Also published as Mad dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain, 1830-2000.

Description of the 1158 manuscripts and printed volumes, particularly concerning medieval and renaissance medicine and surgery, donated by Putti to the Rizzoli Institute, followed by a listing of the collection of medical and scientific autographs collected by Putti. Limited to 200 copies printed at the expense of Contessa Carolina Rasponi. Reprinted, Bologna: A. Forni, 1963 as Catalogo della Raccolta Vittorio Putti.

Hoffman was statistician for the Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work, "Hoffman's first, characterized African Americans as exceptionally disease-prone. The work was motivated by a concern about issues of race, and also the need of insurance companies to justify the higher life insurance premiums charged to African Americans. An 1897 critique of this work by Kelly Miller in occasional papers of the American Negro Academy of Washington, D.C., pointed out sampling problems with the 1890 census, which was the statistical basis of the work, and that there were insufficient adjustments for environmental factors" (Wikipedia article on Frederick Ludwig Hoffman, accessed 2-2020).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Knox, anatomist at Edinburgh, and notorious for his association with the resurrectionists, made important researches in the field of ethnology while serving as an army surgeon at the Cape of Good Hope.

Classic description of achondroplasia. Romberg’s graduation thesis. English translation (Sydenham Society), 1853.

Although anticipated by Whistler and others in the description of infantile rickets, Glisson’s account was the fullest that had till then appeared. He was first (Chap. 22) to describe infantile scurvy. Glisson’s book on rickets was one of the earliest instances of collaborative medical research in England, combining the observations of Glisson and seven other contributors. G.Bate and A. Regemorter are credited as co-authors. This monograph on the biomechanics of deformities included an early study of the pathologic anatomy of scoliosis. An English translation appeared in 1651.

The first comprehensive book summarizing the evidence relating low-level ionizing radiation to cancer and other diseases.

In this study of ten million children Stewart and Kneale showed that obstetric X-rays significantly increased the rate of childhood leukemia and cancer.

Lockwood’s operation for femoral hernia.

Marcy introduced antiseptic ligatures in the radical cure of hernia. See also No. 3601.

Simultaneously with Bassini, Halsted devised the modern operation for the radical cure of inguinal hernia. This is known as the Halsted I repair. Later his technique differed much from that of Bassini. See also his later paper on the subject in the same journal, 1893, 4, 17-24, which is reprinted in Med. Classics, 1938, 3, 412-40.

Kocher’s hernia operation.

Lotheissen’s operation for femoral hernia.

Seidlin and Marinelli described the first successful treatment of a patient with thyroid cancer metastases using radioiodine (I-131). This paper demonstrated the potential of nuclear medicine as a medical specialty.

An important contribution to the knowledge of iron absorption. With W. F. Bale, J. F. Ross, W. M. Balfour, and G. H. Whipple.

This very beautiful biographical work on the Curies is also an artist's book, with every page filled with artistic imagery drawn by the artist. It has been characterized as part history, part love story, part artwork. It has also been characterized as "visual non-fiction."  Most of the images in the book are cyanotypes in a wide variety of colors. Another remarkable feature of the book is that it was typeset in Eusapia LR, a typeface created by the artist.

First application of radioactive tracers in animals, specifically rabbits and guinea pigs. See also Hevesy et al, "Radiochemical method of studying the circulation of bismuth in the body," C. R. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 178 (1924) 1324.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Includes a section on the development of tomography and computed tomography (CT). Translated into English by Peter F. Winter as Radiology in medical diagnostics: Evolution of X-ray applications 1895-1995 (Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1995).

Gilbert was among the first to achieve durable responses to radiotherapy in Hodgkin’s disease.

Keynes’s successes with radium in breast cancer established this method of conservative treatment. His first paper on the subject, with the same title, was published in St. Barth. Hosp. Rep., 1927, 60, 91-95.

Arrieta published two very early disease maps in this work showing locations of plague in the province of Bari, Italy, and his employment of troops to isolate those areas. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. (Only portions of the two disease maps were visible in the facsimile when I created this entry in April 2018).

The first pocket reference for travelers by land or sea, dealing with topics such as infected genitalia, frostbite, fouled drinking water, shipboard stench, the best boots and shoes. The recipes in this work comprised an essential medical kit for soldiers, sailors, merchants, diplomats and pilgrims. Includes an early description of snow blindness and a recommended treatment. It was issued three times in 1557.  

Lathyrism, a disease occuring in India, and parts of Africa, was known to Hippocrates. Sleeman, an Indian official and major general who presided over the suppression of Thuggee, had no special knowledge of medicine, but gave the first detailed account of lathyrism in vol. 1. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A collection of ancient Egyptian medical documents from the early 18th century BCE, found in the temple of the Ramesseum. As with most ancient Egyptian medical papyri, these documents mainly concern ailments, diseases, the structure of the body, and supposed remedies used to heal these afflictions; specifically  namely ophthalmologic ailments, gynaecology, muscles, tendons, and diseases of children. It is the only well-known papyrus to describe these in great detail. Papyrus IV deals with issues similar to the Kahun Gynecological Papyrus, such as labor, the protection of the newborn, ways to predict the likelihood of its survival, and ways to predict which gender the newborn will be. It also contains a contraception formula.Papyrus V contains numerous prescriptions dealing with the relaxation of limbs, written in hieroglyphic script, rather than hieratic script.

Morgan proposed that what he called Mendelian factors (genes) are arranged in a linear series on chromosomes and that the degree of linkage between two genes on the same chromosome depends upon the distance between them. This fundamental idea enabled his student Sturtevant to map genes on chromosomes. (See No. 245.2).

Order of authorship in the original publication: Mulangu, Dodd, Davey.... One synthetic drug (Remdesivir, an antiviral) and 3 biologicals were used in this trial. The 3 biologicals were: REGN-EB3, a triple monoclonal antibody biologic, and Mab114, a single monoclonal antibody biologic, and ZMapp, another triple monoclonal antibody biologic. REGN-EB3, and Mab114 outperformed the other two, reducing mortality from up to 90% in the untreated to 33.5% for the REGN group and 35.1% for the Mab114 group. This was the first randomized, controlled trial of biopharmaceuticals that had significant success in curing Ebola. Digital text from nejm.org at this link.

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

Original description of plexiform neurofibroma.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Tocantins demonstrated the possibility of transfusion of fluids via the bone marrow. See also later paper with J. F. O’Neill, Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1941, 73, 281-87.

Following up the work of Vedder, Rogers showed that the soluble salts of emetine could be safely injected subcutaneously. The general use of emetine, introduced by Rogers, diminished the incidence of liver abscess – a grave sequel.

The Xenopus toad test for the diagnosis of pregnancy; this preliminary note followed Hogben’s demonstration that Xenopus responds by ovulation to the gonadotrophic hormone (Trans. roy. Soc. S. Africa, 1930, Ser. A, 5, 19). For detailed history of the development of this test, see Brit. med. J., 1946, 2, 554.

Responding to Mesmer’s growing notoriety, the Medical Faculty of Paris became alarmed, and urged the King to appoint a blue-ribbon committee of inquiry. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Michael Joseph Majault, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean d'Arcet. Finding no evidence of a magnetic fluid, these scientists attributed the power of mesmerism to the “imagination” and so drove Mesmer from Paris. Lavoisier may have been the author of the report. English translation, London, 1785. Digital facsimile of the 1784 edition from BnFgallica at this link.

This work contained one of the earliest applications of spatial analysis in epidemiology—an early thematic map by geographer and cartographer Charles Picquet, in which the 48 districts of Paris were represented by gray-scale gradient according to the percentage of deaths from cholera per 1000 inhabitants. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Fonzi, an Italian dentist living in Paris, produced the first sets of individual porcelain teeth mounted on a base. "While previously the entire mineral denture, both base and teeth, had been fired as a single piece, Fonzi in 1808 published a method for the manufacture of individual teeth with platinum hooks fired into them. . . . With the invention of these “Dents terro-metalliques” . . . which could be soldered to a metal bar, the determining step towards modern dental prosthetics had been taken (Hofmann-Axthelm, History of Dentistry, p. 256). Fonzi also discovered a method using a combination of procelain paste and various metallic oxides, of partially imitating the semitransparent tint peculiar to natural teeth. His artificial teeth could be manufactured in a range of natural colors. See Guerini, Life and Works of Giuseppangelo Fonzi (1925).

Souques recognized the importance of encephalitis lethargica as a cause of Parkinsonism; more than any other neurologist he was responsible for unifying its diverse manifestations.

Extensive book (324 pages, many color plates) issued in connection with an exhibition held in Bologna, December 2004 to March 2005, celebrating the fourth centenary of Ulisse Aldrovandi. A much-condensed guide to the exhibition, reproducing many images in color, was also published with Italian and English text, and freely distributed.

Like Paré, Magati believed that gunshot wounds were not in themselves poisonous. He suggested a bandage moistened with plain water in place of the various salves then in vogue.

Vol. 1 describes 5119 rare books, manuscripts, and medieval anatomical mannequins donated by Lawrence Reynolds; includes some fine color plates. Vol. 2 contains material collected for the Reynolds Library after Reynolds' donation.

First definite description of the Hurler syndrome (No. 6371.2). Hunter became Professor of Medicine in the University of Manitoba.

“Hilliard’s lupus”. Hutchinson made an innovation in terminology when he named the disease after the patient instead of the physician describing it. The Archives, which ran to 11 volumes, were written entirely by Hutchinson. See also Polyclinic, 1900, 2, 104-09, for a fuller description of this patient.

First description of “Tornwaldt’s bursitis”, an inflammatory condition of the pharyngeal tonsil, so named from the latter’s description of it in 1885 (see No. 3295).

The most complete description of the natural history museum of Basilius Besler and his nephew Michael Rupert. It contains the first descriptive commentary of the collection, with 40 engraved plates. The Besler collection was partly illustrated in earlier publications: the elder Besler’s own “Fasciculus” of 1616, and his nephew’s “Gazophylacium” of 1642. However, both of those publications consisted of plates only. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

Rats shown to be the carriers of Leptospira. With R. Hoki, H. Ito, and H. Wani.

Welsch stressed the need for autopsy in medico-legal cases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Croone accumulated a large fortune from his practice; with it his widow endowed the Croonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, London. He believed muscular contraction to be brought about by the action of a “spirituous liquor” passing from the nerves and interacting with substances in the muscle. Translation of an extract in J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 207-9. Complete translation by P. Maquet as On the reason of the movement of the muscles. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2000.

A detailed record of Stoll’s practice year by year, between 1777 and 1790, giving numerous case histories and providing descriptions of diseases.

Introduction of reserpine in the treatment of psychoses.

Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius, and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome. His book, published just after his death, rectified a number of anatomical errors. He described the pulmonary circulation, but may possibly have read the account of Servetus published six years previously. He gave a clear description of the mode of action of the pulmonary, cardiac, and aortic valves. The only illustration in this work is the fine woodcut title page influenced by the title page of Vesalius's Fabrica , and suggesting the relief by Donatello entitled The Heart of the Miser. Colombo met Michelangelo in 1547 and supposedly he attempted to commission Michelangelo to illustrate this book. Unfortunately that project never transpired. English translation of the section on pulmonary circulation in John Banister, The historie of man sucked from the sappe of the most approved anathomistes.… London, John Daye, 1578. English translation of book XV by R.J. Moes and C.D. O’Malley, Realdo Colombo. “On those things rarely found in anatomy”, Bull. Hist. Med., 1960, 34, 508-28. Digital facsimile of the 1559 edition from Google Books at this link.

An annotated bibliography in Italian of dental books printed before 1800, and of books on general medicine with significant contributions to dentistry.

Male toad test. An English account is in J. clin. Endocr., 1947, 7, 653-58.

McKinnon’s diagnostic test.

An anthology of outstanding achievement in the growth of pharmacology.

The beginning of the development of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) — interactive computer programs, or expert systems, designed to assist physicians and other health professionals with decision making tasks, including diagnosis. For further information see HistoryofInformation.com at this link. The paper is available at doi:10.1126/science.130.3366.9. JSTOR 1758070.

Demonstration of the complete chain of filarial infection from man-to-mosquito-to-man.

By 1902 Reed knew that the infectious agent of yellow fever was smaller than bacteria, though he did not specifically call it a virus. "In 1898, the passage of an animal pathogen through a Chamberland filter was reported; it is now named foot‐and‐mouth disease virus. In Cuba, serum from a yellow‐fever case was diluted and passed through a Berkefeld filter (of diatomaceous earth and impervious to bacteria). When inoculated into a non‐immune individual it promptly induced an attack of yellow fever. The word ‘virus’ was not used for this case, but because it might be designated as ultra‐microscopic, the infectious agent of yellow fever was compared with that of foot‐and‐mouth disease of cattle" (Clements & Harbach, "History of the discovery of the mode transmission of yellow fever virus," J. Vector Ecol. , 42 (2017) 208-222).

The yellow fever virus discovered by Reed was the first virus discovered that caused human disease.

By experimental removal of the thyroid Horsley produced artificial myxedema, confirming previous work by Reverdin and others. At the time his results were regarded as proof that total thyroidectomy produces operative myxedema, but some of the symptoms he described are now known to have been due to removal of the parathyroids.

The first French book on dentistry.

Louis’ researches were based on 358 dissections and 1,960 clinical cases, and included a numerical study of extra-pulmonary lesions. First edition in English, London, 1835. English translation, Boston, 1836. A translation of the 2nd edition was published by the Sydenham Society in 1844.

This is Cloquet’s medical thesis. It was followed by his thesis in competition for head of the anatomy section of the Paris Faculty: Recherches sur les causes et l’anatomie des hernies abdominales. Paris, Méquignon-Marvis, 1819. Marcy (No. 3601) considered Cloquet’s work to be in the class of Cooper and Scarpa. Cloquet's 1817 work was illustrated with plates engraved by his father. The lithographed plates in the work of 1819 were drawn on stone by Cloquet himself, and are among the earliest lithographed medical illustrations. See No. 409. Digital facsimile of the 1817 work, followed by the 1819 work, from the Internet Archive at this link.

Independently of Berg, Gruby found Candida albicans in thrush. He demonstrated its fungal nature.

Louis introduced the term “typhoid fever” in reference to the disturbed mental condition of the patient; he first described the lenticular rose spots. His book established the pathological picture of the disease. English translation, Boston, 1836.

Mercier emphasized the importance of the muscle fibres around the bladder neck, “Mercier’s bar”, in prostatism.

Isolation of quinine.

The author, formerly a surgeon in the Peruvian army, issued the first study of the pharmacological action of cocaine, containing the earliest suggestion of its use as a local anesthetic. Leclerc issued the commercial edition of this thesis for the doctorate in medicine at the Faculté de Médecine in Paris. The thesis edition of this work, with a different title page, and perhaps other printing differences, was published by A. Parent, Imprimeur de la Faculté de Médecine, also in 1868.

"Obviously, the nationality and the culture of Moreno y Maïz led him to consider coca as a topic of study. His laboratory experiments, in continuation of physiologic experimentation in animals previously defined by Claude Bernard (1813–1878), may be considered a model of basic research in physiology. They were performed in a variety of animals, including rats, guinea pigs, and frogs. In the first experiments, he described the systemic effects of local anesthetics, including seizures and mydriasis related to the injection of high doses of cocaine. In addition, he observed that the spinal cord remained intact when systemic effects could alter sensibility. In an experiment performed in guinea pigs, he observed paralysis on the side where cocaine was injected subcutaneously. In other studies, he noted the local effect of cocaine in frogs. To separate systemic and local effects, he applied the model used by Claude Bernard to study muscle relaxants, in which one leg was protected by vascular ligature. He demonstrated that the anesthetic effect of cocaine on peripheral nerve was independent of the systemic effects. Then, he injected cocaine into the left lower limb of a frog with isolated heart and isolated right lower limb to suppress the systemic diffusion and observed complete paralysis of the left limb 35 min after the injection. The frog did not remove this limb in response to painful stimulation applied locally or on the contralateral limb. Consequently, Moreno y Maïz wondered on page 77 of his medical thesis, “Could one utilize it [cocaine] as local anesthetic? We cannot state with so few experiments; the future must decide.” More surprising is that these results and considerations remained futile, although the author was already a surgeon in Peru and members of the jury of his thesis were also academic surgeons in Paris...." (Emmanuel Marret , Marc Gentili, Francis Bonnet, "Moreno y Maïz: A Missed Rendezvous with Local Anesthesia," Anesthesiology, 100 (2004) 1321-1322) .

First determination of the respiratory quotient.

In this foundation work on phytochemistry, Saussure analysed the chief active components of plants, their synthesis and decomposition. He specified the relationships between vegetation and the environment. He showed that plants grown in closed vessels took their entire carbon content from the enclosed gas, and thus demolished the old theory that plants derive carbon from the so-called “humus” of the soil.

A classic study of animal fats. Chevreul discovered that fats are composed of fatty acids and glycerol.

Chevreul characterized cholesterol.

Introduction of paraldehyde into therapeutics as a narcotic.

Classic account of aphasia. Bouillaud was the first to suggest that injuries of the frontal lobe were a cause of aphasia.

Roger drew attention to an important anomaly of the septum, interventricular patency (“maladie de Roger”), demonstrating the presence of a murmur in this condition. This is sometimes called “Roger’s murmur”, although it had been noted by earlier writers. Translated in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 624-38.

Developing the work of Gruber and Durham, Widal noted that a patient’s serum could be tested with bacteria of known type and his disease identified by this means. They demonstrated specific agglutinins in the blood of typhoid patients, making possible an agglutination reaction for the diagnosis of typhoid, the“Gruber-Widal test”.

Includes a study of the diseases of women lace workers. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Jacquemier’s sign, diagnostic of pregnancy.

Introduction of high-frequency currents in electrotherapy.

“Probably the most significant [French dental] author after Fauchard” (Hoffmann-Axthelm). Bourdet’s greatest contributions were to dental prosthetics. He also described severe periodontoclasia and his treatment of the condition – similar to modern gingivectomy.

Gruby discovered trypanosomes in the frog. He first suggested the name “trypanosome” to describe the parasite.

Brown-Séquard found that excision of both adrenals in animals invariably proved fatal, thus determining their indispensability. He also believed that they had an antitoxic influence upon the blood. His experimental work was of great importance in the development of our knowledge of the internal secretions.

Experimental epilepsy (section of sciatic nerve). See also Arch. Physiol. norm. path., 1869, 2, 211-20, 422-38, 496-503; 1870, 3, 153-60.

Measles transmitted to animals.

Poiseuille’s law of the flow of liquids in tubes – fundamental in blood viscosimetry. Abstract; complete monograph in Mém. Acad. roy. Sci. (Paris), 1846, 9, 433-544. First book-form edition, Paris, 1844.

Nicolle demonstrated the transmission of typhus by the body louse Pediculus corporis. He also produced the disease in monkeys and guinea-pigs by the injection of infected blood. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1928. Preliminary communication in C. R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 1909, 149, 486-89.

Experimental proof that vision depends on the integrity of the cerebral cortex. See No. 1391 for his first paper on the subject. Partial English translation in von Bonin, Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1960.

Bouillaud identified the anterior lobes as the speech center. Refuting Gall, he showed that the brain controls equilibration, station, and progression. Title of second paper varies. His earlier Traité clinique et physiologique de l’encéphalite ou inflammation du cerveau. Paris, 1825, includes some pathological and clinical studies on loss of articulate speech associated with lesions of the anterior lobes, and gives reasons for the localization of this function in the brain. See No. 4618.

“Aran–Duchenne disease”, progressive muscular atrophy, with which the name of Cruveilhier is also associated. A fuller account is included in Duchenne’s Électrisation localisée, 1861, 437-547.

In his second paper on population growth Verhulst introduced the term, logistic. He modified his equation so its early part is exponential and becomes logistic only after a definite length of time. Verhulst published a second paper on this subject: Deuxième mémoire sur la loi d’accroissement de la population. Mem. Acad. Roy. Belg., 1847, 20, 1-32.

“Foramen of Magendie” described.

When Volta questioned the validity of experiments claiming to show responsiveness of an ex vivo heart, devoid of blood flow and nervous connections, Bichat obtained permission to experiment upon the freshly killed bodies of those guillotined during the French Revolution. His trials on both laboratory animals and human cadavers led him to conclude that cardiac excitation by electricity would occur only when the organ was stimulated by direct contact. English translation of second edition, Philadelphia, 1809.

Flourens removed the cerebrum and cerebellum in pigeons, showing maintenance of reflexes with loss of cerebration in the former case and disturbance of equilibrium in the latter case. Thus he demonstrated that the cerebrum is the organ of thought and the cerebellum the organ controlling the co-ordination of body movements and of will-power. See Nos. 1388 & 1493. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First description of lymphangitis carcinomatosa. See L. Doyle, "Gabriel Andral (1797-1876) and the first reports of lymphangitis carcinomatosa," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 82 (1989) 491-93.

Pirogov, the great military surgeon, was with Syme the first in Europe to adopt ether anesthesia, and he left an interesting account of his experiences with it. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Perez isolated an organism from the nose of patients suffering from ozena. He named it Coccobacillus foetidus ozaenae and considered it to be causally related to the disease.

Becquerel and Rodier analyzed the blood components present in various diseases including typhoid fever, tuberculosis, Bright’s disease, anemia, heart disease and syphilis, as well as in pregnancy and childbirth. Their statistical analyses of blood’s iron, fibrin and ash content were still being referred well into the 20^th century.

Poiseuille was the first after Stephen Hales to make any important addition to the knowledge of the physiology of circulation. In his graduation thesis, above, he described a “hemodynamometer” invented by himself and which he used to repeat some of Hales’s blood-pressure experiments. With his hemomanometer, a mercury manometer, which was a great improvement on the long tube used by Hales, Poiseuille showed that the blood-pressure rises and falls on expiration and inspiration, and measured the degree of arterial dilatation produced by each heart beat. English translation in Edinb. med. surg. J., 1829, 32, 28-38. See also his paper in J. Physiol. exp. path., 1828, 8, 272-305. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work extended Hertwig’s work on fertilization (No. 495) down to the level of chromosomes, which were clearly visible in Ascaris after the sperm and egg united.

Davaine was the first conclusively to prove that a definite disease (anthrax) was due to a definite micro-organism (B. anthracis), and was thus one of the first to prove the germ theory of disease. He showed that the virulence of anthrax was in proportion to the number of bacteria present.

Bazin proved the fungal origin of favus and tinea; this was the first work to incorporate mycotic skin diseases into dermatological literature. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

First accurate description of Microsporon audouini, the fungus of Willan’s porrigo decalvans, tinea tonsurans, “Gruby’s disease”.

“Duchenne muscular dystrophy”. English translation of first portion in Bick, Classics of orthopaedics, 72-75.

The beginning of the modern clinical conception of tuberculosis. Bayle gave the best description to date of the varieties of tuberculosis. He was first to use the term “miliary” to describe small tubercles and first to speak of tuberculous diathesis. He left an original description of the coarse character of the tubercle and its identity with the pulmonary, granular, and other varieties of tuberculosis. He recognized six types of pulmonary lesion. English translation, Liverpool, 1815.

Dareste devoted his career to experimental teratology, and in this work established the field as a science. The second edition (1891) was greatly revised and enlarged. Contains a valuable history of experimental teratology.

Pasteur was the first to differentiate between aerobic and anaerobic organisms. (See also Nos. 2476-77.)

Piria made salicylic acid from salicin.

Baillarger demonstrated that the cortex is made up of layers and that fibers connect the cortex with the internal white matter. English translation in von Bonin, Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1960.

Among Brown-Séquard’s best work was his study of the pathways of conduction in the spinal cord.

The Wollmans made important contributions to the knowledge on bacteriophage and lysogeny.

Invention of the modern sphygmograph. Also published in C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 1860, 51, 281-309. Preliminary paper in same journal, 1860, 50, 634-37.

Paulesco isolated the anti-diabetic hormone of the pancreas before Banting and Best. He named it “pancréine”.

The beginning of knowledge of thalamic function. This work contains Luys’s descriptions of the two structures which bear his name: the subthalamic nucleus and the center median of the thalamus.

Récamier was the first to recognize the process of metastasis. He also described for the first time invasion of veins by cancer.

First description of skin changes and necropsy findings in pseudoxanthoma elasticum. See No. 4096.1 and Trans. St. John’s Hosp. Derm. Soc., 1972, 58, 235-50 (F.M. Pope).

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

Published as Vol. 1 of Oeuvres de Docteur Jules Guerin, of which this work was all published. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Louis refuted Broussais’s system of medicine, his “médicine physiologique.”  Louis was instrumental in establishing medicine as an exact science by the introduction of the numerical or statistical method. English translation by C. G. Putnam, with preface and appendix by James Jackson as Researches on the effects of bloodletting in some inflammatory diseases, Boston, 1836.

Davaine showed that anthrax could be transmitted to sheep, horses, cattle, guinea-pigs, and mice, and that in such animals the bacilli did not appear in the blood until 4-5 hours before death.

De Bordeu first conceived the idea of internal secretion by his hypothesis that every organ, tissue, and cell discharges into the blood products which influence other parts of the body. His work was published in a collective volume by three physicians from his family: Antoine de Bordeu, Théophile de Bordeu, and François de Bordeu. Théophile's Analyse médicinale du sang appeared as part six of the book (pp. 346-588). In the first edition he was not specifically credited as author. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A physician from Delft, Schmerling found extensive human remains and artifacts associated with the remains of extinct animals in the caverns around Liège. These human remains were distinctively different anatomically from Homo sapiens. Schmerling concluded that these findings were evidence for human antiquity, and suggested that they might be a different species. Although Schmerling’s findings were widely acknowledged, it was only when the Neanderthal 1 remains were published by Fulrott and Schaafhausen that scientists recognized the anatomical differences. 

The primary lesion in pulmonary tuberculosis in children (“Ghon’s primary focus”) was first described by Parrot.

First description of hemiplegic epilepsy so well depicted by Jackson (No. 4816), and referred to by Charcot as “Bravais–Jacksonian épilepsie”. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

“The first scientific paper on paralysis in children was published in 1827 by Jean Baptiste Cazauvieilh, who […] noted that congenital hemiplegia was associated with cerebral atrophy and differentiated those due to ‘l’agenèse cérébrale’ (congenital cerebral agenesis) from ’l’atrophie consecutive’ (acquired cerebral atrophy)" (Ashwall, Founders of child neurology, 16, 20).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First evidence that thalassemia is genetically determined. Earlier report in Kliniki, Athens, 1936, 12, No. 5.

First description of  general paresis, or paralytic dementia, general paralysis of the insane, or "maladie de Bayle". This is considered the first demonstation of an organic cause for a "psychiatric" disorder; it was influential in drawing the attention of psychiatrists to other disorders of the nervous system as possible causes of other "mental" disorders. Commercial issue: Paris, Didot le Jeune, 1822. Partial English translation in Arch. Neurol. Psychiat. (Chicago), 1934, 32, 808-829. Digital facsimile from the University of Calgary at this link.

“Leroy invented a two-bladed instrument to aid in the insertion of a laryngeal tube by the ability to control the direction of its tip. He also invented a limiting mechanism for the bellows, to enable given amounts of air to be inflated, after he noticed at post-mortem where bellows had been used for inflation, that emphysema and tension pneumothorax were not uncommon. This research eventually led to the abandonment of bellows in resuscitation kits. Leroy also advocated chest and abdominal compression” (Huston).

First accurate counts of the blood platelets.

Corti made important investigations on the finer anatomy of the mammalian cochlea. The “organ of Corti” in the cochlea is named after him.

Soubeiran, like Liebig and Guthrie, discovered chloroform; it is difficult to determine who was first, as each may have allowed an interval of time to elapse between discovery and publication.

Moureau discovered the Rh factor independently of Levine and others whose work was not known to him owing to the military occupation of Belgium. See also his paper in Amer. J. clin. Path., 1946, 16, 373-79.

Precipitin reaction for the diagnosis of hydatid disease.

“Aran–Duchenne disease” (see No. 4732)

Gruby discovered a fungus, Trichophyton tonsurans, in ringworm of the scalp.

The Cercle des Philadelphes, of which Charles Arthaud was president, was an academic scientific society in Saint-Domingue, in existence between 1784 and 1791. It was the most prominent academic society in the Americas prior to the French Revolution. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This work is considered the starting point for a broad philosophical discussion on euthanasia in the German-speaking world. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Purmann was a skilful army surgeon – one of the most famous of the period. Despite this he believed in the efficacy of the weapon-salve and the sympathetic powder.

"Despite the global spread of Western medical practice, traditional doctors still thrive in the modern world. In Recipes for Immortality, Richard Weiss illuminates their continued success by examining the ways in which siddha medical practitioners in Tamil South India win the trust and patronage of patients. While biomedicine might alleviate a patient's physical distress, siddha doctors offer their clientele much more: affiliation to a timeless and pure community, the fantasy of a Tamil utopia, and even the prospect of immortality. They speak of a golden age of Tamil civilization and of traditional medicine, drawing on broader revivalist formulations of a pure and ancient Tamil community.Weiss analyzes the success of siddha doctors, focusing on how they have successfully garnered authority and credibility. While shedding light on their lives, vocations, and aspirations, Weiss also documents the challenges that siddha doctors face in the modern world, both from a biomedical system that claims universal efficacy, and also from the rival traditional medicine, ayurveda, which is promoted as the national medicine of an autonomous Indian state. Drawing on ethnographic data; premodern Tamil texts on medicine, alchemy, and yoga; government archival resources; college textbooks; and popular literature on siddha medicine and on the siddhar yogis, he presents an in-depth study of this traditional system of knowledge, which serves the medical needs of millions of Indians.Weiss concludes with a look at traditional medicine at large, and demonstrates that siddha doctors, despite resent trends toward globalization and biomedicine, reflect the wider political and religious dimensions of medical discourse in our modern world. Recipes for Immortality proves that medical authority is based not only on physical effectiveness, but also on imaginative processes that relate to personal and social identities, conceptions of history, secrecy, loss, and utopian promise" (publisher).

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

The first textbook of surgical pathology. It treats of all kinds of swelling under the term “abscess” and describes neoplasms of the genital organs and sarcoma of bones. Tumors of the breast are classified into four groups, the section devoted to them being one of the most important in the book. It also contains the first description of infantile hydrocephalus. De recondita abscessuum natura was also the first book to include illustrations of lesions with the text. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First reconstitution of a virus.

The first sustained attempt to relieve osteoarthrosis of the hip by surgical means other than fusion.

Most of this work is a very carefully documented history of the subject. Bibliography of 451 references.

A detailed analysis, by means of faradic stimulation, of the motor responses of the cerebral cortex, internal capsule, and spinal cord of higher primates.

Respiratory syncytial virus. With B. Roizman and R. Myers.

Isolation of the rubella virus.

Western equine encephalitis virus recovered from man.

The authors were father and son. An unusual feature of this work was its critical analysis of the methods used by itinerant or untrained practitioners. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Senn’s method of detecting intestinal perforation by insufflation with hydrogen.

On the organization and administration of French military hospitals during the Napoleonic era, and probably the most comprehensive account published up to this time on the administration of military hospitals in general. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Blundell Bankart’s operation.

Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881. Although Henry Dunant had suggested in 1864 that Red Cross societies provide disaster relief as well as wartime services, Barton became the strongest advocate for the development of the Red Cross as a disaster relief organization in the years that followed. During the Third International Red Cross Conference in Geneva in 1884, the American Red Cross proposed an amendment to the Geneva Treaty calling for expansion of Red Cross relief to include victims of natural disasters. This resolution became known as the “American Amendment” to the Geneva Treaty of 1864.

Digital facsimile of the 1899 printing from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Also published with a different title: The Red Cross: A history of this remarkable international movement in the interest of humanity. Washington, DC: American National Red Cross, 1898.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A collection of essays by various scholars. Editors also included M.E. van Opstall and F. Vos.

Lectures on the methods of representing the passions in the human face, and on other aspects of medicine and the arts. German translation, Berlin, 1793. See No. 158.

Bonet put into practice the “combined” system of teaching the deaf to speak and the dumb to communicate with others. He showed how the deaf could be taught to speak by reducing the letters to their phonetic value, and he advocated the use of finger-spelling. It is probable that he learned his system from Pedro Ponce de León (1510-84), another Spaniard, whose writings have been lost. English translation: Simplification of the letters of the alphabet: And method of teaching deaf-mutes to speak (1890). Digital facsimile of the 1620 edition from Google Books at this link.

Cause of hereditary methemoglobinemia elucidated.

The first total joint replacements: Gluck replaced the tuberculous knee joint of a 17 year old woman with a hinged ivory prosthesis on May 20, 1890, followed by a total wrist replacement in another patient three weeks later. His joint arthroplasties were remarkably successful in the short term, but all ultimately failed because of chronic infection. "A report of five cases was published, all tuberculous joints. Three prostheses were subsequently removed, but one knee and one wrist replacement were left in situ despite fistula formation. Gluck, a rigid follower of asepsis, later realised that prior joint infection was a contraindication to joint replacement. Sadly, because of the opposition of his colleagues, Gluck stopped this work altogether...." (Eynon-Lewis, N. J.; Ferry, D.; Pearse, M. F., "Themistocles Gluck: an unreognized genius," Brit. Med. J., 305 (1992) 1535-1536.)

Discovery of X-ray crystallography. The father and son team of physicists, William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg, constructed the first X-ray spectrometer using crystals as gratings, using a known wavelength to determine the distances between atomic planes—and thus the structure—of crystalline substances. By the end of 1913 the Braggs reduced the problem of crystal structure analysis to a standard procedure. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. The Braggs' paper is available from the Royal Society at this link.

First ligation of the innominate artery, May 11, 1818. The artery was tied off half an inch below its bifurcation, and the patient suffered no respiratory or circulatory embarrassment. The ligature separated from the artery on the 14th day, but on the 20th day the patient was able to walk downstairs. A fatal hemorrhage occurred from the wound, however, and the patient died on the 26th day.

Reprinted, New York, Hafner, 1964.

Riddoch described in detail the results of complete transection of the spinal cord in man. With Head (see No. 1376) he made one of the most painstaking investigations of this subject.

Discovery of the vasomotor reflexes.

This investigation of the stretch reflex was of value in elucidating muscle tone and posture.

Legislation governing the practice of midwifery was introduced in the city of Frankfurt in 1573, Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

“Ringer’s solution”

Geist and von Bibra proved that the phosphorus necrosis of the lower jaw of matchmakers was caused by phosphorus fumes and that carious teeth ormed the starting point for this typical industrial disease. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A pupil of Frerichs, Virchow, and Romberg, Ebstein became Professor of Medicine at Göttingen.

The earliest medical work printed in English. It was published without printer's name or date, but has been attributed to the press of William Machlinia, in London, and estimated to have been published in 1483."Although often attributed in incunable editions to Benedictus Kamisius, Kamintus, Canutus or Kanuti (i.e. Bengt Knutsson, bishop of Västerâs), the author is probably Johannes Jacobi (i.e. Jean Jasme or Jacme) (Wickersheimer)" (ISTC no.  ij00013200). J. F. Payne, "The Earliest Medical Work Printed in English", British Medical Journal v.1 [1480]; May 11, 1889, 1085-86.

Probably originating about 1160, the Regimen sanitatis from the medical school at Salerno (where medicine was first treated as a separate science) had greater popular influence than virtually any other medieval medical tract. This collection of very sensible dietary and hygienic precepts was first printed with the famed commentary on the Regimen by Arnald of Villanova. The citation (ISTC no. ir00061000) is one of six undated editions, of which four were issued by Johannes de Westfalia. All were probably printed around 1480-85; no order of priority can be definitely established. English translation by Thomas Paynel, [London, 1535]. See Nos. 49-51. Digital facsimile of the edition printed between 1477 and 1483 from the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf at this link.

Text reproduced in facsimile (15 leaves), transliteration and English translation. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

This work has very little originality, being mainly derived from the Arabic physicians of 500 years before, but is noteworthy as being the first book on pediatrics printed in German. It includes what is probably the first reference in medical literature to microcephaly. It was reprinted several times before 1500. Facsimile in Sudhoff’s Erstlinge (see No. 6355). The edition of 1497 is the first printed work on pediatrics to contain an illustration. Facsimile reproduction with commentary, Zürich, J. Stocker, 1976. English translation in Ruhräh (No. 6354). ISTC No. im00527000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

The “boke of children” is the first work on diseases of children to be written by an Englishman the English language. Phaer enabled Englishmen to read and think of pediatrics in their own language. The edition included Phaer's translation of Jehan Goeurot's The regiment of lyfe, a translation of the Regimen of Salerno, and Phaer's A goodly bryefe treatise of the Pestylence, a treatise on the plague.

See Thomas Phaer and the boke of chyldren (1544) edited by Rick Bowers. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Reniassance Studies, 1999. Digital facsimile of the 1999 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reprint of 1553 edition, edited by A.V. Neale and H.R.E. Wallis, Edinburgh, 1955. Also reprinted in Rühräh (No. 6354).

Euricius Cordus, father of Valerius, wrote an important account of sweating sickness. Another edition was published at Nuremberg, also in 1529. Reproduced in Gruner’s Scriptores, 1847 (No. 5524).

Includes 97 beautiful chromolithographed plates dissected, photographed, and colored from nature by McClellan. Digital facsimile of the 2nd edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

“Crohn’s disease” – regional ileitis. With L. Ginzburg and G. D. Oppenheimer.

"Some of Crohn's initial research into the causes of the Crohn's disease was centered around his personal convictionthat it was caused by the same pathogen, a bacterium called Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP), responsible for the similar condition that afflicts cattle called Johne's disease. However, he was unable to isolate the pathogen—most likely because M. paratuberculosis sheds its cellular wall in humans and takes the form of a spheroplast, making it virtually undetectable under an optical microscope. This theory has resurfaced in recent years and has been lent more credence with the arrival of more sophisticated methods of identifying MAP bacteria" (Wikpedia article on Burill Crohn, accessed 1-2020).

"While the causes of Crohn's disease are unknown, it is believed to be due to a combination of environmental, immune, and bacterial factors in genetically susceptible individuals.^[6][7][8][2] It results in a chronic inflammatory disorder, in which the body's immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract, possibly targeting microbial antigens.^[7][9] While Crohn's is an immune-related disease, it does not appear to be an autoimmune disease (in that the immune system is not being triggered by the body itself).^[10] The exact underlying immune problem is not clear; however, it may be an immunodeficiency state.^[9][11][12] About half of the overall risk is related to genetics with more than 70 genes having been found to be involved.^[1][13] Tobacco smokers are twice as likely to develop Crohn's disease as nonsmokers.^[3] It also often begins after gastroenteritis.^[1] Diagnosis is based on a number of findings including biopsy and appearance of the bowel wall, medical imaging and description of the disease.^[1] Other conditions that can present similarly include irritable bowel syndrome and Behçet's disease.^[1] "(Wikipedia article on Crohn's disease, accessed 1-2020).

Digital facsimile of the copy presented by Hinds to Charles Darwin, with Darwin's annotations, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. This work also appeared as a section of Edward Belcher's Narrative of a voyage round the world performed in Her Majesty's Ship Sulphur....2 vols. (London, 1843). Digital facsimile of Belcher's work from the Internet Archive at this link.

Phonocardiography.

Bourgelat founded the first veterinary school in Lyon, 1761. He later developed the French system of veterinary schools. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

Second edition in five vols., 1829–1830. After Cuvier's death 12 "disciples" of Cuvier brought out a third edition in 22 vols. from 1836 to 1849. The 12 "disciples" were Jean Victor Audouin (insects), Gerard Paul Deshayes (molluscs), Alcide d'Orbigny (birds), Antoine Louis Dugès (arachnids), Georges Louis Duvernoy (reptiles), Charles Léopold Laurillard (mammals in part), Henri Milne Edwards (crustaceans, annelids, zoophytes, and mammals in part), Francois Desire Roulin (mammals in part),Achille Valenciennes (fishes), Louis Michel Français Doyère (insects), Charles Émile Blanchard (insects, zoophytes) and Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (annelids, arachnids etc.). The work was illustrated with tables and plates (at the end of Volume IV) covering only some of the species mentioned. A much larger set of illustrations was published by the entomologist Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in his Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier (9 vols, 1829-1844).  Its 448 quarto plates by Alfred Joseph Annedouche, Canu, Eugène Giraud, Lagesse, Lebrun, Vittore Pedretti, Plée and Smith illustrated 6200 animals. Cowan. "On the Disciples' Edition of Cuvier's Regne Animal", J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist. 8 (1) (1976) 32–64. Several English translations were published, the first of which was probably that of John Edward Gray (1824). See Coleman, Georges Cuvier zoologist, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1964. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

Lumsden introduced the concept of subsidiary respiratory centers in the brain stem.

Proof of the regulation of respiration by CO₂ concentration of the alveolar air

Electronic edition from unc.edu, Documenting the American South, at this link.

Known as the Materia Medica Pura. Second edition, 6 vols, 1822-27. For the third edition, Hahnemann only wrote vols. 1 & 2 (1830-33). 

"Between 1768 and 1774, he [Pallas] led an expedition to central Russian provinces, Povolzhye, Urals, West Siberia, Altay, and Transbaikal, collecting natural history specimens for the academy. He explored the Caspian Sea, the Ural and Altai Mountains and the upper Amur River, reaching as far eastward as Lake Baikal. The regular reports which Pallas sent to St Petersburg were collected and published as Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs (Journey through various provinces of the Russian Empire) (3 vols., 1771–1776). They covered a wide range of topics, including geology and mineralogy, reports on the native peoples and their religions, and descriptions of new plants and animals" (Wikipedia article on Peter Simon Pallas, accessed 09-2017).

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link. English translation as Travels Through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in the years 1793 and 1794. 2 vols. London, 1802-1803. Digital facsimile of the second edition (1812) of the translation from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first comprehensive monograph on the Republic of Liberia, published 50 years after its colonization by freed American slaves and their descendents. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English and edited by Henk Dop and Phillip T. Robinson as Travel Sketches from Liberia. Johann Büttikofer's 19th century rainforest explorations in West Africa. (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

See also H. Reiter, Brit. J. vener. Dis., 1960, 36, 18-20.

Tawara discovered and described the atrioventricular node – “node of Tawara”.

Translated into English by Kozo Suma and Munehiro Shimada as The conduction system of the mammalian heart: An anatomical-histological study of the atrioventricular bundle and the Purkinje fibers. London: Imperial College Press, 2000.

Extra-vital cultivation and rejuvenation of tissue. Carrel was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1912.

A history of the doctor-patient relationship. Translated into English by Frances Partridge as Doctor and patient (London: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 1969).  Digital facsimile of the Spanish edition from cervantes.virtual.com at this link.

See No. 4151.

Gaudereau worked as a missionary in Turkey, Armenia, Persia, and India, facing plague outbreaks several times. In Turkey he almost succumbed to the plague, himself, but was cured using local remedies. These remedies and other local precautions to avoid the disease he reported in this book.

In his study of the spread of cholera in Poland in 1831 Brière de Boismont used a map to show the progression of the disease from a central point through the country along a red line through principal towns and the date in which the disease appeared in each town. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Maximow’s blood regeneration theory.

The Henles and Diehl showed that Epstein-Barr virus is the aetiological agent in infectious mononucleosis. 

Mering and Minkowski had focused attention upon the pancreas as the seat of diabetes, Opie’s work was another important step forward; he established the association between failure of the islets of Langerhans and the occurrence of diabetes.

Like McCollum and Davis, Osborne and Mendel showed the necessity in diet of a factor which was later to be known as vitamin A.

Withington, pp. 18-22, proposed Bills of Rights for subjects of experiments "to secure patients again any injustice from the votaries of science." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Marks the beginning of Marine’s lifelong study of the thyroid.

Isolation of p-aminobenzoic acid, a structural analog of sulfanilamide.

First study of the subject.

Barron confirmed the experimental work of Sobolew. It was whilst reading the above paper that Banting first formulated the hypothesis upon which he based his successful experiments.

Ott studied the nervous regulation of body temperature. His papers on the heat-center in the brain and on the thermoinhibitory apparatus were published in the same journal, 1887, 14, 150-62, 428-38; 1888, 15, 85-104.

Ricketts and Wilder differentiated Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Schlesinger showed that hemolytic streptococcal infection was a cause of acute rheumatism in children.

Katz shared the Nobel Prize in 1970 with U. S. von Euler and J. Axelrod for his research into the nature of the processes of chemical neurotransmission.

The most famous work of English literature written by a physician. Browne did not intend to have it published, but manuscripts of the work circulated privately. Two unauthorized and inaccurate editions were issued surreptitiously by the same publisher in the same year.

This was Sir William Osler's favorite book. He may have learned the entire work by heart, and was fond of giving copies of later editions to friends. Full text of the first and second editions from penelope.uchicago.edu at this link.

Callaway, a surgeon turned missionary and bishop of the Diocese of Natal, may have been the first to publish actual transcriptions of Zulu divination, including indigenous medical beliefs and practices, in their original language, with translation and notes. Part IV (pp. 416-448) specificially concerns "Medical magic and witchcraft." There are also numerous other references to medicine throughout the text. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Though its formal title page is dated 1870, and indicates that it was published in several cities in South Africa in 1870, the copy available from the Internet Archive indicates that the printed sheets were distributed by The Folk-Lore Society in 1884. 

Books I-II of De arte venandi cum avibus, edited by Marcus Welser from a very old, incomplete defective manuscript, which lacked Books III-IV. More than a dissertation on hunting, this work is considered the first zoological treatise written in the critical spirt of modern science, centuries before the scientific revolution. Besides the most detailed exposition of the method of hunting with falcons, the work concerns the anatomy of birds, a description of avian habits, and the excursion of migratory birds. Written during the 1240s by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also an accomplished linguist and scholar, the original manuscript was lost in 1248 at the siege of Parma.

Manuscripts of De arte venandi cum avibus exist in a two-book version at Rome, Vienna, Paris (2x), Geneva and Stuttgart, and in a six-book version at Bologna, Paris, Nantes, Valencia, Rennes, and Oxford. The most famous is an illuminated manuscript commissioned by Manfred, son of Frederick II: a two-column parchment codex of 111 folios ( Vatican, MS. Pal. Lat. 1071). This manuscript of the two book version and is illustrated with brilliantly colored, extraordinarily lifelike, accurate and minute images of birds, their attendants, and the instruments of the art. The manuscript also contains additions made by Manfred, which are all clearly marked in the beginning by notations such as "Rex", "Rex Manfredus" or "addidit Rex".

Facsimile edition of the manuscript: Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1969.  Digital facsimile of the 1596 edition from Google Books at this link. 

This beautiful and bibliographically complicated work was issued in 17 parts from 1865 to 1875. It includes 82 tinted lithographic plates, and is the first visually spectacular large extensively illustrated publication on paleoanthropology and paleolithic mobiliary art. Plate B-XXVIII illustrates the ivory carving of a mammoth discovered in 1864 by Lartet, Falconer, and de Verneuil in the cave of La Madeleine, which provided undeniable evidence that humans and mammoths had co-existed. Lartet first described this carving in a paper entitled “Une lame d’ivoire fossile trouvée dans un gisement ossifere du Périgord, et portant des incisions qui paraissent constituer la reproduction d’un éléphant à longue crinere,” published in the Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des sciences 61 (1865): 309–11; an English translation of this brief paper appears in the Reliquiae Aquitanicae. The work also includes the English translation of the first paper on Cro-Magnon man by Edouard Lartet's son, Louis Lartet: Mémoire sur une sépulture des anciens troglodytes du Périgord, Annales des sciences naturelles, 5e sér., zoologie et paléontologie, 10, 133-145, 1868.

Buckland’s elaborately illustrated Reliquiae diluvianae (Relics of the Flood) describes his geological and paleontological researches of the early 1820s, including his investigations of the Kirkdale and Paviland caves in Great Britain. His excavation of the Paviland Cave (Goat’s Hole) in Wales is notable for his discovery of a partial human skeleton covered in red ochre and accompanied by mammoth fossils and some bone and ivory ornaments. This find, which became known as the "Red Lady of Paviland," was later recognized as the first discovery of modern human fossil remains found in Europe. However, despite the proximity of the headless skeleton to the fossils of an extinct animal, Buckland identified the human remains as “anterior to, or coeval with, the Roman invasion of this country” (p. 92). This was in part due to his allegiance to catastrophist thought, as propounded by Cuvier, which held that human beings had not appeared on earth until after “geological deluge.” 

"In a work that spans the twentieth century, Nancy Tomes questions the popular--and largely unexamined--idea that in order to get good health care, people must learn to shop for it. Remaking the American Patient explores the consequences of the consumer economy and American medicine having come of age at exactly the same time. Tracing the robust development of advertising, marketing, and public relations within the medical profession and the vast realm we now think of as "health care," Tomes considers what it means to be a "good" patient. As she shows, this history of the coevolution of medicine and consumer culture tells us much about our current predicament over health care in the United States. Understanding where the shopping model came from, why it was so long resisted in medicine, and why it finally triumphed in the late twentieth century helps explain why, despite striking changes that seem to empower patients, so many Americans remain unhappy and confused about their status as patients today" (publisher).

First description of cirrhosis of the liver.

Cheselden’s lateral lithotomy first described in this brief paper by Alexander Reid. Digital facsimile from royalsocietypublishing.org at this link.

Chiarugi’s regulations for the Bonifazio mental asylum mark the first appearance in print of his landmark reforms in the humane treatment of the mentally ill. Chiarugi was the first to practise the humanitarian treatment of the insane.

An early description of the joint symptoms in tabes dorsalis.

On bending fractures in children.

Sims’ operation of cholecystotomy.

Important experimental work on cardiac overstrain was carried out by Roy and Adami who considered that mechanical overstrain caused chronic thickening of the cardiac valves.

Spencer Wells forceps.

Leidy found the hookworm in the cat and suggested that it might also be found in man as a cause of pernicious anemia.

First accurate description of migraine.

“Pott’s disease”. Percival Pott, surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital for more than 40 years, left a classic description of spinal curvature due to tuberculous caries and causing paralysis of the lower limbs. He did not, however, recognize its tuberculous nature. Pott published a further book on the subject in 1782. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1936, 1, 281-328.

First complete description of Chlonorchis sinensis.

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

The first "scientific" paper on dentistry to appear in an American periodical. Trained in France, Gardette accepted a commission as a surgeon in the French navy and went to America in 1778 when France sent her ships to defend the cause of the American Revolution. Digital facsimile of the journal volume from Google Books at this link. The same volume of the journal contains an advertisement for "Mr. Gardette's Dentifrice (carefully put up in pewter pots) to whiten the teeth and harden the gums, preserving the former from decay and the latter from the scurvy. . . ." 

Treatment for the quintessential American war injury suffered by troops and settlers alike on the American frontier.

In this speech given by Osler as President of the Medical Library Association Osler spoke first about the essential value for practicing physicians of institutional medical libraries run by professional librarians, and then discussed the value gained for each physician in collecting a personal library, depending on their personal and professional interests. He spoke of forming divisions within the Medical Library Association for professional librarians and another for "amateurs, like myself." Regarding his own approach to book collecting, Osler wrote,

"Personally, I collect on two principles--first, interest in an author, which is a good guide, as the book illustrates the biography, a principle which has the advantage of helping at least to keep you within the limits of purse and shelves, more the latter than the former. Take, for example, the two small groups of books I have placed in our exhibition, the one illustrating Servetus, the other Ulrich von Hutten. Valuable as they are from the standpoint of the professional bibliographer, this is nothing to the interest awakened in the men themselves, in their aspirations, their labour, and their tragic fates. For the amateur this personal note clothes the dry bones of bibliography and makes them live. And my other principle is this: a student of the history of medicine, I look out for books which have left their impress on it in some special way. If one is particular to examine carefully into the claims of a book before admitting it to the select company on your shelves, you here again cultivate a due regard for purse and space. For example, five or six books illustrate the whole subject of auscultation and percussion, only the masterpieces are chosen. I confess there may be a certain satisfaction in tracing out the biography of a book, but it is cold work unless you love the author.

"Judiciously cultivated, bibliography has many advantages as a pastime for the doctor; a little patient care, a very small expenditure of money, and a constant look-out for the books wanted are the essential requisites. Nor is there ever any difficulty in the choice of a subject--anything he may be interested in has its bibliographical side."

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

This 44-page pamphlet was the first American manual on the administration of anesthesia. In it Morton announced that his method of producing anesthesia was obtained by the inhalation of sulphuric ether. He subsequently devoted himself to the study of surgical anesthesia and to the dissemination of information concerning it, with the expectation of enriching himself through a government grant, after the patent that he obtained together with Charles Thomas Jackson concerning the discovery proved unenforceable. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See No. 5660. 

The active inoculation of man against typhoid was first performed by Wright in 1896. For a preliminary note see Lancet, 1896, 2, 807.

At the time of publication of this work, which contained texts in both Sanskrit and English, Waring was "Physician to His Highness The Maha Rajah of Travancore." Digital facsimile of the 1860 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Expanded fifth edition: Remarks on the uses of some of the bazaar medicines and common medical plants of India: With a full index of diseases, indicating their treatment by these and other agents procurable throughout India: To which are added directions for treatment in cases of drowning, snake-bites, &c. (London, 1897). At this point Waring was "Surgeon-Major (Retired) Her Majesty's Indian Army." Digital facsimile of the 1897 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Horsley, with J. Taylor and W. S. Coleman, devised an operation for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia in which the Gasserian ganglion was removed by a temporal approach.

Longmore was an army surgeon in India; he gave an excellent account of heat-stroke.

Broca claimed the third left frontal convolution of the brain as the center of articulate speech – a point now disputed. He was first to trephine for a cerebral abscess diagnosed by this theory of localization of function. He introduced term “aphemia” (“motor aphasia”, “Broca’s aphasia”). English translation in von Bonin. Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1960. See No. 4619

An important supplement to and revision of this work is W. Schupbach, The paradox of Rembrandt’s ‘Anatomy of Dr. Tulp’. Med. Hist. Suppl. 2, 1982.

Includes facsimile reproduction of “La régime de l’epidémie et remède contre icelle” of Jean Jacme (Johannes Jacobi), [5115], together with the “Remède très utile contre fièvre pestilencieuse” by the same writer. See No. 5115.

"The remedy here treated of is ipecacuanha: although its antidysenteric virtues had previously been made known in 1649 by the writings of Piso and Marggraf [No. 2263.1] it was left to Helvetius, about forty years subsequently, to bring the remedy into public notice in France. This he did in a truly empirical [quack, charlatan] style, keeping his remedy a secret, placarding its virtues on the street walls, &c. So great was his success, the Dauphin of France having been cured by its means, that the French king purchased from Helvetius his secret for 1000 louis-d'or and made it public" (Waring, Bibliotheca therapeutica 1, 526).

The first work on agriculture written in French. As an apothecary, Belon was especially interested in the pharmaceutical value of plants. Having learned about them on his travels, he introduced numerous foreign plants into France, including the tree of Judea, cork oak, pistachio, cedar, jujube, and green oak, eastern juniper, and myrtle. Except for a portrait of Belon, this relatively brief work is unillustrated. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First successful operation for cancer of the larynx.

"The first occasion on which a surgeon deliberately operated on an injured heart was in October 1872. This followed a brawl in a public house in East London, after which a 31-year-old man could not find a needle he usually kept in the left side of his coat. The next day he attended St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but the need was not found. Nine days later, pain and discomfort persisted, and on return to St. Bartholomew's he was admitted. The surgeon, George Callender, explored the area of discomfort and made an incision between the ribs. He eventually located the needle, which was embedded in the myocardium close to the apex. The needle was removed and the patient made an uneventful recovery" (Westaby and Bosher, Landmarks in cardiac surgery, 14).

Dunhill’s operation for the removal of intrathoracic tumors.

Beer’s method of transurethral fulguration of bladder tumours, from which arose the operation of transurethral prostatectomy.

Lawson Tait reported that he had performed Battey’s operation on 1 August 1872, 16 days before Battey. See No. 6062.

Records the first interscapulo-thoracic amputation, performed by Ralph Cuming (d. 1808), a naval surgeon, in 1808.

Gasserian ganglionectomy for trigeminal neuralgia; the patient lived for at least two years.