Facets

1465

#6819

Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery)

In 1465, at the age of 80, Ottoman surgeon and physician Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu published in manuscript an illustrated atlas of surgery and dentistry. This was also the first medical textbook written in Turkish, proba…

1544

#6009.1

Experimentarius medicinae. Continens Trotulae curandarum aegriudinum muliebrium ante, in & post partium lib. unicum, nusquam antea editum…[Georg Kraut]

First printed edition of the gynecological writings attributed to the woman physician, Trota, who is frequently called Trotula after the name of the collection of works with whom she is associated. Trota is said to ha…

1609

#6145

Observations diverses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, foecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes, et enfants nouveaux naiz.

The first book on obstetrics published by a midwife. Louise Bourgeois was accoucheuse to the French court. She was one of the pioneers of scientific midwifery; her Observations was the vade mecum of contemporary midwi…

1666

#6822

La chymie charitable et facile, en faveur des dames.

A book on practical chemistry, pharmacology and medicine written for the common reader by French autodidact Marie Meurdrac, La chymie charitable et facile, en faveur des dames, was the first treatise on chemistry writ…

1671

#6156.1

The midwives book: or the whole art of midwifery discovered.

The first book written by an English midwife. Sharp was the most accomplished midwife of 17th-century England. Scholarly, extensively annotated edition edited by Jane Hobby, New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press,…

1690

#6149

Die Chur-Brandenburgische Hoff-Wehe-Mutter.

With Mauriceau, Justine Siegemundin was responsible for introducing the practice of puncturing the amniotic sac to arrest hemorrhage in placenta praevia. She was midwife to the Court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and…

1719

#13450

Mariæ Sibillæ Merian Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium: In quâ, præter vermes et erucas Surinamenses, earumque admirandam metamorphosin, plantæ, flores & fructus, quibus vescuntur, & quibus fuerunt inventæ, exhibentur. His adjunguntur bufones, lacerti, serpentes, araneæ, aliaque admiranda istius regionis animalcula

Originally as Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. Amsterdam, 1705. The 1719 contains 12 additional plates and corresponding text, 10 provided by the author's daughters from material left at her death, and 2 suppli…

1759

#6848

Abregé de l'art des accouchements, dans lequel on donne les préceptes nécessaires pour le mettre heureusement en pratique, et auquel on a joint plusieurs observations intéressantes sur des cas singuliers.

After ten years as a midwife in Paris, Madame du Coudray was hired by King Louis XV to travel across France to better train rural midwives.There were political motivations for this; Louis wanted to boost a “declining”…

1759

#7006

Traité d'ostéologie. 2 vols.

Monro Primus' textbook on the anatomy of the bones was originally published in 1726 as an octavo volume without plates, and went through more than ten editions. The French translation, published in large folio, transl…

1811

#7801

The maternal physician; a treatise on the nurture and management of infants, from the birth until two years old. Being the result of sixteen years' experience in the nursery. Illustrated by extracts from the most approved medical authors

The first American book on pediatrics, in the tradition of "advice books" or childcare manuals for mothers. This was the first American printed book on a medical subject written by a woman. Pages 248-75 publish a list…

1812

#6165

Mémorial de l’art des accouchements.

Mme Boivin was one of the most famous of the Paris midwives. She improved the speculum and wrote intelligently on hydatidiform mole.

1821 –1825

#6170

Pratique des accouchemens…par Marie Louise La Chapelle. Publiés par Antoine Dugès. 3 vols.

Mme La Chapelle was a famous midwife and a colleague of Baudelocque. She supervised 5,000 deliveries and her vast experience enabled her to write her book. She reduced the 94 theoretical presentations suggested by Bau…

1821

#10546

De la ménopause, ou de l'age critique des femmes; Traité dans lequel sont exposés du description anatomique et physiologique de l'utérus à la ménopause, les changemens que cette époque opère tant sur le physique que sur le moral de la femme, les moyens hygiéniques qui doivent être alors employés, enfin les maladies qui surviennent ordinairement à l'âge critique. Seconde edition.

In this work, a revised second edition of Gardanne's Avis aux femmes qui entrent dans l'age critique (1816), Gardanne coined the term menopause. Digital facsimile of the 1816 edition from the Internet Archive at this …

1826

#11415

Observations on the May-Bug, and its ravages on plum and other trees, and also on the means of preventing the mischief.

Griffth was probably the first American woman to publish in the sciences outside of materia medica and childcare. This article was probably her earliest non-geological publication. See Robt S. Cox, "A spontaneous flow…

1827

#6172

Nouvelles recherches sur l’origine, la nature et le traitement de la mole vésiculaire ou grossesse hydatique.

Classic description of hydatidiform mole.

1833

#6028

Traité pratique des maladies de l’utérus et de ses annexes. 2 vols. and atlas.

Boivin and Dugès practiced amputation of the cervix for chronic ulceration. On page 648 of vol. 2 is the first recorded case of cancer of the female urethra. English translation, 1834.

1836

#11430

Discoveries in light and vision; with a short memoir containing discoveries in the mental faculties.

The first work on vision written by a woman and published in the United States. Griffith published the work anonymously. "Griffith’s work had its start in print in 1834, when she published two articles on vision in Da…

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…

1837

#11467

The spirit of the woods, illustrated by coloured engravings

Little is known of the anonymous author of this early illustrated work on trees except that she was also "Mrs. William Hey" and had previously published The moral of flowers. The beautiful hand-colored plates presumab…

1838

#11431

Barn-Yard rhymes; showing what opinions the turkey, the cock, the goose, and the duck, enterain of allopathia, homopathia, electro-galvanism and the animalcule doctrines.

A critique of medical practice and procedures in 80 pages of rhymed couplets voiced by farmyard animals. Mary Griffith, who published these satirical poems anonymously, dedicated the work to the Philadelphia physician…

1843

#13612

Memorial. To the Legislature of Massachusetts.

Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill in various U.S. states. This was probably the first of her many publications advoca…

1846

#11734

A treatise on the motive powers which produce the circulation of the blood.

The author was an American women's rights activist and educator rather than a physician or physiologist. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1849

#11948

Ship fever. An inaugural thesis, submitted for the degree of M.D., at Geneva Medical College, Jan. 1849.

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate M.D. in the United States. This paper on typhus was her first publication, and is thus the first publication in America by a woman physician educated in the United S…

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…

1852

#11950

The laws of life, with special reference to the physical education of girls.

Blackwell's first book, a volume about the physical and mental development of girls, emphasizing the value of exercise, intended to help prepare young women for motherhood. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this …

1856

#7809

Eastern hospitals and English nurses; the narrative of twelve months' experience in the hospitals of Koulali and Scutari by a lady volunteer. 2 vols.

Taylor accompanied Florence Nightingale to Scutari, and worked as nurse in the military hospitals. She provided one of the first eye-witness acounts of military hospitals at Scutari and Koulali, and wrote about the ma…

1856

#13464

Circumstances affecting the heat of the sun's rays.

Foote was the first scientist known to have experimented on the warming effect of sunlight on different gases. In this two-page paper she theorized that changing the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere woul…

1856

#14125

Glances and glimpses; or fifty years social, including twenty years professional life.

The autobiography of the first woman to practice medicine professionally in the United States. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1858

#7481

Notes on matters affecting the health, efficiency, and hospital administration of the British Army. Founded chiefly on the experience of the late war. Presented by request to the Secretary of State for War.

This privately printed pamphlet contained a color statistical graphic entitled "Diagram of the causes of mortality in the Army of the East" which showed that epidemic disease, which was responsible for more British de…

1859

#1611

Notes on hospitals.

Includes four plans of hospitals. A third edition, completely revised, was published by Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1863.

1860

#1612

Notes on nursing: what it is, and what it is not.

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 h…

1860

#6649.9

Medicine as a profession for women.

1863

#7419

Hospital sketches.

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 …

1864

#8994

The female spy of the union army. The thrilling adventures, experiences, and escapes of a woman nurse, spy, and scout, in hospitals, camps and battlefields.

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, …

1866

#13706

A journal of hospital life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the Battle of Shiloh to the end of the war: With sketches of life and character, and brief notices of current events during that period.

"[B]y far the fullest and most informative of narratives of the Confederate women who served as nurses" (In Tall Cotton). Cumming responded to calls for volunteers and worked as a field nurse from 1862 through the end…

1867

#7748

Woman's work in the Civil War: A record of heroism, patriotism and patience.

Details the work of women in the American Civil War in the fields of nursing, supply and sanitary organization (i.e. the Sanitary Commission) with biographies of notable women. Digital facsimile from the Internet Arch…

1867

#13345

Three years in field hospitals of the Army of the Potomac.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1868

#8998

Hospital days.

Woolsey participated in the first meetings of the Women's Central Relief Association, which preceded the U.S. Sanitary Commission. In 1863 she became Superintendent of Nurses at Fairfax Seminary Hospital, and served t…

1869

#11703

Woman: Her rights, wrongs, privileges, and responsibilities . . . Her relations to man, physiological, social, moral, and intellectual: Her ability to fill the enlarged sphere of duties and privileges claimed for her: Her true position in education, professional life, employments, and wages considered. Woman suffrage, its folly and inexpediency, and the injury and deterioration which it would cause in her character shown . . .

Also published in Cincinnati, Ohio by Howe's Subscription Book Concern, 1869. The author, a physician and semi-popular writer, appears mainly to be writing in opposition to woman suffrage or to granting to women any f…

1871

#13211

HIT.

An enigmatically titled book of essays on women's rights by the American surgeon, abolitionist, prohibitionist, and prisoner of war, who remains the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Medical cont…

1872

#6649.91

Medical women: Two essays. I. Medicine as a profession for women. II. Medical education for women

From the time of her admission to medical school Jex-Blake became virtually the leader of the movement in Great Britain to open the medical profession to women. Greatly expanded second edition, Edinburgh, 1886.

1875

#6643.9

Science and health.

Includes an exposition of the system of faith healing that holds a significant place in Christian Science.

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 …

1877

#11912

The question of rest for women during menstruation.The Boylston Prize Essay of Harvard University for 1876.

"Jacobi's paper was a response to Dr. Edward H. Clarke's earlier publication, Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for the Girls (1875), a book claiming that any physical or mental exertion during menstruation could le…

1879

#11826

The study and practice of medicine by women.

Probably the first study of how women physicians used their medical training. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1881

#11021

The practice of medicine by women in the United States.

"Emily F. Pope, C. Augusta Pope, and Emma Call, doctors on the staff of the New England Hospital, published a study on women physicians. Their sample included a group of 430 women doctors who had graduated from variou…

1881

#11022

The college story: Valedictory address to the twenty-ninth graduating class of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

"Bodley sought to survey all the graduates of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania from its founding 1850 through 1880. Of the total 276 graduates, 244 were alive. Her survey is based on the 186 graduates who r…

1883

#14145

A book of medical discourse in two parts. Part first: Creating of the cause, prevention, and cure of infantile bowel complains, from birth to the close of the teething period, or till after the fifth year. Part second: Containing miscellaneous information concerning the life and growth of beings; the beginning of womanhood; also, the cause, prevention, and cure of many of the most distressing compains of women and youth of both sexes.

Crumpler was the first Black woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive.

1885

#4748

Contribution à l’étude des paralysies radiculaires du plexus brachial.

First description of atrophic paralysis of the muscles of the hand following lesion of the brachial plexus and eighth cervical and first dorsal nerves (“Klumpke’s paralysis”).

1885

#9159

Women, plumbers, and doctors: or, household sanitation

Dedicated "To Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, whose early, persistent, and enthusiastic labors make him the apostle of sanitation in America." Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.