An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16059 entries, 14142 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: November 13, 2024

Browse by Publication Year 1770–1779

144 entries
  • 437.1
  • 5788.9

Histoire de l’anatomie et de la chirurgie. 6 vols.

Paris: P. F. Didot le jeune, 17701773.

A biobibliographical survey to 1755, including dentistry.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 18th Century, ANATOMY › History of Anatomy, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Anatomy, DENTISTRY › History of Dentistry, SURGERY: General › History of Surgery
  • 4437

An account of a case in which the upper head of the os humeri was sawed off, a large portion of the bone afterwards exfoliated, and yet the entire motion of the limb was preserved.

Phil. Trans., (1769), 59, 39-46, 1770.

First recorded excision of the head of the humerus.



Subjects: ORTHOPEDICS › Orthopedic Surgery & Treatments › Amputations: Excisions: Resections
  • 1772
  • 5309

A chronological history of the weather and seasons and of the prevailing diseases in Dublin. With their various periods, successions, and revolutions, during the space of forty years. With a comparative view of the difference of the Irish climate and diseases, and those of England and other countries ...

London: Robinson & Roberts, 1770.

Rutty kept continuous records of weather and diseases in Dublin from 1724-64. On page 75 of this work is the first clear description of relapsing fever. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: Bioclimatology, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Ireland, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES › Lice-Borne Diseases › Relapsing Fever
  • 5336.2

Sur un ver trouvé sous la conjunctive, à Maribou, isle Saint-Domingue.

J. Méd Chir. Pharm., 32, 338-39, 1770.

First description of the worm Loa loa. Mongin was a French surgeon working in the West Indies. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Caribbean, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › DISEASES DUE TO METAZOAN PARASITES, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES › Deer Fly (Mango Fly)-Borne Diseases, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES › Deer Fly (Mango Fly)-Borne Diseases › Loiasis (African Eye Worm) Disease, OPHTHALMOLOGY › Ophthalmic Parasitology, PARASITOLOGY › Helminths › Parasitic Worms
  • 8132

Observations on the duties and offices of a physician; and on the method of prosecuting enquiries in philosophy.

London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1770.

"The first philosophical, secular medical ethics in the English language" (Lawrence, Paul. "(John Gregory." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.). "Gregory divided the practice of medicine into four parts, or branches: 'the art of preserving health, of prolonging life, of curing diseases, and making death easy' " (Vanderpool, Palliative care [2015] 19). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: DEATH & DYING, Ethics, Biomedical
  • 9204

Syllabus of a course of lectures on chemistry.

Philadelphia: [Printer not identified], 1770.

Rush inaugurated the first regular course of lectures on chemistry taught in America, at the College of Philadelphia. Includes much on pharmaceutical chemistry. Facsimile reprint with an introduction by L. H. Butterfield, Philadelphia: Friends of the University of Pennsylvania Library, 1954.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States , Chemistry, PHARMACOLOGY, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Pennsylvania
  • 9913

Histoire des maladies de S. Domingue. 3 vols. Title of vol. 3: Traité ou abregé des plantes usuelles de S. Dominique.

Paris: Lejay, 1770.

Posthmously published; vol. 1 contains a life of the author. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Haiti, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines, TROPICAL Medicine
  • 12707

Directions for bringing over seeds and plants from the East-Indies and other distant countries in a state of vegetation: Together with a catalogue of such foreign plants as are worthy of being encouraged in our American colonies, for the purposes of medicine, agriculture, and commerce. To which is added the figure and botanical description of a new sensitive plant, called Dionaea muscipula: or, Venus's Fly-Trap.

London: L. Davis, 1770.

On p. 34 Ellis published with a separate part title, A botanical description of the Dionaea Muscipula, or Venus's Fly-Trap. A newly-discovered sensitive plant: In a letter to Sir Charles Linnaeus, Knight of the Polar Star, Physician to the king of Sweden, and Member of most of the learned societies of Europe from John Ellis, Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Upsal. This included the first published image of the Venus Fly-Trap. Digital facsimile from huntbotanical.org at this link.


John Ellis's plate of the Venus Fly-Trap, Dionaea Muscipula



Subjects: BOTANY
  • 12733

Lectures on the materia medica: Containing the natural history of drugs, their virtues and doses: Also directions for the study of the materia medica; and an appendix on the method of prescribing. Published from the manuscript of the late Dr. Charles Alston...by John Hope. 2 vols.

London: Edward and Charles Dilly & Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, 1770.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines › History of Materia Medica
  • 4489

A dissertation on the gout, and all chronic diseases, jointly considered, as proceeding from the same causes; what those causes are; and a rational and natural method of cure proposed.

London: J. Dodsley, 1771.

This book excited great attention and ran through eight editions in one year. Cadogan’s advice on moderate exercise and moderation in drinking as a cure for gout caused much criticism. 



Subjects: RHEUMATOLOGY › Gout (Podagra)
  • 863

1. Experiments on the blood, with some remarks on its morbid appearances (pp. 368-83). 2. On the degree of heat which coagulates the lymph, and the serum of the blood; with an inquiry into the causes of the inflammatory crust, or size, as it is called (pp. 384-97). 3. Further remarks on the properties of the coagulable lymph, on the stopping of haemorrhages, and on the effects of cold upon the blood (pp. 398-413).

Phil. Trans., 60, 368-383, 384-97, 398-413, 1771.

In papers 2 and 3 of this set of 3 contiguously published papers Hewson was the first to describe fibrinogen. "Before Hewson, although the fibrin mesh had been recognised and admired from as far back as Plato, it was thought that the secret of clotting lay in the red cells rather than the plasma. Hewson had ample opportunity to study coagulation; so common was the practice of ‘cupping’. He saw it clot as he beat it with a glass rod, thought that clotting was accelerated when blood came in contact with air (a theory disproved by John Hunter who showed that it could occur in a vacuum) and postulated that the its secret lay in the ‘coagulable lymph’ as he described plasma, making him the first to describe fibrinogen" (Derek Doyle, "William Hewson (1739-74): the father of haematology", British Journal of Haematology, April 2006.



Subjects: HEMATOLOGY, HEMATOLOGY › Coagulation
  • 1357

Erste Gründe einer Physiologie der eigentlichen thierischen Natur thierischer Körper.

Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1771.

Unzer was probably the first to employ the work “reflex” in connection with sensory–motor reactions. T. Laycock translated his book into English for the Sydenham Society in 1851.



Subjects: NEUROSCIENCE › NERVOUS SYSTEM › Spinal Cord
  • 1833

Bibliotheca botanica. 2 vols.

Zürich: apud Orell, Gessner, Fuessli et socc, 17711772.

This was the first of the several bibliographies compiled by Haller, one of the greatest figures in the history of medicine. The work contains the most exhaustive and thorough information of the writings in the field of botany then extant. Choulant considered that the bibliographies on botany and anatomy were the best of Haller’s works.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Botany / Materia Medica, BOTANY
  • 3751

Animadversiones in morbum, vulgo pellagram.

Milan: apud J. Galcatium, 1771.

In Frapolli’s careful description of pellagra, the disease was first given its present name. This book is also the first Italian account of the malady. Partial English translation in No. 2241.



Subjects: NUTRITION / DIET › Deficiency Diseases › Pellagra
  • 3675

The natural history of the human teeth.

London: J. Johnson, 1771.

This is a detailed study of the mouth, jaws and teeth with exceptionally accurate plates. Hunter correctly understood the growth and development of the jaws and their relation to the muscles of mastication. He coined the terms cuspids, bicuspids, molars and incisors.



Subjects: DENTISTRY, DENTISTRY › Dental Anatomy & Physiology
  • 5052

An enquiry into the nature, cause and cure of the angina suffocativa, or sore throat distemper, as it is commonly called by the inhabitants of this city and colony.

New York: S. Inslee, & A. Car, 1771.

One of the earliest accurate descriptions of diphtheria. Osler considered the book “an American classic of the first rank”.

Bard was personal physician to George Washington.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Diphtheria
  • 6604.9

Verzeichnis einer Samlung von Bildnissen, gröstentheils berühmter Aerzte; so wohl in Kupferstichen, schwarzer Kunst und Holzschnitten, als auch in einigen Handzeichungen: diesem sin verschiedene Nachrichten und Unmerkungen Vorgesekt, die so wohl zur Geschichte der Arzenengelahrtheit; als vornehinsich zur Geschichte der Künste gehören.

Berlin: Christien Friederich Himburg, 1771.

“Very valuable reports on artistic anatomy and the history of anatomic illustration” (Choulant).  Probably represents the first history of medical portraiture. Digital facsimile from Googe Books at this link.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ART & Medicine & Biology
  • 6020

Appendix to Lynn’s The history of a fatal inversion of the uterus.

Med. Obs. Inqu., 4, 400-09; 5, 388-93., 1771, 1776.

First accurate description of retroversion of the uterus.



Subjects: OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › GYNECOLOGY
  • 9564

Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. 3 vols.

St. Petersburg, Russia: Gedruckt bey der Kayserlichen Academie der Wissenschaften, 17711776.

"Between 1768 and 1774, he [Pallas] led an expedition to central Russian provincesPovolzhyeUrals, West SiberiaAltay, 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.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Russia, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 10131

Médecine vétérinaire. 3 vols. Tome premier, contenant l'exposition de la structure & les fonctions du cheval & du boeuf. Tome second, contenant l'exposition des maladies du cheval, du boeuf, de la brebis &c. Tome troisieme, contenant l'exposition des médicaments nécessaires au maréchal, & l'analyse des auteurs qui ont écrit sur l'art vétérinaire, depuis Végece jusqu'à nos jours.

Lyon: Frères Perisse, 1771.

Vitet was a medical doctor who later became mayor of Lyon. Baas, Outlines of the history of medicine III, 716 writes that he "introduced the experimental method into veterinary medicine."  Volume 3 contains both an analysis of available medications and their applications and an analytical bibliography, with unusually long notes, of prior writings on veterinary medicine. Digital facsimiles of the set from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Veterinary Medicine, VETERINARY MEDICINE
  • 11299

Index supellectilis anatomicae: Rerum anatomicarum; tum phialis onctentarum In liquore limpido, Tum exsiccatarum. Quam suos In usus summa cum peritia atque dexteritate confecit...Bernard Siegfried Albinus

Leiden: Apud Petrum Delfos, Juniorem & Jacobus Douzi, 1771.

An listing of 431 medical museum specimens, including those preserved in liquid as well as dried specimens, prepared for their sale.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: MUSEUMS › Medical, Anatomical & Pathological
  • 11615

A catalogue of the animals of North America: Containing, an enumeration of the known quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, crustaceous and testaceous animals ... to which are added short directions for collecting, preserving, and transporting, all kinds of natural history curiosities.

London: B. White, 1771.

Largely based on specimens he had access to from the British collections of Thomas Pennant and Anna Blackburne, this was Forster's attempt to systemize on the Linnean model the fragmented field of natural history studies from the Americas. It includes important directions for collecting and preserving specimens. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: MUSEUMS › Natural History Museums / Wunderkammern, NATURAL HISTORY, ZOOLOGY
  • 12472

Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana by Mr. Bossu, ... Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster, F.A.S. Illustrated with notes relative chiefly to natural history to which is added by the translator a systematic catalogue of all the known plants of English North America, or a Flora Americae Septentrionalis together with an abstract of the most useful and necessary articles contained in Peter Loefling's travels through Spain and Cumana in South America referred to the pages of the original Swedish edition. 2 vols.

London: T. Davies, 1771.

This work is a series of 21 letters that Bossu wrote to the Marquis de L’Estrade describing his life and travels in the vast Louisiana country from 1751 to 1762. His ventures ranged from Fort Chartres, in present-day Illinois, to Mobile, and along the Mississippi. His visit to New Orleans took place only thirty years after its founding, and he was able to gather considerable information from the memories of locals. “Bossu wrote well and his letters not only give an interesting picture of life in the Mississippi Valley and the Mobile Country to the east at the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth century, but incorporated also are many sketches of events in preceding years” – Streeter. “The first volume is almost entirely filled with historical and personal sketches of the Southern Indian Tribes of the present United States” – Field. Forster devoted nearly of all of the second volume to the catalogue of plants. This catalogue, based on specimens that Forster saw in England, and on the work of the Swedish botanist Pehr Loefling, did not appear in the original French edition of 1768.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Louisiana, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 13011

Aldrovandus Lotharingiae, ou catalogue des animaux, quardupedes, reptiles, oseaux, poissons, insectes, vermisseaux et coquillages qui habitent la Lorraine et les Trois-Évechés.

Paris: Chez Fetil, 1771.

A catalogue of "over 1100 quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, worms and mollusks native to Lorraine. Buc’hoz follows the classification schemes of Argenville, Brisson, Buffon, Daubenton and Geoffroy, and often highlights SPECIES’ GASTRONOMIC AND MEDICINAL USES. After the catalog of fauna he gives a WHO’S WHO OF ANATOMICAL SPECIMEN AMATEURS AND INVENTORIES THE CONTENTS OF THREE PRIVATE CURIOSITY CABINETS formed by local collectors — abbé Besse, apothecary Jean-Baptiste Bécœur (1718-77) and lawyer Jean-Baptiste Villiez....Buc’hoz offers the only account of Villiez’s Wunderkammer with some 1600 specimens of shells, fossils, an 8-foot narwhal tusk, stunning coral, a Nile crocodile, precious gems, NEW WORLD BEETLES and a rhino horn" (Bruce McKittrick, Short Stack 51 (2020) no. 2).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › France, MUSEUMS › Natural History Museums / Wunderkammern, NATURAL HISTORY, ZOOLOGY
  • 13257

Ornithologia Britannica: seu Avium omnium Britannicarum tam Terrrestrium quam Aquaticarum catalogus, sermone Latino, An;glico & Gallico redditus: Cui subjicitur appendix, aves Alienigenas, in Angliam raro adventientes, complectens.

London: Printed for the Author by J. Dixwell, 1771.

This was probably the first natural history treatise published in England that employed binomial nomenclature. Semi-facsimile edition edited by Alfred Newton and published by The Willoughby Society in 1880 as Tunstall's Ornithologia Britannica. Digital facsimile of the 1880 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: ZOOLOGY › Ornithology
  • 920

Observations on the different kinds of air.

Phil. Trans., 62, 147-264, 1772.

The isolation of oxygen was first achieved by Priestley. He also demonstrated that plants immersed in water give off oxygen and that this gas is essential for animal life.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, Chemistry, RESPIRATION
  • 921

De aëre fixo dicto, aut mephitico.

Edinburgh: Balfour & Smellie, 1772.

Discovery of nitrogen.



Subjects: Chemistry, RESPIRATION
  • 154

Von der Physiognomik.

Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben, 1772.

Lavater was the last of the descriptive physiognomists. He expanded the above work into Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe, 1775-78. This was translated into English by H. Hunter as Essays on physiognomy, 3 vols. in 5, London, 1789-98 [i.e. 1788-99] and other editions. His work was very influential on portraiture.



Subjects: ALTERNATIVE, Complimentary & Pseudomedicine › Physiognomy, ANTHROPOLOGY, ART & Medicine & Biology, PSYCHOLOGY
  • 1550

De structura fenestrae rotundae auris, et de tympano secundario anatomicae observationes.

Modena: apud Soc. typog., 1772.

Scarpa’s first scientific work, a comparative anatomical investigation of the ear, in which he offered a more accurate and complete description of the osseous labyrinth and demonstrated the true function of the round window. See also No. 1553.



Subjects: OTOLOGY › Anatomy of the Ear, OTOLOGY › Physiology of Hearing
  • 2277

On the digestion of the stomach after death.

Phil. Trans., 62, 447-54, 1772.


Subjects: PATHOLOGY
  • 2887

Some account of a disorder of the breast.

Med. Trans. Coll. Phys. Lond., 2, 59-67, 1772.

This classic description of angina pectoris is the substance of a paper read on July 21, 1768. Although descriptions of angina are to be found in the works of earlier writers, these mention only dyspnoea in their cases. The merit of Herberden’s account (in which, incidently, he used the name “angina pectoris”) lies in the fact that he was the first to include a description of the paroxysmal oppression in the thorax. Reprinted with other writings by Heberden in An Introduction to the Study of Physic, New York, 1929.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE › Coronary Artery Disease › Angina Pectoris
  • 6269

Practical observations on the child-bed fever.

London: J. Walter, 1772.

Leake insisted on the contagious nature of puerperal fever. Reprinted, London, Sydenham Society, 1949.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS › Puerperal Fever
  • 7660

The naturalist's and traveller's companion. Containing instructions for discovering and preserving objects of natural history....

London: Printed for the Author...., 1772.

Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.  Digital facsimile of the corrected, enlarged, and more elegant second edition of 1774 from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 7767

Cours d'hippiatrique, ou traité complet de la médecine des chevaux.

Paris: Edme, 1772.

The leading 18th century French work on these subjects; some copies were issued with hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile of an uncolored copy from BnF Gallica at this link.



Subjects: COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, VETERINARY MEDICINE
  • 13627

The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and effects of tea-drinking.

London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Botanic Sources of Single Component Drugs › Tea
  • 589

Of the electric property of the torpedo.

Phil. Trans., 63, 461-77, 1773.

The first accurate study of the electrical organs of the torpedo fish were made by Walsh, who was given the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his work on the subject. Walsh proved that the shock of the torpedo was electrical, and that the fish could only send the shock through a conductor.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Marine Biology, PHYSIOLOGY › Electrophysiology, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology
  • 667

Observations sur l’urine humaine.

J. Méd. Chir Pharm., 40, 451-68, 1773.

Discovery of urea, independently of Boerhaave. Rouelle isolated urea as the alcohol-soluble substance from urine. He was the first to present proof of the high nitrogen content of urea.



Subjects: BIOCHEMISTRY
  • 2028.52

A short account of a society at Amsterdam instituted in the year 1767 for the recovery of drowned persons…

London: John Nourse, 1773.

An English summary of No. 2028.51, and the first detailed report on the society’s work published in England. Johnson proposed the formation of a similar society in England. The Royal Humane Society was formed by T. Cogan and W. Hawes in 1774.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Netherlands, Resuscitation
  • 155

Théorie de la figure humaine.

Paris: C. A. Jombert, 1773.

This work on the human figure, published more than 100 years after the death of Rubens, is one of a handful of anatomical treatises illustrated by an artist of the first magnitude.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ANATOMY › Anatomy for Artists, ART & Medicine & Biology
  • 6270

A treatise on the management of pregnant and lying-in women, and the means of curing, but more especially of preventing the principal disorders to which they are liable. Together with some new directions concerning the delivery of the child and placenta in natural births. illustrated with cases.

London: E. & C. Dilly, 1773.

White was the first to state clearly in a text on midwifery the necessity of absolute cleanliness in the lying-in chamber, the isolation of infected patients, and adequate ventilation. He instituted the principle of uterine drainage, placing his patients in a sitting position shortly after delivery using a special bed and chair. In this he preceded Fowler (No. 5623). White was also the first after Hippocrates to make any substantial contributions towards the solution of the etiology and management of puerperal fever.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Sepsis / Antisepsis, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS › Puerperal Fever, Ventilation, Health Aspects of
  • 8813

Observations on the diseases in long voyages to hot countries, and particularly on those which prevail in the East Indies.

London: D. Wilson & G. Nicol, 1773.

Digital facsimile of the third edition, "revised and enlarged" (1793) from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › East Indies, TROPICAL Medicine
  • 11706

De' fenomeni della circolazione osservata nel giro universale de' vasi; de' fenomeni della circolazione languente; de' moti del sangue independenti dall'azione del cuore; e del pulsar delle arterie.

Modena: Presso la Societa' Tipografica, 1773.

In four memoirs on the dynamics of the circulatory system  resulting from 337 experiments recorded in this workSpallanzani studied the role of the circulation in every stage from embryo to adult, and it was through his researches on the vascular system in the umbilical cords of embryo chicks that he first established the existence of arteriovenous anastomoses in warm-blooded animals. He also investigated the effects on the circulatory system of growth, gravity, and the consequences of wounds, as well as the changes affected in the failing circulation of dying animals. He determined that the arterial pulse was causedb y lateral pressure upon the arterial wall from cardiac impulsions conveyed by the blood column.

Digital facsimile of the 1773 edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Translated into English as Experiments upon the circulation of the blood, throughout the vascular system: On languid circulation: On  the motion of the blood, independent of the action of the heart: And on the pulsations of the arteries. With notes, and a sketch of the literary life of the author. By J. Tourdes. Translated into English, and illustrated with additional notes by R. Hall. London, 1801. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Cardiovascular System
  • 11779

Vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthecorum, et testaceorum non marinorum, succincta historia. 2 vols.

Copenhagen & Leipzig: Heineck & Faber, 17731774.

In this work Müller arranged the Infusoria into genera and species for the first time. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BACTERIOLOGY › Bacteria, Classification of, ZOOLOGY › Helminthology, ZOOLOGY › Protistology (formerly Protozoology)
  • 13842

Beschreibung einer Berlinischen Medaillen-Sammlung, die vorzüglich aus Gedächtnis-Münzen berühmter Aerzte bestehet; in welcher verschiedene Abhandlungen, zur Erklärung der alten und neuen Münzwissenschaft, imgleichen zur Geschichte der Arzneigelahrtheit und der Litteratur eingerücket sind von von J.C.W. Moehsen ...

Berlin & Leipzig: Jacob Decker, 1773.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: Numismatics, Medical
  • 14117

A treatise on the kinkcough. With an appendix. Containing an account of hemlock, and its preparation.

London: T. Cadell, 1773.

Probably the first book on whooping cough, proceeding Watt's book by 40 years. Butter proposed hemlock as a treatment for whooping cough.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

(Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Whooping Cough
  • 438

Bibliotheca anatomica. 2 vols.

Zürich: Orell, Gessner, etc, 17741777.

Haller is one of the greatest names in medical bibliography. While pursuing his monumental scientific career he found time to compile bibliographies of botany, anatomy, medicine and surgery which together form the most exhaustive summary of previous writings on these subjects. Reprinted, Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1969.



Subjects: ANATOMY › History of Anatomy, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Anatomy
  • 1102

Experimental inquiries: Part the second. Containing a description of the lymphatic system in the human subject and in other animals. Together with observations on the lymph, and the changes which it undergoes in some diseases.

London: J. Johnson, 1774.

Hewson gave the first complete account of the anatomical peculiarities of the lymphatics. He divided the lymphatics into two groups – superficial and deep. He described the leucocytes as derived from the lymphatic glands and thymus.

"Hewson's studies of the lymphatics are models of skill and ingenuity. He studied them in vitro and in vivo (observing them through a hand‐held magnifying glass in the web of a frog's foot). Disproving the current theory, he showed that the lymphatics are not part of the blood system, that nodes are stopping stations along lymphatic vessels and that every cavity of the body, and not just the lacteals of the small intestine, is drained by the lymphatic system. He demonstrated the absorptive properties of the lymphatics by injecting a dye or noxious substance into experimental animals and then demonstrating it in the lymphatics in a distant part of the body. It was this theory – that the lymphatics, and not just the intestinal lacteals, are a vast and highly effective absorption system – that brought him into conflict with Monro secundus (Wintrobe, 1980).

"Hewson went further, suggesting that noxious agents could enter the body via the lymphatics. ‘The axillary glands are likewise frequently observed to swell in consequence of cancers in the breast and it is found of no use to extirpate the breast itself unless the affected glands can likewise be removed; for otherwise the cancerous tumour of the glands may renew the disease.’ (Hewson, 1774a).

"This work inevitably led him to study further the villi of the gut and their lacteals. He demonstrated how villi in the small intestine differed from those in the colon, and then went on to compare the lacteals of fish, amphibians and turtles (Hewson, 1774b)." (Derek Doyle, "William Hewson (1739-74): the father of haematology", British Journal of Haematology, April, 2006).

 



Subjects: ANATOMY › 18th Century, Lymphatic System
  • 2608

Dissertatio academica de cancro.

Paris: apud De Hansy juniorem, 1774.

Peyrilhe was the first to attempt an experimental study to determine the nature of cancer. He injected fluid from human mammary cancer into a dog; however, the dog howled and aggravated his housekeeper, who drowned it. Peyrilhe recognized for the first time the essential unity of the many different forms of cancer. French edition, 1776. English translation, London, 1777. Digital facsimile of the 1774 edition from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: ONCOLOGY & CANCER
  • 2376

Morborum antiquitates.

Wroclaw (Vratislava, Breslau): J. F. Korn, 1774.

Pp. 85-100: “Lists 191 semeiological varieties of syphilis described in the period” (Garrison).



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis
  • 203.7
  • 2312.1

Ausfürliche Nachricht von neuentdeckten Zoolithen, unbekannter vierfüsiger Thiere…

Nuremberg: Georg Knorrs, 1774.

Esper was the first to record the finding, in Gailenreuth Cave, of human bones alongside the remains of unknown and probably extinct animals. The implications of this dramatic observation published in a color plate book about unusual fossil animal bones seem to have been unnoticed by the scientific establishment. Also French translation, Nuremberg, Knorrs, 1774. 

Esper's book also included the first published description of disease in ancient bones, a possible bone tumor affecting a fossil cave bear. 



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Germany, EVOLUTION › Human Origins / Human Evolution, PATHOLOGY › Paleopathology
  • 3357
  • 3577

Traité des maladies chirurgicales et des opérations qui leur conviennent. 3 vols.

Paris: P. F. Didot le jeune, 1774.

Records (Vol, 1, pp. 153, 160) the first successful operation for mastoiditis, performed by Petit in 1736. “Petit’s hernia” and “triangle” described (vol. 2, pp. 256-58). (See also No. 3357.) A lumbar hernia had previously been described by R. J. C. de Garengeot, Traité des opérations de chirurgie, 1731, 1, 369-71.

 



Subjects: OTOLOGY › Otologic Surgery & Procedures, SURGERY: General , SURGERY: General › Hernia
  • 5789

Bibliotheca chirurgica. 2 vols

Bern & Basel: Haller & Schweighauser, 17741775.

Reprinted, Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1971.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, SURGERY: General › History of Surgery
  • 6451.90

An oration…containing an enquiry into the natural history of medicine among the Indians in North-America; and a comparative view of their diseases and remedies, with those of civilized nations.

Philadelphia: Joseph Cruikshank, 1774.

Rush was the first American physician to publish a detailed study of native American medicine. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY › Medical Anthropology, BOTANY › Ethnobotany, NATIVE AMERICANS & Medicine, TRADITIONAL, Folk or Indigenous Medicine
  • 6157

Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata. The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures.

Birmingham, England: John Baskerville, 1774.

Hunter originally trained as Smellie’s assistant. Once he achieved brilliant professional and financial success he became a great collector of rare books and manuscripts, coins, paintings, minerals, shells, and antiquities. Reflecting Hunter’s interests in anatomical art and fine printing, this work contains 34 copper plates depicting the gravid uterus, life-size. It is William Hunter’s best work and one of the finest anatomical atlases ever produced, “anatomically exact and artistically perfect” (Choulant). Except for J. Dalby’s little book, Virtues of cinnabar and musk against the bite of a mad dog, 1762, Hunter's atlas is the only medical publication produced by the famous Baskerville Press. The letterpress is in both Latin and English. The plates were engraved by several artists from drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, the original sepia drawings for which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library. In 1851 The Sydenham Society published a reprint of the atias. See J. L. Thornton’s Jan van Rymsdyk, medical artist of the eighteenth century, Cambridge: Oleander Press, 1982. 



Subjects: ART & Medicine & Biology, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS
  • 6374.12

Histoire de la chirurgie depuis son origine jusqu’a nos jours. 2 vols.

Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 17741780.

Dujardin seems to be the first European to discuss acupuncture within its historical context as an ancient remedy still found to be of practical value. His section on Chinese and Japanese medicine appears on pp. 75-104 of Vol. 1, and includes reproductions of Ten Rhijne’s plates. Volume 2 was edited by Bernard Peyrilhe. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.



Subjects: ALTERNATIVE, Complimentary & Pseudomedicine › Acupuncture (Western References), Chinese Medicine , Japanese Medicine, SURGERY: General › History of Surgery
  • 6835

Kaitai Shinsho (解体新書 Kyūjitai: 解體新書,(Anatomical Tables). A translation of Johan Adam Kulmus's Ontleedkundige Tafelen by Sugita Genpaku.

Tokyo, 1774.

The first translation of any Western medical text into Japanese. "Kaitai Shinsho represented the beginning of two epoch-making developments. First and most directly Gempaku's work set in motion the modern transformation of Japanese medicine, revealing not only many anatomical structures hitherto unknown in traditional [Japanese] medicine, but also and more fundamentally introducing the very notion of an anatomical approach to the body--the idea of visual inspection in dissection as the primary and most essential way of understanding the nature of the human body. Second and more generally, Kaitai Shinsho inspired the rise of Dutch studies (Rangaku) in Japan, thus giving birth to one of the most decisive influences shaping modern Japanese history, namely the study of Western languages and science" (S. Kuriyama, " Between Mind and Eye: Japanese Anatomy in the Eighteenth Century," IN: Leslie & Young [eds.] Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge [1992] 21).

Kaitai Shinsho was drawn largely from Gerard Dieten's 1773 Dutch translation of Johann Adam Kulmus's Anatomische Tabellen (1731) although its Western-style title-age was copied from Valverde's Vivae imagines partium porporis (1566), and the last four anatomical woodcuts were taken from the 1690 Dutch edition of Bidloo's anatomy. Images from Kaitai Shinsho from the website of the National Library of Medicine at this link. For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

 

 



Subjects: ANATOMY › 18th Century, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Japan, Japanese Medicine
  • 9519

The seaman's medical instructor, in a course of lectures on accidents and diseases incident to seamen, in the various climates of the world. Calculated for ships that carry no surgeon. The whole delivered in a plain language and founded upon a long and successful experience.

London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1774.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: Household or Self-Help Medicine, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Navy
  • 13707

La botanique mise à la portée de tout le monde ou collection des plantes d'usage dans la médecine, dans les alimens et dans les arts. Avec des notices instructives puisées dans les auteurs les plus celebres, contenant la description, le climât, la culture, les proprietes et les vertus propres a chaque plante, precedé d’une introduction a la botanique, ou dictionnaire abregé des principaux termes emploiés dans cette science. 3 vols.

Paris: chez l'Auteur, 1774.

One of the most spectacular works of medical botany ever published, in 3 folio volumes with 472 hand-colored plates and 3 hand-colored engraved title pages. Many of the plates by by Genéviève de Nangis Regnault. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Botanical Illustration, BOTANY › Medical Botany
  • 590

Experiments and observations in an heated room.

Phil. Trans., 65, 111-23; 484-94, 1775.

First demonstration of the importance of perspiration in the maintenance of constant body temperature.



Subjects: PHYSIOLOGY
  • 399.1

Septemdecim tabulae…

Parma: Typographia Regia, 1775.

Santorini died before the completion of these anatomical plates which he intended to be his chef d’oeuvre. This elegantly printed volume is the only significant medical book printed by the celebrated Giambattista Bodoni for the Duke of Parma.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 18th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ART & Medicine & Biology
  • 1117

Recherches sur les maladies chroniques. Vol. 1. Analyse médicinale du sang.

Paris: Ruault, 1775.

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.



Subjects: Ductless Glands: Internal Secretion, ENDOCRINOLOGY, HEMATOLOGY
  • 75

Opera medica. 3 vols.

Hannover: imp. frat. Helwingiorum, 17751776.

Werlhof, a contemporary and friend of Haller, is remembered for his classic description of purpura haemorrhagica (see No. 3052). He was Court physician at Hannover.



Subjects: Collected Works: Opera Omnia, HEMATOLOGY, Medicine: General Works
  • 2122
  • 2609
  • 4165

Chirurgical observations relative to the cataract, the polypus of the nose, the cancer of the scrotum, etc.

London: L. Hawes, 1775.

Includes the first description of occupational cancer. By describing chimney sweeps” cancer of the scrotum, Pott was the first to trace the origin of a type of cancer to a specific external cause. The above work also includes his description of senile gangrene, sometimes referred to as “Pott’s gangrene”.



Subjects: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & MEDICINE , ONCOLOGY & CANCER, OPHTHALMOLOGY › Ocular Surgery & Procedures › Cataract, UROLOGY
  • 2155

Plain, concise, practical remarks, on the treatment of wounds and fractures; to which is added an appendix, on camp and military hospitals; principally designed for the use of young military surgeons in North America.

New York: John Holt, 1775.

The first surgical work written by an American and printed in North America. Jones’s work was the accepted guide to surgical practice during the American Revolutionary War.



Subjects: American (U.S.) REVOLUTIONARY WAR MEDICINE, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE, SURGERY: General
  • 156

De generis humani varietate nativa.

Göttingen: A. Vandenhoeck, 1775.

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.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY
  • 6158

An essay on the uterine haemorrhage, which precedes the delivery of the full grown foetus: illustrated with cases.

London: J. Johnson, 1775.

Rigby differentiated between premature separation of the normal placenta (accidental hemorrhage) and placenta praevia (unavoidable hemorrhage).



Subjects: OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY › OBSTETRICS
  • 7126

Bibliotheca Askeviana, sive Catalogus librorum rarissimorum Antonii Askew, M.D. quorum auctio fiet apud S. Baker & G. Leigh....

London: S. Baker & G. Leigh, 1775.

The auction catalogue of the celebrated library formed by the physician and classical scholar Askew, third owner of the famous gold-headed cane. Askew attempted to secure a complete series of all the Greek classics ever published; he purchased  Richard Mead's Greek manuscripts, the papers of Dr. Taylor and some fine early classical codices from the library of the Maffei family." Among the principal purchasers of Askew's books were William Hunter, the British Museum, and the kings of England and France. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Catalogues of Physicians' / Scientists' Libraries
  • 7505

The history of the American Indians; particularly those nations adjoining to the Missisippi [sic] East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia: containing an account of their origin, language, manners, religious and civil customs, laws, form of government, punishments, conduct in war and domestic life, their habits, diet, agriculture, manufactures, diseases and method of cure... With observations on former historians, the conduct of our colony governors, superintendents, missionaries, & c. Also an appendix, containing a description of the Floridas, and the Missisippi [sic] lands, with their productions--the benefits of colonizing Georgiana, and civilizing the Indians--and the way to make all the colonies more valuable to the mother country....

London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1775.

The author characterized himself  on the title page as "a Trader with the Indians and a Resident in their Country for Forty Years." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY, Agriculture / Horticulture, NATIVE AMERICANS & Medicine, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Florida, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Georgia, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › North Carolina, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › South Carolina, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Virginia
  • 10137

Dictionnaire raisonné d'hippiatrique, cavalerie, manège et maréchallerie. 4 vols.

Paris: Boudet, 1775.

Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.



Subjects: Dictionaries, Biomedical, VETERINARY MEDICINE
  • 13336

Observations historical, critical, and medical, on the wines of the ancients. And the analogy between them and modern wines. With general observations and qualities of water, and in particular those of Bath.

London: T. Cadell, 1775.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: Wine, Medical Uses of
  • 4516

Of a painful affection of the face.

Med. Obs. Inqu., London, 5, 129-42, 1776.

Original description of facial neuralgia. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1940, 5, 100-06.



Subjects: NEUROLOGY › Chronic Pain › Trigeminal Neuralgia, NEUROLOGY › Diseases of the Nervous System, PAIN / Pain Management
  • 668

Undersökning om blasestenen.

Kongl. Vetenskaps-Acad. Handl., 37, 327-32, 1776.

Discovery of uric acid. English translation in his Chemical Essays, London, 1786.



Subjects: BIOCHEMISTRY, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Sweden
  • 102

Opusculi di fisica animale e vegetabile. 2 vols.

Modena: Soc. tipografica, 1776.

Later refutation of the theory of spontaneous generation. Spallanzani’s conclusions were similar to those expressed by Pasteur nearly a century later. His collected works were published in Milan, 2 vols., 1932-33. English translation as Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals and vegetables. 2 vols., London, 1784. Digital facsimile of the "new edition, corrected and enlarged" (1789) from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: BIOLOGY
  • 1601.1

Observations sur les maladies des nègres, leurs causes, leurs traitemens et les moyens de les prévenir.

Paris: Didot de Jeune, 1776.

Study of the health conditions and diseases of black slaves in the Americas.  Digital facsimile of the 1776 edition from Google Books at this link. Second edition, expanded to two volumes. ParisL'Auteur1792.

 


Subjects: BLACK PEOPLE & MEDICINE & BIOLOGY, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Caribbean, Hygiene, Slavery and Medicine
  • 1382.1

Nuova esposizione della vera struttura del cervelletto umano.

Torino: G. Briolo, 1776.

The first detailed account of the anatomy of the cerebellum, which introduced the terms, “tonsil”, “pyramid”, “lingula”, and “uvula”. Reprinted in his Encefalotomia a sia nuova diimostrazione anatomica di tutte le parti contenuto nel cranio umano .... 3 vols., Torino, 1780.



Subjects: NEUROSCIENCE › NERVOUS SYSTEM › Brain, including Medulla: Cerebrospinal Fluid
  • 1833.1

A botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain, with descriptions of the genera and species, according to the system of the celebrated Linnaeus. Being an attempt to render them familiar to those who are unacquainted with the learned languages. Under each species are added, the most remarkable varieties, the natural places of growth, the duration, the time of flowering, the peculiarities of structure, the common English names; the names of Gerard, Parkinson, Ray and Bauhine. The uses as medicines, or as poisons; as food for men, for brutes, and for insects. With their application in oeconomy and in the arts. With an easy introduction to the study of botany. Shewing the method of investigating plants, and directions how to dry and preserve specimens. The whole illustrated by copper plates and a copious glossary. 2 vols.

Birmingham: Printed by M. Swinney & London: T. Cadell, 1776.

The first flora of Great Britain using Linnean binomial nomenclature, and the first complete scientific classification and description of British plants in the English language. Withering included much information on natural places of growth, time of flowering, economic uses as foods and drugs, and poisonous properties.

Withering's explanatory title page was notably verbose. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Classification / Systemization of Plants, PHARMACOLOGY, TOXICOLOGY
  • 2156

A discourse upon some late improvements of the means for preserving the health of mariners.

London: The Royal Society, 1776.

Besides his pioneer work in military medicine, Pringle did much to improve the conditions of sailors afloat. See also Nos. 2150 & 3714.



Subjects: MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Navy, Maritime Medicine
  • 1773

An account of the weather and diseases of South-Carolina. 2 vols.

London: E. & C. Dilly, 1776.

Originally published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1751-54.



Subjects: Bioclimatology, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States , COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States › American South, Geography of Disease / Health Geography, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › South Carolina
  • 3714

The method taken for preserving the health of the crew of H.M.S. the Resolution during her late voyage round the world. In: Sir John Pringle, A discourse upon some late improvements in the means for preserving the health of mariners.

London: The Royal Society, 1776.

Following the scurvy-preventing suggestions of James Lind, Cook lost only one man to disease on his second voyage from 1768-1771. Reprinted in Phil. Trans., 1776, 66, 402-06. See No. 2156.



Subjects: NUTRITION / DIET › Deficiency Diseases › Scurvy, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 3358

Institution des sourds et muets, par la voie des signes méthodiques.

Paris: Nyon l’aîné, 1776.

Includes a reprint of the author’s Institution des sourds et muets; ou, recueil des exercices. Paris, 1774.



Subjects: OTOLOGY › Deaf-Mute Education
  • 3982

Doctrina de morbis cutaneis.

Vienna: R. Graeffer, 1776.

A classification of skin diseases upon the basis of their clinical appearance. Until the time of Willan, von Plenck’s book was the greatest authority on dermatology. He mentioned 115 different skin diseases, all that were known at that time, and divided them into 14 classes.



Subjects: DERMATOLOGY
  • 3928

Experiments and observations on the urine in a diabetes.

Med. Obs. Inqu., 5, 298-316, 1776.

Dobson proved that the sweetish taste of diabetic urine was produced by sugar, an observation following on Willis’s discovery of the sweetness of diabetic urine. He also discovered hyperglycemia.



Subjects: Metabolism & Metabolic Disorders › Diabetes
  • 6747

Bibliotheca medicinae practicae. 4 vols.

Basel: J. Schweighauser, Berne, E. Haller, 17761788.

Haller compiled four great bibliographies dealing respectively with botany, anatomy, surgery, and medicine. They formed the most complete reference work of the time, consisting of a classified analysis of over 52,000 publications of all countries. Additions and corrections to Haller’s Bibliothecae were published by C.G. Murr, Adnotationes ad bibliothecas Hallerianas, Erlangen, 1805. 



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics
  • 9520

Thoughts on general and partial inoculations: Containing a translation of two treatises written when the author was at Petersburg, and published there in the Russian language; also outlines of two plans: One, for the general inoculation of the poor in small towns and villages. The other, for the general inoculation of the poor in London and other large and populous places.

London: W. Owen, 1776.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › England (United Kingdom), COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Russia, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Smallpox › Variolation or Inoculation
  • 10388

Observations on disorders to which painters in water colours are exposed.

Medical Observations & Inquiries, 5, 394-405, 1776.

Concerning lead poisoning from artists' paints.



Subjects: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & MEDICINE
  • 11600

Case of an angina pectoris, with remarks. Farther account of the angina pectoris.

Med. Obs. Inqu., 5, 233-251; 252-258, 1776.

Fothergill was "the first physician to suspect on clinical grounds that the heart might be affected in this condition [angina pectoris] and he was the first to record abnormalities of the myocardium and coronary arteries of patients who died suddenly with this disease.... [Fothergill's second paper] contains the first description of calcification of the coronary arteries in a patient suffering from angina pectoris" (Christopher Booth, "Dr. John Fothergill and the agina pectoris," Medical History 1 (1957) 115-122.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE › Coronary Artery Disease › Angina Pectoris
  • 11996

Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée, dans lequel on trouve la description des lieux, des observations physiques & morales, & des détails relatifs à l'histoire naturelle dans le regne animal & le regne végétal. Enrichi de cent vingt figures en taille douce.

Paris: Chez Ruault, 1776.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Papua New Guinea, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 12272

(1) Observations sur les maladies épidemiques, Année 1770, ouvrage rédigé d'après le tableau des epidémiques d'Hippocrate, et dans lequel on indique la meilleure méthode d'observer ce genre de maladies ... Publié par ordre du gouvernement, et aux fraix du roi. (2) Collection d'observations sur les maladies et constitutions épidémiques; ouvrage qui expose une suite de quinze années d'observations, & dans lequel les épidémies, les constitutions régnantes & intercurrentes, sont liées, selon le voeu d'Hippocrate, avec les causes météorologiques, locales & relatives aux différens climats, ainsi qu'avec l'histoire naturelle & médicale de la Normandie. On y a joint un appendix sur l'ordre des constitutions épidémiques ... Pub. par ordre du gouvernement .… 3 vols.

Paris: Vincent, 17761778.

The first title, in 1 volume, was published in 1776; the second work in 2 vols., supplementing the first work, was published in 1778. In these two bioclimatological and biogeographical studies of disease in Normandy, on which he worked for fifteen years, Le Pecq provided case histories as well as detailed analyzes of epidemics and their relationship to climate, geography, water sources, and local customs, writing in his first work that doctors must study sickness in its natural habitat before they could treat large-scale health issues.



Subjects: Bioclimatology, Biogeography, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › France, EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • 12477

Characteres generum plantarum, quas in itinere ad insulas maris Australis, collegerunt, descripserunt, delinearunt, annis 1772-1775.

London: B. White, T. Cadell, & P. Elmsly, 1776.

This account of botanical discoveries made by the Forsters in Australia and New Zealand on Cook's second voyage was one of the earliest scientific publications resulting from that voyage. Specimens were illustrated on 78 engraved plates. The regular edition was in quarto form; 8 copies were issued in folio format.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Australia, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › New Zealand, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 13364

Traité des pians.

Cap-François, Saint-Domingue: Dufour de Rians, Imprimeur du Roi au Cap., 1776.

One of the earliest medical publications printed in Haiti. Duvivier, Bibliographie générale et méthodique d'Haiti, 2, p. 197.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Haiti, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Treponematoses › Yaws
  • 13549

Medicinisch-praktischer Unterricht für die Feld- und Landwundärzte der österreichischen Staaten. 2 vols. [& Supplement:] Die in dem medicinisch-praktischen Unterrichte für die Feld-und Landwundärzte vorkommende Arzneymittel.

Vienna: Johann Thomas Eblen van Trattnern, 1776.

This work on "Practical medical lessons for field and land surgeons of the Austrian states," includes a 91-page appendix containing 319 recommended pharmaceuticals for the treatments described in the text. The formulae for the pharmaceutical preparations appear in parallel columns in German and Latin.   



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Austria, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS
  • 980

Dissertatio physiologica inauguralis de alimentorum concoctione.

Edinburgh: Balfour & Smellie, 1777.

First isolation of human gastric juice. Stevens was also the first successfully to perform an in vitro digestion, proving the presence in the gastric juice of the active principle necessary for the assimilation of food. An English translation is included in Spallanzani’s Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals, 1784, vol. 1, pp. 303-16. Digital facsimile of the 1777 edition from Google Books at this liink.  See also Edward Stevens: Gastric physiologist, phyhsician and American statesman. With a complete translation of his inaugural dissertation De alimentorum concoctione...Edited by Stacey B. Day. Montreal, 1969.

From the Wikipedia article on Edward Stevens, accessed 01-2017:

"Stevens was born in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. Stevens's father, the merchant Thomas Stevens,[1] would also become the adoptive father of an orphaned Alexander Hamilton.[2] According to Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton,[3]people would often say that Edward Stevens and Hamilton looked like brothers. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, who knew both men in adulthood, noted that the men were strikingly similar in appearance and concluded that they must be brothers. Ron Chernow says many aspects of Hamilton's biography make more sense given Stevens's paternity. It would explain why Hamilton was adopted into the Stevens family while his brother, James, was not. It may have also been a factor in Hamilton's supposed father abandoning his family.[4]"

 



Subjects: GASTROENTEROLOGY › Anatomy & Physiology of Digestion
  • 1598

The state of the prisons in England and Wales.

Warrington, England: W. Eyres, 1777.

Howard devoted much of his life to the improvement of the conditions then prevailing in prisons. The publication of his book led to legislation abolishing abuses in prisons and providing for their proper cleaning. The Howard League for Penal Reform is one result of his charitable work. Reprint of 4th ed. (1792), Montclair, N.Y., 1973. See L. Baumgartner, "John Howard (1726-1790) hospital and prison reformer: a bibliography," Bull. Hist. Med., 1939, 7, 486-534, 595-626.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › England (United Kingdom), COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Wales, PUBLIC HEALTH
  • 1252

Observationes anatomicae de quinto pare nervorum encephali.

Gottingen: J. C. Dieterich, 1777.

Wrisberg, Professor of Anatomy at Göttingen, is remembered for his discovery of the nervus intermedius (“nerve of Wrisberg”), described in the above treatise.



Subjects: NEUROSCIENCE › NERVOUS SYSTEM › Peripheral Nerves / Nerve Impulses
  • 145.53

Specimen zoologiae geographicae, quadrupedem domicilia et migrationes sistens dedit, tabulamque mundi zoographicam adjunxit.

Leiden: Theodor Haak, 1777.

The first textbook of zoogeography, containing the first world map showing the distribution of mammals. French translation of part 1 only by Jakob Mauvillon: Zoologie géographique. Premier article, L'homme (Cassel: Imprimerie française, 1784.) Digital facsimile of the 1777 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the French translation from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: Biogeography, Biogeography › Zoogeography, Cartography, Medical & Biological, ZOOLOGY
  • 2278
  • 2734.2

Observationes anatomicae-pathologicae. 4 vols.

Leiden: P. v. d. Eyk & D. Vygh, 17771781.

Sandifort’s beautifully illustrated work on pathological anatomy included records of ulcerative aortic endocarditis, renal calculi, hemias, bony ankyloses, and congenital abnormalities. A good account of the “tetralogy of Fallot” (No. 2792) is given on pp. 1-38 of Vol. 1. For English translation see Amer. Heart J., 1956, 51, 9-25. In quality Sandifort's work is comparable with that of Morgagni, except that Morgagni's De sedibus was entirely unillustrated. 



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Endocarditis, PATHOLOGY, PATHOLOGY › Pathology Illustration
  • 1964

Rationis medendi in nosocomio practico Vindobonensi. 7 pts.

Vienna: August Bernardi, 17771790.

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



Subjects: THERAPEUTICS
  • 3983

Tractatus de morbis cutaneis.

Paris: P. G. Cavelier, 1777.

Lorry is regarded as the founder of French dermatology. A pupil of Jean Astruc, his most important work was his Tractatus, in which he attempted the classification of diseases on the basis of essential relations, their physiological, pathological, and etiological similarities. It was the first modern text on the subject, and the last major work on dermatology to be published in Latin.



Subjects: DERMATOLOGY
  • 3425

An account of the diseases most incident to children, from their birth till the age of puberty.

London: T. Cadell, 1777.

This is an enlarged and more important (third) edition of his An essay on the diseases most fatal to infants (1767) No. 6324. Page 49: Important description of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.



Subjects: GASTROENTEROLOGY › Esophagus: Stomach: Duodenum: Intestines, GENETICS / HEREDITY › HEREDITARY / CONGENITAL DISEASES OR DISORDERS › Pyloric Stenosis, PEDIATRICS
  • 5832

An account of persons who could not distinguish colours.

Phil. Trans., 67, 260-65, 1777.

First reliable record of color blindness. Written in the form of a letter to Joseph Priestley, who communicated it to the Royal Society. Huddart was a British hydrographer, engineer and inventor.



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY › HEREDITARY / CONGENITAL DISEASES OR DISORDERS › Color-Blindness, OPHTHALMOLOGY › Physiology of Vision
  • 4517

Remarks on that complaint commonly known under the name of the sick head-ach.

Med. Obs. & Inqu., London, 6, 103-37, 17771784.

First accurate description of migraine.



Subjects: NEUROLOGY › Chronic Pain › Headache › Migraine
  • 10157

Règlemens pour les Écoles Royales Vétérinaires de France, divisés en deux parties; la première, contenant la police & la discipline générale: la seconde, concernant l'enseignement en général, l'enseignement en particulier & la police des études.

Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1777.

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.



Subjects: Education, Biomedical, & Biomedical Profession, VETERINARY MEDICINE
  • 10347

Two essays. [Essay I. Of suicide]

London, 1777.

Of suicide, "probably the most widely read and most influential philosophical treatment of suicide written in modern times," was written in 1755 and originally intended to be published as one of five essays, including The natural history of religion and Of the immortality of the soul, in that year. Advance copies were printed and sent to friends, but two of the essays, including Of suicide, were withdrawn for fear of official persecution. Clerical critics of Hume knew of the essay and referred to it as evidence of Hume's atheism and immorality; a French translation was published in 1770 without Hume's knowledge, and the English version appeared in 1777, although in that printing neither author nor publisher were named. The first attributed publication came in 1783, under the title, Essays on suicide and the immortality of the soul, ascribed to the late David Hume esq., never before published. With remarks, intended as an antidote to the poison contained in these performances. Full text of the 1777 printing from davidhume.org at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1784 edition from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: DEATH & DYING › Suicide, Ethics, Biomedical, LITERATURE / Philosophy & Medicine & Biology
  • 10750

Von den Krankheiten der Juden: seinen Brüdern in Deutschland gewidmet.

Mannheim: C. F. Schwann, 1777.

The earliest book devoted entirely to the health and illness of Jews, written by a Jewish physician. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY › Medical Anthropology, Jews and Medicine, RELIGION & Medicine & the Life Sciences
  • 13452

Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den Caraibischen Inseln. Herausgegeben durch Johan Jakob Bossart. 2 vols.

Barby, Germany: Christian Friedrich Laux & Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1777.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States Virgin Islands, NATURAL HISTORY
  • 13764

Bref rörande en resa til Island MDCCLXXII.

Uppsala, Sweden: Uplagde af Magnus Swederus Bokhandl, 1777.

Von Troil’s compilation is the only contemporary printed book steming from Sir Joseph Banks’s pioneering scientfic expedition to Iceland, Banks's first and only expedition as indisputable leader. Having recently returned from the Pacific with Captain James Cook, but having just withdrawn from Cook’s proposed Second Voyage, Banks wrote in his manuscript ‘Iceland Journal’ (now at McGill) that the possibility of an independent voyage to the South Seas in 1773 encouraged him to keep his entourage together and employed ‘to the advancement of science’. Iceland was seldom visited and suggested itself as a suitable terra incognita accessible in the time available: "the whole face of the country new to the botanist and zoologist as well as the many volcanoes with which it is said to abound made it very desirable to explore." On this expedition Banks was accompanied by Daniel Solander, James Lind, and Tobern Bergman, among others. Digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library at this link. Translated into English as Letters on Iceland containing observations on the civil, literary, ecclesiastical, and natural history; antiquities, volcanoes, basaltes, hot springs; customs, dress, manners of the inhabitants ... made during a voyage undertaken in the year 1772, by Joseph Banks, Assisted by Dr. Solander, Dr. J. Lind, Dr. Uno Von Troil, and several other literary and ingenious gentlemen. Written by Uno von Troil. To which are added .... Professor Bergman's curious observations and chemical examination of the lava and other substances produced on the island. (London, 1780). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Iceland, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists › History of Voyages & Travels by Physicians....
  • 922

Mémoire sur la nature du principe qui se combine avec les métaux pendantleur calcination, et qui en augmente le poids.

Hist. Acad. roy. Sci. (1775), 520-26, 1778.

Although Priestley isolated oxygen, it was Lavoisier who discovered its real significance. He showed the true nature of the interchange of gases in the lungs and exploded Stahl’s phlogiston theory. Lavoisier was guillotined during the French Revolution.



Subjects: Chemistry, RESPIRATION
  • 1551

Dissertations sur l’organe de l’ouie. 1. De l’homme. 2. Des reptiles. 3. Des poissons.

Amsterdam & Paris: Cavelier, 1778.


Subjects: COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, OTOLOGY › Physiology of Hearing, ZOOLOGY › Herpetology, ZOOLOGY › Ichthyology
  • 1383

Dissertatio inauguralis anatomica de basi encephali et originibus nervorum cranio egredientium libri quinque.

Gottingen: apud A. Vandenhoeck vid, 1778.

The first accurate enumeration of the 12 cranial nerves, superseding that of Willis (No. 1378). Soemmerring is notable for his accuracy in anatomical illustration. This was his thesis. The same publisher issued an edition for commercial circulation the same year, deleting “Dissertatio inauguralis anatomica” from the title.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, NEUROSCIENCE › NERVOUS SYSTEM › Brain, including Medulla: Cerebrospinal Fluid
  • 1834

Pharmacopoeia simpliciorum et efficaciorum.

Philadelphia: ex. off. Styner & Cist, 1778.

The first original pharmacopeia published in the USA. Reproduced in facsimile, with translation, in The Badger Pharmacist, 1938. No. 22-25.



Subjects: PHARMACOLOGY › Pharmacopeias, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Pennsylvania
  • 1382.2

Mémoire sur les contre-coups dans les lésions de la tête [1768].

Mémoires sur les subjets proposés pour le prix de l’Acad. Roy. de Chir. (Paris), 4 (Part 1), 368-438, 1778.

“One of the first achievements of modern brain physiology” (Neuburger). Saucerotte carried out surgical experiments on dogs which convinced him that the anterior part of the cerebrum innervated the lower limbs and the posterior the upper limbs.



Subjects: NEUROSCIENCE › NERVOUS SYSTEM › Brain, including Medulla: Cerebrospinal Fluid
  • 2157

Directions for preserving the health of soldiers: recommended to the consideration of the officers of the Army of the United States. Published by order of the Board of War.

Lancaster, PA: John Dunlap, 1778.

A reprint from the Philadelphia Packet, No. 284. The pamphlet was reprinted by the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance in Boston, 1865, for distribution to the Union soldiers.



Subjects: American (U.S.) REVOLUTIONARY WAR MEDICINE, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE
  • 2465

Abhandlung fiber die Saamen- und Infusionsthierchen, und über die Erzeugung: nebst mikroskopischen Beobachtungen des Saamens der Thiere, und verschiedener Infusionen.

Nuremberg: A. W. Winterschmidt, 1778.

Gleichen was probably the first to attempt to stain bacteria; he used carmine and indigo.



Subjects: BACTERIOLOGY › Bacteriology, Laboratory techniques in, MICROBIOLOGY
  • 3578

Abhandlung von den Brüchen.

Göttingen: J. C. Dieterich, 17781779.

Richter, lecturer on surgery at Göttingen, in his classic treatise on hernia, first described partial enterocele, or “Richter’s hernia” (Chap. 24).



Subjects: SURGERY: General › Hernia
  • 3676

A practical treatise on the diseases of the teeth, intended as a supplement to the natural history of those parts.

London: J. Johnson, 1778.

This and Hunter's The natural history of the human teeth (No. 3675) revolutionized the practice of dentistry and provided a basis for later dental research. Hunter devised appliances for the correction of malocclusion. He described the various stages of inflammation of affected teeth, and gave an accurate description of periodontal disease. In the above work he included instructions with regard to the operation of tooth transplantation from one living person directly to the jaw of another. Hunter’s outstanding reputation made this highly dubious procedure more widely accepted than it should have been.



Subjects: DENTISTRY, DENTISTRY › Orthodontics, DENTISTRY › Periodontics, TRANSPLANTATION
  • 3676.1

Traité des maladies et des opérations réellement chirurgicales de la bouche. 2 vols.,

Paris: Valleyre, 1778.

The first specialist book on oral surgery. The first volume deals with diseases of the maxilla; and the second, with diseases of the mandible. Jourdain was particularly expert in diseases of the maxillary sinus and describes all forms of inflammation, and cystic and tumourous alterations of the sinuses. The appendix to Volume one deals with specific problems exclusive to oral surgery and quotes for the first time case histories of other physicians. English translations, Baltimore, 1849 and Philadelphia, 1851.



Subjects: DENTISTRY › Oral Surgery
  • 5550

De chirurgia. Arabice et Latine cura Johannis Channing. 3 vols.

Oxford: e typ. Clarendoniano, 1778.

This parallel Arabic-Latin edition prepared by the apothecary John Channing is the first printed edition in Arabic, and the first modern edition of the text. Digital facsimile of the 1778 edition from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.



Subjects: DENTISTRY, ISLAMIC OR ARAB MEDICINE, MEDIEVAL MEDICINE , MEDIEVAL MEDICINE › Medieval Islamic or Arab Medicine, SURGERY: General
  • 5578

A treatise on the theory and management of ulcers.

Edinburgh: C. Elliot, 1778.

Important classification of ulcers.



Subjects: SURGERY: General
  • 6704

Dictionnaire historique de la médecine ancienne et moderne, ou mémoires disposés en ordre alphabétique pour servir à l’histoire de cette science, et à celle des médecins, anatomistes, botanistes, chirurgiens et chymistes de toutes nations. 4 vols.

Mons, Belgium: H. Hoyois, 1778.

The earliest exhaustive collection of medical biographies, and biographies of scientists working in related subjects. The first edition of this work appeared in 1755; the above edition is the most useful. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: BIOGRAPHY (Reference Works)
  • 6381

History of the origin of medicine, delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Medical Society of London, January 19, 1778, and printed at their request. To which are since added, various historical illustrations.

London: J. Phillips for E. & C. Dilly, 1778.

The work covers the "origin of medicine" from the time of the Creation to the Trojan War (6000 – 1184 BCE), and describes both Old and New World medical practices of the period. The lectures were necessarily relatively general, but the footnotes, which occupy more than half of the text, provide full details ("historical illustrations") and identify all of Lettsom's printed sources. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › History of Ancient Medicine & Biology
  • 7564

Observations made during a voyage round the world, on physical geography, natural history, and ethic philosophy. Especially on 1. The earth and its strata, 2. Water and the ocean, 3. The atmosphere, 4. The changes of the globe, 5. Organic bodies, and 6. The human species.

London: G. Robinson, 1778.

The natural history of Captain James Cook's second voyage in the Pacific; Forster and his son Georg were appointed naturalists to the voyage after Joseph Banks withdrew from the position. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 7662

Museum Britannicum : being an exhibition of a great variety of antiquities and natural curiosities, belonging to that noble and magnificent cabinet, the British Museum, illustrated with curious prints, engraved after the original designs, from nature, other objects: and with distinct explanations of each figure.

London: I. Moore for the Authors, 1778.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: ART & Medicine & Biology, MUSEUMS, MUSEUMS › Natural History Museums / Wunderkammern, NATURAL HISTORY
  • 8222

Geographische Geschichte des Menschen und der allgemein verbreiteten vierfüßigen Thiere: nebst einer hieher gehörigen Zoologischen Weltcharte. 3 vols.

Leipzig: Weygand, 17781793.

Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY, Cartography, Medical & Biological, Geography of Disease / Health Geography, ZOOLOGY
  • 9866

Kort Underviisning om De paa Landet, I Bergens Stift, meest grasserende Sygdomme, og derimod tienende Hjelpe-Midler. Paa Det Nyttige Sælskabs Bekostning.

Bergen, Norway: Trykt i Hans Kongelige Majestæts privilegerede Bogtrykkerie, 1778.

Strøm's work, which may be translated as "A short instruction about common sicknesses in the area around Bergen and their most common remedies" was "More a report than a doctor book, it describes the living conditions and medical remedies of his time" (Stokker, Remedies and rituals: Folk medicine in Norway and the new land (2007) pp. 112-114).



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Norway, TRADITIONAL, Folk or Indigenous Medicine
  • 11885

Museum falconarianum. A catalogue of the entire and capital museum of anatomical preparations, and other subjects of natural history; a great variety of chirurgical, anatomical, and philosophical instruments; medicaments, cabinets, preparation-glasses, and other effects; of the late Mr. Magnus Falconar, surgeon, and professor of anatomy, deceased: which, by order of the adminstrator, will be sold by auction, by Mr. Paterson, at his Great Room, No 6. in King-Street, Covent-Garden, London, on Monday the 12th of October 1778, and the nine following evenings, to begin precisely at five o'clock. To be viewed on Wednesday the 7th instant, and to the time of sale. Catalogues, price one shilling, may be had at the place of sale; where also may be had, Mr. Falconar's synopsis of his course of lectures on anatomy and surgery, printed only for the use of his pupils, and never before published, Price five shillings.'

London: Samuel Paterson, 1778.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: MUSEUMS › Medical, Anatomical & Pathological
  • 12696

Notices des hommes les plus célebres de la Faculté de Médecine en l'Université de Paris, depuis 1110, jusqu'en 1750 (inclusivement), extraite- (en plus grande partie) du manuscrit de feu M. Thomas-Bernard Bertrand, communiqué par M. son fils, rédigée par M. Jacques-Albert Hazon.

Paris: Benoît Morin, 1778.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: BIOGRAPHY (Reference Works)
  • 12977

Museum Gronovianum sive index rerum naturalium tam mammalium amphibiorum piscium insectorum conchyliorum zoophytorum plantarum et mineralium exquisitissimorum quam arte factarum nonnullarum.Inter quae eminet herbarius siccus plantarum a Tournefortio Claintonio Lannaeo aliisque botanic collectarum.

Leiden: Apud Th. Haak & Socios., 1778.

Catalogue of Gronovius's museum which was sold at auction starting on October 7, 1778 and on succeeding days. Digital facsimile from docnum.unistra.fr at this link.



Subjects: MUSEUMS › Natural History Museums / Wunderkammern
  • 13613

Catalogue des livres de la bibliotheque de M. Buc'hoz. Disposé et mis en order par Guillaume De Bure.

Paris: G. De Bure, 1778.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Catalogues of Physicians' / Scientists' Libraries
  • 13852

Collection d'observations sur les maladies et constitutions épidémiques: Ouvrage qui expose une suite de quinze années d'observations, & dans lequel les épidémies, les les constitutions régnantes & intercurrentes, sont liées, selon le voeu d'Hippocrate, avec les causes météorologiques, locales & relatives aux différens climats, ainsi qu'avec l'histoire naturelle & médicale de la Normandie. On y joint un appendix sur l'ordre des constitutions épidémiques ... 2 vols.

Rouen & Paris: Didot le jeune, 1778.

This work is divided into four parts:

  • "The first, which occupies the first volume, contains a general description of Normandy, considerations about its climate, its people, their morals and habits, and the most common diseases that affect this province.
    Lépecq de la Clôture divided the entire province by region, according to the deposit of the mountains, the course of the rivers, the exposure, the elevation or the depression of the places. He described the character of the early Normans in comparison with the mores and customs of their descendants; the most general endemic diseases and those peculiar to each canton. He gave a brief account of the natural products found there, the nature of the common or mineral waters that flowed there, and the long series of epidemic diseases that were observed there.
    He made a description of the cantons of Rouen and Caen and obtained from his collaborators those of the canton of Évreux. He provided three life tables (Rouen, Lisieux and Évreux over 40 years) and made comparisons and reconciliations.
  • The second part includes meteorological observations collected in Caen and Rouen during fifteen consecutive years.
  • The third part presents the major constitutions of popular diseases in Caen from 1763 to 1768;
  • The last part presents the diseases that reigned in the climate of Rouen from 1768 to 1777, and describes the various epidemics that occurred in Upper Normandy.

    "In addition to the epidemics of 1770 described in the first volume, he placed [in the last part] the catarrhal epidemic of the summer of 1763, the bilious putrid of 1764 and 1765, the milium that succeeded it, the atrabilious epidemic of 1766 and 1767, and the epidemic catarrh of 1767-1768 in the territory of Caen. The bilious epidemic of 1769, the catarrhal disease of 1770, the epidemic of Gros-Theil in the Roumois, the verminous and malignant putrid and exanthematous putrid of Louviers, the bilious catarrhal disease of 1771 and 1772, the putrid peripneumonia of 1775, the epidemic outbreak observed in Cottevrard, the influenza of 1775, the putrid catarrhal epidemic of Saint-Georges and the putrid peripneumonia of Dieppe in 1776; finally the putrid scorbutic epidemic of 1776 and 1777 in the canton of Rouen." (Wikipedia article on Louis Lépecq de la Cloture, accessed 3-2022).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › France, EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • 591

Experiments and observations on animal heat.

London: John Murray, 1779.

Earliest experiments upon animal calorimetry.



Subjects: BIOCHEMISTRY › Metabolism
  • 401.1

Nouveau recueil d’ostéologie et de myologie…

Toulouse: J. F. Desclassan, 1779.

“Without contest the most beautiful of all anatomies for the artist and one of the most remarkable books of its time” (Hahn & Dumaitre). The plates in this work are more fantastic than any other anatomy, suggesting the work of Goya, who may have known or studied with Gamelin since Gamelin taught in Rome during the time Goya was there.



Subjects: ANATOMY › 18th Century, ANATOMY › Anatomical Illustration, ANATOMY › Anatomy for Artists, ART & Medicine & Biology
  • 1599

System einer vollständigen medicinischen Polizey. 9 vols.

Mannheim: Tübingen, Wien, 17791827.

The first systematic treatise on public hygiene. Frank believed the ruler of a state should stand in the relation of a father to his children, among his duties being the safeguarding of the people’s health and the preservation of a healthy race by appropriate laws. The last two volumes were edited by G. C. G. Voigt. Portions were translated into English as A system of complete medical police: Selections from Johann Peter Frank. Edited with an introduction by Erna Lesky. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1976.).



Subjects: PUBLIC HEALTH, SOCIAL MEDICINE
  • 2071

Some remarks on the effects of lignum quassiae amarae.

Mem. med. Soc. Lond., 1, 128-65, 17791787.

Includes (p. 151) “original account of alcoholism, which is incidentally the first paper on the drug habit” (Garrison).



Subjects: TOXICOLOGY › Drug Addiction, TOXICOLOGY › Drug Addiction › Alcoholism
  • 3808

Cases and remarks in surgery: to which is subjoined an appendix containing the method of curing the bronchocele in Coventry.

London: T. Longman, 1779.

The “Coventry treatment” for goitre, which introduced the burnt sponge remedy into England, is mentioned on pp. 249-54. Digital facsimile from the Hathitrust at this link.



Subjects: ENDOCRINOLOGY › Thyroid
  • 4285

Nouvelle méthode d'extraire la pierre de la vessie urinaire par-dessus le pubis, qu'on nomme vulgairement le haut-appareil dans l'un & l'autre sexe, sans le secours d'aucun fluide retenu ni forcé dans la vessie: suivie de l'analyse des expériences de l'Academie Royale de Chirurgie de Paris, sur l'extraction de la pierre de la vessie urinaire de l'homme, par-dessous le pubis.

Brussels & Paris: Chez d'Houry, 1779.

Frère Côme devised several new instruments for use in suprapubic lithotomy. This operation, placed in retirement when Cheselden adopted the lateral approach, was once more brought to the fore by Frère Côme.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: UROLOGY › Urinary Calculi
  • 4303

Dissertation sur les effets du mouvement et du repos dans les maladies chirurgicales.

Paris: Vve. Vallet-La-Chapelle, 1779.

Includes a description of Pott’s disease, with post-mortem findings, better than Pott’s own account. This is an important early work on the effect of movement and of rest in the treatment of joint conditions. English translation, 1790.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Tuberculosis › Tuberculous Spondylitis (Pott's Disease), ORTHOPEDICS › Diseases of or Injuries to Bones, Joints & Skeleton
  • 4304

Remarks on that kind of palsy of the lower limbs, which is frequently found to accompany a curvature of the spine.

London: J. Johnson, 1779.

“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.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Tuberculosis › Tuberculous Spondylitis (Pott's Disease), ORTHOPEDICS › Diseases of or Injuries to Bones, Joints & Skeleton
  • 5079

An account of the scarlet fever and sore throat, or scarlatina anginosa; particularly as it appeared at Birmingham in the year 1778.

London: T. Cadell, 1779.

Withering, best remembered for his book on the foxglove, described the epidemics of scarlet fever which occurred in England in 1771 and 1778.



Subjects: EPIDEMIOLOGY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Scarlet Fever
  • 4992.1

Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal.

Geneva & Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune, 1779.

Mesmer promoted his system of treatment, based on his confused doctrine of a universal magnetic fluid influencing tides and men alike, with books and great personal showmanship. His treatment became such a popular health care sensation in France that it was as much a social movement as a medical practice. The ancien régime considered the leaders of the animal magnetism movement to be politically dangerous.The attention Mesmer directed toward hypnosis and suggestion in psychiatry led eventually to its scientific investigation by Braid and others. It also led to the more scientific development of suggestion in treatment, which has been termed after him “mesmerism”. Following an enquiry instituted by Louis XVI, Mesmer’s career came to an abrupt end. English translations by G. Frankau, 1948. Digital facsimile of the 1779 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: Mesmerism, PSYCHOTHERAPY › Hypnosis, Quackery
  • 103
  • 145.52

Experiments on vegetables, discovering their great power of purifying the common air in the sun-shine, and of injuring it in the shade at night. To which is joined, a new method of examining the accurate degree of salubrity of the atmosphere.

London: P. Elmsley and H. Payne, 1779.

Discovery of photosynthesis. Ingen-Housz showed that the green parts of plants, when exposed to light, fix the free carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, but that in darkness plants have no such power. Thus he proved that animal life is dependent ultimately on plant life, a discovery of fundamental importance in ecology.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment › Photosynthesis
  • 9467

Observations on the management of the prevailing diseases particularly in the Army and Navy; together with a review of that in other countries, and arithmetical calculations of the comparative success of different methods of cure.

London: Printed for the author, 1779.

Millar promoted mathematical methods for computing the comparative success of different methods of cure. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COMPUTING/MATHEMATICS in Medicine & Biology, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Navy
  • 9501

A physical journal kept on board H. M. Ship Rainbow during three voyages to the coast of Africa and the West Indies, in the years 1772, 1773, and 1774: To which is prefixed, a particular account of the remitting fever which happened on board of His Majesty's Sloop Weasel, on that coast, in 1769.

London: John Murray, 1779.


Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Africa, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Caribbean, MILITARY MEDICINE, SURGERY & HYGIENE › Navy, TROPICAL Medicine , VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 12494

A view of society and manners in France, Switzerland and Germany: with anecdotes relating to some eminent characters. By a gentleman, who resided several years in those countries. 2 vols.

London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1779.

Digitial facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › France, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Germany, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Switzerland, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 13066

Geneeskundige proeven en waarneemingen omtrent de goede uitwerking der electriciteit in verscheiden ziektens.

Amsterdam: Pieter Hayman, 1779.

Digital facsimile of the Dutch edition from Google Books at this link. Translated into German by Karl Gottlob Kühn as Von den guten Würkungen der Electricität in verschiedenen Krankheiten. Mit eingien Anmerkungen und Zusatzen. 2 vols, Copenhagen: C. G. Prost, 1793. Digital facsimile of the expanded German translation from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Netherlands, THERAPEUTICS › Medical Electricity / Electrotherapy