Facets

1734

#9675

Every man his own doctor: or, The poor planter's physician. Prescribing plain and easy means for persons to cure themselves of all, or most of the distempers, incident to this climate, and with very little charge, the medicines being chiefly of the growth and production of this country.

The first medical hand-book for lay persons written and published in America. It is probable that this book was first published in 1734, though the earliest recorded copy or copies appear to be the "second edition" wi…

1745

#2094

An essay on the West-India dry-gripes… to which is added, an extraordinary case in physick.

Cadwalader, an American pupil of Cheselden, left a classical account of lead colic and lead palsy. This was later shown by Benjamin Franklin, printer of the above work, to be due to the consumption of Jamaica rum whic…

1776

#1773

An account of the weather and diseases of South-Carolina. 2 vols.

Originally published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1751-54.

1788

#3426

Case of a scirrhus in the pylorus of an infant.

First American case report on congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Cases and observations by the Medical Society of New-Haven County…was the first American medical periodical. Only one volume was published. Beard…

1792

#1775

An historical account of the climates and diseases of the United States of America, and of the remedies and methods of treatment, which have been found most useful and efficacious, particularly in those diseases which depend upon climate and situation: collected pricipally from personal observation, and the communications of physicians of talents and experience, residing in the several states.

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

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…

1803

#10445

An epistle to a friend, on the means of preserving health, promoting happiness; and prolonging the life of man to its natural period. Being a summary view of inconsiderate and useless habits that derange the system of nature, thereby causing premature old age and death : with some thoughts on the best means of preventing and overcoming disease.

Written by the first great American painter. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1808

#10067

The pharmacopoeia of the Massachusetts Medical Society,

The first state pharmacopeia issued in the United States. Jackson and Warren were the "Committee for the Pharmacopoeia." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1830

#9150

Gunn’s domestic medicine, or poor man’s friend in the hours of affliction, pain, and sickness. This book points out, in plain language, free from doctor's terms the diseases of men, women, and children, and the latest and most approved means used in their cure, and is expressly written for the benefit of families in the western and southern states. It also contains descriptions of the medicinal roots and herbs of the western and southern country, and how they are to be used in the cure of diseases: arranged on a new and simple plan, by which the practice of medicine reduced to the principles of common sense.

Gunn intended his book to serve as a guide for frontier and rural families who lived far away from any sort of medical care so it contained instructions on how to treat a wide variety of illnesses. While the first edi…

1836 –1837

#2123.1

On the influence of trades, professions, and occupations, in the United States in the production of disease.

The first American work devoted entirely to occupational diseases. Reprinted with introduction, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.

1837

#10411

The family nurse; or companion of the frugal housewife. Revised by a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Child was was an abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism. Her journals, both fiction and domestic manuals, reached wide audie…

1845

#9556

The sanitary condition of the laboring population of New York with suggestions for its improvement.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1847

#10063

Proceedings of the National Medical Conventions, held in New York, May, 1846, and in Philadelphia, May, 1847.

The complete proceedings of the founding of the American Medical Association. This version also contains the text of the Code of Ethics written by Isaac Hayes and adopted by the AMA. In updated forms, this remains the…

1848

#10056

Code of ethics of the American Medical Association. Adopted May 1847.

Heavily influenced by Percival's work, the AMA's code of ethics was written by Isaac Hayes. The first leaf of this 30-page pamphlet indicates that it was "Printed for Private Distribution by the Philadelphia Delegatio…

1850

#1609

Report of a general plan for the promotion of public and personal health, devised, prepared, and recommended by the commissioners appointed under a resolve of the legislature of Massachusetts relating to a sanitary survey of the State.

Compiled by a team, but entirely written by Shattuck, this report was the first general blueprint for the promotion of public health presented to an American governmental body. Its first proposal was for the creation …

1850 –1854

#1777

A systematic treatise, historical, etiological, and practical, on the principal diseases of the interior valley of North America as they appear in the Causcasian, African, Indian, and Esquimaux varieties of Its population. 2 vols.

This classical contribution to the social / medical history of North America includes the most important work on the natural history of malaria published up to that time. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from the Internet …

1850

#10426

Diary of a physician in California; being the results of actual experience, including notes of the journey by land and water, and observations on the climate, soil, resources of the country, etc.

Tyson sailed from Baltimore for California in January 1849, crossing the Isthmus and sailing on to San Francisco. His book recounts his 1849 tour of the Northern Mines in search of a likely place for his medical pract…

1851

#10416

Ladies' indispensable assistant: Being a companion for the sister, mother, and wife ... Here are the very best directions for the behavior and etiquette of ladies and gentlemen ... ; also, safe directions for the management of children ... a great variety of valuable recipes, forming a complete system of family medicine ... : to which is added one of the best systems of cookery ever published ....

In spite of the verbose title, the Table of Contents of this work indicates that roughly the first half of the book concerns home remedies for the widest range of complaints and illnesses, and medical properties of pl…

1855

#10103

History of the American Medical Association, from its organization up to January, 1855. To which is appended biographical notices, with portraits of the presidents of the association, and of the author

The first history of the American Medical Association, founded in 1847, written by one of its chief founders. Digital facsimile from Hathi Trust at this link.

1859

#11304

Report on the medical topography and epidemics of California.

Logan provided an updated report with the same title in 1865. Digital facsimile of the 1865 report from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

c. 1865

#11316

Hand-book & descriptive catalogue of the Pacific Museum of Anatomy and Natural Science, now open at the Eureka Theatre, Montgomery St., between California and Pine, San Francisco.

A commercial medical and "natural science" museum operated by Jordan. This may have been the earliest commercial medical museum in California. Pages 50 onward describe what Jordan called the "Pathological Room, For re…

1866

#7799

History of the United States Sanitary Commission: being the general report of its work during the War of the Rebellion.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1871

#10483

Physical effects of compressed air, and of the causes of pathological symptoms produced on man, by increased atmospheric pressure employed for the sinking of piers, in the construction of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri.

Study of caisson disease and its treatement resulting from experience in treating workmen constructing the Eads Bridge, which opened in 1874. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1873

#10482

The effects of high atmospheric pressure, including the caisson disease.

Classic study of caisson disease. Smith was "Late Surgeon to the New York Bridge Co. (Caisson Work)", treating workmen who built the Brooklyn Bridge. The Eads Bridge (St. Louis) and the Brooklyn Bridge (New York City)…

1876

#10412

The people's medical advisor.

A graduate of the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati, Vaughn was a member of the New York State Senate (31st D.) in 1878 and 1879, and was elected as a Republican to the 46th United States Congress, holding office…

1876

#12089

Female health and hygiene on the Pacific Coast.

This was probably the first book on female health and hygiene published in California and intended for the residents of the state. The book was written for women rather than for medical professionals. Little is known …

1881

#10334

History of medicine in Massachusetts. A centennial address delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Society at Cambridge, June 7, 1881.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

1882

#9506

Opium-smoking in America and China: A study of its prevalence, and effects, immediate and remote, on the individual and the nation.

The author claims (p. 1) that "the first white man who smoked opium in America is said to have been a sporting character named Clendenyn. The second—induced to try it by the first—smoked in 1871." Digital facsimile fr…

1886

#10521

Leprosy in Hawaii. Extracts from reports of presidents of the board of health, government physicians and others, and from official records, in regard to leprosy before and after the passage of the “Act to prevent the spread of leprosy”, approved Jan. 3, 1865. The laws and regulations in regard to leprosy in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

1892

#10438

Mineral springs and health resorts of California: With a complete chemical analysis of every important mineral water in the world... A Prize Essay; Annual Prize of the Medical Society of the State of California, Awarded April 20, 1889.

The first half of the book concerns mineral springs and health resorts in California and how to use them; the second half mostly concerns mineral springs and other health resorts in North America and Europe. Digital f…

1903

#11020

The medical annals of Maryland 1799-1899. Prepared for the centennial of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1905

#8689

History of the Philadelphia almshouses and hospitals from the beginning of the eighteenth to the ending of the nineteenth centuries, covering a period of nearly two hundred years. showing the mode of distributing public relief through the management of the Boards of Overseers of the Poor, Guardians of the Poor and the Directors of the Department of Charities and Correction.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1906

#1637

Investigation on the purification of Boston sewage, with a history of the sewage-disposal problem.

1909

#10406

Eradicating plague in San Francisco. Report of the Citizen's Health Committee and an account of its work. With brief descriptions of the measures taken, copies of ordinances in aid of sanitation, articles by sanitarians on the nature of plague and the best means of getting rid of it, facsimiles of circulars issued by the committee and a list of subscribers to the health fund. March 31, 1909. Prepared by Frank Morton Todd, historian for the Committee.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1910

#11446

The health index of children.

Hoag was medical director of the public schools in Berkeley, California. As Hoag wrote in his introduction, the object of this work was "to show teachers and parents how to detect easily those ordinary physical defect…

1914

#10520

Sanitary conditions among the Eskimos: A report on conditions in native villages along the Arctic coast of Alaska. Supplement No. 9 to Public Health Reports, December 12, 1913.

In 1912 the U.S. Public Health Service assigned Dr. Emil Krulish to supervise health care in the Territory of Alaska. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1915

#10473

A survey of industrial health-hazards and occupational diseases in Ohio.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1916

#8154

Plant succession: An analysis of the development of vegetation.

A seminal work of ecological science, establishing a dynamic model of species succession toward an eventual "climax" equilibrium under the influence of climate and other factors in a given habitat. "From his observati…

1923

#11008

A history of the Massachusetts Medical Society: With brief biographies of the founders and chief officers, 1781-1922.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1930

#10301

Medical history of Michigan. Compiled and edited by a committee, C. B. Burr, Chairman, and published under the auspices of the Michigan State Medical Society. 2 vols.

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

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.

1947

#8644

A history of the American Medical Association 1847 to 1947.

1951

#1671

The United States Public Health Service, 1798-1950.

1957

#8669

Industrial medicine in western Pennsylvania, 1850-1950.

Probably the first history of occupational medicine in any part of the United States. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

1957

#10322

A Medical chronicle of New York State: Being a compendium of historic developments and events during the past 150 years, published on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

1959

#13800

Public health in the town of Boston, 1630-1822.

1962

#2137.02

Occupational health in America.

Written under the auspices of the Industrial Medical Association, this history emphasizes 20th century achievements.

1970

#13559

Is carbon dioxide from fossil fuel changing man's environment?

Keeling developed the first instrument that could measure carbon dioxide in atmospheric samples with consistently reliable accuracy, and in 1958 began collecting carbon dioxide samples from a base he established at Ma…

1972

#12490

Public health and the state: Changing views in Massachusetts, 1842-1936.

1973

#8902

The American disease: Origins of narcotic control.

Third expanded edition (1999). "Supporting the theory that Americans' attitudes toward drugs have followed a cyclic pattern of tolerance and restraint, author David F. Musto examines the relations between public outcr…