First adequate description of neurasthenia.

First description of chronic progressive bulbar paralysis (“Duchenne’s paralysis”).

Luys was the first to note the degeneration of the anterior horn cells in progressive muscular atrophy.

Includes description of “Golls column” or “tract”, the posterior column of the spinal cord.

Invention of the modern sphygmograph. Also published in C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 1860, 51, 281-309. Preliminary paper in same journal, 1860, 50, 634-37.

The first monograph on experimental teratology.

This is perhaps the greatest historical classic on the subject. Vol.1 appeared in 2 parts, with the first part issued in 1859 and the second part issued in 1860. 

After receiving training in Germany and France, Florence Nightingale had some nursing experience in England. The Crimean war gave her an opportunity to demonstrate the value of trained nurses. Within a few months of her arrival at Scutari, the mortality rate among soldiers there fell from 42% to 2%. Florence Nightingale lived to become the greatest figure in the history of nursing. Facsimile reproduction (? of first edition), Philadelphia, 1946. Biographies by Sir E.T. Cook, 1913, and Cecil Woodham-Smith, 1950. See also Bio-bibliography of Florence Nightingale by W. J. Bishop & S. Goldie, 1962.

Lemaire was first to point out the antiseptic properties of carbolic acid. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Isolation of cocaine, 1859, from the coca leaf, brought from Peru by Scherzer.

See No. 2106.

Barclay, an army surgeon in India, wrote an important paper on heat-stroke.

The best work on asthma to appear during the 19th century. Salter, who had suffered from asthma from childhood, may be considered the first modern student of the condition. He called special attention to asthma from animal emanations (cats, rabbits, horses, dogs, cattle, etc.).

Operative treatment of acute otitis by drainage through the antrum.

The foundation of aural pathology. In this book Toynbee described the method of removing the temporal bone and discussed the post mortem appearances in relation to the symptoms observed during life. He made over 2,000 dissections of the ear. 

Invention of the modern otoscope.

Heller introduced several urine tests and wrote (above) an important work on urinary calculi.

Gibert’s name is associated with pityriasis rosea, which he first established as a definite clinical entity. His complete and accurate description of this condition is on page 402 of vol. 1 of the above work.

Complete description of tinea cruris (eczema marginatum), first described by Bärensprung in 1854.

First description of keratosis follicularis.

Buck’s extension apparatus, an improved method of treating fractures of the femur. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1939, 3, 764-82.

The first comprehensive treatise in English on the treatment of fractures and dislocations. See No. 1742.

“Perrin–Ferraton disease” of the hip, later more fully dealt with by L. Ferraton, Rev. Orthop. (Paris), 1905, 2 sér., 6, 45-51.

Smith devised an anterior or suspensatory splint for use in the treatment of fractures of the femur. The apparatus was heavily used during the U.S. Civil War and was especially valuable in treating compound fractures.

The first treatise on the subject. Fechner applied the laws of mathematical physics to the physiology of sensation. He discussed the functional relations of the dependence between mind and body and investigated the cutaneous and muscular senses. Translated into English by Helmut E. Adler as Elements of psychophysics. New York: Holt, Rinhart & Winston, 1966. See also No. 1464.

The intestinal and muscular forms of trichinosis were first noted by Zenker, who established their connection with the disease. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).

Leuckart provided an articulate and detailed description of Trichinella spiralis.

Graefe showed that most cases of blindness and impaired vision connected with cerebral disorders are a result of optic neuritis rather than of paralysis of the optic nerve.

Jaeger first introduced his test types in 1854; Emil Fuchs improved them in 1895.

Chapter 5 includes a lengthy description of the “Hodge pessary”. See No. 6185.

Atlee’s operation for vesicovaginal fistula.

One of the most important texts on the subject during the mid-nineteenth century. English translation, New Sydenham Society, 1867.

Credé’s method of removing the placenta by external manual expression. It is first mentioned in his Klinische Vorträge über Geburtshilfe, Berlin, 1854, 599-603.

The first systematic treatise on the subject, and a landmark in pediatric surgery. Includes an early account of colostomy and one of the earliest histories of that procedure. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

First appeared in Gaz. méd. d’Algerie, 1859, 4. 

Graefe showed that most cases of blindness and impaired vision connected with cerebral disorders can be traced to optic neuritis rather than paralysis of the optic nerve.

This paper is a key record of the early recognition of the antiquity of man by the scientific establishment. Having returned from a visit to Abbeville, France, in May 1859, where he viewed the evidence for the antiquity of man collected by Boucher de Perthes, Prestwich delivered a convincing argument for the validity of Boucher de Perthes’ discoveries of flint implements in association with the remains of extinct animals. Prestwich also showed that the flint implements and bones from Abbeville were found in and contemporaneous with deposits laid down at an early stage in the development of the Somme Valley, and were thus of an age to be measured in tens of thousands of years. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Gompertz-Makeham law. Makeham proposed the age-independent Makeham term that, together with the exponentially age-dependent Gompertz term, compose the Gompertz-Makeham law of mortality--one of the most effective theories to describe human mortality. See No. 8375.

At the time of publication of this work, which contained texts in both Sanskrit and English, Waring was "Physician to His Highness The Maha Rajah of Travancore." Digital facsimile of the 1860 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Expanded fifth edition: Remarks on the uses of some of the bazaar medicines and common medical plants of India: With a full index of diseases, indicating their treatment by these and other agents procurable throughout India: To which are added directions for treatment in cases of drowning, snake-bites, &c. (London, 1897). At this point Waring was "Surgeon-Major (Retired) Her Majesty's Indian Army." Digital facsimile of the 1897 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first medical-legal study of child abuse, including sexual abuse, incest, and the "battered child" syndrome. Tardieu described 32 cases in detail, 18 of which resulted in death. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 5th edition (1875) from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive at this link.

A controversial, and not necessarily original work, notable as having been written by Abraham Lincoln's chiropodist (podiatrist), who gained the confidence of Lincoln and served as Lincoln's representative to the Jewish community in America. Zacharie may also have worked as an intelligence operative for Lincoln during the American Civil War. Zacharie characterized himself as "Chiropodist-General, United States Army." Digital facsimile of the revised London, 1876, edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Snowden & Brother provided an excellent selection of the exact types of equipment used by the Union Army during the Civil War. Facsimile reprint, with John Weiss & Son 1863 catalogue, with a new introduction by James M. Edmonson, entitled Surgical and dental instrument catalogues from the Civil War era (San Francisco: Norman Publishing in association with The National Museum of Health and Medicine Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1997).

In the spring of 1859, in the company of Joseph Prestwich, Evans visited Abbeville to view Boucher de Perthes’ collection of flint artifacts and to observe a hand-axe in situ at St. Acheul in a deposit containing the bones of extinct animals. Both men came away convinced that Boucher de Perthes had found evidence of prehistoric man, and both issued papers on what they had seen, Evans’ paper emphasizing the archaeological point of view, and Prestwich’s report emphasizing the geological one. With the publication of Prestwich’s and Evans’ papers, the scientific establishment finally began to be convinced of the validity of Boucher de Perthes evidence for human prehistory. Prestwich delivered his paper to the Royal Society in May, 1859, and Evans delivered his paper to the Society of Antiquaries on June 2, of that year. Evans’ paper was the first to appear in print, however, since the publication of Prestwich’s paper was delayed until 1861. 

For offprints of his paper Evans took the unusual step of changing the title to Flint implements in the drift; being an account of their discovery on the Continent and in England. In the process he also had the pages renumbered from 1-28, and had two plates from John Frere's paper published in Archaeologia in 1800 (No. 7291) reprinted and included as  extra illustrations in the offprints only. Digital facsimile of the offprint from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first treatise on malpractice published in the United States and the first book to provide observations on the physician as an expert witness in malpractice cases. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Jourdanet discovered the anoxemia theory of high altitude sickness. See No. 943.1. Digital facsimile of the 1861 edition from bibliotecavirtual.ranm.es at this link.

Marey’s law of the heart. Marey was the first to realize the relationship between the blood pressure and the heart rate.

Broca localized the speech center in the left frontal lobe. He asserted that aphasia was associated with a lesion on the left third frontal convolution of the brain – “Broca’s center”. He was preceded in this discovery by Marc Dax, a student who recorded in his unpublished thesis submitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier in 1836 his observations that the left hemisphere was usually found damaged in aphasics. English translation in J. Neurosurg., 1964, 21, 426-27. The standard biography is Paul Broca, founder of French anthropology, explorer of the brain by F. Schiller. Berkeley, University of California Press, [1979]. See also No. 1400.

Graham’s method of separating animal and other fluids by dialysis introduced the distinction between colloidal and crystalloid substances.

Pp. 62-64: First description of progressive familial hepatolenticular degeneration (“Kinnier Wilson’s disease”; see No. 4717).

Leidy illustrated this book himself. He was professor of anatomy at Philadelphia and the leading American anatomist of his time.

Histology of the lymphatics. His drew the illustrations.

Proof that the ovum is unicellular in all vertebrates.

First book on comparative embryology.

An encyclopedia of cases from the literature and from Forster’s personal experience. It contains an extremely useful bibliography of teratology, which served as the basis for all subsequent bibliographies of the subject.

Broca claimed the third left frontal convolution of the brain as the center of articulate speech – a point now disputed. He was first to trephine for a cerebral abscess diagnosed by this theory of localization of function. He introduced term “aphemia” (“motor aphasia”, “Broca’s aphasia”). English translation in von Bonin. Some papers on the cerebral cortex, Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1960. See No. 4619

Schultze showed the cell to be a clump of nucleated protoplasm, stating that each muscle fibre or primitive muscle bundle was developed from a single myoblast by successive divisions of its cell or nucleus. His work settled the controversy with regard to the place of the cell in muscle tissue and stimulated the histologists to investigate the nature of intercellular tissue. Partial English translation in No. 143.1.

In these easily reproducible experiments, prefaced by an important historical introduction, Pasteur demonstrated beyond dispute that fermentation is caused by the action of minute living organisms, and that if these are excluded or killed fermentation does not occur. The heating process which Pasteur recommended for sterilization was the earliest form of “pasteurization”. The above paper marks the downfall of the theory of spontaneous generation. Pasteur’s researches on fermentation led him to the discovery of the bacteria and yeasts and hence to the germ theory of disease; from this all modern bacteriology and immunology have developed.

The discovery of strict anaerobiosis, important for general biology since it shows that oxygen gas is not a requisite for life.

De Quatrefages was one of the most eminent French anthropologists.

Trousseau, clinician of the Hôtel-Dieu, made important advances in the treatment of diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet fever and other conditions. In his book he emphasized the value of bedside observation. He supported the doctrine of the specific nature of disease and realized the significance of Pasteur’s work on fermentation. On pp. 112-14 of vol. 2 Trousseau described the phenomenon in tetany which now bears his name. This is produced by pressure upon the arm sufficient to stop the circulation; the result is a sudden contraction of the fingers and hand into the so-called “obstetrical position”. English translation, 1868-72.

Catlin, the famous American artist, was the first in America to call attention to the bad effects of mouth-breathing. He based his book on observations of native American practices, and illustrated his book with humorous sketches. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

The double intermittent murmur over the femoral arteries, diagnostic of aortic insufficiency, has become known as “Duroziez’s sign.” Partial English translation in No. 2241.

The murmur which Fauvel (No. 2754) had called “presystolic” was described by Gairdner, who called it “auricular-systolic.” This paper is important as being largely responsible for the recognition in Britain of the presystolic murmur, previously discounted by most authorities.

First description of aural vertigo (“Menière’s syndrome”). First appeared in summary form in Bull. Acad. imp. Méd., 1860-61, 26, 241, and in Gaz. méd. Paris, 1861, 16, 29, with title: Surune forme de surdité grave dépendant d’une lésion de l’oreille interne. Menière’s case was a symptomatic form of the disorder.

The first modern mastoid operation was devised by von Tröltsch.

Anderson was Professor of Clinical Medicine at Glasgow. Digital facsimile of the second edition (1868) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Successful ligation of the hepatic artery.

First modern description of mycetoma of the foot – “Madura foot”, “Carter’s mycetoma”. It was mentioned by E. Kaempfer in his Amoenitates exoticae, Lemgo, 1712, p. 561. Colebrook at the Madura Dispensary is said to have given it the name “Madura foot” in 1846. See also No. 4066.

Erythema induratum scrophulosorum (“Bazin’s disease”) first described.

First description of lineae atrophicae.

First authentic description of polyposis of the colon.

Erastus Bradley Wolcott (1804-1880) was first to excise the kidney (for renal tumor). The preoperative diagnosis had been tumor of the liver. Only after the operation did the surgeons realize that they had removed the kidney. The patient lived 15 days after the operation. The operation was recorded by Stoddard.

Brand’s cold bath treatment of typhoid fever consisted of total immersion in water at 65°F. and the pouring of cold water over the neck and shoulders. The cold bath treatment of fevers was instituted by Currie (see No. 1988).

Sims’s method for amputating the cervix.

Braun’s decapitation hook.

“Munk’s Roll”. Covers the period 1518-2005 and onward. The entire work is available as a searchable electronic resource from the Royal College of Physicians at this link.

"The first volume in this series of obituaries was published in 1861. It was compiled by the Harveian Librarian, William Munk. He researched and complied entries for all fellows (voting members) and licentiates (non-voting members), from the RCP’s foundation in 1518to 1825. Subsequent Harveian Librarians have continued this work, commonly called Munk’s Roll in honour of its original compiler. Volumes from 1825 onwards only include past fellows due to rising numbers of fellows, licentiates and later, members.

"The RCP now has a near-complete collection of obituaries for past fellows, from 1518 to the present (and licentiates from 1518 to 1825), making it an invaluable biographical resource for those interested in medical and social history, and family historians.

"Eleven printed volumes were published covering 1518 to 2004. Entries for 2005 onwards are published online as Volume XII.

"All entries from volume I (1518-1700) to volume XI (1998-2004) have been published online.

"There is a searchable index to all entries.

• Search Lives of the fellows "

Litzmann devised a clinical classification of pelves which was for many years generally used, and he described various deformities of the female pelvis.

Semmelweis, who earlier had shown puerperal fever to be a septicemia, strove to improve conditions in the lying-in wards of Vienna and Budapest. Misunderstood and maligned by many, he eventually published this book in support of his views on the etiology of puerperal sepsis. He had no literary style and his book is difficult reading; it had an overwhelming mass of badly-presented statistics. Sir W. J. Sinclair, his biographer, said of him that “if he could have written like Oliver Wendell Holmes, his ‘Aetiology’ would have conquered Europe in 12 months”. Semmelweis died in an asylum on 13 August 1865. An English translation of the book, by F. P. Murphy, is in Med. Classics, 1941, 5, 350-773. This translation was reprinted with translations of Semmelweis’s other works by Ferenc Gyorgyey, Birmingham, Classics of Medicine Library, 1980. Original edition reprinted, Budapest, 1970. New English translation, somewhat abridged, Madison, Wisc., 1983. Digital facsimile from deutschestextarchiv.de at this link.

Herpes zoster first ascribed to a lesion of the spinal ganglia.

Digital facsimiles from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile of second edition (1861) from Google Books at this link.

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

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile of the second edition (1862) from the Hathi Trust at this link. Notably in 1862 this small work written for Union surgeons was reprinted in Richmond, Virginia for the use of Confederate surgeons. The Richmond publisher J. W. Randolph, published an informative note on the source of this edition on the verso of the title page. It reads:

"In view of the great want of some convenient work on Military Surgery, we present a valuable little Treatise recently published by Dr. S.D. Gross, of Philadelphia. The book trade between the two sections of the continent having been interrupted, it has rendered it impossible for Dr. Gs publishers to furnish the work to the Southern Public. We avail ourselves of the copy recently published in the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, Augusta, Geo."

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

Jackson's most detailed exposition of anesthesia, including a summary of the early history of its discovery, written for American Civil War physicians and surgeons. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Darwin's first work on plant fertilization and the first volume of evidence that he published to support the theories advanced in On the origin of species (1859). This was also the only book by Darwin that was issued by Murray in distinctive purple cloth (first edition only).

Extensively revised, and the first edition to include the "historical sketch" crediting the historical precursors to the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin added this chapter in response to writings by Samuel Butler and others.

The first comprehensive work on any part of the flora of China and Hong Kong. It included the first published description of Hong Kong Croton, or Croton hancei. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First translation into French. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. 

Dobell was the first physician to propose periodic health examinations. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

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

In this lengthy paper of nearly 80 pages Lartet proposed “the first chronological framework into which both human skeletal and cultural remains could be fitted, based on fossil animal bones recovered from French cave sites” (Spencer 1997, 606). Cultural remains included flints and bone carvings. The first figure in plate 10 shows Lartet’s original concept of how the human skeletons in the Aurignac had been arranged in the chamber; he subsequently altered his opinion based on discoveries made in 1862. In the final plate of this paper Lartet published an illustration of two deer carved on a reindeer bone which had been found between 1834 and 1845 by Pierre-Amédée Brouillet in the cave of Chauffaud in the Vienne. Brouillet and others had thought the engraving to be Celtic, but Lartet declared it be much earlier; his appreciation of the significance and true date of the finds from Chaffaud, Aurignac and Massat was “the first clear statement of what we now call Franco-Cantabrian Upper Palaeolithic art.” (Daniel 1981, 62). An English translation of the first part of this paper, including a reproduction of Lartet’s reconstruction of the burial chamber, was published as "New researches respecting the co-existence of man with the great fossil mammals, regarded as characteristic of the latest geological period," The Natural History Review, 2, no. 5 (January 1862) 53–71.

Semmelweis’s last publications on antisepsis in obstetrics. Although the information and conclusions that Semelweis drew in his Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers (1861) were of the first importance, its publication failed to bring about a widespread acceptance of Semmelweis’s views and methods; instead, the connection he had made between cadaverous infection and puerperal fever was rejected by a large proportion of the medical establishment. Die Aetiologie was subject to several unfavorable reviews, to which Semmelweis responded with a series of “Open Letters”, published in pamphlet form in 1861 and 1862, in which he bitterly attacked his critics. These he wrote to “Joseph Späth, Friedrich Wilhelm Scanzoni von Lichtenfels, and [Franz???] Siebold in 1861 full of desperation and fury for reluctance to accept his doctrine. He called upon Siebold to arrange a meeting of German obstetricians somewhere in Germany to provide a forum for discussions on puerperal fever where he would stay “until all have been converted to his theory.” (Hauzman, Erik E [2006]. “Semmelweis and his German contemporaries”. 40th International Congress on the History of Medicine, ISHM 2006. The abusive language Semmelweis used in these letters was an indicator of his increasing mental instability. He eventually suffered a mental breakdown in 1865 and died the same year—ironically, due to septicemia from an infected finger.

Demonstration that gases including carbon dioxide and water can absorb heat, aand could change climate. Digital facsimile from royalsocietypublishing.org at this link.

Issued in 10 parts in folio (510 x 360 mm). Includes 46 large-format original photographs mounted on sheets of cardboard. 

Schultze’s classic paper on the nerves to the neuro-epithelium in the special sense organs marks an epoch in histology. He described the cells of the olfactory muccous membrane, “Schultze’s cells”.

The first combined feeding–respiration experiments. Pettenkofer and Voit devised an apparatus for their important experiments on respiration and metabolism. They were first to estimate the amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrate broken down in the body.

Rapidly-repeated blows on the belly of a frog caused cessation of the heart-beat, which Goltz concluded was brought about by reflex inhibition through the vagus, an important contribution to the knowledge of the mechanism of shock.

Discovery of trypsin.

Discovery, in the feces, of “stercorine” (coprosterol).

Using the spectroscope, Hoppe-Seyler discovered the absorption spectrum of blood. See No. 873.

First description of syringomyelia.

Dunant’s account of the great sufferings endured by the wounded at Solferino inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863, and resulted in the Geneva Convention of 1864. In 1901 Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize. English translations, Washington, 1939 and London, 1947. Digital facsimile of the 1862 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link. Dunant took the unusual step of having "Ne se vend pas" (Not for sale) printed on the title page of the first edition. Presumably he distributed the first 400 copies free of charge. BnF, En français dans le texte (1990) No. 284 notes that only 400 of the 1600 copies originally printed were issued with the first edition title page in 1862; later in 1862 Dunant had the remaining copies reissued with a cancel title page indicating that they represented a second edition. Altogether 7 editions were issued in French during Dunant's lifetime.

The definitive work on American Indian arrow wounds suffered by U. S. troops and settlers in frontier warfare during the Western expansion of the United States. Bill eventually developed a "Forceps for the Extraction of Arrow-Heads," which he illustrated and described in Medical Record 1876, 11, 245. Digital facsimile of Bill's 1862 paper from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of vol. 11 of Medical Record in which Bill's follow-up note appears from Google Books at this link.

“Recklinghausen’s canals”, the lymph canaliculi.

Pettenkofer was the founder of experimental hygiene; he was the first to institute a laboratory for hygienic investigation.

Kühne described the neuromuscular end organ (“Kühne’s spindle”) and introduced the term “telolemma” for the outer covering of its sheath.

Includes the first complete and accurate account of the life history and morphology of Taenia echinococcus. Leuckart proved the relationship between hydatid cysts and minute tape-worms in dogs. English translation, Edinburgh, 1886. Digital facsimile of the German edition from Google Books at this link; facsimile of the English translation at this link.

Includes Huxley’s classification of mankind by means of the hair. The full text was originally published in the Fortnightly Review, I, 1865, 257-76. The full text was reprinted in Huxley's Critiques and addresses (1873).

Proof of the possibility of transmission of syphilis by blood transfusion.

Murchison was one of the greatest clinical teachers London has ever known; of his many writings his book on continued fever is probably the most important. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First enucleation of a laryngeal polyp by the bloodless method. Digital facsimile of the second edition (1862) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Lewin was probably the first to extirpate a laryngeal growth with the aid of the laryngoscope. Bruns claimed this distinction, but may not have heard of Lewin.

Bates spent eleven years in the Amazon and there collected 8,000 species of insects new to science. In the above paper he clearly stated and solved the problem of “mimicry”, known today as “Batesian mimicry”. The superficial resemblance of a palatable species (mimic) to an unpalatable species (model) is a form of protective coloration that has evolved by natural selection. (See also No. 228.1)

This series of six lectures delivered to “working men” in November and December, 1862 includes Huxley’s first book-form exposition of Darwin’s theories, of which he was probably the greatest popular exponent. A prolific essayist as well as author of hundreds of scientific papers, Huxley was one of the most eloquent of all English writers on the natural sciences. 

First description of “Raynaud’s disease.” For a translation by T. Barlow, see Selected Monographs, London, 1888, pp. 1-199, New Sydenham Society, which also contains a translation of Raynaud’s second paper on the subject.

First description of the “Austin Flint murmur,” present at the apex beat in aortic regurgitation. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 864-900.

Tröltsch was Professor of Otology as Würzburg. He was the founder of the Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde. English translation, 1874.

Syme treated a case of iliac aneurysm by opening the sac and ligating the common iliac and the internal and external iliac arteries.

Pavy devoted many years to the study of diabetes. He concluded that there was a definite relationship between the degree of hyperglycemia and glycosuria.

First description of pulmonary fat embolism in man.

Experimental study of the effects of ligation of coronary vessels.

Description of dissecting-room warts (verrucae necrogenicae),tuberculosis verrucosa cutis (also known as Lupus verrucosus, Prosector's wart, and "Warty tuberculosis"^[ the cutaneous tuberculosis of Laennec, sometimes called “Wilks’s disease”.

Gurlt, the celebrated historian of surgery (see No. 5800), wrote an exhaustive and detailed review of the literature on fractures. As a source of obscure and arcane information it is unsurpassed. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Duchenne studied the mechanism of facial expression during emotion; his atlas of photographs was the first medical book illustrated with photographs of living subjects. Darwin reproduced a number of his photographs in The expression of the emotions (No. 4975).

Langenbeck has several operations named after him, one of the most important being that for cleft palate. Abridged English translation in No. 5768.2.

First confirmed diagnosis of trichinosis in a living person.

Includes statement of “Donders’s law” – the rotation of the eye around the line of sight is not voluntary. French and German translations, 1862.

Snellen’s test-types (“Optotypi”) which soon gained acceptance in all civilized countries. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Arhive at this link.

Manuel Philes of Ephesus wrote didactic poems on the characteristics of animals, chiefly based upon Aelian and Oppian, and a didactic poem of some 2000 lines, dedicated to Michael IX Palaiologos; on the elephant, and another poem on plants. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Electronic edition from unc.edu, Documenting the American South, at this link.

First publication of the Bentham & Hooker taxonomic system for seed plants published before there were internationally accepted rules for botanical nomenclature. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Archive at this link.

Reprinted, with continuous pagination, and index from the Pharmaceutical Journal for July and August, 1860, for November and December, 1861, and for February 1862. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Medical justification for racism, racial prejudice, and xenophobia in its purest sense. The author, a physician, also published several works of conventional medicine. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

This work, which promoted vegetarianism and abstinence from tobacco along with other hygiene and overall health advice, was written as the author stated in his preface, "to meet the comprehension of the general reader, and, at the same time, to present some suggestions which, it is hoped, the young physician may find not wholly beneath his regard."

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Owen was the prime mover behind the construction of the Natural History Museum, a project that occupied him for over two decades. His On the Extent and Aims of a National Museum of Natural History, containing the text of his lecture delivered before the Royal Institution in April 1861, was part of his long campaign to obtain political backing for the South Kensington Museum.

After Owen's appointment as superintendent of the Natural History department of the British Museum in 1856, dissatisfied with the cramped and disorganized confines of the existing British Museum (located in Bloomsbury), Owen began lobbying for a "separate but unified national museum of natural history . . . to represent the three kingdoms of nature" (Rupke, p. 34), to be housed in a building spacious enough to display even the largest specimens of both living and fossil species. The project did not really get off the ground until October 1861, when "manipulated future Prime Minster Gladstone into the opinion that the current exhibition facilities for the Natural History Department of the British Museum were inadequate for their task. Owen cultivated Gladstone's support in order to bring the issue before Parliament once the Trustees of the British Museum fell into agreement with his extravagant plans for building not just more display space, but an entirely new building to house the natural history collection (Johnson-Roehr, "The Natural History Museum-London" [internet reference]).

After much heated debate, Owen's plan was approved and the South Kensington museum, designed by Albert Waterhouse, began construction in 1873. The building was completed by late 1879, and the museum opened its doors to the public in 1881. The social and cultural impact of Owen's Natural History Museum cannot be overestimated: Bill Bryson, in his Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), stated that "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for" (p. 81).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Recklinghausen described granular cells in the frog mesentery, later named “mast cells” by Ehrlich (No. 553.1).

Discovery of the accelerator or excitatory nerve fibres of the heart (pp. 191-232), “Bezold’s ganglia”.

First direct records of the heart impulse by means of a “cardiac sound” and the sphygmograph – recording tambours, which wrote on a moving drum covered with smoked paper.

“Weber’s syndrome”or “Weber–Gubler syndrome” – hemiplegia associated with disease of the crura cerebri; first described by Gubler (No. 4531).

Auerbach’s plexus and ganglion. See also his book Ueber einen Plexus myentericus, Breslau, Morgenstern, 1862.

In his Croonian Lecture Lister exploded the theory that blood coagulation is due to ammonia and showed that, in the blood vessels, it depends upon their injury. He further showed that by carrying out the strictest precautions he could keep blood free from putrefaction indefinitely, thus supporting his theory that bacteria were the cause of wound suppuration.

Discovery that oxygen can be removed from hemoglobin by reducing agents.

Investigation of the sugar-forming ferments.

Helmholtz’s theory of hearing, upon which all modern theories of resonance are based. This exhaustive study of acoustics ranks as one of the greatest books on the subject and shows that Helmholtz was, besides being a great physicist and physician, an accomplished musician. English translation of 3rd edition, London, 1875.

Best contemporary description of the segmentation furrowing of the egg.

“Jacksonian epilepsy” is so called from the excellent account of unilateral epilepsy with spasm given by Jackson. Actually, Bravais (No. 4810) was first to note the condition.

Sechenov discovered the cerebral inhibition of spinal reflexes. He was Professor of Physiology at St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the “father of Russian physiology”.

Important studies of the erector mechanism.

Auburtin did much to establish the principle of cerebral localization. He demonstrated on a patient whose frontal lobe was exposed following a gunshot wound that merely touching the uninjured lobe with a spatula would abolish speech, which would return immediately when the spatula was removed. Digital facsimile of the separate offprint version from the Hathitrust at this link.

Schultze showed that protoplasm is practically identical in all living cells.

The best early description of proprioceptive receptors in muscles.

Among Brown-Séquard’s best work was his study of the pathways of conduction in the spinal cord.

The first extensive treatise on the botany of the Southern States of the US and the only Confederate manual of materia medica. This is also a manual of “survival information”, teaching how live off the land and how to make medicines from indigenous plants, because the Union blockade of Confederate ports prevented the importation of medicines from Europe. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Pasteur confirmed the fact, established by Schwann (No. 674) that putrefaction was a biological process.

Pasteur was the first to differentiate between aerobic and anaerobic organisms. (See also Nos. 2476-77.)

Although tumours were perhaps his greatest interest, Virchow never completed this work which was intended to have 30 lectures. Instead he stopped with the 25th lecture, on carcinoma, probably because of the vigorous attack which Remak and others were making on his conception of the histogenesis of epithelioma. Virchow’s 25th lecture records one of his mistakes – his theory of the connective-tissue origin of carcinoma. So great was Virchow’s influence that this error was not generally recognized until the work of Waldeyer (see No. 2620).

Huxley showed that in the visible characters man differs less from the higher apes than do the latter from lower members of the same order of primates. He also provided the first thorough and detailed comparative description of the Neanderthal remains in English. The first issue of the first edition did not include a Table of Contents.

Wilks’s outstanding work was on visceral syphilis, a subject which he was one of the first to study.

Lyell’s summary discussion of the evidence for human antiquity “introduced a wide readership to the new view and to the facts that supported it, thus laying the synthetic foundation for future work” (Grayson). This work also contained Lyell’s first published statements about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

An important study of paralysis of the vocal cords was made by Gerhardt. He diagnosed the growth in the larynx of Friedrich III, Emperor of Germany, whose eventual death from this condition was to have such disastrous effects on German history.

“Gruber’s hernia” – internal mesogastric hernia.

Politzer’s method of effecting permeability of the Eustachian tube.

Banting, a prominent English undertaker, and formerly obese, was the first to popularize a weight loss diet based on limiting intake of refined and easily digestible carbohydrates. He changed his diet at the suggestion of Dr. William Harvey, who in turn had learned about this diet in the context of diabetes management from lectures in Paris by Claude Bernard. Banting accounted all of his unsuccessful fasts, diets, spa and exercise regimes in his past; he then described the dietary change which finally had worked for him. His own diet was four meals per day, consisting of meat, greens, fruits, and dry wine. The emphasis was on avoiding sugar, saccharine matter, starch, beer, milk and butter. The diet that Banting promoted became known as “Bantingism” or the “Banting diet”. The first 3 editions sold 63,000 copies in England, and the book was translated and sold heavily in France, Germany and the U.S. The expanded 4th Edition (1869) included letters of testimony from a selection of at least 1800 readers who wrote to Banting supporting his assertions and praising his diet. Banting's book is probably the first of the endless stream of best-selling books on how to lose weight. Digital facsimile of the third edition, 1864, from the Internet Archive at this link.

First recorded case of dermatomyositis, now regarded as a connective tissue disease.

First description of congenital high-scapula “Sprengel’s deformity”; see also No. 4359.

Congenital metatarsus varus described.

Marston wrote the first description of Malta fever as a distinct disease. He contracted the disease while serving in the Mediterranean area and described his own case.

Marston was apparently the first to describe “Weil’s disease” (p. 513).

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.

A history of plastic surgery and an annotated bibliography of its literature prior to 1860. Nachträge, 1864. Reprint, including Nachträge, Bologna, 1963. The main bibliography has 2008 references, the supplement 275 more. Both parts were collated and translated, with additions and revisions by T.J.S. Patterson, as The Zeis index and history of plastic surgery, and published as volume 1 of No. 5768.2. See also No. 5743.4.

First detailed description.

Description of the embryonic stage of Wuchereria bancrofti in hydrocele fluid.

Billroth, professor of surgery at Zürich and Vienna, was the founder of the Vienna School of Surgery. He has also been called the founder of modern abdominal surgery, and he was one of the first to introduce antisepsis into the Continental operating room. The above work, which placed him in the front rank, was translated into ten languages. English translation from the 4th edition as General surgical pathology and therapy, N. Y., 1871, and from the 8th German edition, 2 vols., London, New Sydenham Society, 1877-78. Biography by K. B. Absolon, 3 vols., Lawrence, Kansas, 1979-1987.

Hilton, surgeon to Guy’s Hospital, suggested that symptoms are disordered reflexes. He advocated complete rest in the treatment of surgical disorders of all parts of the body. Second and later editions were entitled On rest and pain. The timeless aspect of Hilton's basic advice that rest frequently eliminates pain, and that much pain will pass if the afflicted part of the body is rested, caused the book to remain in print for more than a century.

Jacobson used a peripheral incision in his operation for cataract.

First atlas of the fundus. The author was an assistant to Helmholtz at the time of the invention of the ophthalmoscope. The work is illustrated with reproductions of his own paintings. Text in French and German. English translation by M. R. Swanzy, 1870 and 1884. Leibreich became ophthalmic surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital, London.

The introduction of ovariotomy into France was in part due to Koeberlé. He made great advances in gynecological operative technique.

First successful excision of uterus and ovaries for tumor.

The first psychiatric study of Hamlet. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The best account of Chinese medicine published in Europe during the 19th century, including translations from original Chinese medical texts. Dabry was French consul at Hang-Keou. Soubeiran, a pharmacist, edited his work for publication. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Brief biographies, fuller bibliographies.  

• Erster Band. A–L. 1863 .
• Zweiter Band. M–Z. 1863 .
• Dritter Band (1858 bis 1883). 1898 
• Vierter Band (Die Jahre 1883 bis zur Gegenwart umfassend). 1904: T. 1. A-L. T. 2. M-Z 
• Fünfter Band: 1904 bis 1922. 1926 
• Bd. 6. (1923 bis 1931): T. 1. A-E. 1936, T. 2. F-K. 1937, T. 3. L-R. 1938, T. 4. S-Z. 1940
• Bd. 7a. (Berichtsjahre 1932 bis 1953): T. 1. A-E. 1956, T. 2. F-K. 1958, T. 3. L-R. 1959, T. 4:Hälfte 1. S-Thor. 1961, T. 4:Hälfte 2. Thorb-Z. 1962
• Bd 7a. Suppl. 1971
• Bd. 7b (Berichtsjahre 1932 bis 1962): T. 1. A-B. 1967, T. 2. C-E. 1968, T. 3. F-Hem. 1970, T. 4. Hen-K. 1973, T. 5. L-M. 1976,T. 6. N-Q. 1980, T. 7. R-Sm. 1985, T. 8. Sn-Vl. 1989, T.8.T.2. Doppellieferung. T. 9. Vo-Z. 1992
• Bd. 7b. (Suppl.) Bibliographie der Periodika. 1994.
• Bd. 8.T.2. Doppelieferung 3/4

Friedreich was the first to describe a form of ataxia (“Friedreich’s ataxia”), hereditary, attended with impairment of speech, lateral curvature of the spine, and with paralysis of the muscles of the lower limbs. The titles of the last two papers vary.

In this work Jackson showed the importance of the ophthalmoscope in the investigation of diseases of the nervous system. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1939, 3, 918-26.

Digital facsimile of the 1863 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Alcott expanded the work for the edition of 1869. Edited, with an extensive introduction by Bessie Z. Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

". . . confined to those affections most intimately connected with gun-shot wounds and operations, as Shock, Tetanus, Hospital Gangrene, Pyaemia, &c." (from the preface). This is the only extensively illustrated Confederate surgical manual. Digital facsimile from Jefferson Digital Commons, Thomas Jefferson University, at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of the 1864 printing from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first comprehensive flora of any large continental area. It included descriptions of 8125 species. "Bentham prepared the flora from Kew; with Mueller, the first plant taxonomist residing permanently in Australia, loaning the entire collection of the National Herbarium of Victoria to Bentham over the course of several years. Mueller had been dissuaded from preparing a flora from Australia while in Australia by Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker since historic collections of Australian species were all held in European herbaria which Mueller could not access from Australia.^[2] Mueller did eventually produce his own flora of Australia, the Systematic Census of Australian Plants published in 1882 extended the work of Bentham with the addition of new species and taxonomic revisions.

Flora Australiensis was the standard reference work on the Australian flora for more than a century. As late as 1988, James Willis wrote that "Flora Australiensis still remains the only definitive work on the vascular vegetation of the whole continent."^[3] According to Nancy Burbidge, "it represents a prodigious intellectual effort never equalled."^{[4]" (Wikipedia article on Flora Austaliensis, accessed 02-2017).}

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Though based in England, John Weiss & Son's catalogue offered and illustrated a wide range of equipment that would have been used in the American Civil War or the Crimean War. Facsimile reprint, with Snowdon & Brother 1860 catalogue, with a new introduction by James M. Edmonson, entitled Surgical and dental instrument catalogues from the Civil War era (San Francisco: Norman Publishing in association with The National Museum of Health and Medicine Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1997). 

Translation into Dutch of the 13th century Chinese text on forensic medicine entitled Xiyuan lu jizheng huizuan. de Grijs's translation was retranslated into German by Henry Breitenstein as Gerichtliche Medizin der Chinesen von Wang-in-Hoai. Nach der holländlischen Übersetzund des Hernn C. F. M. de Grys (Leipzig, 1908). Digital facsimile of the German translation from Google Books at this link. For de Grijs and his translation see Koos Kuiper, The early Dutch sinologists 1854-1900 (2017) Chapter 4, 188ff, especially 191-193.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

30-page catalogue of a commercial medical museum "for gentlemen only" and clearly operated as an advertisement for Jordan and Beck's medical practice. A great deal of the displayed material was intended to be titillating in view of the limited information about female anatomy available to most people at the time. The exhibits also pointed to the evils of masturbation, and other sexual issues,  alluded to the "cures" available in the medical practice of the authors in advertisements at the end of the brochure.

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

Marey first recorded atrial fibrillation in this work work in which he used pulse tracings to establish the interelationship of heart rate and blood pressure. The work also includes the first detailed description of the technique of cardiac catheterization that Marey developed with Jean Baptiste Chauveau. "With Chauveau he was the first to perform cardiac catheterization on living horses" (Bedford 260). Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

Middleton, surgeon in the U.S. Volunteers, recommended the placement of volatile bromine in all patient wards. He developed a method of applying bromine deep into muscular layers after wound debridement then injecting bromine subcutaneously and applying it topically to exposed surfaces. A second application was only applied in cases where the gangrene odor returned. Through this process Goldsmith achieved a mortality of 2.6 percent for those treated with bromine, as against 43.3 percent with those treated by other methods.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

For the first 100 years after the first aye-aye was brought to Europe from Madagascar in the 1780s, debate persisted over whether it was a rodent, a primate, or most closely related to the kangaroo. Classification of the Aye-Aye remained debatable because of the aye-aye’s odd  combination of behavioral and morphological traits: continuously growing front teeth, batlike ears, a foxlike tail, abdominal mammary glands, claws on most digits, and spindly, dexterous middle fingers. It uses its middle finger to tap along a branch and moves its ears forward and back to help locate hollow channels within the wood created by wood-boring insect larvae. Once it detects a channel, the aye-aye uses its specialized front teeth to pry open the wood and then inserts one of its fingers to extract the larvae.

All of these unique specialized features caught the attention of comparative anatomist Richard Owen who presented the evidence for classifying the Aye-Aye as a primate in this monograph that is beautifully illustrated by Joseph Wolf.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

During the U.S. Civil War Olmsted, a landscape architect, journalist, social critic and public administrator, was Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commision. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

First edition of this work written in English in the 17th century, privately published in 1863, supposedly in an edition of 100 copies, from a manuscript then owned by Blenkinsop. Willughby has been characterized as "the first professional man to devote his practice entirely to obstetrics."

A translation of portions of Willughby's text into Dutch appeared in Jacobus de Visscher & Hugo van de Poll, Het Roonhuysiaansch geheim, in de vroedkunde ontdekt; Tegen de Weederstrevers veredigt...Huig Chamberlen...Willoughby. Leiden: Johannes Heiligert, 1754.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"The earliest copy of his work is a closely written quarto, entitled Dni Willougbaei, Derbiensis, De Puerperio Tractatus, in the British Library Sloane MS. 529. The second, an amplification of this, and referred to by Dr. Denman in his Practice of Midwifery, was then in the possession of his friend Dr. Kirkland; while the third and greatly enlarged edition [i.e. manuscript] consisted of two exquisitely written copies in Latin and in English, which were afterwards the property of Dr. J. H. Aveling, the English version being in two parts, with the titles Observations in Midwifery and The Countrey Midwife's Opusculum or Vade-mecum, by Percivall Willughby, Gentleman. It was privately printed in 1863 by Henry Blenkinsopp, but a Dutch translation had been printed as an octavo at Leyden in 1764, though no copy is now to be had in Holland. He [Willughby] was the intimate friend of Harvey and of most of the scientific men of the century, and died on 2 October 1685, in the ninetieth year of his age, being buried in St Peter's Church, Derby, where within the rails of the chancel is a tablet to his memory" (Wikipedia article on Percivall Willughby).

Digital facsimile of the 1863 edition from the Wellcome Collection at this link.

The first monograph on medical spectroscopy. After Hoppe-Seyler published the first paper on the application of spectroscopy to blood chemistry in 1862 (No. 870), Valentin decided to publish his own contributions to the spectroscopy of blood in this monograph, rather than a journal article.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

See Frederic L. Holmes, "Crystals and carriers: The chemical and physiological identification of hemoglobin," In No truth except In the details. Essays in honor of Martin J. Klein. Edited By A. J. Kox & Daniel M. Siegel (1995) 191-244. 

Carden devised a single flap operation, cutting through the femur just above the knee-joint. He published a book on the subject in 1864.

Couch, a general practitioner at Polperro, Cornwall, became one of the greatest authorities on British fishes. The work, a monument of industry and patience, includes 252 hand-colored plates, also by Couch. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Studies of the “paralytic secretions” occasioned by section of glandular nerves.

Among the instruments introduced by Fick for the study of muscle and nerve physiology were the myotonograph, the cosine lever, and an improved thermopile.

Jackson studied aphasia for 30 years. He emphasized its psychological aspects and laid the foundation for present knowledge of the condition, but he was ahead of his time and the value of his work was not recognized for many years.

Hoppe-Seyler obtained hemoglobin in crystalline form and made other important discoveries in hematology. See also No. 870.

See Frederic L. Holmes, "Crystals and carriers: The chemical and physiological identification of hemoglobin," In: No
truth except In the details. Essays in honor of Martin J. Klein. Edited By A. J. Kox & Daniel M. Siegel (1995) 191-244. 

Mitchell, Morehouse, and Keen were army surgeons during the American Civil War; their book was the first exhaustive study of the traumatic neuroses. Includes the first description of ascending neuritis, and also of the treatment of neuritis by cold and splint rests. Reprinted, San Francisco: Norman Publishing, 1989. 

First important English treatise on hygiene.

In vol. 1 of this work written after Spencer read Darwin's On the origin of species, Spencer originated the express "survival of the fittest." Spencer conceived that every species is endowed with its own type of physiological unit, each unit being capable, under certain circumstances, of reproducing the whole organism. Spencer set forth doctrines of evolution some years before the appearance of the Origin of species. 

First official British pharmacopoeia.

“The fountainhead of the conservation movement” (Mumford). This is a comprehensive scientific account of humanity's enormous and often destructive impact on the physical world. Marsh warned of the dangers of the reckless misuse of land then endemic in the United States, using the ruined lands of the Mediterranean region as an example of America’s probable future, and called for a scientific program to restore the land. Reprint edited by David Lowenthal, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1965. Reprint of the 1965 edition with a foreward by William Cronon and a new introduction by David Lowenthal, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003. Digital facsimile of the 1864 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Revised second edition retitled The earth as modified by human action (1874). Digital facsimile of the second edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

First extensive application of a mechanical computer to medical statistics. The appendix details the use of the Scheutz version of Charles Babbage’s calculating machine in the construction of English Life Table No. 3. However, the machine required constant attention, and the G.R.O. soon reverted to manual calculations employing logarithms until conversion to mechanical calculation methods in 1911. See J.M. Eyler, Victorian social medicine: the ideas and methods of William Farr, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, [1979].

Cobbold was the most distinguished helminthologist of his time. He named Filaria bancrofti, Bilharzia haematobia, and several other parasites. He was a friend of Manson, several of whose papers he communicated to the Linnean Society and the Quekett Microscopical Club.

One of the first publications on electrodiagnosis.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Müller, the first German to support Darwin, studied the development of the Crustacea in Brazil and published some of his results in the above little book, which contains much original information. He realized the bearing of individual development on the theory of evolution. English translation as Facts and arguments for Darwin, London, 1869. Repr., 1968.

“Graefe’s sign” – the discovery by von Graefe of the failure of the eyelid to follow the eye when it is rolled downward – diagnostic of exophthalmic goitre. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

Moore and Murchison introduced the method of treating aneurysm by passing wire into the aneurysmal sac.

“Impetigo of Tilbury Fox”, impetigo contagiosa, first described.

Before emigrating to America, Bauer studied under Stromeyer. Hugh Owen Thomas considered him “the first exponent of American orthopaedics”. This is the first comprehensive American textbook of orthopedics. First published in Phila. med. surg. Rep., 1862.

The first comprehensive study of duodenal ulcer. Commercial edition, Berlin: A. Hirschwald, 1865. Digital facsimile of the 1864 edition from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1865 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

First description of osteitis fibrosa cystica – hyperparathyroid bone disease, also known as “von Recklinghausen’s disease of bone”.

“Dietl’s crisis”. Dietl described the sudden severe attacks of nephralgic or gastric pain, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting, and general collapse, ascribing them to partial turning of the kidney upon its pedicle. First published in Przeglad Lekarski, 1864, 3, 225, 233, 241.

Cobbold suggested (p. 36) that a mollusc was the intermediate host in bilharziasis.

Like Cobbold, Harley expressed the view that a mollusc was the intermediate host in bilharziasis.

Discovery of trichlorethylene by Emil Fischer while working on the preparation of tetrachloroethylene. 

For many years Clay was the most eminent ovariotomist in Great Britain. In all, he performed 395 ovariotomies, with a mortality of 25 percent.

Donders’s greatest work, the basis for all succeeding studies of the subject, and a classic of physiological optics. It contains Donders’s explanation of astigmatism, his definition of aphakia and hypermetropia, his sharp distinctions between myopia and hypermetropia, etc. This English translation from the Dutch is the first published edition.

Hodge, nearly blind, dictated this superb textbook from memory to his son. It includes his concept of “parallel planes” at the various levels of the pelvic canal, and his placental forceps for the completion of abortion. The book is very well illustrated. Hodge invented the “Hodge pessary”. See No. 6043.1.

Introduction of combined podalic version.

This set contains many texts relating to medieval English medicine and the Anglo-Saxon language. It contains the Herbal of Apuleius in Anglo-Saxon and modern English, the Leechbook of Bald, the text of Sextus Placitus, etc., etc. Some of its scholarship has been superceded. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Charcot and Cornil gave an important description of the renal lesions in gout.

First description of chronic arthritis in childhood.

In 1863 Lartet and Christy began systematically examining the caves in the Périgord (Dordogne) region of France. This study of mobiliary or portable art, such as carved stones, carved ivory, carved bones, or carved reindeer antlers, is the founding work on Upper Paleolithic art, and one of the earliest publications to illustrate Paleolithic art. Digital facsimile of the separate offprint from Google Books at this link.

The first American medical book illustrated with photomechanically reproduced plates. Oliver Wendell Holmes praised the book for its remarkable photomicrographs, which may be the first published of brain cross-sections. On pp. 66-69 Dean described his method of preparing specimens using a modified Clarke technique, and photographing with a common camera fitted with an adapter of his design to his Smith & Beck microscope.

Issued monthly from January 1864 to February 1865. (Ordinarily this bibliography does not cite complete runs of periodicals; however, because the Confederate States of America issued so few medical publications, and this periodical is unique in the range of information it made available to Confederate physicians and surgeons, I have included it.) Digital facsimile of complete run and prospectus from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link. 

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile of a reprint of the 1864 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Reissued in 1865 as Nurse and spy in the Union Army: Containing the adventures and experience of a woman in hospitals, camps, and battle-fields. Digital facsimile of the 1865 version from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first general treatise on pediatric surgery. From parts publication. Translated into English by Richard J. Dunglison as Surgical diseases of infants and children, Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1873. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

During the Civil War Da Costa was an acting surgeon in Philadelphia where he supervised a ward for patients with heart disease. In this book he presented the first description of a condition that he called "irritable heart." This was later termed "Da Costa's syndrome."

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In 1858 Simpson described a new method of controlling blood loss during surgical operations – acupressure, not to be confused with the traditional Chinese medical technique similarly named. Simpson's technique, though developed further and found successful, failed to gain Simpson the recognition he was expecting. Simpson succeeded in creating a vogue for acupressure that lasted at least thirty years, though it did not lessen the mortality rates in British hospitals.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Includes four engravings based upon photographs of Union soldiers who were emaciated following imprisonment at Belle Isle. The contributors included Dorothea Dix and several military surgeons, including William Ely, G. B. Parker, and J. Woodbridge. Mott's commission was charged with "ascertaining, by inquiry and investigation, the true physical condition of prisoners, recently discharged by exchange, from confinement at Richmond and elsewhere, with in the Rebel lines; whether they did, in fact, during such confinement, suffer materially from want of food, or from its defective quality, or from other privations, or sources of disease; and whether their privations and sufferings were designedly inflicted on them by military or other authority of the Rebel Government, or were due to causes which such authorities could not control. And that the gentleman above named be requested to visit such camps of paroled or discharged prisoners as may be accessible to them, and to take, in writing, the depositions of so many of such prisoners as may enable them to arrive at accurate results."

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this liink.

King believed that the Feldhofer Neanderthal skull discovered by Fuhrott and Schaafhausen differed significantly from all known ancient and modern human crania. In this paper he proposed the name Homo neanderthalensis in order to distinguish the Feldhofer specimen from anatomically modern Homo sapiens; thus this paper is the source of the term “Neanderthal Man.”

King "noted the differences in the curved ribs, the skull muscle attachment suggesting carnivory and suggested that the Neanderthal was a species different from modern humans. He supported a modified version of Darwin's Origin of Species but he gave considerable emphasis to place the Neanderthal as being close and on a "lower scale" than Andaman and Australian aborigines and suggested that like them, the Neanderthal was "incapable of moral and theoistic conception".  (Wikipedia article on William King (geologist) ).

Wallace delivered this paper to the polygenist Anthropological Society of London on 1 March 1864. It represents “the first effort to connect natural selection to the touchy problem of the evolution of human races” (Wallace 1991, 26), a topic that Huxley broached in his Evidence of Man's Place in Nature (1863) but which Darwin avoided until his Descent of Man (1871).

Wallace argued that man is fundamentally different from all other species because of the nature of the human mind, which enabled him “to remove his body from the modifying influence of external conditions, and the cumulative action of natural selection.” Though Wallace shares credit with Darwin for the theory of evolution by natural selection, Wallace differed fundamentally from Darwin in his attempt to distinguish the effect of natural selection upon man from its effect on the rest of living things. 

Includes a valuable history of teratology with a detailed bibliography. Fisher assembled one of the largest of all libraries on teratology. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

“Czermak’s vagus pressure”. Czermak found that mechanical pressure on a spot of the carotid triangle in the neck produced lowering of the heart rate.

First description of the rhythmic variations in tone of the vasoconstrictor center (Traube-Hering waves).