Correns had come to the same conclusions as Mendel before seeing the latter’s 1865 paper. Of the three “rediscoverers” of Mendel’s laws, Correns showed the greatest understanding of them. English translation in No. 258.4.

First clear account of galactosemia (although A. von. Reuss may have been describing a case in Wien. med. Wschr., 1908, 58, 799).

In 2005 a long lost treatise by Galen, entitled Περι αλυπιας (Avoiding distress), was discovered in the Monastery of the Vlatades (Moni Vlatadon) in Thessaloniki, central Macedonia, Greece. The manuscript, identified as Vlatadon 14, dates from the fifteenth century. In Peri ton idion biblio (De Libris propriis liber, On his Own Writings), Galen referred to Περι αλυπιας, but the last evidence of the text was preserved by the 13th century physician and writer Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin, who paraphrased and/or translated extacts of it into Hebrew. Rediscovery of the complete text is considered one of the most spectacular finds ever in ancient literature.

Galen was motivated to write Περι αλυπιας in 192 CE after a large portion of his library, his supply of medicines and medical instruments, and wax molds for the casting of new instruments that he had invented, and other valuable items, were destroyed when a devastating fire burned the Temple of Peace (Forum of Vespasian) and nearby storehouses on the Via Sacra, the main street of ancient Rome, where his property was kept. Galen chose to keep his library there because the storehouse also held some of the imperial archives, and was kept under military guard. The fire that destroyed Galen's library also burned all the public libraries on the Palatine Hill.

Galen's Περι αλυπιας provides significant information on the use of the codex form of the book in the second century CE, on the general vulnerability of books and texts, and on the production, copying, dissemination and storage of information, including the operation of Rome's imperial public libraries and Galen's use of them. It also provides information on the "consolation genre" of writings in antiquity. For the 2013 edition Galen's Avoiding distress was edited and translated by Vivian Nutton. For further details see HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Among the numerous essays in this volume are those by Vivian Nutton on Galen's Library and on Galen's bibiography of his own writings by Jason König.

Bloodletting is thought to have been practiced by Greek physicians of the 5th century BCE. This study includes translation of Galeni de venae sectione adversus Erasistratum liber (162-163 CE), Galeni de venae sectione adversus Erasistateos Romae degenentes (175? CE), and Galeni de curandi ratione per venae sectionem (193-194 CE).

Galen's system of medicine based on the minutiae of pulse variations persisted into the 18th century.

First translation into a modern language of Books ! and II of De methodo medendi.  Very extensive introduction, commentary and bibliography.

First printed edition of Hunayn ibn Ishaq's Arabic translation of Galen's Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), a founding text of astrological medicine, together with the first translation of the text into a modern language.

De propriis placitis is Galen's final work in which he reflected on some of the fundamental medical problems that occupied him throughout his long career. "This treatise is not quite the comprehensive survey of a lifetime's work that the title might lead one to expect; in fact, it is surprisingly disorganized and hardly useful as a clinical guide. It is rather more accurately seen as a work about epistemology and medical methodology, in which Galen considers what aspects of medicine are knowable or not and how one formulates principles in the face of our inconsistent knowledge of the body and, indeed, of the world" (http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=classics_papers, accessed 02-2017).

First separate dated Latin translation of De locis affectis, made by Wilhelm Copp of Basel. In this work devoted to pathology, Galen made many valuable deductions on inflammation and on tumors. He was familiar with cholera, hydrophobia, and malaria, the relations of urinary calculi to the kidney, ureter, and bladder. He recognized bronchitis, empyema, consumption, and pyuria. English translation by Rudolph E. Siegel, Basel, 1976.

First Renaissance Latin translation by Niccolò Leoniceno of Vicenza of Galen's work on physical diagnosis.

English translation by P.W. Harkins, Galen on the passions and errors of the soul. Columbus, Ohio, 1963.

First critical edition and translation of this text by Galen which became a bestseller in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (translations into Syrian, Arabic, Latin 8 versions and Hebrew; 14 commentaries from 1290 to 1567). 

First separate dated Latin translation of Galen's De sanitate tuenda (On the preservation of health), which contained his views on maintaining health and hygiene and preventing disease. Translated from the Greek by Thomas Linacre.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The first separately published Latin translation from the Greek by Thomas Linacre. Galen's Method of medicine was a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Galen’s greatest and most influential works. Enlivening the detailed case studies Galen presented are many theoretical and polemical discussions, acute social commentary, and personal reflections. The British physician, scholar and humanist Linacre was one of the first Englishmen to study Greek in Italy and to bring the "new learning" of Renaissance humanism back to his native land. As few English printers issued books in Latin, Linacre had his translation published in France. It was reprinted many times during the 16th century. Reflecting demand for the work, the Greek editio princeps of Methodus medendi was published at Venice from the press of Z. Callierges in 1500--one of the earliest of Galen's works to appear in the original Greek. Books 3-6 of the 14 were published in an English translation by T. Gale, in London, 1566. The complete Method of medicine was translated into English by Ian Johnston and G. H. R. Hosley for the Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Galen’s shorter textbook on these subjects, Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo, was translated into French by C. Daremberg in Oeuvres anatomiques, physiologiques et médicales de Galien, Paris, 1856, 2, 706-784.

The first printed edition of Galen's writings pulled together texts from numerous translators. ISTC No. ig00037000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

First printed edition in Latin of Galen's De anatomicis administrationis, as translated from the Greek by Demetrios Chalkokondyles under the title De anatomicis aggressionibus. Other works in this collection edited by Berengario da Carpi are De motu musculorum translated by Niccolò Leoniceno, De arteriarum et venarum dissectione and De nervorum dissectione translated by Andrea Fortolo, and De hirundinibus, etc. translated by Ferdinando Balamio Siculo. Digital facsimile from Biusante.parisdescartes.fr at this link.

http://www.galenolatino.com/index.php?id=2&clean=1

32 finely lithographed portraits in small folio format with biographies of notable figures in the history of medicine. The original intention was to publish 100 portraits but only 32 were issued.

Gallica includes printed materials, graphic materials, and sound recordings. These materials are royalty-free and available free of charge when used strictly for private purposes. http://gallica.bnf.fr/

Middeldorpf improved the galvano-cautery and introduced it in major surgery.

First description of Einthoven's string galvanometer that recorded electrical changes occurring in the human heart. Includes the first illustration of an EKG (ECG) recording. Modern electrocardiography became a reality through his work, and the string galvanometer finally displaced the capillary electrometer in the measurement of the electric current produced by the contracting heart. 

Remak was a pioneer of galvanotherapy. Having treated some 700 patients with galvanic current, he believed that it was superior to faradic current for electrotherapy.

Classic study of the human gait. The authors calculated the external and internal forces involved in walking and described the kinematics and kinetics of the movement. Because of Braune's death in 1892 he could only complete his contributions to part 1; the remaining parts were completed and issued by Fischer. English translation of parts 1 and 2 by Paul Maquet & Ronald Furlong as The human gait. Berlin: Springer, 1987.

1. Versuche an unbelasteten und belasteten Menschen (XX1/4 (1895), 154-322 pp.

2. Die Bewegungen des Gesamtschwerpunktes und der äußeren Kräfte (XXV/1 (1899), 4-130 pp.,

3. Betrachtungen über die weiteren Ziele der Untersuchungen und Überblick über die Bewegungen der unteren Extremitäten (XXVI/3 (1900), 88-170 pp.

4. Über die Bewegungen des Fußes und der auf denselben einwirkenden Kräfte ((XXVI/7 (1901):, 472-556 pp.

5. Die Kinematik des Beinschwingens (XXVIII/5 (1903), 322-418 pp. 

6. Über den Einfluss der Schwere auf die Schwingungsbewegungen des Beines (XXVIII/7 (1904), 564-617  pp.

Fabricius, the “Father of German Surgery”, was the first to advocate the amputation above the gangrenous or injured part. He is accredited with the first amputation of the thigh. In his work he makes no reference to Paré’s methods; he believed in the efficacy of the “weapon-salve”. See also No. 5570.

“Schultz’s syndrome” – first description of agranulocytic angina. Schultz reported four cases of necrotic ulcerative infection of the throat with complete or almost complete disappearance of polymorphonuclears. To describe the blood change he introduced the term “agranulocytosis”.

Tuffier’s method of extrapleural pneumolysis.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

An alphabetically arranged handbook of herbal remedies. The title page was misprinted 1579, but the work was actually printed in 1597. A list of the plants discussed is available from Early English Books Online at this link. Second edition, London, 1633.

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

A comprehensive, well-illustrated history of the subject, considerably enlarging Garrison’s work previously published in C. L. Dana’s Textbook of nervous diseases, 1925, pp. xv-lvi.

The first herbal written and printed in a modern language, sometimes called the "German Herbarius” and Gart der Gesundheit. Like the Herbarius latinus issued the previous year, the text of this work was compiled by Johann Wonnecke von Kaub, whose name was latinized as Johann von Cube. This is the first printed book with some plant illustrations drawn from nature (65 out of 379 woodcuts). The scientific illustrations have been attributed to Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht, the illustrator of Breydenbach's travels in the Holy Land. This is the first of 14 editions issued in the 15th century: ISTC No. ig00097000. 60 editions were eventually published. Digital facsimile of the first edition from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link.

Discovery of the gas gangrene bacillus (Welch bacillus) Cl. perfringens. Reprinted in Medical Classics, 1941, 5, 852-85.

Meyer showed that the oxygen in the blood was not held in simple solution but came off in quantity only when the air pressure was reduced to one fiftieth of an atmosphere.

Pflüger showed that respiratory changes take place in the tissues.

Haeckel’s gastraea theory, which considers the two-layered gastrula the ancestral form of multicellular animals.

“Sippy diet” for the treatment of peptic ulcer.

Introduction of gastroduodenostomy.

Thomas revived and modified Ritgen’s operation.

Wölfler perfected the operation of gastro-enterostomy.

Einhorn devised the method of exploration of the stomach by means of a tube – gastrodiaphany.

Elsner designed a straight gastroscope with a rubber tip and an optical system to be pushed into the outer tube, which had a lamp at its tip.

Pénières of Toulouse conceived the idea of the valvular method of gastrostomy.

Successful human gastrostomy by the older (Sédillot’s) method. Reported by S. Osborne.

The autobiography of the great surgeon, bibliographer, scholar and book collector.

Graefe devised an operation for the treatment of congenital cleft palate. He reported his first closure of a cleft in the soft palate to the Med.-Chir. Gesellschaft, Berlin, on 27 December 1816 (see J. pract Heilk., 1817, 44, 1St., p. 116). Abridged English translation in No. 5768.2.

In this work Wagner presented the first important contribution to the knowledge of the gross pathology of uterine cancer.

“Twilight sleep”. Gauss developed the method introduced by Steinbüchel (No. 6210).

Pioneering work on obstetric auscultation, including the sounds of the foetal heart. English translation by C. West, London, 1839.

A history of the subject, arranged in calendar form.

Olivecrona first successfully removed an intracranial aneurysm in 1932.

First experimental studies on hypothalmic function

The most magnificent of all comparative anatomical studies of the ear, and the most beautiful studies of the ear after those of Casseri (No.1540). Retzius described the “Retzius bodies” in the labyrinth.

König gave a detailed description of joint involvement in hemophilia.

First well-documented full-thickness skin graft, used for a rhinoplasty on a patient whose nose and forehead had been destroyed by uncontrolled lupus. English translation in No. 5768.2.

Medico-legal aspects of multiple births. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Theory of differential inactivation of the X-chromosome. See also Amer. J. hum. Genet., 1962, 14, 135-48.

Discovery of the Drosophila Bithorax complex and elucidation of its function. Lewis founded the field of developmental genetics and laid the groundwork for current understanding of the universal, evolutionarily conserved strategies controlling animal development. Lewis shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric E. Wieschaus.

Sickle-cell hemoglobin differs from normal hemoglobin by a single amino acid (valine for glutamic acid).

Discovery of sexual processes in the reproduction of bacteria. Lederberg shared the Nobel Prize with Tatum and Beadle (No. 254.3) in 1958.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Whitworth, Rowland, Ewen, ... Prather. Using the CRISPR Cas molecular gene-editing tool, Prather and colleagues edited the gene that codes for the CD163 protein in adult male and female pigs gametes (sperm and egg) that acts similar to a receptor to which the Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) attaches. This artificial genetic mutation created offsprint piglets that were resistant and immune to this panzootic infection which was previously lethal and incurable.

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

"Myles Jackson uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied “genealogy” of CCR5—intellectual property, natural selection, Big and Small Pharma, human diversity studies, personalized medicine, ancestry studies, and race and genomics—Jackson links a myriad of diverse topics. The history of CCR5 from the 1990s to the present offers a vivid illustration of how intellectual property law has changed the conduct and content of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and ethical implications of such a transformation.

"The CCR5 gene began as a small sequence of DNA, became a patented product of a corporation, and then, when it was found to be an AIDS virus co-receptor with a key role in the immune system, it became part of the biomedical research world—and a potential moneymaker for the pharmaceutical industry. When it was further discovered that a mutation of the gene found in certain populations conferred near-immunity to the AIDS virus, questions about race and genetics arose. Jackson describes these developments in the context of larger issues, including the rise of “biocapitalism,” the patentability of products of nature, the difference between U.S. and European patenting approaches, and the relevance of race and ethnicity to medical research" (publisher).

Second edition, 1950.

An encyclopedic work on sexuality and physical love in all its aspects, practical and credulous, including the widest variety of possible positions, the anatomy and physiology of the sexual organs and varous aspects of sexuality including arousal, masturbation, eunuchs, aphrodisiacs, nocturnal emissions etc. etc. It was first translated into English in bowderized form as The cabinet of venus unlocked and her secrets laid open (1658). Digital facsimile of the 1642 edition from Google Books at this link.

The first comprehensive botany of the United States. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Linnaeus’s botanical classification, the starting-point of modern systematic botany. The book is dedicated to Boerhaave. English translation by Erasmus Darwin, Lichfield, 1787.

First publication of the Bentham & Hooker taxonomic system for seed plants published before there were internationally accepted rules for botanical nomenclature. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The codons in DNA specifying amino acids in proteins. 

Tait was probably the greatest of the ovariotomists. He abandoned Listerian principles of antisepsis, relying on “scrupulous attention to cleanliness of every kind and in all directions”.

See No. 3787. With G. Baehr and N. Rosenthal.

The first medical parasitology text– an exhaustive study of the parasites of man, the diseases associated with them and their treatment. Andry’s views were often ahead of his time. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he did not believe in the spontaneous generation of parasites but clearly stated that their seeds entered the body from outside sources and that some foods were particularly liable to contain them. English translation, London, 1701.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Niu, Shen, Cui. The authors presented the first evidence that CRISPR can work in primates. Open Archive version available from Cell at this link. "Summary

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

Paracelsus was the first to note the coincidence of cretinism and endemic goitre. It was not until the 19th century that the possibility of the occurrence of cretinism in adults was entertained. Partial English translation in No. 2241

Haeckel accepted the general principles of Darwinism, disagreeing on some points. He was the first to promote Darwin’s theories in Germany. This work contains the first statement of his theory that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”. See No. 224.

Blumenbach was the founder of anthropology. In this, his doctoral dissertation, he classified mankind into four races, based on selected combinations of head shape, skin color and hair form. In the second edition (1781) he found it necessary to expand this division into five races, but his famous terms “Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malayan” were not used until the third edition of 1795. English translation in Blumenbach, The anthropological treatises…, translated by T. Bendyshe, London, 1865.

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

Treats the history of surgical anesthesia from the earliest time through the work of John Snow (1813-1858).

Gorer made the initial discoveries which formed the basis of transplantation genetics. He studied mouse blood groups and described an antigen in erythrocytes (antigen II). His studies established the laws of transplantation immunity. See also his later paper in Proc. roy. Soc. B, 1948, 135, 499-505.

Sex-linked recessive ichthyosis shown to be an important but not uncommon entity. See also Kerr & Wells: Sex-linked ichthyosis. Ann. hum. Genet., 1965, 29, 33-50.

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis in 1941. This was a restatement of ideas originally proposed by Archibald Garrod (No. 244.1) in 1908. Beadle and Tatum shared the Nobel Prize in 1958 with Joshua Lederberg (No. 255.4) for their researches on the mechanism by which the genes in the cell nucleus transmit inherited characters.

Using C. elegans to investigate whether there was a genetic program controlling cell death, or apoptosis,  In 1986, Horvitz identified the first "death genes", ced-3 and ced-4. He showed that functional ced-3 and ced-4 genes were a prerequisite for the execution of cell death.

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

Luria shared the Nobel Prize in 1969 with M. Delbrück (No. 2578.5) and A. D. Hershey (No. 256) for work on genetics and replication of bacteria.

Jacob, Monod, and André Lwoff shared the Nobel Prize in 1965 for their discovery of a gene whose function is to regulate the activity of other genes.

Hamilton’s mathematical theory of kin selection as an explanation for the evolution of social behavior (including supposedly altruistic behavior), is the foundation of sociobiology.

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. 

The first coherent general algebraic analysis of Mendelian population behavior. The work contains Fisher’s rigorous development of his “fundamental theorem of natural selection”–”the rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.”

"Fisher's principle is an evolutionary model that explains why the sex ratio of most species that produce offspring through sexual reproduction is approximately 1:1 between males and females. It was famously outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection^[1] (but incorrectly attributed to Fisher as original^[2]). Nevertheless, A. W. F. Edwards has remarked that it is "probably the most celebrated argument in evolutionary biology".^[2] Specifically, Fisher couched his argument in terms of parental expenditure, and predicted that parental expenditure on both sexes should be equal. Sex ratios that are 1:1 are hence known as "Fisherian", and those that are not 1:1 are "non-Fisherian" or "extraordinary" and occur because they break the assumptions made in Fisher's model.^[3] Many eusocial wasps, such as the Polistes fuscatus and the Polistes exclamans seem to exhibit such a ratio at times." (Wikipedia article on Fisher's principle, accessed 03-2017).

Along with Wright (No. 253.1) and Haldane (No. 254), Fisher established mathematical population genetics.

Dobzhansky, an emigrant from the Soviet Union to the United States, and a postdoctoral worker in Thomas Hunt Morgan's fruit fly lab, was one of the first to apply genetics to natural populations. He worked mostly with Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics and the Origin of Species "was a key step in bridging the gap between population geneticists and field naturalists. It presented the conclusions reached by Fisher, Haldane, and especially Wright in their highly mathematical papers in a form that was easily accessible to others. It also emphasized that real world populations had far more genetic variability than the early population geneticists had assumed in their models, and that genetically distinct sub-populations were important. Dobzhansky argued that natural selection worked to maintain genetic diversity as well as driving change^{" ( Wikipedia article on Modern Synthesis, accessed 03-2017).}

Brenner established  "Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of animal development including neural development. Brenner chose this 1-millimeter-long soil roundworm mainly because it is simple, is easy to grow in bulk populations, and turned out to be quite convenient for genetic analysis. One of the key methods for identifying important function genes was the screen for roundworms that had some functional defect, such as being uncoordinated, leading to the identification of new sets of proteins, such as the set of UNC proteins. For this work, he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. The title of his Nobel lecture on December 2002, "Nature's Gift to Science," is a homage to this modest nematode; in it, he considered that having chosen the right organism turned out to be as important as having addressed the right problems to work on" (Wikipedia article on Sydney Brenner, accessed 03-2018). Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Little established that the homograft reaction was due to genetic differences between donor and recipient.

Creation of the first transgenic organism: expression of Staphylococcus aureus genes in Escherichia coli. Digital facsimile from pnas.org at this link.

Genome of the parasite that causes Sleeping Sickness.

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

Order of authorship in the original publication: Nene, Wortman, Lawson....

Sequence of the genome of the mosquito that transmits Zika, Yellow fever, Dengue, Chikungunya, etc.

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

Order of authorship in the original paper: Gardner, Hall, Fung.... Genome of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite carried by the mosquito that causes malaria in humans.

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

Order of authorship in the original publication: Holt, Subramanian, Halpern.... Sequence of the genome of Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that carries the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

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

Dated May 30, 2003 and published immediately after No. 10862 in the same issue of Science, this reported the work of Marco Marra and his team in Canada. Order of authorship in the published paper was Marra, Jones, Astell and about 40 co-authors.

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

The Internation Glossina Genome Initiative consisted of 179 collaborators.

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

Order of authorship in the original publication: Grubaugh, Ladner, Kraemer. The authors found that the Zika virus was introduced into Florida at least 4 times, but perhaps as many as 40 times, before it was detected, that it entered Florida from the Carribean (probably Puerto Rico) and most likely from cruise ship travel.

Follow-up papers published immediately after this in the same journal issue:

Faria, N.R.; Quick, J., Claro, I. M.; et al. "Establishment and cryptic transmission of Zika virus in Brazil and the Americas," Nature, 546 (2017) 406-410. The authors generated data from a travelling genomics laboratory sequencing Zika virus (ZIKV) genomes around the country. They found that the virus was first detected in Brazil in May 2015, about a year after it was first introducted.

Metsky, Hayden C.; Matranga, Christian B.; Wohl, Shirlee, et al. "Virus evolution and spread in the Americas," Nature, 546 (2017) 411-415. The authors showed the spread of Zika in the Americas using genomes of people and mosquitoes (110 ZIKV genomes from 10 countries), tracing the common ancestor of ZIKV in the Americas to about late 2013 and pinpointing it to the NE/Bahia region of Brazil.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

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

With nine co-authors.

Francis Adams, surgeon of Banchory, Scotland, prepared this partial translation to acquaint his contemporaries with “the opinions of an author, whom I verily believe to be the highest exemplar of professional excellence which the world has ever seen”. It was both the first English translation of 18 "genuine" works from the Hippocratic corpus, and the last English edition of the Hippocratic writings intended to serve as actual medical instruction. Other works of the corpus remained untranslated into English until the resumed publication of the Loeb Classical Library edition beginning in 1988. The first four Loeb volumes were published in 1923–1931, and six further volumes between 1988 and 2012. Digital facsimile of the 1849 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Tanner, a prolific cartographer, wished to provide a geographic account of the spread of the worldwide cholera epidemic of 1817.  Statistics concerning the epidemic, he complained, were "given in such a loose and unconnected manner as to render a reference to them at once irksome and unprofitable." His publication included global, national and local maps, data tables showing number of deaths in different localities by country, and detailed maps of the United States and New York City with small red dots indicating points where the disease had broken out. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link unfortunately does not include the maps.

"In 1872, at the urging of many of his friends, including Darwin, Philip Sclater, and Alfred Newton, Wallace began research for a general review of the geographic distribution of animals. He was unable to make much progress initially, in part because classification systems for many types of animals were in flux at the time.^[120] He resumed the work in earnest in 1874 after the publication of a number of new works on classification.^[121] Extending the system developed by Sclater for birds—which divided the earth into six separate geographic regions for describing species distribution—to cover mammals, reptiles and insects as well, Wallace created the basis for the zoogeographic regions still in use today. He discussed all of the factors then known to influence the current and past geographic distribution of animals within each geographical region. These included the effects of the appearance and disappearance of land bridges (such as the one currently connecting North America and South America) and the effects of periods of increased glaciation. He provided maps that displayed factors, such as elevation of mountains, depths of oceans, and the character of regional vegetation, that affected the distribution of animals. He also summarised all the known families and genera of the higher animals and listed their known geographic distributions. The text was organised so that it would be easy for a traveller to learn what animals could be found in a particular location. The resulting two-volume work, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, was published in 1876 and would serve as the definitive text on zoogeography for the next 80 years.^[122]

"In this book Wallace did not confine himself to the biogeography of living species, but also included evidence from the fossil record to discuss the processes of evolution and migration that had led to the geographical distribution of modern animal species. For example, he discussed how fossil evidence showed that tapirs had originated in the Northern Hemisphere, migrating between North America and Eurasia and then, much more recently, to South America after which the northern species became extinct, leaving the modern distribution of two isolated groups of tapir species in South America and Southeast Asia.^[123] Wallace was very aware of, and interested in, the mass extinction of megafauna in the late Pleistocene. In The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876) he wrote, "We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared".^[124] He added that he believed the most likely cause for the rapid extinctions to have been glaciation...." (Wikipedia article on Alfred Russel Wallace, accessed 02-2017).

"Darlington's most important contribution to science was his theory of the Old World tropical origin of dominant vertebrate groups. He first sketched out this formulation—which would influence research in zoogeography for a generation—in The Quarterly Review of Biology of 1948, then presented it in full dress in his 1957 text, Zoogeography: The Geographical Distribution of Animals." (E. O.Wilson)

Haviland used the national mortality statistics for England and Wales to develop an elaborate geographical explanation based on map analysis for the cause of heart, cancer, and tuberculosis deaths. He found that females had higher rates for all three causes of death. However, although his technique was innovative his analysis was flawed. Second edition retitled, The geographical distribution of disease in Great Britain (1892). Digital facsimile of the 1892 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work work organized and systematized the huge mass of data being collected by the numerous scientific expeditions of the time to explain the geographical distribution of plants. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Digital facsimile from Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf at this link.

Published as supplement to Amer. J. trop. Med., 1935, 15, No. 5.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Lyell’s summary discussion of the evidence for human antiquity “introduced a wide readership to the new view and to the facts that supported it, thus laying the synthetic foundation for future work” (Grayson). This work also contained Lyell’s first published statements about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The third and last of Darwin's geological reports on the Beagle voyage. In it he described the pampas, the plateaus and the Andres, showing how they had been gradually pushed up in the way that Charles Lyell surmised without the introduction of catastrophic events. The descriptions of secondary fossil shells from South America, illustrated in Sowerby's plates, are by Edward Forbes.

"The building of a connection between the Gompertz equation and the biology of ageing owes much to the work of biophysicist George Sacher [10] of the Argonne National Laboratory, whose introduction to ageing stemmed from the growing recognition during the 1950s that irradiation would shorten length of life [11]. The same recognition led physicist Leo Szilard [12] to propose the somatic mutation theory of ageing and prompted a range of studies on the effects of radiation on ageing both in animal models such as Drosophila (e.g. [13]) and also in human survivors of atomic bomb irradiation [14].

Sacher [10] used the Gompertz model to compare the patterns of increase in age-specific mortality rates across different species. By plotting age-specific mortality on a logarithmic scale against age (figure 1), he showed that a linear increase was generally observed, in accordance with the logarithmic version of equation (1.1), i.e.   

"Thomas B. L. Kirkwood, Decipherng death: a commentary on Gompertz (1825) 'On the nature of the function express of the law of human mortality and on a new mode of determining the value of life contingencies"). (http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1666/20140379,  accessed 01-2017

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Translation into Dutch of the 13th century Chinese text on forensic medicine entitled Xiyuan lu jizheng huizuan. de Grijs's translation was retranslated into German by Henry Breitenstein as Gerichtliche Medizin der Chinesen von Wang-in-Hoai. Nach der holländlischen Übersetzund des Hernn C. F. M. de Grys (Leipzig, 1908). Digital facsimile of the German translation from Google Books at this link. For de Grijs and his translation see Koos Kuiper, The early Dutch sinologists 1854-1900 (2017) Chapter 4, 188ff, especially 191-193.

The first modern treatise on the subject. Nascher coined the term “geriatrics” in a paper of that name in N.Y. med. J., 1909, 90, 358-59.

Dragendorff, Professor of Pharmacy at Dorpat, Marburg, and Vienna, contributed an important book on forensic chemistry. He was responsible for the introduction of several methods for the detection of poisons in the human body.

Casper was a great authority on forensic medicine. He also wrote on medical statistics. Above is an important compilation on judicial autopsies.

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.

Experimental proof that rubella is caused by a virus.

Clio Medica series.

The first printed book on geriatrics – a guide to proper hygiene, physical and mental, and particularly to the diet of the aged. Translated into English by L.R. Lind as Gerontocomia: on the care of the aged and Maximilianus, Elegies on old age and love. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988. See also Nos. 363.4 and 1758.1. ISTC no. iz00026000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Westphal was Professor of Psychiatry at Berlin; at this time was common for physicians to practice both psychiatry and neurology. Vol. 1: psychiatry; Vol. 2: neurology.

Reprints Ehrlich’s writings on immunology to date, as well as three papers by Kyes (Nos. 2111-3). English translation, with two more chapters by Ehrlich and Sachs, and one by Ehrlich, New York, 1906.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In "Beschreibung und mikroskopische Untersuchungen von Mumien", published in I, 114-156, Czermak used histology to identify arterioschlerosis in an Egyptian mummy. Digital facsimile of this specific paper from ECHO at this link.

For his work on tuberculosis Koch received the Nobel Prize in 1905. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See T.D. Brock, Robert Koch: A life in medicine and bacteriology, Madison, WS: Science-Tech Publishers, 1988.

Reprinted, Bad Reichenhall, Kleinert, 1966.

This has traditionally been considered the first major history of Arab medicine. It was written mostly in the form of a chronological series of bio-bibliographies, and should also be considered a pioneering bibliography of Arab medicine and natural history. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This monumental work remains the authoritative encyclopaedic history of ophthalmology, up to the first decade of the 20th century. Its thoroughness and critical judgment mark it as one of the greatest of all histories of scientific or medical subjects. Forms Bde. 12-15 of Graefe–Saemisch Handbuch der gesamten Augenheilkunde, 2te Aufl. Reprinted Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1977. Extensively illustrated English translation by F.C. Blodi, 11 vols. plus supplements. Bonn, J. P. Wayenborgh, 1982-.

Second edition, extensively revised as Geschichte der biologischen Theorien in der Neuzeit, pt. l., Leipzig-Berlin, 1913. English translation of pt 2. as The history of biological theories, London, 1930.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A history of surgery to the end of the 16th century. Includes translations from the literature and illustrations of instruments. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Forms vol. 3 of his Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medizin und der epidemischen Krankheiten, 3te. Aufl.

Forms Bd. 12, Teil 1, of Handbuch der Gynäkologie, hrsg. J. Veit u. Stoeckel. See also No. 6311.4

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A supplement to No. 6288.

From the ancient world through the 18th century. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Traces development of microscopy in disease research and diagnostics, as applied in surgical, gynecological, and dermatologic pathology in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A comprehensive history, particularly for homeopathy in Germany. Includes extensive bibliographies.

A full account of rabies, summarizing current knowledge, with a bibliography of about 300 items.

French translation, 1847; English translation as The plague of lust, being a history of venereal disease in classical antiquity, and including: Detailed investigations into the cult of Venus, and phallic worship, brothels, the nousos thelēia (Femine disease) of the Scythians, Paederastia, and sexual perversions amongst the ancients, as contributions towards the exact interpretation of their writings. Translated from the Sixth (unabridged) German edition by An Oxford M.A. 2 vols. (Paris: Charles Carrington, 1901). Digital facsimile of the 1839 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link; of the 1901 English translation at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A collection of lectures. The bibliography of the revised edition of 1922, for which Sudhoff was responsible, is significantly improved over the first edition.

Reprinted, Hildesheim, 1966.

5th edition, 1965, under the title Illustrierte Geschichte der Medizin.

History of Japanese medicine from the earliest times to 1911. Expanded English translation, translated from the German by John Ruhrah, with a chapter on the recent history of medicine in Japan, by Kageyas W. Amano. New York, 1934.

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

French translation, 1978.

A general history of medicine from a Marxist perspective.

An English translation was published in London, 2 vols., 1909-25.

A history of medical illustration, but primarily covering the history of anatomy. English translation of Vol. 1 (to 1600), London: Pitman, 1970. Vol. 2, edited by Marielene Putscher, extended the work to close to time of publication. The second volume was not translated.

This is generally considered the first clear statement that nerve cells in the brain might be independent units rather than forming an anastomotic network—as Gerlach, Golgi, and most others believed—although there are earlier hints of this from a variety of sources.  His’s conclusion was based on embryological observations in the spinal cord, suggesting that axons arise from nerve cell bodies (one per nerve cell), followed later by dendrites, and that any fusion of processes, if they occur at all, must be a secondary event. (Larry W. Swanson).

A biographical history.

Continued through 18th and part of 19th century in articles in Z. Laryngol., vols. 7, 8, 9, 11, 1914-23. Reprinted, 2 vols., Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1967, with title Geschichte der Nasenheilkunde … bis zum 19 Jahrhundert.

It is fitting that Politzer should have been the greatest historian of otology. He was Professor of Otology in Vienna and his teaching had great influence upon the advancement of the subject. The Geschichte is a masterpiece of historical research. Reprinted, Hildesheim, 1967. English translation of vol. 1, Phoenix, Columnella Press, 1981.

The first systematic history of the subject.

Translated into English by Logan Kennedy and Leonhard Unglaub as A history of palliative care, 1500-1970: Concepts, practices, and ethical challenges (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017).

Reprinted Hildesheim, 1964.

Translated into English by Dennis G. Pappas, as "Barany's History of vestibular physiology: Translation and commentary," Ann. Otol. Rhin. Larygngol.,1984, 93, no. 2, pt. 3. Supplement 110.

Reprinted, Hildesheim, 1970.

Revised and enlarged English translation with deceptive title: Tonometry: physical fundamentals, development of methods and clinical application, New York, Hafner, 1966.

Vol. 1. Alterthum und Mittelalter. Vol. 2. Neuzeit.

Second edition, 1926 (reprinted 1964).

French edition, 1880. Digital facsimile of the German edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link; of the French edition from Google Books at this link.

An early history of cataract.

The only comprehensive multinational study of the development of medical education, and of limited value for coverage of the 19th century. Translated into English by Evan H. Hare as A history of medical education from the most remote to the most recent times (London, 1891), reprinted, with introduction by Erwin Ackerknecht, New York, Hafner, 1966. Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The most comprehensive survey of the general background of the Physiologus, and the later influence of this text. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Ritgen first performed extraperitoneal Caesarean section in 1821.

In this classic work Choulant traced the evolution of anatomical illustration from the early schematic plates up to his own time, including a valuable bibliography. Reprinted, Wiesbaden, 1974. An English translation by Mortimer Frank appeared in 1920 (Chicago, University Press), enriched by a chapter on anatomical illustration since Choulant, written by F. H. Garrison. A reprint of the translation appeared in 1945 with additional essays by Garrison et al, plus a new historical essay by Charles Singer. This was reprinted in 1962.  In 1843 Choulant issued a preliminary study of anatomical illustration: Die anatomischen Abbildungen des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts. Historisch und bibliographisch Erlaeutert (Leipzig: Leopold Voss, 1843).

A superbly produced and illustrated work, with tipped-in color plates. English translation, Bern: H. Huber, 1984.

A study of cultural representations of women patients as recorded in the case records of Johann Storch (1681-1751), a physician who lived and worked in the town of Eisenach, Germany during the first half of the 18th century, including the medical histories of approximately 1800 women of all ages and social stations, often in their own words. Translated into English by Thomas Dunlap as The woman beneath the skin: A doctor's patients in eighteenth-century Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991

English translation, 1970.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Laurence–Moon–Biedl syndrome (see also No. 6368). Biedl’s cases were more fully described by W. Raab, in Wien. Arch. inn. Med., 1924, 7, 443-530.

“Wolff’s law” stated that every change in form and function of a bone, or in its function alone, is followed by certain definite changes in its internal architecture and equally definite secondary alterations in its mathematical laws. English translation by P. Maquet and R. Furlong as The law of bone remodelling. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Rubner’s classic work on the influence of foodstuffs on metabolism. In it he introduced the term “specific dynamic action of the foodstuffs”.

The latest issue may viewed at www.gesnerus.ch.

First cystograms.

Tissue affinity as a means of embryonic morphogenesis. English translation in No. 534.3.

Italian text and English translation of 100 clinical consultation lettes written by Morgagni, discussing patients that in most cases he had not seen, a practice that was considered acceptable at the time.  Morgagni gave these, along with 14 folio volumes of his writings to his favorite pupil Michele Girardi. They were edited and annotated by Enrico Benassi and published in Italian in 1935. Jarcho translated and annotated Benassi's text and added a new preface and many footnotes.

Lewin was a prolific writer, producing more than 200 books and papers. The above is perhaps his best work, and contains a history of poisonings from the most ancient times to the present century, enhanced by innumerable citations from ancient and modern literature.

This work was not illustrated. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Busqué developed the modern concept of rehabilitation.

Herpes zoster first ascribed to a lesion of the spinal ganglia.

Müller’s most important histological work. In it he described the microscopic anatomy of a large series of secreting glands. Müller’s greatest influence was not so much through his own work as through the influence he had upon his pupils at Bonn and Berlin. English translation, 1839.

“Brunner’s glands”, earlier described by Wepfer (No. 974.1).

Introduction of glaucosan.

Haurowitz discovered that crystalline deoxyhemoglobin changes in shape and color on reaction with oxygen, suggesting that it is a molecular lung.

A comprehensive manual by a physician on female hygiene, beauty and adornment, containing hundreds of recommendations, advice on cosmetics, and more than two dozen recipes for dyes to bleach hair blond. Marinello recommended a nightly application of a herbal infusion to improve the effects of aging. Marinello has been called "the founder of modern cosmetology." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Thomas Vicary Lecture. First published in Lancet, 1922, 1, 111-16, 165-72.

On 8 May 1980, the World Health Organization officially announced that “smallpox eradication has been achieved throughout the world”. The upper cover of this report reproduces an electron micrograph of a specimen of variola virus taken from the last case of endemic smallpox in the world, 26 October 1977. This was the successful conclusion of worldwide vaccination efforts initiated by Jenner in 1798. See No. 5423.

First authentic report on variolation.

Baehr drew attention to the renal lesions in subacute bacterial endocarditis.

"The authors used ferritin as an electron dense tracer, such that they could visualize both the structure of the capillary wall and the pathways taken by the ferritin moelcules across the wall....This report confirmed that the basement memrane of the glomerular capillary wall efficiently retards the passage of large macromolecules, but the questions addressed in this report remain challenging more than half a century later" (Feehally et al, Landmark papers in nephrology [2013] 1.3 pp. 6-7).

Aphasia first described. Facsimile reproduction and English translation by H. R. Viets, Bull. Hist. Med., 1943, 13, 328-33.

In Roger of Salerno's Practica chirurgiae, which appeared about 1180, end-to-end suture is described, as is the value of mercurial inunction in chronic skin diseases; in his recommendation of seaweed for the treatment of goitre Roger anticipated Coindet (No. 3812). Roland of Parma [Rolando Capelluti or Capezutti] (fl. early 13th century) was a pupil of Roger, and edited his master’s books about a.d. 1230. The work was one of the most important emanating from the School of Salerno. A color facsimile with Italian translation of an illuminated medieval manuscript of Roland’s version of Roger’s work in the Bibliotheca Casanatense Roma was published in Rome, 1927. Digital facsimile of the 1854 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

First account of a resection in which Lembert’s suture was successfully employed.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Sonnenberg, Xu, Leip....The authors showed that complex plant carbohydrates (glycans), which the human body cannot digest, provide food for benign bacteria in the microbiome, and that feeding them appropriately maintains our symbiotic relationship with these benign bacteria. This glycan material that provides food for benign bacteria in the microbiome was later called Prebiotics. 

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

Bouchardat used the fermentation test, polariscope and copper solutions for the detection of diabetes; he substituted fresh fats for carbohydrates, advised the avoidance of milk and alcohol, invented gluten bread and advocated the use of green vegetables. This was the most rational treatment for diabetes up to his time.