An authoritative summary of current knowledge of Malta fever.

Agglutination test for the diagnosis of undulant fever.

The important findings of the Mediterranean Fever Commission are summarized in Topley & Wilson’s Bacteriology,1975, p. 2173; probably the most valuable was that of T. Zammit, who showed goat’s milk to be the main source of infection (pt. 4, p. 97). See entry 10780.

Forms Bulletin No. 143 of the U.S. Public Health Service Hygienic Laboratory. Alice Evans showed that the causal organism of Malta fever was closely related to Brucella abortus, responsible for contagious abortion in cattle. See also her earlier paper in J. infect. Dis.,1918, 22, 580-93.

The first account of Indian materia medica and the first textbook on tropical medicine written by a European. It includes a classic account of Asiatic cholera, the first account of this disease by a European. This is the second book known to have been printed in India, of which copies survive. Garcia de Orta sailed for India in 1534 as Chief Physician aboard the armada of the Viceroy Martim Afonso de Sousa. He worked and carried out his research at Goa, where he died in 1568. His book was first printed by João de Endem at his press in St. John's College, Goa, and completed on April 10, 1563. For an account of its author, see L. H. Roddis, Ann. med. Hist., 1929, 1, 198-207. Digital facsimile of the 1563 edition from Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal at this link. 

Vol. 1, pp. 113-16, “No author before the time of Sonnerat gives us so distinct an account of the epidemic prevalence of cholera, so full a description of its varieties or has attributed it so positively to the physical misery of the natives of the country” (Macpherson, No. 5111.2). English translation, 1788-89.

Parkin suggested the water-born character of cholera and the use of charcoal filters for water purification.

Snow first became interested in cholera at Newcastle-on-Tyne during the epidemic of 1831-1832, and recurrent outbreaks of the disease gave him the opportunity to investigate it in detail. His paper on cholera, published shortly after his (extremely rare) 31-page pamphlet On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (1849)  contained his first demonstration of the specific nature of the disease, which he defined correctly as an infection of the alimentary canal transmitted by ingesting fecal matter from cholera patients, in most cases via contaminated water. Snow proved his theory of cholera transmission by collecting data on a large number of outbreaks and correlating them to local water supplies. He argued, based on his data, that cholera was caused by “a specific living, waterborne, self-reproducing cell or germ” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography)—a conclusion all the more remarkable in that it predated the germ theory of disease by over a decade.

Snow may have been motivated to contribute his paper to the London Medical Gazette because a review of his separately published pamphlet published in that journal on pp. 466-470 of the 1849 volume stated that he had not proved the contagious nature of cholera.

Pacini described vibrios seen in the intestinal contents of cholera victims. He incriminated these vibrios as the pathogen in the disease, anticipating Koch (No. 5108) by 30 years. See N. Howard-Jones. Perspect. Biol. Med.,1971, 13, 422-33.

Pettenkofer gave much attention to the etiology of cholera. He postulated the theory that a specific germ, certain local conditions, certain seasonal conditions, and certain individual conditions are all necessary for an epidemic to occur (the Boden theory).

In this paper, dated 2 February 1884, written while Koch and his team were in Calcutta, Koch first published his discovery of the cholera bacillus and the main route of its transmission. He based his discovery on the unique microscopic morphology of the bacillus and its motility in gelatin, and liquefaction of that gelatin by this novel bacillus. He then reinforced the discovery by including autopsy evidence of deep invasion of the intestinal tissue by this bacillus.

Koch followed this paper with a second paper dated 4 March 1884, also from Calcutta:
Bericht des Leiters der deutschen wissenschaflichen commission zur Erfoschung der cholera. Dtsch. med. Woch. 10, No. 14, 1884, 221-222.

In this follow-up paper Koch and colleagues proved the transmission of the cholera bacillus through water. They isolated the bacillus with the same bacteriological characteristic described in their 2 February 1884 paper from a specific tank supplying water to some individuals. Koch's team then observed natural transmission specificaly and only to the individuals who drank this water, and subsequent development of characteristic cholera illness in those individuals.

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

Haffkine’s vaccine against cholera was the first to meet with any success.

Pfeiffer and Isayev recorded the occurrence of bacteriolysis in cholera vibrios under certain conditions: immune bacteriolysis, “Pfeiffer’s phenomenon”. Abridged English translation of second part in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988).

Kolle introduced the killed cholera vaccine.

Isolation of El Tor vibrio, a particular strain of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Gotschlich first identified this strain in 1905 at a quarantine camp on the Sinai Peninsula in El Tor, Egypt . The vibrios were found in the guts of six pilgrims returning from Mecca. Though the pilgrims failed to show ante or post mortem evidence of cholera, the vibrios isolated from the guts were agglutinable within the anti-cholera serum. 

Includes a section on the history of cholera. WHO Monograph Series,No. 43.

One of the earliest works written on public health, and one of the earliest printed medical books. It was first printed in Arnaldus de Villanova’s De arte cognoscendi venena (Padua, 1473; Mantua, 1473). Above is the first separate edition. ISTC no. iv00002000. Digital facsimile from Harvard University Libraries at this link.

Steinhöwel was a Swabian author, humanist, and translator who was much inspired by the Italian Renaissance. His translations of medical treatises and fiction were an important contribution to early Renaissance Humanism in Germany. This was a famous book; six printed editions appeared in the 15th century. It is reproduced in facsimile in A. C. Klebs: Die ersten gedruckten Pestschriften, 1936. ISTC No. is00762800. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

The most widely disseminated of all plague tracts from the time of the Black Death, of which 33 printed editions appeared in the 15th century. A French rhymed version appeared in 1476, but this version is very different from the prose, and from the pre-printing manuscripts that are known. The plague tracts from the Black Death represent the first productions of a large-scale public health effort in Europe. ISTC No. ij00015000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

English translation, 1722. Digital facsimile of the Amsterdam 1665 edition revised and expanded by the author from Google Books at this link.

Kircher, a Jesuit scholar and polymath, not specifically trained in medicine, was probably the first to employ the microscope in investigating the cause of disease. He mentioned that the blood of plague patients was filled with a “countless brood of worms not perceptible to the naked eye, but to be seen in all putrefying matter through the microscope” (Garrison). He could not have seen the plague bacillus with his low-power microscope, but he probably saw the larger micro-organisms. He was the first to state explicitly the theory of contagion by animalculae as the cause of infectious diseases.

This is a valuable statistical record of the great plague of 1665. (No. 6052 in the Bibliotheca Osleriana.)

This work was written in 1666 and first published as above. Boghurst, an apothecary, did good work during the great plague; in his book he differentiated plague from typhus. Payne’s introduction to the book contains some valuable historical data.

Best medical record of the Great Plague of 1665. Hodges was physician to the City of London and the medical hero of the great epidemic.

English translation by John Quincy, 1720: 

Loimologia, or, An historical account of the plague in London in 1665 : with precautionary directions against the like contagion.

Digital facsimile of the 1721 third edition of the translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work, recording the epidemic of plague in Malta in 1675-76, was the first medical work published by a Maltese.

In 1719 Mead was asked for advice concerning an outbreak of plague in Marseilles, and replied with the above tract of 59 pages, which has been called the first epidemiological report produced by a physician at the command of the state. It underwent seven editions in one year. By the eighth edition (1722) Mead expanded it into a book of 150 pages. Mead concluded that isolation of the sick is more effective in stopping the spread of infection than general quarantine or fumigation. The book has been called almost a prophecy of what was to develop as the English public health system.

Weszprémi proposed preventive inoculation against plague.

Yersin discovered the plague bacillus Pasteurella (Yersinia) pestis, isolating it from excised buboes. He published the first account of this organism. Preliminary note in C. R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 1894, 119, 356.

Rennie appears to be the first seriously to support the theory of transmission of the plague bacillus by rats and to present evidence in support of that theory.

Successful inoculation of animals with anti-plague vaccine. 

Ogata considered the flea (principally Xenopsylla cheopis) to be the principal, if not the sole, vector of bubonic plague infection.

Simond provided substantial evidence to support Ogata that fleas transmitted plague from rat to man.

Haffkine developed an anti-bubonic plague vaccine (killed bouillon cultures), for use in man.

Bacot and Martin demonstrated the method by which the rat flea (primarily Xenopsylla cheopis) transmits the plague bacillus from rat to man.

Publication of the League of Nations, III. Health III, 13.

Includes a section on the history of plague. WHO Monograph Series, No. 22.

A study of medals and tokens relating to epidemics of plague and other infectious diseases.

Deals with the subject up to the end of the 18th century. Revised ed., 1951.

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

Includes descriptions of 130 incunabula.

From The Great Pestilence of 1348 to the Plague of London in 1665, discussing efforts to control the disease, and its impacts on social and economic life. 

Aretaeus left many fine descriptions of disease; in fact Garrison ranks him second only to Hippocrates in this respect. In the printed editions of this bibliography, before the present online version, the Adams edition was cited no less than 12 times for individual diseases, plus its first citation in "Collected Works" (No. 22.) This number of citations is, of course, greater than any other specific work by any other author, though the number of citations may be a reflection of idiosyncracies of the compilers rather than a proportionate measure of the significance of Aretaeus in the history of medicine. The citations are as follows:

3162. On angina, or quinsey. In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams, 249-52, 404-07.

3163. On pleurisy. In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams, 255-58, 410-16.

2433. On elephas, or elephantiasis. In his Extant works, ed. by F. Adams, 366-73, 494-98. Classic description of “elephantiasis Aretaei”, nodous leprosy.

5046. On ulcerations about the tonsils. In hiis Extant works, ed. F. Adams, 253-55. Aretaeus’s description of ulcerations about the tonsils, which he called “ulcera Syrica”, clearly referred to diphtheria, of which it was the first unmistakable description. For his treatment of the disease, see pp. 409-10 of the same work.

5089. On dysentery. In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams. 353-57. Prior to Lösch’s discovery of E. histolytica, all forms of dysentery were differentiated only on clinical grounds.

4915. Extant works. Ed. F. Adams. Aretaeus wrote important accounts of melancholy (298-300, 473-78) and madness (301-04).

5146. On tetanus. In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams,  246-49, 400-04. Aretaeus left a full account of tetanus.

4484,  On arthritis and sciatica. In his Extant works, ed. by F. Adams,  362-65, 492-93,

3612. On jaundice, or icterus. In his Extant works, ed F. Adams, 324-28.

4510. On paralysis. In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams.

4808. On epilepsy, in his Extant works, ed F. Adams,  243, 296, 399, 468. Aretaeus was well acquainted with hemi-epilepsy from local injury in the opposite half of the brain; partly from this knowledge he formulated the “decussation in the form of the letter X” of the motor path. He first described epilepsy resulting from a depressed fracture of the skull. In his excellent description he made the first mention of the aura.

3925. On diabetes.In his Extant works, ed. F. Adams. 338-40, 485-86. The first accurate account of diabetes, to which Aretaeus gave its present name; he insisted on the part which thirst plays in the symptomatology. 

According to the Wikipedia article on Headache, Aretaeus also provied the first recorded classification system for headaches: "He made a distinction between three different types of headache: i) cephalalgia, by which he indicates a shortlasting, mild headache; ii) cephalea, referring to a chronic type of headache; and iii) heterocrania, a paroxysmal headache on one side of the head." 

Digital facsimile of Adams's Greek and Latin edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Demonstration of the transmissibility of tetanus by inoculation into rabbits of pus from a human case.

The discovery of the tetanus bacillus, Clostridum tetani, is attributed to Nicolaier; he was, however, unable to isolate the organism in pure culture.

Kitasato obtained a pure culture of the tetanus bacillus, Cl. tetani.

Antitoxins and their immunizing powers were discovered when Behring and Kitasato published their paper dealing with immunity to tetanus and diphtheria. This work laid the foundation of all future treatment with antitoxins, and was the basis of serotherapy. The paper was reprinted in the same journal, 1940, 66, 1348-49. Part 2, which deals with diphtheria, is by Behring alone. Behring was the first recipient (1901) of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. English translation in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988).

Tetanus toxoid first employed in the immunization of humans.

Chabert, the most celebrated veterinarian of his time, left a fine account of glanders.

Proof that glanders in the horse is communicable to man.

In this treatise on glanders and farcy in man Rayer showed that glanders is contagious, but is not a form of tuberculosis. Rayer began the work with a thoroughly documented historical chapter. Digital facsimile of the separate edition published from the journal, from Google Books at this link.

Discovery of Burkholderia mallei, causative organism of glanders. Preliminary notice in Dtsch. med. Wschr., 1882, 8, 707.

Straus reaction for the diagnosis of glanders.

Mallein reaction for the diagnosis of glanders.

First description of melioidosis. Together with C.S. Krishnaswami, Whitmore identified Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis (also known as "Whitmore's disease") in opium addicts in Rangoon in 1911. He differentiated it from Burkholderia mallei, the causative agent of glanders, by clinical and microbiological features.The organism isolated was subsequently named Pfeifferella whitmori by Stanton and Fletcher.

Stanton identified the bacillus of melioidosis and reproduced the disease in animals by feeding and inoculation of cultures.

Studies from the Institute for Medical Research, F.M.S., No. 21. Stanton gave melioidosis its present name and, with Fletcher, wrote the authoritative work on the subject.

First important clinical description of anthrax. For some time after the appearance of Chabert’s short book, the condition was known as “Chabert’s disease”. Chabert was Directeur & Inspecteur général of the Écoles Royales-Vétérinaires. Digital facsimile from BiuSanté at this link.

Rayer inoculated sheep with blood of other sheep dead of anthrax. Microscopically he saw the anthrax bacillus in the blood of the inoculated sheep. Rayer was associated with Davaine, who later, in Bull. Acad. Méd., 1875, 2 sér., 4, 581-84, said that he had written the above account and had sent it to Rayer for publication.

Pollender discovered the B. anthracis in 1849, but did not record this fact until 1855. He gave a more exact account of the organism than did Rayer (No. 5163).

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

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

In 1876 Koch first obtained pure cultures of B. anthracis and described its complete life history. With Davaine (Nos. 5165-66) he did much to prove that infectious diseases are caused by living reproductive microorganisms. The paper also marks the beginning of exact knowledge of bacterial infectious diseases. It is reproduced with translation in Med. Classics, 1938, 2, 745-820. See also Nos. 2331 and 2536.

Pasteur confirmed Koch’s results regarding anthrax; with Joubert he carried the bacillus through 100 generations and succeeded in producing anthrax from the last, thus disposing of the idea of a separate virus.

First use of attenuated bacteria for therapeutic purposes. See also the same journal, 1881, 92, 1378-83.

Specific anti-anthrax serum. German translation in Zbl. Bakt., 1895, 1 Abt., 18, 744-45.

Ascoli’s thermoprecipitin reaction for the diagnosis of anthrax. German translation in Zbl. Bakt., 1911, 1 Abt., 58, Orig., 63-70. Preliminary note in Patbologica, 1910, 3, 101.

Salvarsan first used in the treatment of anthrax.

Nonencapsulated spore vaccine.

Tularemia first recorded (in rodents).

Isolation of Pasteurella tularensis, causal organism in tularemia.

Wherry and Lamb were first to isolate P. tularensis from lesions in man.

Francis demonstrated the transmission of tularemia to man from rodents through insects, particularly the deerfly. He gave the disease its present name; it is also called “Francis’s disease” by some writers.

In Japan tularemia is known as “Ohara’s disease”.

Skin test for the diagnosis of tularemia. Digital facsimile from Jstor at this link.

Foshay devised a serum for the treatment of tularemia.

The first important work on tropical diseases. Only six copies of the original edition of this book are known. It includes full accounts of malaria, typhoid, and scurvy, and the first accurate descriptions of yellow fever, amoebic hepatitis, dracontiasis, trichuriasis, and tungiasis. Abreu's description of scurvy was remarkably precise. He treated the disease with fresh milk and antiscorbutic syrups, particularly rose syrup- a rich natural source of ascorbic acid. For a study of the book see F. Guerra, Clio Medica, 1968, 1, 59-60. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

There is evidence that amoebic dysentery was known to Hippocrates. The history of treatment begins with the use of ipecacuanha, the dried root of Cephaelis ipecacuanha, a plant from Brazil.  This was first mentioned as a remedy in Purchas’s Pilgrimes, 1625. 

Isolation of emetine. It was not until a century later that Vedder demonstrated its value in the treatment of amoebiasis. Also during 1817 Magendie and Pelletier published "Recherches chimiques et physiologiques sur l’ipécacuanha," Ann. Chim. Phys. (Paris), 4, 172-85. 

Ballingall distinguished between amoebic and bacillary dysentery. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First record (p. 149) of the use of emetine in the treatment of amoebiasis.

First observations of entozoic amoebae.

Jimenez gave a classic account of liver abscess in amoebiasis.

Lösch discovered Entamoeba histolytica as the infective agent in amoebic dysentery. Before this time distinction between the different forms of dysentery had been made on purely clinical grounds. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).

Written by Woodward, Smart, Otis, and Huntington under the direction of Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon General of the Army. This massive, graphically illustrated set has been called the “first comprehensive American medical book”. It is one of the most remarkable works ever published on military medicine. An index of operators and reporters appears at the end of the third surgical volume. This index makes it possible to look up any surgeon, and find the patients he treated. 

Woodward published an account of diarrhoea and dysentery in Pt.2, Vol. 1 (1879) pp. 1-869. Garrison considered this the greatest single monograph on dysentery. Woodward saw the Lösch amoeba, but without recognizing its significance.

Appendix to Part I, Containing Reports of Medical Directors, and Other Documents includes on pp. 92-104, LXXXII. Extracts from a Report of the Operations of the Medical Department of the Army of the Potomac from July 4th to December 31st, 1862. By JONATHAN LETTERMAN, Surgeon, U. S. Army, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. (Digital text of Letterman's report is available from U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History at this link.

Kartulis discovered amoebae in liver abscess. It was principally through the work of Kartulis that amoebae came to be considered the cause of dysentery in man.

Hlava induced experimental amoebiasis in cats by intrarectal inoculation of stools. In an abstract of this paper Kartulis confused the author’s name with that of the title, a mistake copied by writers for many years; see C. Dobell, Parasitology, 1938, 30, 239-41.

These workers introduced the term “amoebic dysentery” in their important investigation of the condition.

Entamoeba histolytica distinguished from Entamoeba coli. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).

Vedder demonstrated the amoebicidal action of emetine; his work led to the general adoption of emetine in the treatment of amoebic dysentery.

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

Walker and Sellards made important additions to our knowledge of amoebiasis, including the determination of the incubation period and the demonstration that E. tetragena and E. minuta are identical with E. histolytica.

Introduction of Yatren.

Introduction of stovarsol (oxyaminophenylarsenic acid) in the treatment of amoebiasis.

Pure cultivation of Entamoeba histolytica was first accomplished by D. W. Cutler (J. Path. Bact., 1918, 22, 22), but Boeck and Drbohlav evolved the first media upon which amoebae could be cultivated for indefinite periods.

Classic account of the life-cycle of Entamoeba histolytica.

With H. H. Anderson and  N. A. David.

A comprehensive book on the subject, including a careful review of the existing literature. Astruc stated that syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1493. The book was translated into English in 1737. Digital facsimile of the 1736 edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

In 1740 Astruc issued the much-enlarged second edition expanded to two volumes. At the end of vol. 1, paginated in Roman numerals, he published Dissertatio I. De origine, appelatione, natura & curatione morborum venerorum inter Sinas, reproducing various Chinese characters with their explanations. This was probably the first Chinese treatise on venereal disease published in Europe. Digital facsimile of the second edition from Google Books at this link.

Balfour is said to have been the first to re-affirm the duality of gonorrhoea and syphilis.

In Hunter's day venereal diseases were thought to be due to a single poison. To test this theory Hunter experimented with matter taken from a gonorrhoeal patient who, unknown to Hunter, also had syphilis. Hunter maintained that gonorrhoea and syphilis were caused by a single pathogen. Backed by the weight of his authority, this experiment retarded the development of knowledge regarding the two diseases. Contrary to legend, however, there is no proof that Hunter actually inoculated himself with venereal disease. The hard (“Hunterian”) chancre eponymizes Hunter; his book also contains the first suggestion of lymphogranuloma venereum as a separate disease, and this work also makes a major contribution to urological surgery. Hunter issued this book at his private press at his anatomy school, the address for which he provided on the title page. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First complete description of lymphatic chancre – “Nisbet’s chancre”.

Girtanner’s important textbook on the venereal diseases contains some history.