An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

WOODALL, John

1 entries
  • 2144
  • 3711

The surgions mate, or, A treatise discouering faithfully and plainely the due contents of the surgions chest: the uses of the instruments, the vertues and operations of the medicines, the cures of the most frequent diseases at sea: namely, wounds, apostumes, vlcers, fistulaes, fractures, dislocations, with the true maner of amputation, the cure of the scuruie, the fluxes of the belly, of the collica and illiaca passio, tenasmus, and exitus ani, the callenture; with a briefe explanation of sal, sulphur, and mercury; with certaine characters, and tearmes of arte.

London: E. Griffin, 1617.

Woodall was the surgeon-general to the East India Company. This was the first textbook for naval surgeons. Woodall, surgeon to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, was an early advocate of limes and lemons as a preventive measure against scurvy. The second edition (London, 1639) included the first edition of Woodall’s collected works, and an unusual and difficult to read chart of the many drugs that Woodall organized in his surgeon's chest. The enlarged edition was required reading for all naval surgeons in the East India Company. Facsimile reprint of the 1617 edition, with introduction and appendix by John Kirkup (Bath: Kingsmead Press, 1978). Biography by J. H. Appleby, Med. Hist., 1981, 25, 251-68. Digital facsimile of the 1617 edition from The Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.



Subjects: Maritime Medicine, NUTRITION / DIET › Deficiency Diseases › Scurvy, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS