Facets

1672

#1826.1

New-Englands rarities discovered: in birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country. Together with the physical and chyrurgical remedies wherewith the natives constantly use to cure their distempers, wounds, and sores…

The first detailed account of the natural history and botany of North America, including the first extensive study of native North American medicine.

1672

#7007

The American physician : or, a treatise of the roots, plants, trees, shrubs, fruit, herbs, etc., growing in the English Plantations in America ; ... whereunto is added a discourse of the Cacao-nut-Tree, and the use of its fruit ; with all the ways of making Chocolate

The earliest work in English on the medicinal virtues of North American tropical plants. Based on first-hand observations made in the West Indies, Evidence suggests that Hughes began his career in 1651 with a privatee…

1737

#12473

The natural history of North Carolina. With an account of the trade, manners and customs of the Christian and Indian inhabitants. Illustrated with copper-plates, whereon are curiously engraved the map of the country, several strange beasts, birds, fishes, snakes, insects, trees, and plants, &c.

Brickell accompanied provincial governor George Burrington to North Carolina in 1724, remaining in the region for six years and becoming one of the first medical doctors in North Carolina. Brickell took the material o…

1751

#1832

Descriptions, virtues, and uses of sundry plants of these northern parts of America, and particularly of the newly discovered Indian cure for the venereal disease.

Bartram founded one of the first botanical gardens in America (at Kingsessing). Linnaeus referred to him as the “greatest natural botanist in the world”. A few copies of this 7-page work printed by Benjamin Franklin w…

1775

#7505

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

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

1787

#1837

Materia medica Americana, potissimum regni vegetabilis.

Schoepff came to America in 1777 as a surgeon with the Hessian troops employed by the British Forces. He returned to Germany in 1784 and compiled the first full American materia medica, describing about 400 plants, in…

1793

#5451

A short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia: With a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject in different parts of the United States.

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…

1794

#5453.1

A narrative of the proceedings of the black people during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793: and a refutation of some censures thrown upon them in some late publications.

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…

1801

#1838.2

The American herbal, or materia medica.

The first herbal both produced and printed in the United States, as opposed to those which were reprints of European works. Includes information on native American remedies. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage…

1807

#7049

The planter's and mariner's medical companion: treating, according to the most successful practice, I. The diseases common to warm climates and on ship board. II. Common cases in surgery, as fractures, dislocations, &c. &c. III. The complaints peculiar to women and children. To which are subjoined a dispensatory, shewing how to prepare and administer family medicines, and a glossary giving an explanation of technical terms.

Ewell, then practicing in Savannah, Georgia, wrote this self-help book for southern residents, directing his book toward plantation owners. It was "the constant friend of a large number of slave-masters. In emergencie…

1814

#9641

Botanic medicine: A new and complete American medical family herbal: Wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of the plants, indigenous to the United States of America, together with Lewis' secret remedy newly discovered, which has been found infallible in the cure of that dreadful disease hydrophobia, produced by the bite of a mad dog.

Henry wrote that he had been a captive of the Indians during the Creek War and that he incorporated what he learned during his captivity. His work was one of the first illlustrated herbals published in the United Stat…

1817 –1820

#1842

American medical botany, being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts. 3 vols.

Bigelow was professor of materia medica and botany at Harvard. This work included native American remedies. It was the first book printed in the United States to include color plates printed in color. See R.J. Wolfe, …

1823

#8798

Manners and customs of several Indian tribes located west of the Mississippi; including some account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions, and the Indian materia medica: to which is prefixed the history of the author's life during a residence of several years among them.

Hunter claimed that as a child he had been captured by the Cherokee before they came to Texas. He adopted the name of an English benefactor, John Dunn, and later added the name "Hunter" given by the Indians because of…

1828 –1830

#1849

Medical flora; or, manual of the medical botany of the United States of North America. Containing a selection of above 100 figures and descriptions of medical plants, with their names, qualities, properties, history &c; and notes or remarks on nearly 500 equivalent substitutes. 2 vols.

Rafinesque was a great botanist, conchologist, archaeologist, and economist. Born in a suburb of Istanbul, he was also a world citizen and a prolific writer with 939 works to his credit. He died in extreme poverty in …

1832

#10812

Observations on the epidemic now prevailing in the city of New-York; called the Asiatic or spasmodic cholera; with advice to the planters of the South, for the medical treatment of their slaves.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1835

#3440.1

A case of introsussception in which an operation was successfully resorted to…in December, 1831.

First operation for intussusception in the United States, performed in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The patient was a negro slave; the operation was a complete success. Reported by Wilson’s pupil, W.W. Thompson.

1840

#8828

Catalogue of skulls of man, and the inferior animals, in the collection of Samuel George Morton.

Numbers 901-929 in Morton's catalogue are "Thirty Skulls of genuine unmixed NEGROES born in Africa. This interesting series series was collected by Don José Rodriguez Cisnerso, M. D. of Havana, in the island of Cuba, …

1862

#2166.1

Notes on arrow wounds.

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 …

1892

#6452.1

The medicine-men of the Apache.

Bourke, a U.S. Army officer with experience on the American Indian frontier, was a pioneer student of native American medicine and anthropology. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1900

#9475

The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians.

"The ʔívil̃uqaletem (or Ivilyuqaletem) are Native Americans of the inland areas of southern California.[2] Their original territory included an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km2). The traditional Cahuilla te…

1908

#6455.1

Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1911

#9347

The ethno-botany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1912

#7050

The Negro in medicine.

An early publication on the medical problems of blacks written by a black physician. Kenney served as school physician at Tuskegee University, was the first director of the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital at Tuskegee…

1915

#9293

Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians. Thirtieth annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

Digital facsimile from swsbm.com at this link.

1916

#9346

Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 55.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1919

#9287

Uses of plants by the Indians of the Missouri River region. Thirty-third annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1911-1912.

Medicinal and edible plants used by the Dakota, Omaha/Ponca, Winnebago and Pawnee peoples. Gilmore reports on 180 plants, and offers 16 pages of tables of names in various languages. Digital facsimile from the Biodive…

1923

#9294

Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians.

Digital facsimile from spiritoftherivers.wikispaces.com at this link.

1928

#9271

Use of plants by the Chippewa Indians. Smithsonian Institution-Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report 44.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1928

#9289

Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians.

1932

#9283

The ethnobotany of the Acoma and Laguna Indians. M.A. thesis.

1932

#9295

Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians.

Digital facsimile from nwic.edu at this link.

1933

#9348

Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians.

Digital facsimile from swsbm.com at this link.

1934

#8677

Jewish contributions to medicine in America from colonial times to the present.

1935

#9303

The ethnobiology of the Papago Indians. Ethnological Studies in the American Southwest II.

"The Tohono O’odham ... are a Native American people of the Sonoran Desert, residing primarily in the U.S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. Tohono O’odham means "Desert People." The federally recogniz…

1936

#9304

The ethnobiology of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache: A. the use of plants for food, beverages and narcotics. Ethnobiological studies in the American Southwest, Vol. 3. Biological series (Vol. 4, No. 5); Bulletin, University of New Mexico, whole, (No. 297).

1939

#6594

The first Negro medical society. A history of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia.

A detailed history of the “first American Negro medical society formed in America and probably in the world”. Cobb was the first black American medical historian of note.

1939

#9323

Ethnobotany of the Hopi. Bulletin No. 15.

1940

#9278

Plants used as curatives by certain Southeastern tribes.

Digital facsimile from herablstudies.net at this link.

1941

#9281

Navajo Indian medical ethnobotany. University of New Mexico Bulletin, Anthropological Series, Vol. 3, No. 5.

Digital facsimile from herbaltherapeutics.net at this link.

1944

#9282

Ethnobotany of the Navajo. Monographs of the School of American Research, No. 8.

Digital facsimile from uair.library.arizona.edu at this link.

1951

#6596.1

The health of slaves on southern plantations.

Chiefly from contemporary MS records.

1957

#9272

Medicinal uses of plants by Indian tribes of Nevada. Contributions toward a flora of Nevada. No. 45. Revised edition, with summary of pharmacological research by W. Andrew Archer, Nov. 26, 1957.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. (First published in 1941.)

1972

#9917

Strong medicine: History of healing on the Northwest Coast.

1975

#9270

Cherokee plants their uses - a 400 year history.

1977

#9288

Childbirth in the ghetto: Folk beliefs of negro women in a North Philadelphia hospital ward.

1977

#10803

Medical history of a Civil War regiment: Disease in the sixty-fifth United States Colored Infantry.

1978

#7047

Medicine and slavery. The diseases and health care of blacks in antebellum Virginia.

1979

#7190

Only one man died. The medical aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Appendix 1 contains a listing of the many medical books in the library of Thomas Jefferson.

1981

#8091

Bad blood: The Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

"From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a non-therapeutic experiment involving over 400 black male sharecroppers infected with syphilis. The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatmen…

1983

#8082

Educating black doctors: A history of Meharry Medical College.