brook's production company Brooksfilms and released in 1985. The film starred Timothy Dalton as Dr. Thomas Rock, a character based on Knox. The film was directed by Freddie Francis, using a script adapted by Sir Ronald Harwood from Dylan Thomas's screenplay.

2nd edition, 1965.

Gross developed the specialty of pediatric surgery, inventing numerous operations. This was the first modern comprehensive textbook on the subject.

1. Ancient science through the golden age of Greece. 2. Hellenistic science and culture in the last three centuries B.C.

Vol. 1 contains over 10,000 and vol. 2 over 7,000 references to books and papers. Vol. 1 edited by W. Artelt, vol. 2 edited by J. Steudel. Covers the years 1945-48 and 1949-52.

Sex chromatin demonstrated in humans. 

Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize with M. H. F. Wilkins (No. 256.4) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Later they proposed how DNA might explain the chemical mechanism by which cells passed on their character accurately. See No. 7138.

The journal Nature later published an "early draft" of the Watson & Crick paper with differing text and extensive explanatory annotations. It is available from exploratorium.edu at this link.

In 1962 Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Crick and Watson "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material."

This paper reports Franklin's discovery of the existence of DNA in 2 forms, and conditions for readily and rapidly changing from one to the other. Its phosphates were on the outside.” (Maddox 195)  The Watson-Crick model of the double helix was in large part derived from her work. The striking Photo 51 of the B form of DNA that was influential in convincing Watson that the form was helical, appeared as an illustration to her and Gosling’s paper, with no suggestion that Watson had seen it, let alone been inspired by it. She appended also her comment that the photograph ‘is strongly characteristic . . .of a helical structure. See Maddox, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (2002) 211-212)  Various authorities have suggested that it was Rosalind Franklin, rather than Maurice Wilkins, who should have shared the Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick for the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA; however, Franklin died before the prize was awarded, and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

In this paper published on May 30, 1953 Watson and Crick proposed the method of replication of DNA. This discovery has been called as significant, or possibly even more significant, than their discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA published in April 1953. 

Fiftieth anniversary edition with a new introduction and afterward by Chris Stringer (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Exposure of the Piltdown fraud. Weiner, Oakley and Le Gros Clark found ample evidence of forgery in the Piltdown remains, including the use of artificial abrasion and staining; they also applied fluorine and nitrogen analysis to determine the relative ages of the Piltdown fragments, finding that “whereas the Piltdown cranium may well be Upper Pleistocene . . . the mandible, canine tooth and isolated molar are quite modern” (p. 143). 

The Miller–Urey experiment or Miller experiment, a classic experiment investigating abiogenesis, simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested the chemical origin of life under those conditions. The experiment confirmed Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's hypothesis that putative conditions on the primitive Earth favored chemical reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors.  

A progress report on this pioneering information retrieval project. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Digital facsimiles from the Internet Archive at this link.

"In all, Netter produced nearly 4,000 illustrations, which have been included in countless publications. In perspective, that number represents an image researched, sketched, and completely painted for every three business days for over 50 years.

"The vast bulk of Netter's illustrations were produced for and owned by CIBA Pharmaceutical Company and its successor, CIBA-Geigy, which has since merged with Sandoz Laboratories to become Novartis. In June 2000, Novartis sold its interest in Netter's works to MediMedia USA's subsidiary Icon Learning Systems, which in turn has sold the portfolio to Elsevier, which continues to make his work available in various formats. His Atlas of Human Anatomy and other atlases have become a staple of medical education" (Wikipedia article on Frank H. Netter, accessed 04-2018).

The volumes and the dates of their first printings are listed below:

Vol. 1: Nervous system, with a supplement on the hypothalamus. With foreward by John F. Fulton (1953).

Vol. 1, pt. 1: Anatomy and physiology (1983).

Vol. 1, pt. 2:  Nervous system, Part II (2), Neurologic and neuromuscular disorders (1986).

Vol. 2:  Reproductive system. Edited by Ernest Oppenheim. With foreward by John Rock ( 1954).

Vol. 3, pt. 1: Upper digestive tract (1959).

Vol. 3, pt. 2. Lower digestive tract (1962).

Vol. 3, pt. 3. Liver, biliary tract and pancreas, with a supplement on new aspects of structure, metabolism, diagnostic and surgical procedures (1957).

Vol. 4: Endocrine system and selected metabolic diseases (1965).

Vol. 5: Heart (1969).

Vol. 6: Kidneys, ureters, and urinary bladder (1973).

Vol. 7: Respiratory system (1979).

Vol. 8: Musculoskeletal system—pt. 1. Anatomy, physiology, and metabolic disorders (1987).

Vol. 8, pt. 2: Developmental disorders, tumors, rheumatic diseases, and joint replacement (1990).

Rodenwaldt studied of the course of plague in Venice from 1575-1577 and the measures taken to combat the epidemic, considering symptoms, transmitter, environment, climatic influences, and the success and failure of the administration in handling the crisis. 

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reeves demonstrated that mosquitoes detect their prey by sensing the carbon dioxide that animals exhale. (It was later shown that some mosquitoes can detect their prey from more than 165 feet away.)

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Lewis performed the first successful open heart operation, closing an atrial septal defect in a 5-year-old girl on September 2, 1952. The procedure took 5.5 minutes. For the next three years Lewis and colleagues operated on 60 patients with atrial septal defects using hypothermia and venous inflow occlusion.

Caplan's syndrome, originally identified in coal miners with progressive massive fibrosis. It is a combination of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and pneumoconiosis that manifests as intrapulmonary nodules, which appear homogenous and well-defined on chest X-ray. Digital facsimile from Thorax.bmj.com at this link.

The Apgar score for summarizing the health of newborn children, based on skin color, pulse rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and respiratory effort. These form a backronym, referring back to the author: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration.

Aserinsky, one of Kleitman's graduate students, decided to hook sleepers up to an early version of an electroencephalogram machine, which scribbled across ¹⁄₂ mile (800 m) of paper each night. In the process, Aserinsky noticed that sleepers went through periods when their eyes darted wildly back and forth several times each night. Kleitman and Aserinsky introduced the world to "rapid-eye movement," or REM sleep, and demonstrated that REM sleep was correlated with dreaming and brain activity. 

Franklin and Gosling's completed Patterson synthesis of the A-form of DNA, based on work begun in 1952, represents the first independent confirmation that the Watson-Crick double-helix model was correct. "We suggest that the unit in structure A is, as in Structure B, two co-axial helical chains running in opposite directions" (p. [5]). "The demonstration of the correctness of the structure is thus doubly convincing because the double-helical structure may be arranged to fit the X-ray data of both forms." (Klug, "Rosalind Franklin and the Discovery of the Structure of DNA" Nature 219 [1968]: 808). Judson, Eighth Day of Creation, p. 161. 

King and Briggs cloned a frog by nuclear transfer of embryonic cells. Their experiment was the first successful nuclear transplanation performed in metazoans. The same cloning technique, using somatic cells, was later used to create Dolly the Sheep.

McClintock (Nobel Prize 1983) discovered transposable elements or jumping genes. She found that certain parts of chromosome had switched position. This refuted the then-popular theory that genes were fixed in their position on a chromosome. McClintock found that genes could not only move but they could also be turned on or off due to certain environmental conditions or during different stages of cell development. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Written in the earliest days of automatic switching systems when few electronic computers existed, Meszar's paper raised the question of whether certain aspects of human thought are computable and others are not. Meszar argued for “the necessity of divorcing certain mental operations from the concept of thinking,” in order to “pave the way for ready acceptance of the viewpoint that automatic systems can accomplish many of the functions of the human brain.” Meszar was a director of switching systems at Bell Laboratories

Synthesis of vasopressin. With D. T. Gish and P. G. Katsoyannis.

With G. G. F. Newton and C. W. Hale.

Melphalan (a nitrogen mustard) later used in the chemotherapy of cancer.

First pump oxygenator used on humans. Performed on May 6, 1953, this was the first successful intracardiac operation in a patient with the use of total heart-lung bypass.

Warden and colleagues undertook the first repair of various cardiac anomalies. With M. Cohen, and R.C. Read.

Experimental production of immunological tolerance by Billingham and colleagues.Paper II distinguished adoptive from passive immunization. E. M. Sparrow was a co-author of paper I.

Complement fixation

Preliminary notice in Nature (Lond.), 1953, 171, 267-68.

Echocardiography, from which the field of medical ultrasonics developed.

Maple syrup urine disease described. With P. L. Hurst and J. M. Craig.

With W. Dubilier and J. C. Monteith.

The first tests for disorders of central auditory function were developed by Bocca, C. Calearo, and V. Cassinari.

This comprehensive monograph on the mechanism and surgical treatment of epileptic seizures remains Penfield’s most substantial scientific work. See also No. 4910.1.

Includes a section on the history of plague. WHO Monograph Series, No. 22.

Introduction of meprobamate, later used for the treatment of anxiety. Miltown was the first widely prescribed psychotropic drug.

South Pacific Commission Technical Papers, Nos. 65, 88, 109 (and Supplement), 124, and 160.

Isolation of measles virus.