Issued in numbers from 1790-1795, this is the first edition in book form. This work, which underwent several later editions, remained the standard work on the plants of the British pharmacopoeia until the 1880s. Digital facsimile of the first edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Later editions frequently contained beautiful hand-colored plates.

English translation, London, 1865.

Blumenbach was the founder of craniology, and his craniological collection served as the principal foundation for his investigations into the natural history of mankind. He used the norma verticalis, the shape of the skull as seen from above, as the means of distinguishing three types: Mongols, Negroes, and Caucasians. The above work includes a description of the uncinate (“Blumenbach’s”) process. See No. 156.

The first femoral ligation reported in America, and the first paper on a surgical topic to be published in an American medical periodical.

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

First modern account of the occurrence of parotitis and orchitis complicating it. Hamilton’s paper, read in 1773, by its fullness and clarity made the disease more generally known, so that within a few years many text books included descriptions of it.

The first monograph on the preparation of anatomical specimens for museums, from various parts of the human body. Includes a method for injecting colored solutions to show the blood vessels of the head, and a method for showing the distribution of the nerves, along with many others. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work described many Australian species for the first time. It includes natural history illustrations after watercolor paintings by Sarah Stone. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link

A room by room, case by case guide to Lever's celebrated museum of natural history and ethnography, authorshop of which is unidentified. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

An attack on quack medicines, etc. with one of the most verbose title pages of the 18th century. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Castiglioni was one of very few Italians to make the journey to America and to produce a detailed day-to-day account of his observations in the young country. His "Viaggio" is a systematic compendium of information drawn from both observation and secondary sources on the topography, history, instructions, agriculture and industry of the individual states from Massachusetts to Georgia. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Translated into English and edited by Antonio Pace, with an natural history commentary by Joseph and Nesta Ewan as Luigi Castiglioni's Viaggio: Travels in the United States of North America 1785-87. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1983.

The first work on pediatrics written by a Brazilian physician. Digital facsimile from Biblioteca digital Luso-Brasileira at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Issued in parts. Images by Sowerby; text by  Sir James Edward Smith. Only Sowerby is credited on the title page. Includes 2,592 hand-colored plates of British plants. 

"Buyers of this work today must exercise extreme caution. Because of its popularity, editions were published over many years, sometimes with images produced from worn out plates, parts from earlier editions and other bibliographic nightmares. The second edition of this work was merely a restrike of the first, and mixed editions were routinely produced. Sets of the final edition (usually in 13 volumes of quarto size, with 1,936 plates), designated the third edition, appeared as late as 1892, and were illustrated with crude lithographic (albeit hand-colored) copies of Sowerby's original engravings. There are also pirated editions" (Lawrence H. Conklin, "James Sowerby, his publications and collections," Minerological Record, Vol. 26, July-August, 1995).

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Hassenfratz, a pupil of Lagrange, maintained that the oxidation of carbon and hydrogen took place in the blood, and not in the lungs as taught by others.

In the course of his experiments on irritable responses caused by static electricity applied to frog muscles, Galvani produced electric current from the contact of two different metals in a moist environment. Galvani mistakenly believed this phenomenon (which his nephew Giovanni Aldini called “galvanism”) to be animal electricity. See No. 594.1 Facsimile of Volta’s copy, with English translation, and bibliography of editions and translations by J.F. Fulton and M.E. Stanton, Norwalk, Conn., Bumdy Library, 1953.

Soemmerring’s text-book contained only facts actually observed by him. He departed from the usual practice of including physiology with anatomy. The book was very popular in German medical schools, and Meckel considered it Soemmerring’s best work. It includes a very full list of what Soemmerring considered his anatomical discoveries.

Most of the plates demonstrate a progressive series of specimens with duplication anomalies of the face and head, from midfacial cleft to complete dicephalus. This arrangement of malformations into a continuous series with definable steps anticipated the taxonomic approach of the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaires.

First successful operation on a tumor of the maxillary sinus, 1789.

Original description of cornu cutaneum.

Achondroplasia is first described on page 30 and pictured on plate 11. English translation in No. 2241.

Chopart and Desault were the founders of urological surgery, both emphasizing the importance of considering the urinary tract as a whole. “They were close friends and were both able clinicians, surgeons and teachers. Desault was a brilliant lecturer who wrote little while Chopart, a poor speaker, published an outstanding textbook on urology” (Desnos, transl. Murphy).

This work edited by Fourcroy contains in vol. 4 (pp. 85-88) the first description of Chopart’s method of partial amputation of the foot. This is in the form of a note by Lafiteau: “Observation sur une amputation partielle du pied”. Lafiteau also named “Chopart’s joint”, the astragaloscaphoid and calcaneo-cuboid articulation. François Chopart was born in 1743 and died in 1795.

“This is the first monograph ever published dealing with ocular signs of systemic disease. It deals with lacrimal fistulas, trichiasis, adhesions of the lids, lid ulcers, ephiphora, and ocular inflammations. He illustrates through anecdotal cases the ocular changes caused by smallpox, measles, venereal afflictions, gouty and rheumatic diseases, scrofula, and dietary deficiencies” (D.M. Albert).

Böer, a pioneer of “natural childbirth”, was the founder of the Viennese school of obstetrics.

This work was edited by order of Catherine II of Russia, to whom von Mohrenheim was accoucheur. Its importance lies mainly in its splendid engravings, some of which were taken from Smellie (see No. 6154.1). It includes a brief literary history of obstetrics.

Digital facsimile of London, 1794 second edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first Census of the United States was conducted on August 2, 1790. The results were used to allocate Congressional seats (congressional apportionment), electoral votes, and funding for government programs.The federal census records for the first census are missing for five states: Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey and Virginia. They were destroyed some time between the time of the census-taking and 1830. The census estimated the population of the United States at 3,929,214, ". . . of which 697,681 were slaves, and . . . the largest cities were New York City with 33,000 inhabitants, Philadelphia, with 28,000, Boston, with 18,000, Charleston, South Carolina, with 16,000, and Baltimore, with 13,000." Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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

"The Autobiography remained unpublished during Franklin's lifetime. In 1791, the first edition appeared, in French rather than English, as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, published in Paris. This translation of Part One only was based on a flawed transcript made of Franklin's manuscript before he had revised it. This French translation was then retranslated into English in two London publications of 1793, and one of the London editions served as a basis for a retranslation into French in 1798 in an edition which also included a fragment of Part Two.

"The first three parts of the Autobiography were first published together (in English) by Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, in London in 1818, in Volume 1 of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. W. T. Franklin did not include Part Four because he had previously traded away the original hand-written holograph of the Autobiography for a copy that contained only the first three parts. Furthermore, he felt free to make unauthoritative stylistic revisions to his grandfather's autobiography, and on occasion followed the translated and retranslated versions mentioned above rather than Ben Franklin's original text.

"W. T. Franklin's text was the standard version of the Autobiography for half a century, until John Bigelow purchased the original manuscript in France and in 1868 published the most reliable text that had yet appeared, including the first English publication of Part Four. In the 20th century, important editions by Max Ferrand and the staff of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California (Benjamin Franklin's Memoirs: Parallel Text Edition, 1949) and by Leonard W. Labaree (1964, as part of the Yale University Press edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin) improved on Bigelow's accuracy. In 1981, J. A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall produced The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text, attempting to show all revisions and cancellations in the holograph manuscript. This, the most accurate edition of all so far published, served as a basis for Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition and for the text of this autobiography printed in the Library of America's edition of Franklin's Writings.

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin also became the first full-length audiobook in history, which was voiced by actor Michael Rye and released in 1969.^[3

Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

Sir Joseph Banks was responsible for publishing most of Kaempfer's studies of Japanese plants, which had remained unpublished for more than 70 years. This work introduced many Japanese plants to Western botanists.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

One of the first treatises on gum diseases, which around a century later would be called periodontics. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Kempelen built the first successful speech synthesizer that produced not only some speech sounds, but also whole words and short sentences. His final version of the machine, which differs slightly from the version shown in the book, is preserved in the Deutsches Museum Munich, in the department of musical instruments. Digital facsimile from deutschestextarchiv.de at this link. Degen issued an edition of Kempelen's book in French also in 1791. Digital facsimile of the French edition from Google Books at this link.

Parallel English translation and edited German text as Der Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache. / The Mechanism of Human Speech.: Kommentierte Transliteration & Übertragung ins Englische / Commented Transliteration & Translation into English. Herausgegeben von / Edited by Fabian Brackhane, Richard Sproat & Jürgen Trouvain. 2 vols. Dresden, 2017. Digital facsimile of the modern edition was available at this link: http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~trouvain/Kempelen-Web_2017_07_31.pdf

Includes much of Buffon's library, pp. 160-212. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

One of Napoleon’s leading surgeons, Percy laid down his principles of the practice of military surgery in the same year he was appointed médecin consultant of the Army of the North. He devised his own instrument for bullet extraction, the tribulcon. He was responsible, with Larrey, for the invention of special ambulances and squads of litter-bearers, including a “super-ambulance” capable of carrying 8 surgeons, 8 attendants, and dressings for 1200.

This work on physiognomy includes Camper’s description of his craniometrical methods. Camper is chiefly remembered for the “facial angle” of his own invention. The book first appeared in Dutch in 1791. English translation in Camper, The works… on the connexion between… anatomy and the arts, London, 1794. Digital facsimile of the 1792 edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link. 

Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

The first comprehensive medical geography. See George Rosen, "Leonhard Ludwig Finke and the first medical geography," IN: Underwood, E. A. (ed.). Science and medicine in history: Essays on the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) Vol. 2, 186-193. Fincke is known to have developed a very early disease map, supposedly inspired by Zimmerman's pioneering map of the distribution of mammals. However, Fincke did not publish his map. Digital facsimile of the 1792-95 edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Fodéré considered cretinism to be due to the concentrated air in deep valleys, rather than to water. He also drew attention to the skeletal changes. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. 

An attempt to classify skin diseases upon the basis of their pathology.

Hereditary ectodermal dysplasia first described. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A monumental work, full of information which was of great assistance to later historians. Includes a useful chronology. Third edition, 1821-28; fourth edition of vol. 1, 1846.

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

Frank, best remembered for his great services to public health, was the first physician to emphasize the gravity of diseases of the spinal cord.

Includes a total of 576 plates, of which 568 were colored.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link. Later editions, 1799, 1804, 1812.

Pasta was a pioneer in promoting the value of psychological support for treating patients with severe physical disaease. His paper, printed by the celebrated Giambattista Bodoni, promotes courage and philosophical tolerance of disease, and the etiquette of the physician in such cases.

Ruiz, a Spanish pharmacist and botanist, was appointed director of the Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú, during which he traveled extensively through Chile and Peru along with botanists José Pavón and Joseph Dombey. In 1801 Ruiz co-authored a supplementary work on a new species of cinchona with José Pavón: Suplemento a la quinología: en el qual [sic] se aumentan las especies de quina nuevamente descubiertas en el Perú por Don Juan Tafalla y la quina naranjada de Santa Fe con su estampa:añádese la respuesta a la memoria de las quinas de Santa Fe que insertó Don Francisco Zea en los Anales de Historia Natural, y la satisfación a los reparos o dudas del ciudadano Jussieu sobre los géneros del pródromo de la flora del Perú y Chile.  Digital facsimile of the 1792 work from Google Books at this link, and of the Suplemento at this link

Date inferred from reference on p. 14.  Arthaud was "médecin breveté par le Roi au Cap, associé de la Société philosophique de Philadelphie, correspondant de la Société royale de médecin de Paris, de la Société des sciences de Montpellier et de l'Académie royal de chirugie."

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

English translation of parts 1 and 2 of the 13th edition of Linnaeus's Systema naturae (1788-1793) edited by Johann Friedrich Gmelin. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Séguin and Lavoisier measured the metabolism of a man (Séguin himself). They made three observations of fundamental importance in this respect; that the intensity of oxidation in man is dependent upon (1) food, (2) environmental temperature, and (3) mechanical work.

Sprengel demonstrated for the first time that the whole structure of nectar-bearing flowers is adapted for fertilization by insects. In his study of the Rose-bay Sprengel discovered dichogamy – that in some plants the two sexes (stigmas and anthers) while occurring in one blossom, mature at different times. This prevents the flowers from being fertilized by their own pollen, and necessitates fertilization by the pollen carried to them by insects.

Fourcroy, French physician and chemist, made important researches on the chemistry of the brain. He noted albumen (protein) as a principal constituent.

Thomas Young is regarded as one of the most versatile of all scientists. In the above work he showed that the act of accommodation is due to a change of curvature of the crystalline lens, whereby light rays of various lengths can be brought to a focus on the retina.

Baillie was a nephew and pupil of William Hunter. The above is the first systematic textbook of morbid anatomy, treating the subject for the first time as an independent science. See also Nos. 2736, 3167.1. Baillie was the last and most eminent owner of the famous gold-headed cane (No. 6709). His clear and comprehensive description of the pulmonary lesions of tuberculosis could hardly be bettered today; he differentiated the nodular and infiltrating types. Page 87: First clear description of the morbid anatomy and symptoms of gastric ulcer. Baillie is also credited with the first descritpion of transposition of the great vessels in this work.

Description of Gimbernat’s operation for strangulated femoral hernia. In the same work he also described the ligament in the crural arch named after him. Gimbernat was a pioneer in ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and urology. English translation as A New Method of Operating for the Femoral Hernia, translated by T. Beddoes, London, 1795. For biographical note, see N. M. Matheson, Brit. med. Bull., 1945, 3, 238-39. Digital facsimile of the 1793 edition from Biblioteca Virtual de la  Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia, España at this link.

Morgagni described a case of “epilepsy with slow pulse” (see No. 2734), but Adams has been given the credit for reporting the first clear case of heart block (No. 2745). There is no doubt that Spens reported such a case in 1792.

Includes (pp. 33-56) an account of perforating duodenal ulcer.

Chiarugi was the first in Europe to abandon chains and fetters in a mental hospital. He required a case history for each patient, hygienic rooms with segregation of the sexes, no restraint beyond strait jacket and cotton strips, and regard for the patient as a person. He encouraged the patients to work and their attendants to practice kindness towards them. First edition in English: On Insanity and its Classification, translated with a foreward and Introduction by George Mora (1987).

Soemmerring enumerated the bad effects of tight corsets on the internal organs of women. His book created much interest and resulted in a great decline in the fad of tight lacing and hoop skirts. This is the second edition, with one copperplate illustration at the end. The first, unillustrated, edition was published at Leipzig, 1788. Digital facsimile of the 1793 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Carey was a Philadelphia publisher and economist rather than a physician. In this little book, which passed through four editions in a few months, Carey left a graphic description of the great yellow fever epidemic of Philadelphia in 1793, which infected about 17,000 people and left 5000 people dead, out of a population estimated at 45,000-50,000. Carey gave a good clinical description of the disease, mentioning the efficacy and the failure of many forms of treatment. Regrettably Carey accused blacks of causing the epidemic and of taking advantage of victims while acting as nurses. Wide distribution of the pamphlet contributed to fears and hostility in the city in which members of the Free African Society had risked their lives as nurses and aides to the sick and dying. Digital facsimile of the third edition, 1793, from the Internet Archive at this link.

To the fourth edition of January 16, 1794 Carey appended the following: "Acounts of the plague in London and Marseilles; and a list of the dead, from August 1, to the middle of December, 1793." Digital facsimile of the 4th edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bell was the first to differentiate between gonorrhoea and syphilis.

The first important classified bibliography of medical literature covering both monographic material and current periodicals.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first Portuguese book on ophthalmology. Santa Ana was the first Portuguese physician to specialize in ophthalmology. "He acknowledges (pp. vii-viii) that the section of the Elementos on anatomy and physiology is a translation of Deshais-Gendron’s Traité des maladies des yeux, 1770, but states that he made numerous corrections based on his own experience: “Aqui forão necessarias hum maior número de emendas, tanto em Anatomia, como em Fysica.” Likewise the section on pathology and therapy is a translation from Plenck’s Doctrina de morbis oculorum, 1777, but has numerous corrections based on Santa Anna’s experience." (Richard Ramer). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Crumpe undertook extensive experiments to understand the effects of opium. His book provided the first detailed description of the effects of narcotic withdrawal. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

This work, complete in over 1000 pages, with hundreds of full page plates, was begun by Eduard Sandifort and completed 42 years later by his son Gerard. Many of the plates illustrate diseases of bone. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A rather elegantly produced and illustrated medical monograph on a cyclops, with plates printed in sepia. Engraved headpieces allude to monsters from classical mythology  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Includes an index to the natural history aspects that Smith recorded. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The first published book on the flora of Australia, issued by Sowerby in four parts between 1793 and 1795. It included 16 hand-colored plates reproducing paintings by Sowerby, mostly based on sketches by John White, author of A journal of a voyage to New South Wales (1790), and 54 pages of accompanying text by Sir James Edward Smith.

Digital facsimile from bibdigital.rjb.csic.es at this link.

Dalzel studied medicine at Edinburgh, and served in the Royal Navy as a surgeon during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Discharged in 1763, he accepted a position as a surgeon in the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, and was stationed at Anomabu on the Gold Coast. While in West Africa he began slave trading. Considering the horrifically  inhumane aspects of slave trading, it is possible that Dalzel was the only physician who actually profited directly from the trade, and was motivated to write a book defending it.

From 1767 to 1770 Dalzel was director of the British fort at Ouida. He then concentrated on slave trading until he was declared bankrupt in 1778. Dalzel was active in the campaign opposing abolition. He argued in this book that the raiding of Dahomean villages for slaves was "saving them from the great evil of being human sacrifices." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Murray was in the Bengal Medical Service from 1782 to 1802.  This was his report to the Directors of the East-India Company. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Wilkins' book intended for Methodists was issued with the 23rd edition of Wesley's work. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

The first account of Galvani’s electrical experiments without the presence of metals, in which he demonstrated the presence of electrical energy in living tissue by showing that convulsions in frog nerve-muscle preparations could be produced simply by touching nerve to muscle. This observation of the injury current of nerve or demarcation current was the first proof of animal electricity. The key experiment appears in a 23-page “Supplemento” following p. 168. Some authorities consider this a joint publication of Galvani and Aldini. See No. 593.

Grandfather of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton, Erasmus Darwin provided in Zoonomia, his major work in medicine and natural science, the first consistent all-embracing hypothesis of evolution. Nevertheless, his grandson, Charles, said Erasmus’s theory had no effect on his On the Origin of Species.

This elegantly illustrated anatomical atlas is regarded as Scarpa’s greatest work. The result of 20 years of research, it includes the first proper delineation of the glossopharyngeal, vagus, hypoglossal, and cardiac nerves, and the first demonstration of cardiac innervation. Scarpa was a skilful draughtsman. He personally trained Faustino Anderloni, the artist who made the drawings and engraved the copperplates for his books.

It was while serving with the army at Belle Isle during the Seven Years’ War that Hunter collected the material for his epoch-making book on inflammation and gunshot wounds. His studies on inflammation in particular are fundamental for pathology. Hunter recognized the process of inflammation as one of the most widespread phenomena in pathology, and classified it into three types: adhesive, in which adherence of contiguous parts caused localization of disease; suppurative, in which pus was formed; and ulcerative, in which tissue loss occurred through the action of the lymphatics. This was Hunter's last published work; he was in poor health when the book went to press and died after correcting only one-third of the proofs. The remainder of the work's publication was supervised by Matthew Baillie and Everard Home.

After the fall of Corinth (146 BCE), Greek physicians migrated to Rome. There, before the advent of Asclepiades, Greek physicians were despised and distrusted. Asclepiades may be said to have established Greek medicine in Rome on a respectable footing. His remedies included change of diet, bathing, and exercise. Gumpert preserved what is left of his writings in the above Greek edition. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Frank was the first to define diabetes insipidus (pp. 38-67).

Bayford reported a a fatal case of "obstructed deglutition" caused by compression of the oesophagus by an aberrant right subclavian artery. This he called Dysphagia lusoria. See the account by N. Asherson in Ann. roy. Coll. Surg. Eng., 1979, 6l, 63-67.

One of the first attempts at a complete and detailed description of necrosis. Russell was the first Professor of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh.

The first report published in Europe on the so-called Indian or Hindu method of rhinoplasty using a forehead flap, accompanied by an engraving of the patient, Cowasjee, with a restored nose and showing the stages of the operation. The article was signed by only "B. L." 

News of the procedure was first reported in the Hircarrah of The Madras Gazette of August 4, 1794. Prior to that a copperplate engraving by R. Mabon after James Wales's portrait of Cowasjee was published in Bombay on March 20, 1794. The article in the Gentleman's Magazine signed B.L. has been attributed to Barak Longmate. Following that publication a broadside reproducing the same portrait of Cowasjee with the same text was issued in London on January 1, 1795. Both broadside versions are exceptionally rare.

Mukherjee, N.S. et al, "A Nose Lost and Honour Regained: The Indian Method of Rhinoplasty Revisited," Proceedings of the Indian Congress, 72 (2011) 968-977.  

Benjamin Rush was the most eminent figure in Philadelphia medicine in his day. His description of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 is classic. He did magnificent work in treating the sick during the epidemic and in proposing measures to prevent a recurrence. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A refutation of slights by Matthew Carey in his Short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia (1793; No. 5451) to the important contributions of black people, many of whom served as nurses and gravediggers during the epidemic. The Narrative is followed by a letter to Mattthew Clarkson, mayor of Philadelphia, signed by Jones and Allen, with Clarkson's reply. One of the earliest medical publications written by African Americans; both Allen and Jones were black ministers in Philadelphia. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.

Hunter’s text for No. 6157, edited and published by Matthew Baillie after William Hunter's death. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital text available from ECCO TCP Eighteenth Century Collections Online at this link.

Balmis conducted experimental trials on the effectiveness of two Mexican plants, agave and begonia, which were believed, according to folk medicine practices in Mexico, to cure syphilis and scrofula. The trials confirmed that the plants were ineffective. He published the results in a deluxe book with two handsome hand-colored plates.

The first 5 volumes were issued in monthly parts, each consisting of 2 plates and accompanying text. A volume came out each year between 1794 and 1798; the fifth volume stated: "This work being now completed." However, five additional volumes, numbered 6-10, were published between 1816 and 1819. Donovan based some of his descriptions and illustrations on the bird specimens he acquired from the Leverian Museum. He issued a companion work, The natural history of the nest and eggs of British birds, begining in 1826. This remained unfinished at his death, with just 5 parts (of an anticipated 24 parts) completed.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Archive, Internet Archive at this link.

Text in English and French on facing pages. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

The engineer James Watt collaborated with the physician, Thomas Beddoes, in this project. This was Watt's only contribution to medicine. While much of Beddoes' work proved ineffective it did result in Humphrey Davy's discovery of the anesthetic effect of nitrous oxide. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. In 1796 Watt published Supplement to the description of a pneumatic apparatus, for preparing factitious airs : containing a description of a simplified apparatus, and of a portable apparatus. Digital facsimile of the supplement from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bell’s atlas of the bones, muscles and joints was issued as a separate work a year after his text, The Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints. Bell’s illustrations are some of the most striking in the entire literature. “Certainly they have the immediacy of drawings made in the dissecting rooms of late Georgian Edinburgh. Some are quite gruesome and even perverted . . . In their context, however, they are admirable, for they were intended to be used to supplement the teacher’s demonstrations, to remind the student of what he had seen, and to be a guide when the student sat down with the prosected material. It was under the Bells . . . that the extramural schools brought the aspiring surgeon much closer to the cadaver, allowing the student opportunities for actual dissection” (Roberts & Tomlinson, The Fabric of the Body [1992] 491).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

On the lead glaze of earthen kitchen utensils as an unrecognized source of many diseases.

The first Portuguese work on psychosomatic medicine. The author was a Brazilian who worked in Portugal. Digital facsimile from Wellcomelibrary.org at this link.

Reprints text and translation from Martius's 1568 edition with extensive annotations by Bernard, and divergent manuscript readings based on the study of several codices. For an analysis of this Byzantine medical handbook of thereputics see Joseph A. M. Sonderkamp, "Theophanes Nonnus: Medicine in the Circle of Constantine Porphyrogenitus," Dunbarton Oaks Papers, 38, Symposium on Byzantine Medicine (1984) 29-41.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Demonstration that carbon dioxide is given off by the skin. This book was first privately printed in 1779; above is the corrected edition.

Soemmerring noted an association between pipe smoking and cancer of the lip (p. 109).

Chisholm, "Surgeon to his Majesty's Ordnance in Grenada," was apparently the first to observe the mode of transmission of the Guinea worm, Dracunculus medinensis. Chishom was also one of the first to recognize that the yellow fever epidemic of 1793-1794 was caused by some factor brought to the western hemisphere by the Hankey, a ship that had sailed from the west coast of Africa. However, like the rest of his medical peers, Chisholm did not understand that mosquitoes were vectors of the disease. Digital facsimile of the 1795 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. 

In 1801 Chisholm, by then "Inspector-General of the Ordnance Medical Department in the West Indies," issued from London a greatly expanded second edition in two volumes as: An essay on the malignant pestilential fever introduced into the West Indian islands from Boullam, on the coast of Guinea, as it appeared in 1793, 1794, 1795, and 1796. Interspersed with observations and facts, tending to prove that the epidemic existing at Philadelphia, New-York, &c. was the same fever introduced by infection imported from the West India Islands: And illustrated by evidences founded on the state of those islands, and the information of the most eminent practiioners residing on them. 

Digital facsimile of the second edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Gordon was the first to advance as a definite hypothesis the contagious nature of puerperal fever, thus preceding Holmes and Semmelweis by half a century. He also advocated the disinfection of the clothes of the doctor and midwife.

 The first history of pharmacy in Britain. Good’s History was commissioned by the General Pharmaceutical Association, formed in 1794, of which the author was a prominent member. It was intended to protect the trade of the apothecaries against the growing number of medicine dispensing druggists and chemists.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The first significant book on dentistry by a Spanish dentist. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First attempt at a description of Indian serpents and serpent venoms. Includes the original description of Russell’s viper, Daboia russellii. Digital facsimile from the Linda Hall LIbrary at this link.

Reil advanced the doctrine of the life-force as the chemical expression of physiological function. Like Glisson and Hunter, he recognized irritability as a specific property of tissue. He founded the Archiv für die Physiologie, the first journal of physiology. Volume 1 was issued in 3 parts. This first issue of the journal, containing Reil's long paper, appeared in 1795. The volume was complete in 1796, at which time a title page for the complete volume was issued, dated 1796. Reil published 12 volumes of the Archiv für die Physiologie from 1796 to 1813.

Description of the “island of Reil”. This was the first part of the surface of the cerebral hemispheres to be given a name since 1641 (No. 1377.3). See also Reil’s follow-up paper in Arch. Physiol. (Halle), 1809, 9, 136-46; Reil was the editor of this journal, the first periodical devoted to physiology.

Modern dermatology may be said to start with Willan. His classification of skin diseases gained him the Fothergillian Medal of the Medical Society of London in 1790. He established a standard nomenclature which is still more or less in use today. He was also a clinician of great ability who made numerous original observations. His book was issued in four parts under the title “Description and treatment of cutaneous diseases”, from 1798 to 1808, and only vol. 1 had been completed when Willan died. The first three parts exist in revised versions. Copies of the book may contain varying states of the parts. See F. Sutherland, Willan’s Cutaneous diseases, J. Hist. Med., 1958, 13, 92-94, supplementing T. Beswick, Robert Willan, J. Hist. Med., 1957, 12, 349-65. The above work and that of Alibert (No. 3986) are the first dermatological works with colored plates. 

Includes (pp. 73-76) original description of prurigo mitis; under the name “ichthyosis cornea” Willan quoted Crusio’s case of scleroderma (see pp. 197-212); Willan also established psoriasis as a separate skin disease (pp. 152-88). 

Hahnemann's first presentation of his new system of medicine. English translation in The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann, Collected and Translated by R. E. Dudgeon, London: W. Headland, 1851, 195-357.

Digital facsimile of the 5 vols. from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Includes fine hand-colored plates of kidney stones and gall stones. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The Walkerian Botanic Garden was the first botanical garden founded in Cambridge. It is the ancestor of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Traces the spread of yellow fever in late July, 1795, to the ship Zephyr, recently arrived from the West Indies. After spreading to nearby ships and then into the neighborhoods surrounding the port, the epidemic killed nearly eight hundred people, and lingered until mid-October, afflicting a large portion of the city. Bayley also analyzes the potential causes of the disease in general, and discusses the various treatments that he used and witnessed being used around New York. 

Digital text from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link.

Young's thesis for his medical degree from Göttingen on the conservation of strength in the human body, which also contains, on the final four pages, the only extant fragment of Young's brief thesis on the human voice prepared for his oral examination. It was this last, as Young's biographer tells us, that began Young on his career in physics: "[The fragment] gives an alphabet of forty-seven letters designed to express, by their combination, every sound which the organs of the human voice are capable of forming. . . . Here we see his early and sustained interest in languages combined with his interest in anatomy. From this combination he developed an interest in the production and propagation of sound...." (Wood / Oldham, Thomas Young, pp. 49-50). Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Facial paralysis first described.

Soemmerring was noted for his accuracy in anatomical illustration, and the above work is a fine example of his artistic sense. For it he selected the skeleton of a well-built girl of 20 years. Great care was taken in selecting the most appropriate posture and the contour of an ideally perfect female body in which the skeleton might be drawn in order properly to observe its proportions.

Wells showed that the coloring matter in the blood was not iron but a complex organic substance subsequently identified as hematin.

“The first great textbook contributed by the British school to modern anatomy” (Russell, No. 461).

Trotter has left an excellent account of the conditions of seamen at the beginning of the 19th century. His book includes an interesting theory of the causation of fevers. He worked hard to improve the conditions of the ship’s medical officer and the seaman.

Hufeland’s “Makrobiotik”, one of the most popular books of its time on personal hygiene. It was translated into all European languages. Hufeland was court physician at Weimar. English translation, 1797.

Cruikshank showed that the impregnated ovum stayed in the Fallopian tube for a period before implantation in the uterus.

Currie was among the first in Britain to use cold water packs in the treatment of fever. He made some original observations on the clinical use of the thermometer. It was Currie who first edited Robert Burns’s Collected Works.

First clinical description of chronic obstructive pulmonary emphysema. The lung on which Baillie performed an autopsy before describing this condition is said to have been that of Samuel Johnson. P. 46: Baillie suggested a relationship between rheumatic fever and valvular heart disease. See also Nos. 2281, 3218, & 3427.

Rollo reported the success of a meat diet in the treatment of diabetes. He was the first to take Matthew Dobson's discovery of glycosuria in diabetes mellitus and apply it to managing metabolism.^[He was a pioneer in the systematic treatment of diabetes by restricted diet. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Wollaston showed that, in addition to stones consisting of uric acid, renal calculi might also consist of calcium phosphate, magnesium, ammonium phosphate, and calcium oxalate, or a mixture of these.

Digital facsimile from The Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link. 

Includes four early plot maps; Seaman was one of the first to create maps that attempted to show the spread of contagious disease.

The earliest illustrated monograph on the butterflies and moths of North America. Text in English and French. 104 hand-colored plates. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1817 edition reprinting the 1797 work and the continuation (1800): A second essay on burns : in which an attempt is made to refute the opinions of Mr. Earle, and Sir W. Farquhar, lately advanced, on the supposed benefit of the application of ice in such accidents ..., from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bree "embodied the numerous experiments in his own case, gave a more full and complete view of asthma and dyspnœa than had hitherto appeared, and laid down some important therapeutic rules, the practical value of which has been universally acknowledged" (Munk).

This work on monkeys and apes was published in a series of ten fascicules, with a total of 65 plates drawn and engraved by Audbert, and printed in color. Audebert was a miniaturist who developed a technique of color printing using oil-based inks that was first used in this work. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Published in 7 fascicules and appendix while Bell was still a student, this was Bell’s first independent venture as an author. The anatomical work of Charles Bell and his brother John was among the most significant in the British Isles during the early part of the 19th century; from the artistic point of view it was probably the finest during that period.

Haslam was among the first to describe general paralysis; he recorded three cases (pp. 64, 67, 92, 120).

First successful construction of artificial anus, for congenital atresia, Oct. 20, 1793.

Kant attempted a classification of mental diseases.

Desault was one of the first professors at the École Pratique de Chirurgie, Paris. He made many suggestions regarding the treatment of fractures and dislocations and is one of the founders of modern vascular surgery. In Remarques et observations sur l’opération de l’anévrisme (Vol. 2,  553-80) he described his technique of tying blood vessels for the treatment of aneurism.  Desault was Xavier Bichat’s teacher, and Bichat edited the first edition of this set.
In the second edition (3 vols., 1801-3) volume 3, which concerns urological diseases, was edited by P. J. Roux. With Chopart, Desault founded urological surgery, and was one of the first to have a clear understanding of urological disease. Vol. 1 was translated into English as A Treatise on Fractures, luxations and other affections of the bones, Philadelphia, 1805. The translation of vols. 2 & 3 was entitled The Surgical Works, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1814. Desault edited the first journal specifically on surgery: Journal de chirurgie, 4 vols., 1791-92. 

First scientific description of color-blindness, or “Daltonism”. Dalton himself suffered from red–green blindness. His paper was read to the Society in 1794.

Jenner established the fact that a “vaccination” or inoculation with vaccinia (cowpox) lymph matter protects against smallpox. He performed his first vaccination on May 14, 1796. The above work, describing 23 successful vaccinations, announced to the world one of the greatest triumphs in the history of medicine. Jennerian vaccination soon superseded the protective inoculation of material from human cases of small-pox, which had previously been in vogue. What is probably the first mention of anaphylaxis appears on p. 13 of the pamphlet. See W.R. Lefanu, A Bio-bibliography of Edward Jenner, 1749-1823, rev. 2nd. ed., Winchester, St. Paul’s Bibliographies, 1985. Several facsimile editions have been published. As a result of the success of Jenner’s vaccine natural smallpox was eradicated. The official declaration was made by the World Health Organization on May 8, 1980. See No. 5434.2. 

This is apparently the first Caesarean section in England from which the mother recovered. It was performed on 27 November 1793. Barlow’s account is reproduced by Young (No. 6307), pp. 54-58. A note on Barlow is in Practitioner, 1965, 195, 103-08. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Malthus laid down the principle that populations increase in geometrical ratio, but that subsistence increases only in arithmetical ratio. He argued that a stage is reached where increase of populations must be limited by sheer want, and he advocated checks on population increase in order to reduce misery and want. His work was an important influence on both Darwin and Wallace in their formulation of the concept of natural selection. It also had a profound influence on the decrease in size of families down to the present time. The book was at first published anonymously, but Malthus attached his name to the greatly expanded second edition of 1803. Malthus continued to revise the work through the sixth edition, 2 vols., 1826. All editions but the fourth contain significant new material.

In chapter 2 of vol. 1, pp. 254-90, “On Attention and its Diseases” Crichton described a mental state much like the inattentive subtype of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He did not mention any symptoms of hyperactivity. It is possible that Crichton observed hyperactive or impulsive symptoms in his patients, but failed to recognize a correlation and decided not to specify them in this context. He began his chapter with a definition of attention. Digital facsimile of Vol. 1 from the Internet Archive at this link; of Vol. 2 at this link.

In 1795 Dr. Elisha Perkins (1741-1799) of Connecticut introduced the use of “Metallic Tractors” for the treatment of a wide range of disorders, including pains in the head, face, teeth, breast, side, stomach, back, rheumatism and gout. During the next decade the devices were the subject of intense controversy in America and Europe. The Tractors measured about 3” long and were sold in pairs; they were made up of certain metals (their precise composition was kept secret) that perportedly worked through the agency of “animal magnetism.” A great number of ailing consumers paid huge prices for Perkins’s Metallic Tractors; George Washington bought several sets. The Perkins name may have been the first successful international “name branding” campaign. Elisha Perkiins did not publish on the "Tractors," leaving that aspect to his son Benjamin Douglas Perkins. This book was not published in America; presumably because with the craze for the product in America there was no need to publish a book to promote the "Tractors" there. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first work in a Western language on the insects of China, including pharmaceutical aspects. For this work Donovan obtained specimens and information from George Macartney a British envoy to China. Includes 50 colored plates, which are the first western depiction of Chinese insects.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1798 edition from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link. Digital facsimile of the much-expanded third edition (1810) from Google Books at this link.

"This apparently first-ever full essay on palliative care is tightly reasoned and carefully crafted—an innovative classic that attests to years of first-hand experience in the care of gravely ill and dying persons" (Vanderpool, Palliative care [2015] 26). Digital facsimile of the full text in the Philadelphia, 1816 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

A collection of nine separately printed pamphlets issued by Napoleon's press in Cairo during his Egyptian campaign. See J.-F. Hutin, "La littérature médicale de la campagne d'Égypte", Histoire des sciences medicales, 46, (2012) 19-30.

Digital facsimiel from WellcomeLibrary.org at this link.

The authors originally intended this work resulting from their researches conducted during the Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú to be published in 8 vols., and by later design in 12. However, only the first 3 volumes were published, the others remaining in manuscript; the 100 plates to accompany v. 4 and also some for v. 5 were prepared. The manuscript of the entire work is preserved in the Jardin botánico de Madrid. cf. Colmeiro.

The text and plates for v. 4-5 were published in Anales del Instituto Botánico A.J. Cavanilles, v. 12-16, 1954-1959--Stafleu. Digital facsimile of the 3 vols. originally published and plates 1-325 from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Soemmerring met William Hunter during a visit to London in 1778. The latter’s classic work on the pregnant uterus (No. 6157) dealt only with the latter half of pregnancy. Soemmerring therefore decided, in a supplementary volume, to deal with the appearance of the embryo during the first half of pregnancy. This book is one of the best illustrated of Soemmerring’s works.

“The best general summary of epidemiological opinion at the beginning of the nineteenth century; and few works surpass it as a compendium of earlier speculations in this field”. (Winslow). A great linguist, Webster was the author of the famous dictionary. Osler considered the above work the most important American medical work written by a layman.

The first systematic atlas of pathology. This work was intended to illustrate No. 2281, but, with its extensive descriptive text for each plate, it may be appreciated separately. The black & white engravings were prepared by John Hunter’s artist and amanuensis, William Clift (1775-1849), and depict numerous specimens from Hunter’s collection. A color facsimile edition of Clift’s personal copy reproducing his original watercolors, including some loaned by the Royal College of Physicians, was published in Melbourne, Univ. of Melbourne Press, 1985.

This important publication was for many years the authoritative textbook on the subject in France.

This was a paper read before the Gloucester Medical Society in 1788, but not published until 1799. Largely confirming the earlier work of Heberden on the condition, Parry stated his conclusion that disease of the coronary arteries is the responsible factor in angina pectoris (which he called “syncope anginosa”). He was the first to observe the slowing of the heart rate folowing pressure on the carotid artery.

Home records (p. 162) that John Hunter suggested artificial insemination. The actual insemination was performed by the patient’s husband with a syringe.

British and foreign medical biographies.

Continuation of No. 6750.

This 24-page pamphlet is the first work by an American devoted entirely to American birds. It deals predominantly with migratory birds, arranged according to the dates throughout the year 1791 in which they were first seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. Digital text available from Evans Early American Imprint Collection at this link.

Using comparative anatomy, Cuvier demonstrated that the African elephant was a separate species from the Indian elephant, and that the fossil or “mammoth” elephant was yet another species distinct from the two living varieties. This was the first scientific proof of extinct species. Cuvier first read this paper on January 21, 1796 at an ordinary meeting of the Institut National in Paris in 1796, and then again on April 4 at the first of the Institut’s quarterly public meetings. For the April 4 meeting Cuvier prepared an extract of his paper which was published in the Magasin encyclopédique (2. année 3 [1796]: 440-445). Cuvier’s full report, updated and illustrated with five plates, was first published in 1799. In his autobiography Cuvier stated that this was the paper in which he first expressed his views on extinct animals.

Park, a Scottish physician, was the first Westerner to travel to the central portion of the Niger River. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. 

Azeredo noted that the tropical fevers found in Brazil and Angola were very similar. He claimed to have achieved excellent results with his “new method” of treatment, which included the use of quinine, nux vomica, arsenic, and the inside of the coconut rind. The Ensaios has separate sections dealing with the causes and cures of dysentery and tetanus. In the introduction, Pinto de Azeredo attacks the excessive use of bleeding in Angola and in America (“com particularidade na Bahia”). Lengthy footnotes include citations of authoritative references and recipes for cures such as various kinds of tea. (Richard Ramer). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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

"John Ferriar...published the first monograph on digitalis after William Withering (1785). Ferriar was the first to suggest that digitalis was beneficial in dropsy (severe congestive heart failure), in part because it appeared to act directly on the heart" (W. Bruce Fye, Profiles in cardiology, 76).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first dental monograph published in Swedish.

"Joel Assur was born in Bernburg, Germany as the son of the Jewish merchant Anschel Levin Joel Assur and Zipora Joel. He emigrated from Mecklenburg in 1791, and established himself as a dentist in Stockholm . He is referred to as "one of Sweden's first dentists". Assur was successful and had a high reputation. He was appointed chief dentist with the title of Congl. Hovdentist.

"At this time, the dental profession was not fully formalized in Sweden, except that since 1663 permission was required to practice it and that they were prohibited from practicing other forms of medical care. The profession was practiced by surgeons, quackers, barbers and bathers who called themselves "dental doctors", "dentists", "dental doctors" or "dental artists". It was not until 1797 that a controlled degree began to be required, and the profession was formalized, and Assur was one of the first legitimate dentists in the modern sense.

"In 1799 he published a book on dentistry. It was a pioneer script: he was the first in Sweden to urge the public to brush their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste, and warned of the sugar's bad effects on teeth. In his book, he admitted that dentists during this time "bear enough general contempt and are counted in the same class with Charlatans and Adventurers" (Wikipedia article on Joel Assur, accessed 5-2020).