“The earliest separate work on clinical neurology” (McHenry). Includes the Croonian lecture (1819) on apoplexy, and sections on palsy and epilepsy. The work includes the first history of neurological thought.

Isolation of glycine and leucine.

One of the earliest exposures of food adulteration, written by a German chemist who spent most of his career in England. This sensational popular scientific work exposed established scandalous practices within the food processing industry, antagonizing London food manufacturers. The scandal was particularly sensational since it affected consumers of all economic classes. However, after a lawsuit was brought against him Accum left England, living out the rest of his life as a teacher at an industrial institution in Berlin.

"A thousand copies of A Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons were sold within a month of its publication. A second run was printed in the same year, and a German translation was printed in Leipzig two years later. The book's cover shows that Accum was capable of using dramatic imagery to try to draw attention to his scientific knowledge. It featured a rectangular frame supporting a spider's web and surrounded by intertwined snakes. A spider lurks in the middle of the web over its prey, and a skull crowns the entire collection with a caption beneath it, taken from 2 Kings 4:40: 'There is death in the pot' " (Wikipedia article Friedrich Accum, accessed 9-2017).

Digital facsimile of the first edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the second edition, with different title page, at this link.

The first official US pharmacopoeia. Spalding began campaigning for a national pharmacopeia in 1815. His efforts finally bore fruit in a national convention that met in 1820 and adopted a pharmacopeia based mainly on the Pharmacopoeia of the Massachusetts Medical Society (1808). Spalding chaired the Committee of Publication for the  national pharmacopoeia. The title page of the first edition bore the date "Dec. 1820" Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. 

First description of cancer caused by arsenic (p. 133).

In his description of hemophilia Nasse stressed the immunity of females, despite their ability to transmit the disease. This fact has become known as “Nasse’s law”.

Coindet is usually regarded as the first to administer iodine in cases of goitre, with beneficial results. It had previously been prepared from seaweed by B. Courtois in 1812 (Ann. Chim. (Paris), 1813, 88, 304-10), and both Ampère and Humphry Davy were interested in it. W. Prout, however, in his Chemistry, meteorology, etc., London, 1834, p. 113, claimed that he had recommended it to John Elliotson, who had used it in 1819 at St. Thomas’s Hospital. There is an English translation of his paper in Lond. med. Phys. J., 1820, 44, 486-89.

Gibson was the first to ligate the common iliac, July 27, 1812.

The first scientifically written textbook of dental prosthetics. Delabarre's innovations included clasp retentions, the impression tray, and the palatal obturator.
Digital facsimile from gallica.BnF.fr at this link.

Dupuytren was the first successfully to excise the lower jaw, in 1812, as recorded in his Leçons orales, 1829, 2, 421-53. The above paper deals with a later operation of the same type.

Successful amputation at the hip-joint, after the battle of Waterloo, 7 July, 1815.

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

Stephenson, a medical student from Montreal, was the first to be operated upon by Roux (No. 5739.1) for the repair of cleft of the soft palate. He described the operation in his graduation thesis. Stephenson later founded the Montreal Medical Institution, from which the Medical Faculty at McGill University developed. For translations see J. Hist. Med., 1963, 18, 209-19, and Brit J. plast. Surg., 1966, 19, 1-14.

One of the most dramatically and beautifully illustrated works in the entire literature of surgery. Hand-colored copies show more blood than is usual for surgical treatises of this period. From publication in fascicules, 1820-21. A second, undated issue appeared circa 1830. One of the images of shows an operation done on the head of a black man. This may be the earliest depiction of a black person in a medical work.

The earliest systematic treatise in English on diseases of the eye. The book became the authority in Europe and America. Travers, a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, became surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital.

Isolation of quinine.

Amici constructed the first microscope with achromatic lenses and suggested water-immersion for improved achromatic lenses of the compound microscope. The 1820 publication of his paper indicates that it was "Approvata dal Sig. President Ruffini Avuta li 5. Marzo 1818."

A translation in French of the above appears in Ann. Chim. Phys. (Paris), 1820, 13, 384-410. Digital facsimile of the first journal publication in Italian (1820) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.

An early discussion of peripheral nerve injuries, tumors, and inflammation of nerves, including issues of pain and healing. Swan was among the first of the 19th-century surgeons to argue that divided nerves that are surgically repaired heal  best. Also, this work probably includes the first animal experiments on nerve injuries. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link. See also Lobstein's Compte rendu à la Faculté de Médicine de Strasbourg sur les travaux anatomiques exécutés à l'amphithéâtre de cette faculté pendant les années 1821, 1822, et 1823: Suivi d'un premier supplément au catalogue de son musée anatomique (1824).

Authorship of this anonymous work is frequently attributed to Jourdan, who signed the preface. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Pariset and Mazet distinguished themselves combating an outbreak of yellow fever in Spain. Pariset's colleague was apparently not involved with publication of the book, and died in a yellow fever outbreak in Barcelona in 1821, very soon after the book's publication, as Pariset's dedication is dated December, 1820. Some copies have an inserted plate honoring his memory. This is probably the most elaborately produced, and strangely beautiful book on yellow fever published during the 19th century with 5 full-page hand-colored lithographs by le Comte de Lasteyrie, pioneer lithographer in France. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first book on dermatology published in Portuguese. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

"Apart from the common and scientific names of many species, it is for the quality of his illustrations that he [Swainson] is best remembered. His friend William Elford Leach, head of zoology at the British Museum, encouraged him to experiment with lithography for his book Zoological Illustrations (1820–23). Swainson became the first illustrator and naturalist to use lithography, which was a relatively cheap means of reproduction and did not require an engraver. He began publishing many illustrated works, mostly serially. Subscribers received and paid for fascicles, small sections of the books, as they came out, so that the cash flow was constant and could be reinvested in the preparation of subsequent parts. As book orders arrived, the monochrome lithographs were hand-coloured, according to colour reference images, known as ‘pattern plates’, which were produced by Swainson himself. It was his early adoption of this new technology and his natural skill of illustration that in large part led to his fame.^{[8]" (Wikipedia article on William John Swainson, accessed 03-2017).}

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This illustrated compendium of anatomy, physiology, and internal medicine was first medical work in Turkish printed by letterpress in the Ottoman Empire. It was also one of the first medical works in Turkish to draw throughly on western science. Digital facsimile of the 1867 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In Rafinesque's polemic style the title page includes the following statement:

"The art of seeing well, or of noticing and distinguishing with accuracy the objects which we perceive, is a high faculty of the mind, unfolded in few individuals, and despised by those who can neither acquire it, nor appreciate its results."

New edition by Richard Ellsworth Call as Ichthyologia Ohiensis or natural history of the fishes inhabiting the river Ohio and its tributary steams. A verbatim et literatim reprint of the original, with a sketch of the life, the ichthyologic work, and the ichthyologic bibliography of Rafinesque (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Co, 1899).

Digital facsimile of the 1820 edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

On pp. 144-146 of vol. 1 Runge reported the isolation of relatively pure caffeine for the first time. He called it "Kaffebase." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. In 1821 the French chemists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou independently isolated caffeine without knowledge of Runge's work. 

This work represents the first successful use of stipple engravings for the reproduction of images in a book published in the United States. 29 of the 106 hand-colored plates were engraved by Cornelius Tiebout (1773-1832) considered the first truly skilled engraver born in the U.S.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This collection of 417 plates on surgical procedures, instruments, and bandages, with 4 pages of explanatory text, was published in 96 parts between 1820 and 1847. Fifty-two of the plates were issued hand-colored. The work was initiated by Ludwig Friedrich Froriep and continued by his son Robert. The set is especially useful for orthopedics, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, etc. The work is primarily derivative from the published works of other authors including Astley Cooper, Travers, Rosenmüller, Walther, Scarpa, Dupuytren, Brüninghausen, Desalut, Boyer, Ford, Bellm Liston, Langenbruch, Seiler, Hagedorn, Szondi, Bateman, Dieffenbach, Graefe.

The first book on anatomy and medicine printed in Turkish. The title may be translated as Miroir des corps dans l'anatomie des membres de l''homme. The work was primarily derived from European sources and included 56 plates copied from European books.

My references for book and the spelling of the author's name are "Catalogue des Livres composant la Bibliothèque Linguistique de M. Le Marquis de la Ferté-Sénectère (1873). No. 2115. And the pamphlet about the publication by T.-X Bianchi (No. 13115 in historyofmedicine.com).

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link. This work underwent at least four editions, the last of which was published in 1851 under the title of Physician for ships....That edition included new material on California and the Gold Rush of 1849 and following years, "containing advice to persons bound to that region, both by sea and overland, for the preservation of health and cure of disease on their way and while employed at the gold diggings."

Pages 153-59 contain an account of Clark's visit to the Hopital Necker in Paris, with a detailed discussion of the use of the stethoscope introduced by Laennec, one year earlier, in 1819. This was possibly the first account of Laennec's invention and its application in and English book. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Includes an account of the Prussian intersex man, Karl Dürrge (also known as Maria Dorothea Derrier: 1780–1835). With two hand-colored plates of hermaphroditic genitalia.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Written in Ottoman Turkish, and printed in Istabul, this was the first illustrated medical book printed in the Muslim world. 
Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Meckel is considered the greatest comparative anatomist before Johannes Müller. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust Digital Library at this link.

“Bell’s palsy”. The facial paralysis ensuing upon lesion of the motor nerve of the face is described here for the first time. See also his later paper, with more detailed description, in the same journal, 1829, 119, 317-30. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1936, 1, 152-69. This paper also includes the description of “Bell’s nerve”, the long thoracic.

Magendie, the pioneer of experimental physiology in France, demonstrated the absorption of fluids and semisolids to be a function of the blood-vessels, as well as of the lymphatics. He was the founder, in 1821, of the Journal de physiologie expérimentale.

The first anatomical atlas illustrated by lithography, containing 300 plates in folio format. This was one of the most elaborate of the lithographic “incunabula” produced by Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie, one of the pioneer lithographers in France. In planning this atlas Cloquet intended to exploit the faster production speed resulting new technology of printing by lithography; however, no matter how fast the plates could be drawn on stone, the publication in fascicles or parts was inevitably delayed by time required to do the dissections and prepare the original drawings. Jules began his career as an apprentice to his father, J.B.A. Cloquet, an artist and engraver and art teacher, and went to medical school after working as a wax-modeler for the Paris Faculty of Medicine. Jules illustrated his own doctoral thesis on hernia, and what was more unusual, he also drew the plates on stone for the lithographic reproductions in the version of his thesis that was commercially published in 1819. For this large anatomical atlas Jules and his artist sister, Lise, created the drawings for approximately 150 plates that were original for the work. The remaining 150 plates not after drawings by the Cloquets were copied from publications by William Hunter, Soemmerring, Tiedemann, Haller, Walter, Mascagni, Charles Bell, Scarpa, and others. There were more than 3000 separate figures on the 300 plates in the complete atlas. The art was drawn on stone by Haincelin, Feillet and Dubourjal. The lithographs were printed at the presses of de Lasteyrie, Godefroy Engelmann (the other pioneer lithographer in France), and Brigeaut, a workman at de Lasteyrie's press who set up his own shop. 

A few copies of the second edition in reduced quarto format, (Paris, 1825-[36]), were issued with the plates hand-colored.

First successful use of defibrinated blood for animal transfusions. This was the first attempt to prevent coagulation during transfusion.

Magendie was the pioneer of experimental physiology in France. His Formulaire introduced into medical practice several of the newly discovered alkaloids, notably morphine, veratrine, brucine, piperine, emetine, as well as quinine and strychnine. Digital facsimile of the 1821 edition from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English from the third French edition with an introduction and notes by Robley Dunglison, Philadelphia, 1824. Digital facsimile of the 1824 edition from the U. S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

An exhaustive work which discusses olfaction, diseases of the nose, membranous occlusion of the nostrils, deviations of the septum, rhinoplasty, coryza, vasomotor rhinitis, rhinorrhoea, etc. The first edition was entitled Dissertation sur les odeurs… (Paris, Feugueray, 1815).

Scarpa’s work on perineal hernia included a classic description of sliding hernia, or hernia of the large bowel. His contribution to the subject of hernia ranks with that of Cooper, and he did much toward modernizing the knowledge of this specialty.

This Greek–Latin edition, edited by C. G. Kühn, is reprinted from much earlier editions, and leaves much to be desired with respect to scholarship. However, it remained the standard edition for about 100 years.

First of the modern textbooks on diseases of the ear, this work did much to establish otology on a firm basis. Itard described startle tests for the hearing of children and malingerers, and he developed an acumeter.

On bending fractures in children.

First excision of the superior maxilla, 11 Nov, 1820.

Mme La Chapelle was a famous midwife and a colleague of Baudelocque. She supervised 5,000 deliveries and her vast experience enabled her to write her book. She reduced the 94 theoretical presentations suggested by Baudelocque to 22. The above, posthumously edited by her nephew, represents her life work.

The first English monograph on acupuncture. Churchill had most success with rheumatic conditions, sciatica, back-pain, etc. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The German translation of Churchill's book, Abhandlung über die Acupunctur. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von J. Wagner. Mit Vorrede und Zusätzen hrsg. von J. B. Friedreich. Bamberg: Ludwig Wesché, 1824, was the first treatise on acupuncture in German.

Description of the calcified cysts of trichinosis in human muscle. (A brief notice with no title).

Nuttall travelled  from Philadelphia, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the Arkansas. From there he travelled across Arkansas to the interior of the modern Oklahoma; returning via the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, and then to New Orleans. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Medical botany of the Caribbean, finely illustrated with colored plates after paintings by the author's son. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

"Although a few more reports were published furing the next hundred years [after Tyson] it was Tiedemann alone who gave a more detailed account, on monkeys, in his... Icones Simiarum.... In monkeys he found the brain shorter, the sulci shallower, and both sulci and gyri far fewer than in the human brain....in monkeys, as also in the ape, he observed greater symmetry and regularity of the convolutional pattern than is generally seen in man (Meyer, Historical aspects of cerebral anatomy, 142). Digital facsimile of the 1821 edition from Google Books at this link.

Fries's work represents the beginning of mycological nomenclature. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

In this work, a revised second edition of Gardanne's Avis aux femmes qui entrent dans l'age critique (1816), Gardanne coined the term menopause. Digital facsimile of the 1816 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Perhaps the most beautiful book on botanic poisons and their antidotes, including narcotics. Plates 1-15 cover mushrooms, and plate 175 depicts Cannabis sativa. With 180 plates printed in color à la poupée and finished by hand. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Concerns the Maltese plague,. 1813-1814. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

One of the first comprehensive works on the production of false teeth, providing 30 or 40 different formulae for their manufacture. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Bianchi characterized himself on the title page as Adj. Secretarty-Interpreter of the King for Oriental Languages.  In this pamphlet he translated parts of the text of Chani-Zadeh and also translated the Table of Contents of the work.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Vol. 1, illustrated with 22 plates, of which 7 were hand-colored, was issued in 1823.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

A founding work of botany of the American South, containing first botanical descriptions of many species. Initially published in parts from 1816 to 1824. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Jackson drew attention to alcoholic neuritis – arthrodynia a potu. Jackson was professor at Boston Medical School.

The largest of all medical books from the standpoint of format. The 44 life size engraved plates are reproduced in double elephant folio size measuring 950 x 635 mm., and include an almost incredible level of detail. Published posthumously in fascicules over ten years, very few sets were issued, some hand-colored by the artist, Antonio Serrantoni. Three plates placed end-to-end illustrate the entire figure life-size. A lithographed edition, almost indistinguishable from the engraved edition, was issued nearly simultaneously by Francesco Antommarchi (Paris, 1823-26); G-M 7242). Antommarchi, Mascagni's literary executor, had been Napoleon's physician on St. Helena, and had presided over Napoleon's autopsy. For a longer discussion of Antommarchi's version, and why two versions of this huge publication were issued almost simultaneously, see "The Double Publication of the Double Elephant Folio of Anatomy," at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. A small folio authorized version of the Pisa edition, with more conveniently sized versions of the dramatic color plates, was issued in 2 vols., Florence, Batelli, 1833. 

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.

Includes the best early account of epilepsy after Willis.

Mayo discovered and described the functions of the Vth and VIIth cranial nerves on pp. 107-120 of Number I, and did much towards the clarification of the idea of reflex action. Reprinted, Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press, 1975.

Magendie definitely discovered that the anterior root is motor and that the dorsal root is sensory, although Romberg, Flourens, Sherrington, and others credited the discovery to Charles Bell. In this paper Magendie announced that “section of the dorsal root abolishes sensation, section of ventral roots abolishes motor activity, and section of both roots abolishes both sensation and motor activity” (Cranefield, No. 1588.9). This discovery has been called “the most momentous single discovery in physiology after Harvey”. This work was confirmed by Müller in 1831 (No. 1259). For a translation of the paper, see J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 280-85.

Further experiments, including, most probably, “the first use of strychnine as part of a study of the localization of function in the nervous system as well as being a very early example of the rational use of a known property of a drug as a tool in physiological investigation”(Cranefield, No.1588.9).

Schenk’s account of his experience with cod liver oil led to its general use on the continent of Europe. Author’s name incorrectly given as Scherer in original.

Iodoform discovered. See also Sérrulas' Notes sur l'Hydriodate de potasse et l'Acide hydriodique. – Hydriodure de carbone; moyen d'obtenir, à l'instant, ce composé triple (1822), of which a digital facsimile is available from BnF Gallica at this link.

Place was the first important proponent of birth control in any English speaking country. The above work openly advocates contraception, though without indicating how it was to be achieved. Reprinted with additional material collected by N.E. Himes, London, 1930.

Gaspard was one of the first to make experimental studies on pyemia following the injection of putrid fluids. He experimented on dogs, sheep, foxes, and pigs, injecting putrid infusions pus, vaccine, lymph, blood, bile, urine, saliva, carbolic acid, hydrogen, or sulphuretted hydrogen.

Carson proposed the induction of open pneumothorax for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (p. 64). Later he attempted it on a patient (see his An inquiry into the cause of respiration, etc. 2nd ed., London, 1833, p. 50). The procedure was carried out by Forlanini (see No. 3225).

Alkaptonuria described.

Through this and numerous subsequent editions this was the principal reference work on the subject in England and America for 30 years. “Many later clinical modifications were developed from Cooper’s methods” (Bick).

Mott resected the entire half of the bone, necessitating a disarticulation at the temporo-mandibular joint.

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

Dieffenbach’s thesis for the M.D., Würzburg.

Smith was the first in the U.S.A. after McDowell to perform ovariotomy, for ovarian edema. Smith was apparently without knowledge of the previous operations of McDowell.

Although not the first to record the auscultation of the fetal heart sound, Le Jumeau (Kergaradec), a pupil of Laennec, brought the importance of this diagnostic procedure to the notice of the medical profession. Laennec reprinted Le Jumeau's paper in the later editions of De l’auscultation médiate (No. 2673).

The "Bible" of Thomsonism or "Thomsonian medicine", which employed botanical remedies, often based on native American medicines. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

The first atlas of the geography of plants, including distribution maps for the eastern and western hemisphere. Schouw translated the work into German and had the translation published the following year: Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie  (Berlin: Gedruckt und verlegt bei G. Reimer, 1823).

First published anonymously in September and October 1821 in the London Magazine, 4, No. xxi, 293-312, and No. xxii, 353-79, the Confessions was released in book form in 1822, and, after various reprints, again in 1856, in an edition revised by De Quincey. Numerous book-form editions of this work are available in digital facsimile online.

On the use of a root medicine to treat tapeworms, roundworms and similar parasites. The author refers to cases from Portuguese Africa, India and Brazil, and gives clinical observations based on his own case studies, several of which had been observed in Brazil. He describes in detail five types of parasites, describes symptoms, advocates his remedy, and gives zoological observations concerning the parasites. The large folding engraved plate depicts each of the five varieties of parasites from several different perspectives. (Richard Ramer).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This second French edition of Ramazzini's De morbis artificum diabriba by Philibert Patissier provides so much new material on the diseases of workers in France as to virtually double the length of Ramazzini’s text. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bigelow, who with Lyman Spalding, was largely responsible for the creation and publication in 1820 of the first U.S. pharmacopeia, published this valuable explanatory and supplementary volume two years later. It was probably essential reading for most users of the first U.S. pharamcopeia. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Broussais was the inventor of "physiological medicine", a crucial step in the development of modern scientific medicine. (Ackerknecht, Bull. Hist. Med. 27, 320). Translated into English by John Bell and R. La Roche as A treatise on physiology applied to pathology, Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1826. Digital facsimile of the French edition from the Internet Archive at this link, of the English translation, also from the Internet Archive at this link.

Thomson issued this introductory work shortly before publication of his New Guide. Three issues appeared in 1822: one with 180 pages, another with 182 pages including testimonials, and a 204 page issue with the introduction to the New Guide included. Digital facsimile of the 1825 second edition from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Withering's collected works, with the exception of his A botanical arrangement of all the the vegetables naturally growing in the Great Britain. Includes the second edition of his monograph on the foxglove. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Choris was the artist aboard the Rurik, 1815-18, commanded by Otto von Kotzebue. After visiting islands in the South Seas, Kotzebue explored the North American coast and landed twice in the Hawaiian Islands. Choris's work, illustrated with 104 plates, is of particular interest for the outstanding images, and includes scientific information by Cuvier, Chamisso, and Gall. The book was issued in 22 parts. Buyers had the option of ordering the plates in black & white, the plates partially colored and partially uncolored, or with the plates entirely colored.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Anderson trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, emigrated to America in 1820 and, after delivering a series of anatomical lectures in New York under the patronage of Valentine Mott, became affiliated with the Vermont Academy of Medicine (see Kelly, American Medical Biographies,1920). This work, intended to supplement his anatomical lectures, is notable for the nine anatomical plates, all engraved by A.B. [Asher Brown] Durand, including four engraved from Durand's original illustrations. These are quite early works by Durand, who achieved his first prominence as the engraver of John Trumbull's edition of the Declaration of Independence (1823) and later great renown as a landscape painter of the Hudson River School.

Lizars's System of anatomical plates was by far his most successful work, going through many editions. The text of the work was originally issued in 12 parts in octavo format, which were then bound together in book form with engraved title; in later editions the text was reset in folio and bound with the plates. There are two issues of parts 2 and 3 of the text in the first edition, the earliest with imprint reading "Printed for Daniel Lizars, 61, Princes Street, Edinburgh; and S. Highley, 174, Fleet Street, London." The later issues' imprint has "Hodges and M'Arthur, Dublin" added at the end; the pagination of the two issues of these parts also varies.

The first edition of the folio atlas illustrating Lizars's System was issued in both uncolored and hand-colored versions, although the 15 plates devoted to the brain and spinal cord are colored in all copies of the first edition. Only a few copies of the first edition of the work were issued with all the plates fully colored.

William Home Lizars's fame as engraver led John James Audubon to engage Lizars to engrave the plates for the double elephant folio Birds of America; however, after Lizars had engraved the first ten plates, he recommended to Audubon that this enormous project (requiring over 76,000 elephant folio hand-colored plates for the 175 copies in the edition) be turned over to Robert Havell in London. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Deaderick resected a portion of the jaw in 1810. He wrote this paper to obtain priority over Mott (No. 4447).

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

Includes description of “Lobstein’s ganglion”, an accessory ganglion of the sympathetic nerve above the diaphragm. English translation, 1831.

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 notable American text on forensic medicine.

Description of venous obstruction and edema.

Includes description of pituitary obesity.

Although Béclard and possibly others may have extirpated the parotid before Davidge, this was the first published case.

Dudley was for many years the leading surgeon on the western frontier of the United States. This paper reports the first operations on the brain performed in the United States. Three of the five patients were relieved of their symptoms.

Delpech's work includes the first account of rhinoplasty in France. On 4 June 1823, Delpech performed the first of six cases of rhinoplasty by the Indian forehead flap method, and one (unsuccessful) with a flap from the arm following von Graefe (No. 5738). Delpech also was the first to restore the lower lip by means of a skin graft from the throat.

Delpech devoted pp. 147-231 of vol. 1 to Considerations sur la difformité appelé pied-bots. In this he described on pp. 184-192 the beneficial effect of section of the tendo Achillis for club-foot; he performed the operation on May 9, 1816, and although not first to do so, he was the first to demonstrate the value of tenotomy in the correction of contracture deformities of the extremities.

First American textbook of ophthalmology by the first American who is believed to have restricted his practice to diseases of the eye. Frick studied under Georg Beer in Vienna.

Guthrie founded the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, London, in 1816. He was the earliest teacher of the subject in the British Isles. The above includes important work on the artificial pupil.

Davis was the first to state that phlegmasia alba dolens was due to inflammation of the veins. He was physician-accoucheur at the birth of Queen Victoria.

The first American medical historian, Thacher gave the best contemporary account of medicine during the Revolutionary War, as well as an important history of the war in general. See No. 6710.

Purkynĕ was first to examine the interior of the human eye and the dog eye, using only a candle and a concave spherical lens. He thus invented the ophthalmoscope three decades before Helmholtz (1851; No. 5866). Reprinted in his Opera (No. 82), 1918,1, 163-94. English trans. in John, Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Philadelphia, 1959. See Albert & Miller, Jan Purkinje and the ophthalmoscope, Amer. J. Ophth., 1973, 76, 494-99.

Purkynĕ was also the first to classify fingerprints. Reprinted in his Opera omnia (No. 82), vol. 1, pp. 163-94, 1918. English translation in John, Jan Evangelista Purkynĕ, Philadelphia, 1959.

Considering that it is among the rarest of all anatomies, and certainly the largest and probably the most spectacular, it is remarkable that two nearly identical editions of Mascagni’s posthumous life-size anatomy were published almost simultaneously. The present lithographed edition was issued between 1823 and 1826 by Mascagni's literary executor and Napoleon's physician at St. Helena, Francesco Antommarchi. An edition with engraved plates was also published in Pisa under the title Anatomia universa (1823-32) (G-M 409.1).

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.” 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Hunter claimed that as a child he had been captured by the Cherokee before they came to Texas. He adopted the name of an English benefactor, John Dunn, and later added the name "Hunter" given by the Indians because of his prowess in the chase. Although he lived with the Cherokee until about 1816, he received a fairly good education and traveled considerably through the United States and England.  Chapter 14: "Residence, dress, painting, food, dseases, treatment of the sick, disposal of the dead, mournings, &c." Chapter 15: "Observations on the materia medica of the Indians." Chapter 16: "Observations on the Indian practice of surgery and medicine." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

An early attempt at a bibliography of the literature of veterinary medicine, including historical works. Strangely, the author cited publication dates only by their last 3 digits, thus 1800 is printed as 800, etc. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

In addition to his dental training Parrott was a merchant, businessman, consult to Mexico (1834-1836) and confidential U.S. agent to Mexico during 1845-1848, the period of the Mexican-American War.  This 72 page booklet was the first separate publication on dentistry printed in Mexico. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Rogers removed nearly all of the upper jaw. Operation performed in 1810.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Proof that the gastric juice contains free hydrochloric acid.

Prévost and Dumas proved that the frog egg is fertilized by the entry of spermatozoa.

Delaye, a pupil of Esquirol, selected for his thesis the subject of “incomplete general paralysis of the insane”, which he differentiated from other forms of paralysis. He recorded the early signs of the disease, emphasizing the speech disturbance. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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.

Homer described the tensor tarsi (Horner’s) muscle, supplying the lacrimal apparatus. It was first described by Du Verney in 1749

Galen’s classification of tumors persisted for more than 1,000 years. He considered neoplasms to be due to an excess of black bile, which solidified in certain sites. He advocated purges to dissolve the black bile, and if these were unsuccessful, the knife. He was not familiar with internal tumors. Critical edition and English translation by J. Reedy, Diss, (not published,) University of Michigan, 1968.

History of contagious disease in the ancient world through readings from the texts. A supplementary “Additamenta” was published in 1826. Digital facsimile of the 1824 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

First description of pernicious anemia. Paper read May 1, 1822.

Report of two cases of fatal peritonitis due to perforation of the appendix. Of this paper, H. A. Kelly says, “It at once established a definite place for lesions of the appendix in the category of recognized diseases”.

First report of the value of cod-liver oil in the treatment of rickets.

Cogswell ligated the primitive carotid on Nov. 4, 1803.

First excision of the parotid, 1823.

Nathan Smith left a classic account of typhoid; this was reprinted in Med. Classics, 1937, 1, 781-819 He clearly recognized the contagious nature of the disease.

Classic account of cancer of the uterus.

Hickman was the first to prove that the pain of surgical operations could be abolished by the inhalation of a gas. He rendered animals unconscious, first through partial asphyxiation by the exclusion of air, then by inhalation of carbon dioxide. He amputated limbs without pain and with good surgical results. His work, the first in the field of surgical anesthesia, was received with apathy, and no use was made of it. His “Letter” was reissued in the Hickman centenary volume, published by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, London, 1930.

Edwards studied the influence of environmental factors on animal life, concluding that vital processes depend on external physical and chemical forces but are not entirely controlled by them. The work includes an account of Edwards’ important experimental work regarding the effect of light on the body. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.  For the English translation by Thomas Hodgkin, with important additional material by Hodgkin and others see No. 12197.

Complete English translation by D. Sider and M. McVaugh in Trans. stud. Coll. Phys. Phila., 1979, 1, 183-210.

This bio-bibliographical encyclopedia of English and foreign literature includes many articles on physicians from the ancient world up to Watt's time, and is an extraordinary achievement for one man. Typically the first sentence summarizes the author's life and death, followed by listing of writings more or less detailed. Watt's comments on specific editions and translations indicate a remarkable familiarity with the history of medical literature, and occasionally with the rarity of certain editions. The work has been estimated to include citations of more than 200,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals on the widest range of subjects. The first and second volumes contain an alphabetical listing of over 40,000 authors and their biographical details. Full length titles of works, date and place of publication, and information on translations and subsequent editions are provided for each author. The entries covering the earliest printed texts contain details of British and foreign printers. Volumes three and four provide an encyclopedic index to volumes one and two. The works are listed within 30,000 subject areas, in chronological order of publication. Subjects, authors and titles are fully cross-referenced using an ingenious indexing system. Robert Watt devoted 25 years of his life to the Bibliotheca's compilation. He studied classical languages and philosophy at Glasgow University. Later he became a student of anatomy and theology at Edinburgh, and practised as a physician. His interest in the history of medicine led him to begin compiling the Bibliotheca, which he extended to include works on law, history, language, philosophy, science, technology, travel and geography, and classical literature. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Plates by Titian Ramsay Peale, H. Bridport, C. A. Lesueur, W. W. Wood, and C. Tiebout; engraved by Tiebout, G. Lang, and Longacre. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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.

Plumbe was one of the most outspoken critics of Willan and Bateman’s morphological system of skin disease classification. In his Practical Treatise he was the first dermatologist to attempt to produce a classification of skin diseases based on etiology. [Plumbe] "attempted to organize his material according to the ‘constitutional causes’ of each disease, along with ‘due consideration of the organic structure and physiology of the part of the skin on which it is seated’ . . . Along with the conflicts between the champions of the morphologic and etiologic approaches to the study of skin diseases, another development of the future was anticipated in the work of Samuel Plumbe—the introduction of anatomic evidence on the macroscopic level in the support of theories of pathogenesis . . . In the next decade [Plumbe’s] anatomic methods and habits of thought were picked up by Erasmus Wilson, improved and incorporated into the British dermatologic ethos well enough to allow the transition to the cellular theories of disease to be made more smoothly in Britain than it was in France, where efforts of the same nature on the part of Pierre Rayer were ignored” (Crissy and Parrish, pp. 34-36). Plumbe was the first to perform manual epilation (hair removal) as part of the treatment for diseases of the scalp. The frontispiece of the Practical Treatise illustrates Plumbe’s division of skin diseases into five major categories; the engraved image is printed in reddish ink with other colors added by hand. Crissy and Parrish, The Dermatology and Syphilology of the Nineteenth Century, pp. 34-37. 

This 36-page pamphlet is the earliest printed record of Caspar Wispar's museum collection. It was augmented by William Horner, whom Wistar appointed to manage the collection. The combined collections beame known as the Wistar and Horner Museum. Later the collections were managed by Joseph Leidy. In 1892 they became the fondation of the Wistar Institute, the first independent medical research facility in the United States. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

This is the earliest English work on the stethoscope. It "includes the first English translation of Auenbrugger's book on percussion, selected sections from Laennec's book on auscultation, and detailed reports from 39 cases from Forbes's practice in which auscultation and percussion were especially helpful" (W. Bruce Fye). Digital facsimile from the Wellcomcollection.org at this link.
See P. J. Bishop, "Reception of the Stethoscope and Laennec's Book", Thorax, 36, 487-492. https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/36/7/487.full.pdf

In 1817 Freycinet commanded the Uranie, accompanied by marine hydrologist Louis Isidore Duperrey, the artist Jacques Arago, junior draughtsman Adrien Taunay the Younger and others, and a guard of seventeen officers. Freycinet sailed to Rio de Janeiro to take a series of pendulum measurements and to make observations, not only in geography and ethnology, but in astronomy, terrestrial magnetism, and meteorology, and for the collection of specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife Rose de Freycinet aboard.

For three years, Freycinet cruised about the Pacific, visiting Australia, the Mariana Islands, Hawaiian Islands, and other Pacific islands, South America, and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of the Uranie on the Falkland Islands during the return voyage, returned to France with fine collections in all departments of natural history, and with voluminous notes and drawings of the countries visited.

The set consists of:

1. Historique par L. de Freycinet.  2  vols. plus Atlas of 113 plates), 1825-29.

2. Recherches sur les langues des sauvages. 

3. Zoologie, par MM. Quoy et Gaimard. 1 vol. plus Atlas of 96 plates.

4. Botanique. Par M. C. Gaudichaud. 1 vol. plus Atlas of 120 plates.

5. Observations du pendule et de magnétisme. 

6. Météorologie 1 vol.

7. Hydrographie. 1 vol. plus Atlas de 22 plates.

 Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Chaussier pioneered the practice of forensic medicine in France. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

The first book on phrenology written by an American. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Smith amputated the knee-joint in 1824, being the first in America to do so.

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

Beaumont’s first report on Alexis St. Martin was accidentally published under the name of Joseph Lovell, Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army. See No. 989.

Discovery of the Müllerian duct.

First description of the germinal vesicle in the embryo, “Purkynĕ’s vesicle” This is located on the spot of the yolk where the embryo develops. Later identified with the cell nucleus, this formed a bridge between the large avian egg and the small ova of other animals, stimulating the researches of von Baer (No. 477). Reprinted in his Opera selecta, Prague, 1948, pp. 1-25; 2nd ed. Leipzig, L. Voss, 1830, reprinted in his Opera omnia, vol. 1, pp. 195-218. English translation of 2nd ed., in Essays in biology in honor of Herbert M. Evans (1943).

Includes Parry’s interesting description of eight cases of exophthalmic goitre, the first of which was observed in 1786, and his notes on four cases of angina pectoris. Parry's paper, "Enlargement of the thyroid gland in connection with enlargement or palpitation of the heart," appears in vol. 2, pp. 111-129. This is classic account of exophthalmic goitre. Although Graves and Basedow have both been credited with the first description of the condition, giving their names to it, Osler called attention to the priority of Parry’s claim, and it is now sometimes referred to as “Parry’s disease”. Garrison says that Parry first noted the condition in 1786; he briefly reported it in his Elements of pathology and therapeutics, 1815. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1940, 5, 8-30. See No. 2210.

Parry was a copious note-taker, and many of these notes are here published for the first time. His careful records of many years’ observation in practice were intended to form a large work, Elements of pathology and therapeutics, of which only the first volume appeared, in 1815; this was republished, together with the unfinished vol. 2, in 1825. In vol. 1, pp. 478-80 Parry was the first to record cases of facial hemiatrophy.

This posthumous work was seen through the press by Parry's son, the physician and writer Charles Henry Parry, who added the following supplementary volume, which is not always noticed: Introductory Essays to Collections from the unpublished Medical Writings of the late Caleb Hillier Parry, M.D.,  also published in 1825. 

The first work to apply hydrodynamics to the circulation of the blood.

First clear description of the cerebrospinal fluid.

Rolando was the first to investigate the functions of the cerebellum. His name is perpetuated in the “fissure of Rolando”, so named by F. Leuret, Anatomic comparée, 1839-57, whose attention had been drawn to it previously by Rolando.

Waterton traveled to the Guyana region of South America to obtain curare. He provided a detailed description of its paralyzing effects, its preparation by distillation, and the blowpipe and darts used to deliver it. On his return to England Waterton conducted experiments with curare. His researches, in collaboration with veterinarian Wiliam Sewell and surgeon Benjamin Brodie, stimulated medical interest in the poison. One experiment that Waterton performed included resuscitating an animal poisoned with curare by blowing air into its lungs. This he tried at the suggestion of the natives who had supplied him with a few of their antidotes along with the poison. Reprinted, London, O. U. P., 1973, edited by L. H. Matthews. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

“Purkynĕ phenomenon” or “Purkynĕ shift”, a change in the apparent relative luminosity of colors in a dim light (scotopic vision) compared with that in full daylight (photopic vision). Also published in Rust’s Mag. ges. Heilk., 1825, 20, 3-83, 199-276, 391-423. See V. Kruta J.E. Purkynĕ, physiologist. A short account of his contributions… with a bibliography of his works. Prague: Academia Publishing House, 1969.

The first important work exclusively on medico-legal aspects of insanity. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Stokes, famous member of the Irish school of medicine, published the first systematic treatise on the use of the stethoscope – and this before his qualification at Edinburgh. His name is perpetuated in medical literature in connection with “Cheyne–Stokes respiration” and the “Stokes–Adams syndrome.”

In 1823 Macgill successfully ligated in continuity both primitive carotid arteries in the same subject within a month. He was the first American to do so.

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.

Contains (vol. 2, p. 214) first description of sycosis barbae (“Alibert’s mentagra”).

Roux’s first detailed paper on his operation for cleft of the soft palate in which he first proposed the name, “staphylorrhaphy”. The greatly expanded edition in book form, Paris, Chaudé, 1825, was translated into German by Dieffenbach, Berlin, Enslin, 1826.

First chlorine solution for disinfecting purposes. English translation, 1826.

Lizars performed the first (unsuccessful) ovariotomy in Britain. His book made generally known the practical possibility of this operation.

Ritgen first performed extraperitoneal Caesarean section in 1821.

First American textbook on pediatrics.

The first treatise on electro-puncture – the only significant Western contribution to acupuncture, and one of the most widely used methods of acupuncture today.

The first publication on homeopathy issued in the United States— a translation of Hahnemann's essay. The 24-page pamphlet was dedicated to David Hosack of New York, and gratuitously distributed to leading physicians throughout the country, but it was written in such imperfect and obscure English that few were able to understand it. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1825 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. The second, posthumous, edition published in English in Naples by Fibreno in 1834 includes additional chapters by Bell that were not included in the first edition, as well as notes added by the translator of the edition in Italian. Digital facsimile of the 1834 edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Granville was the first to perform a dissection of an Egyptian mummy. He reported histological observations of samples from a twenty-seventh dynasty Egyptian mummy that he dissected, and he illustrated dissected views of an ovarian cyst from that mummy. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Gompertz function. "Gompertz showed that over much of the adult human lifespan, age-specific mortality rates increased in an exponential manner. Gompertz's work played an important role in shaping the emerging statistical science that underpins the pricing of life insurance and annuities. Latterly, as the subject of ageing itself became the focus of scientific study, the Gompertz model provided a powerful stimulus to examine the patterns of death across the life course not only in humans but also in a wide range of other organisms. The idea that the Gompertz model might constitute a fundamental ‘law of mortality’ has given way to the recognition that other patterns exist, not only across the species range but also in advanced old age. Nevertheless, Gompertz's way of representing the function expressive of the pattern of much of adult mortality retains considerable relevance for studying the factors that influence the intrinsic biology of ageing" (http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1666/20140379, accessed 1-2017). Digital facsimile of the 1825 paper from the Royal Society at this link.

Digital facsimiles from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, set out to document birds in the United States that were not mentioned by Alexander Wilson.

Probably the first separate publication on the diseases of printers and typesetters. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

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

Of particular note for the greatly expanded second edition published in 1826. That edition contained 150 pages compared to 72 pages in the first edition. The second edition also contained 13 plates derived from images collected by Jean Esquirol, but published more than a decade before Esquirol published related images.

Digital facsimile of the 1825 edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1826 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

An account of Napoleon's final illness and the medical care that Napoleon received while emprisoned on the island of Saint Helena, by his physician. English and French language versions of this work were published in 1825. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A detailed narrative on the trial based on the transcript. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Some copies were issued with the plates hand-colored. Digital facsimile of a black & white copy from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

At head of title: Ioanni Fr. Blumenbach ... viro illustri Germaniae decori diem semisecularem physiophili germanici laete gratulantur. 
Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Little is known about Morand. He refers to his teacher, Jules Cloquet throughout. Cloquet's book on acupuncture was published the following year in 1826. (No. 6829). Digital facsimile of Morand's book from BnF Gallica at this link.
Also in 1825, Franklin Bache translated Morand's book into English as Memoir on acupuncturation, embracing a series of cases, drawn up under the inspection of M. Julius Cloquet by M. Morand, Doctor of Medicine. Paris, 1825. Philadelphia: Robert Desilver, 1825. Digital facsimile of the English translation from the Internet Archive at this link. 

Engelhart’s dissertation, presented before the medical faculty at the University of Göttingen, contains the first determination of the molecular mass of a protein (hemoglobin). Engelhart proved that the ratio of iron to protein is identical in the hemoglobin of several species, and that the iron in blood could be removed by the action of chlorine. From the known atomic mass of iron he calculated the molecular mass of hemoglobin to be n x 16,000 (n being the number of iron atoms in hemoglobin, now known to be 4). Engelhart’s calculation was greeted with incredulity by his colleagues, who refused to accept that any molecule could be so large, but a century later Gilbert Adair confirmed Engelhart’s results by measuring the osmotic pressure of hemoglobin solutions.

Davis introduced a number of improvements in instruments and techniques: “It outlines rules and precautions for undertaking operations, described the use of various forms of forceps, and provided twenty detailed plates, [some of them] illustrating techniques of craniotomy using the crochet and Denman’s perforator” (Woods, Death before birth: Fetal health and mortality in historical perspective, p. 138).
Davis was appointed Royal Accoucheur in 1819, and attended the Duchess of Kent when she gave birth to the future Queen Victoria. This work is beautifully illustrated with double-page lithographed plates of the highest quality, and is an early example of lithography in medical illustration. The pioneering firm of Hullmandel printed most if not all of the plates; some are after drawings by William Clift, who was associated with the Hunters and did the illustrations for Baillie’s pathology atlas. 

Burdach’s great textbook of physiology was planned to run to 10 vols., but the death of his wife quenched his enthusiasm for the task. Parts of the text were written by von Baer, Rathke, Johannes Müller, R. Wagner and others, under the direction of Burdach. Von Baer’s contribution includes material also published the same year in Ueber Entwicklungsgeschichte der Thiere. Burdach’s unsatisfactory editing of it for Die Physiologie stimulated von Baer to have his own separate book published. See No. 479.

In this and No. 987.1 Beaumont first described his revolutionary experiments on Alexis St. Martin. He continued these researches and published his monograph in 1833. See No. 989.

Confirmation of the work of Prout.

Classic description of general paralysis. Calmeil’s work complements Bayle’s earlier delineation of general paralysis (No. 4795). Between the two of them they established the clinical picture of general paralysis of the insane, associating it with chronic inflammation of the brain. This was the first breakthrough in neuro-psychiatric research, and it gave psychiatry the spur to precise and systematic clinical, pathological, and statistical innovation on its own terms.

Includes Müller’s law of specific nerve energies. For an English translation, see his Elements of physiology, transl. W. Baly, London, 1838, vol. 1, pp. 766-67. Includes (p. 73) his explanation of the color sensations produced by pressure upon the retina.

Isolation of bromine.

Müller’s early studies on specific nerve energies are included in the above work. Later he stated, in his Handbuch der Physiologie, Coblenz, 1840, 2, 258, his law of specific nerve energies – each nerve of special sense, however excited, gives rise to its own peculiar sensation.

Based on over 4000 autopsies performed over 30 years, and illustrated with fine hand-colored plates.

Porter was Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The above includes a description of “Porter’s sign”, tracheal tugging in aortic aneurysm.

Successful ligation of the external iliac, Oct. 16, 1815.

In this summary of dermatological literature of the period Rayer first described adenoma sebaceum and xanthoma multiplex. He was the first to differentiate between acute and chronic eczema. The second edition, Paris, Baillière, 1835, includes an entirely new third volume of text and a much enlarged atlas of colored plates. English translation, 1883.

Civiale invented a lithotriteur for crushing stones inside the bladder and was responsible for putting the operation of lithotrity upon a sound basis. His claim to have introduced the operation was opposed by Leroy d’Etoilles and other contemporaries.

Description of what is now known as Lembert’s suture, which ensures that serous surface is applied to serous surface in suturing intestine – the foundation of all modern gastric and intestinal surgery. Dieffenbach (see No. 3441) was the first successfully to employ Lembert’s method.

Physick’s operation for artificial anus – colocutaneous fistula formed as a result of mortification from a strangulated hernia.

Bretonneau showed that croup, malignant angina, and “scorbutic gangrene of the gums” were all the same disease, for which he suggested the term dipntheritis, later substituting “dipnthérite”. He performed (pp. 300-38) tracheotomy for croup. English translation in New Sydenham Society’s Memoirs on diphtheria, London, 1859.

First clear pathological description of congenital dislocation of the hip-joint. Dupuytren distinguished this syndrome caused by failure of fetal development of the acetabulum from deformities due to tuberculosis and pyarthrotic disease of the hip joint.

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

First American textbook on gynecology.

Alphabetical author-index of 16,299 incunabula. Originally based on the contents of the Munich Hofbibliothek, it was made more useful when Walter Arthur Copinger published a 3-volume supplement, 1895-1902, which added 6,619 items and corrected 7,000 of the original entries. In 1914, Dietrich Reichling completed a further supplement containing 1,921 items.

The first original study of acupuncture published in North America, and one of the earliest American publications on the alleviation of pain. Franklin Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was the first American to perform original research on acupuncture. 

"As assistant physician at the state penitentiary in Philadelphia, Bache determined in 1825 to test acupuncture on the prisoners whom he was called upon to serve. With the aid of a colleague, he used the needles to treat 12 different prisoners who were suffering from highly painful afflictions: three with muscular rheumatism, four with 'chronic pains,' three with neuralgia, and two with ophthalmia. He also used acupuncture among the prisoners in relieving several lesser pains, including a headache accompanying bilious fever, the head pain of an epileptic, an elastic tumor near the elbow joint, and a dull pain caused by pulmonic inflammation.

"Bache reported varying successes. In summarizing 17 subsequent cases, some of which were not among the prisoners, he noted that seven "were completely cured, seven considerably relieved, and in the remaining three cases, the remedy produced no effect" (Cassedy, "Early uses of acupuncture in the United States, with an addendum (1826) by Franklin Bache, M.D.," Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 50 [1974] 892-906).

As adjunct chief surgeon at the Hôpital St. Louis, Cloquet had an ample number of patients at his disposal, and he was able to test acupuncture on upwards of 300 cases with mostly beneficial results. Cloquet did not publish his researches; it was left to Cloquet's student Dantu, who had assisted him in his acupuncture trials, to present the results of Cloquet's investigations to the public. Lu & Needham, Celestial Lancets, p. 355. Digital facsimile from the  Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé (Paris) at this link.

This radical and progressive sex manual was the first book to specify methods of contraception, including the sponge, condoms, and withdrawal. It also took the position, radical at the time, that with respect to sexual desire both sexes may be considered equal. Digital facsimile of the London, 1828 edition from the London School of Economics and Political Science at this link. A very well edited modern edition, with a full discussion of the publishing history of the work is What is love? Richard Carlile's philosophy of sex by M. L. Bush (London: Verso, 1998). A preliminary version first appeared in Carlile's The Republican, 11, 545-69 (May 6, 1825).

Bleuland's catalogue of his museum of anatomical and pathological specimens. Digital facsimile from Universiteit Utrecht at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first "modern" discussion of medical euthanasia. Translated into English by Walter Crane as "Medical euthanasia: A paper published in Latin in 1826, translated and reintorduced to the medical Profession," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci. 7 (4) (1952) 401-416.

Duperrey undertook this circumnavigation under the sponsorship of the French Minister of Marine, to study terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, and to confirm or correct the position of islands and landmarks that were essential for safe navigation. To accomplish this mission in August 1822 Duperrey departed Toulon, "embarking on what would become a three-year expedition through the Pacific Islands and South America. Joining him on board were two naturalists, both also the ship’s surgeons, Prosper Garnot and René Primevère Lesson, plus his colleague and assistant commander, the botanist Jules Dumont d’Urville. They sailed along the coast of South America as far as Paita, Peru, and then headed west through the Tuamotus to Tahiti, before continuing on through the Society, Friendly (Tonga), and Fiji Islands. Although they were bound for Australia, dangerous weather conditions forced them northwest, and they passed the Santa Cruz and Solomon Islands before landing at Louis de Bougainville’s Port Praslin, New Britain. From there Coquille continued across the top of New Guinea, eventually making its way to the west and south coasts of Australia and to New Zealand by April 1824. It also passed through the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and the British island of Mauritius before finally docking in Marseilles in March 1825.

"Along the way, Duperrey and his crew had discovered a number of undocumented islands, prepared charts of little-known areas of the South Pacific (especially in the Caroline Archipelago), studied ocean currents and gathered new data on geomagnetic and meteorological phenomena. They had also amassed a staggering collection of unknown plants and animals, especially from New Guinea, including birds of paradise, bower birds, marsupials and a variety of fish and invertebrates for the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle" (https://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/special-collections/2015/11/18/voyage-autour-du-monde-by-louis-isidore-duperrey-1826/, accessed 04-2018). Digital facsimiles of the complete set, including the unusually elaborate 12-page prospectus from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Published after Torrey's appointment as profess or chemistry at West Point, in a small, handy format for botanical students, that "its small size will enable them to use it without inconvenience in their herborizations." Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Includes 126 hand-colored engraved plates from drawings by Dupont the elder, assisted by Delestre the younger and Verollot, engraved by Johann Theodor Susemihl, a German engraver working in Paris, known for his zoological plates, especially of birds. The majority of the plates depict the genitalia, but here is also an unsual portrait of a black man, which along with an image in Charles Bell's Illustrations of the great operations in surgery, is one of the first representations of a black person in medical iconography. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Griffth was probably the first American woman to publish in the sciences outside of materia medica and childcare. This article was probably her earliest non-geological publication. See Robt S. Cox, "A spontaneous flow: The geological contributions of Mary Griffith, 1772-1846," Earth Sciences History, 12, 187-195.

This work, illustrated with 5 plates, contains several clear and minute descriptions of dislocation of the hip joint. In the course of the monograph Warrenproved the possibility of a type of dislocation that was denied by Astley Cooper, yet observed by several distinguished surgeons. Warren went to the trouble of publishing this monograph, not to disprove Astley Cooper, but to present his professional opinion in a malpractice case. 

"After realizing that his hip would never be right again, Charles Lowell decided to sue his local physicians (disregarding multiple doctors’ pleas to reconsider). He accused Hawkes of neglect and failing to initially reduce the dislocation, while he brought Faxon up on charges for having tried to manipulate the dislocation without the necessary medical training. Prior to 1987, defendants were not permitted to testify on their own behalf, and if Faxon had not been likewise accused, Hawkes could have easily put him on the stand to protect him as he was the only other medical practitioner present at the time of the incident (Harvey 1991, 175). The court case Lowell vs. Faxon and Hawkes was brought to trial on three occasions, and no concrete verdict was ever returned. The first trial, held in June of 1822 at the Superior Court for Washington County, Maine under Justice David Perham ruled in Lowell’s favor. The Judge charged Faxon and Hawkes $1962, who promptly appealed the case and brought it to the Supreme Court at Machias. The second trial, overseen by Chief Justice Prentiss Mellen, took place three months later in September of 1822. The jury, however, was highly influenced by outside politics not directly associated with case itself, and was unable to come to any agreement. They were divided, not only by the loyalties and biases between Massachusetts and Maine (the later had only seceded in 1820), but also on a more micro scale between Washington County in northern Maine and the surrounding areas (Spaulding 1910, 9). The doctors in this trial can be clearly grouped into opposing sides: all Bostonian doctors in favor of the plaintiff; all doctors from Maine supporting the defense. Amongst the smaller sphere of Maine residents, players can likewise be separated: Hawkes from Eastport (to whom whose residents felt a great sense of loyalty), and Lowell from outside the County lines. Consequently, the case was brought to court a final time in June of 1824. Once again, however, it came to a stale mate, and Justice Nathan Weston decided that “the best thing for all parties was for the plaintiff to accept a non-suit and the defendant to take no costs' (Spaulding 1910, 23)." Nobody wins. (https://collections.countway.harvard.edu/onview/exhibits/show/lowellhip/overview).

 Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

"This was a complete work on dental science, pathology, and thereapeutics, far in advance of anything heretofore published in the English language containing many practical ideas" (Thorpe, Biographies of pioneer American dentists and their successors (1910) 55).  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Chaussier introduced a procedure for the revival of near-dead infants. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Barton performed a femoral osteotomy between the greater and lesser trochanters to secure motion in an ankylosed hip. This has been called the first successful arthroplasty. Reprinted in Clin. Orthop., 1984, 182, 4-13.

This is “the first reported amputation at the hip joint found in the American medical literature” (Rutkow). See No. 4462.

Contains 435 hand-colored plates in double elephant folio format, originally issued in 87 parts. The birds of America is widely regarded as the greatest illustrated ornithological work ever published, and one of the greatest works of natural history illustration ever created.

• Imprint dates: v. 1, 1827-30; v. 2, 1831-34; v. 3, 1834-35; v. 4, 1835-38, June 20.
• Plate LXIV drawn from nature by Lucy Audubon.
• Plates I-II, VI-VII engraved by W [illiam] H[ome] Lizars, retouched by R [obert] Havell, junr.; pl VIII-IX engraved by W.H. Lizars; pl. III-V, CI-CV, CVIII, CX engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell, junr.; pl. X-C, CVI-CVII, CIX, CXII-CCCCXXXV engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell.
• Plates II, VII dated 1829; pl. CVI-CX, CXII-CVX dated 1831; pl. CXXXI-CXL, CXLIII-CLV dated 1832; pl. CLVI-CLXXVII, CLXXIX-CLXXXII, CLXXXIV-CLXXXV dated 1833; pl. CLXXXVI-CXCVII, CXCIX, CCII-CCXXXV dated 1834; pl. CCXXXVI-CCLXXXV, CCLXXXVII, CCLXXXIX-CCXC dated 1835; pl. CCLXXXVI, CCLXXXVIII, CCXCI-CCCL dated 1836; pl. CCCLI-CCCC dated 1837; pl. CCCCI-CCCCXXXV dated 1838.
• Plate CCLX marked "CCXL".

The process by which water passes through a membrane from a solution on the one side to another solution on the other side has been known, since the classic work of Dutrochet, as “endosmosis” or “exosmosis”; the pressure due to this passage of water has naturally been called “osmotic”.

Occlusion effect on sound perception.

Cullen was the most conspicuous figure in the history of the Edinburgh Medical School during the 18th century. He was an inspiring teacher and was instrumental in founding the Glasgow Medical School in 1744. His clinical lectures were notable as being the first given in the vernacular instead of in Latin.

Announces Baer’s discovery of the mammalian ovum, the culmination of a search begun by scientists at least as early as the work of de Graaf in the 17th century (No. 1209). The pamphlet was reprinted in facsimile in Isis, 1931, 16, 315-30. English translation by C. D. O’Malley, Isis, 1956, 47, 117-53.

First description of the segmentation of the frog’s egg.

Gives the views of his father, Ernst Horn (1744-1848), on tabes.

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.

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.

“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).

Beside's Bright's classic description of chronic non-suppurative nephritis, known eponymically as “Bright’s disease”, the Reports contain numerous other outstanding contributions to general pathology, neuropathology, and nephrology. Bright differentiated renal from cardiac dropsy (edema) and was first to correlate this and the previously observed albuminuria with the nephritic changes observed at autopsy. Vol. 2, published in 2 parts, is one of the earliest and most important atlases of neuropathology. Superbly illustrated throughout with hand-colored plates. Facsimile reprint of vol. 1, London: Gower Publishers & Royal Society of Medicine, 1985. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Mélier was the first to show the existence of chronic appendicitis; he recognized the causal relationship between the chronic affection and abscesses of the right iliac fossa and was first to suggest operative intervention.

On p. 396 commences a classic account of heart block with syncopal attacks, the first complete description of this condition. Following the paper by Stokes (No. 2756) the eponym “Stokes–Adams syndrome” was employed to describe this state. Adams recognized a thrill in mitral regurgitation (p. 423). Adams also understood tricuspid incompetence (p. 436). The paper is reproduced in full in Med. Classics, 1939, 3, 633-96.

Saissy described a Eustachian bougie; he was probably the first to use this instrument. Besides dealing with the labyrinth, his book discusses diseases of the tympanum and Eustachian tube. English translation, Baltimore, 1829. Digital facsimile of the 1827 edition from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

In 1823 Key successfully ligated the subclavian artery for aneurysm at the axilla.

Wardrop successfully treated aneurysm of the carotid artery by distal ligation, a procedure suggested by Pierre Brasdor (see No. 2951). Wardrop expanded this paper into a book: On aneurism, and its cure by a new operation, London, Longman, 1828.

First successful ligation of the common iliac.

Arthur Jacob, Professor of Anatomy and physiology in Dublin, described “Jacob’s ulcer”, rodent ulcer attacking the face, especially the eyelid.

Classic early account of osteomyelitis. Smith trephined for bone necrosis. Reproduced in Med. Classics, 1937, 1, 820-38.

Urethro-cystic speculum (endoscope).

Successful wiring of ununited fracture of humerus.

Jameson was surgeon to Baltimore Hospital for 20 years. This essay described some of the earliest multiple animal experiments used in American medical research.

Airy, Britain's Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881, was the first to devise a sphereocylindrical lens for correcting astigmatism, a condition from which he himself suffered in his left eye. Airy's method is still used today. 

Classic description of hydatidiform mole.

This charming “autobiography” tells of the adventures of the famous gold-headed cane, successively in the possession of Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, William and David Pitcairn, and Baillie, and then retired to a glass case in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Besides good biographies of the several owners of the cane, the book gives interesting information on the condition of medicine in England in the 18th century. Several good reprints of the book are available; in particular may be mentioned that of 1915 which has an introduction by Osler and a preface by F. R. Packard, and one edited by H.S. Robinson, 1932; facsimile of author’s own copy of the 1827 edition published by the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1968.

Goring was an Edinburgh medical practitioner. He commissioned Tulley and others to make various modifications to the microscope. The above paper reports the first effective achromatic object-glass.

The first world map of the distribution of human disease. For Schnurrer's work in epidemiology and his map, which was published separately from his books, see Brömer, "The first global map of the distribution of human diseases: Friedrich Schnurrer's 'Charte über die geographische Ausbreitung der Krankheiten'  (1827)", Med. Hist. Suppl.  20 (2000) 176–185.  The map was offered for sale in black & white or with the outlines hand-colored. Digital facsimile of a foxed hand-colored example from Google Books 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).

Some copies of this work were issued with hand-colored plates.  The illustrator of this work, Jean-Charles Werner, was one of the most distinguished natural history artists of his time.
Digital facsimile of a black & white copy from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Ornithologist and collector Marmaduke Tunstall began collecting for his private museum in London in the 1770s, acquiring numerous 'curiosities brought by Captain Cook'; he moved the collections in 1776 to his home at Wycliffe, Yorkshire. After Tunstall's death the Wycliffe Museum was bought by George Allan, lawyer and avid antiquary, adding it to his own substantial holdings to form the Allan Museum. On his death the museum went to Allan's son, and in 1822 the combined collections passed into the hands of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

“With over 30 diagrams and charts, including myriad musical notations to show the pitch and duration of syllables, the text offers a systematic notation for the description of speech sounds, followed by a detailed treatise on elocution, used for generations to teach oratory, articulation, and speech therapy" (ANB). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Hodgkin and Lister determined that blood cells are bioconcave discs and accurately measured their diameter as "1/5000 of an inch."  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Harrison founded the first infirmary for spinal diseases in London.  See Weiner & Silver, "Edward Harrison and the treatment of spinal deformities in the nineteenth century," J. R. Coll. Phys. Edinb., 38 (2006) 265-71.  Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Syme’s operation of excision of the lower jaw for osteosarcoma.

Valentine Mott was an outstanding figure in American surgery during the first half of the 19th century. A pupil of Astley Cooper, he particularly distinguished himself in vascular surgery and in operations involving the bones and joints.See No. 4463.

Neuroma first described.

The synthetic preparation of urea was the first occasion that an organic compound was built up from inorganic materials. Wöhler’s discovery led eventually to the brilliant results that have been achieved in attempts to synthesize other organic compounds. A French translation of this article appears in Ann. Chim. (Paris), 1828, 37, 330-34. English translation in Leicester & Klickstein (eds.), A source book in chemistry 1400-1900, Cambridge, Mass., 1952. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Among the most important of the English textbooks on anatomy. An eleventh edition was published in 1908-29.