Facets

1481

#6929

De natura hominis. Add: De victu; De tuenda valetudine; Medicinae lex; Iusiurandum; Demonstratio quod artes sunt; Invectiva in obtrectatores medicinae. Tr: Andreas Brentius.

The writings of Hippocrates began to appear in print in the 1480s, and only a few of the works attributed to Hippocrates were printed in the 15th century. Though the date of this edition is unstated within the book it…

1483

#1757.9

Jusiurandum IN: Nicholaus Perottus, De generibus metrorum.

One of the two earliest dated printings of the Hippocratic Oath. Digital facsimile from the Dombibliothek Freising at this link. ISTC No. ip00298000. It is possible that an undated edition attributed to 1481 (Entry No…

1483

#6813

De divisione librorum Galeni IN: Articella seu Opus artis medicinae.

Considering the central importance of Galen's writings in medicine from the time he wrote well through the sixteenth and even the seventeenth century, and the need for physicians to make sense of such a large number o…

1495

#1758.1

De cautelis medicorum.

The first practical treatise on medical ethics. "Following opening remarks on the ideal conduct of the physician, and his duties towards his patients, their relatives, and his own colleagues while avoiding the pervers…

1550

#6142

Ordnung eines erbarn Raths der Statt Regenspurg, die Hebammen betreffende.

The earliest public document in the vernacular containing legislation governing midwives. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1566

#7223

A detection and querimonie of the daily enormities and abuses committed in physick.

Securis was a Latinized version of the English surname Hatchett.

1566

#13060

Vocum, quae apud Hippocratem sunt, collectio. Cum annotationibus Bartholomaei Eustachii . . . Eiusdemque Libellus de Multitudine.

First edition in Latin edited by Eustachi of the glossary to Hippocrates by the first century Greek grammarian Erotianus. Erotianus's work contains the earliest list of the writings of Hippocrates, including some now …

1573

#6143

Reformation oder Ordnung für die Hebammen.

Legislation governing the practice of midwifery was introduced in the city of Frankfurt in 1573, Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

1580

#13731

Les statutz et ordonnances royalles faictes par les roys de France, sur l'estat de barbier-chirurgien part tout le royaume de France, et confirmé par le roy Henry III de ce nom, roy de France et de Pologne [Mai 1575-13 août 1578].

The first regulations for barber surgeons published in France. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb338125216

1588

#3416

A most excellent and compendious method of curing woundes in the head, and in other partes of the body: With other precepts of the same arte, practised and written by that famous man Franciscus Arceus ... and translated into English by Iohn Read, chirurgion: Whereunto is added the exact cure of the caruncle, never before set foorth in the English toung: With a treatise of the fistulae in the fundament, and other places of the body, translated out of Iohannes Ardern: And also the discription of the emplaister called Dia Chalciteos, with its use and vertues: With an apt table for the better finding of the perticular matters, contayned in this present worke.

This translation by surgeon John Read contains the first printing of John of Arderne's writings on his operation for the cure of anal fistula, written originally about 1376. At one time John of Arderne practiced at Ne…

1597

#1718

De vitiis vocis libri duo. In quibus non solum vocis definitio traditur, et explicatur, sed illius differentiae, instrumenta, et causae aperiuntur. Vltimo de vocis conseruatione, praeseruatione, ac vitiorum eius curatione tractatur. Opus ad vtilitatem concionatorum praecipuè editum. Cui accedit consilium de raucedine ac methodus testificandi in quibusuis casibus medicis oblatis, postquam formulae quaedam testationum proponantur.

Codronchi's Methodus testificandi, inquibusvis casibus medicis oblatis first published in the above (pp. 148-232), is considered the earliest significant work on forensic medicine. Digital facsimile from Google Books …

1600

#6144.1

De natura partus octomestris adversus vulgatam opinionem libri decem ... In quo absolutissima de humani partus natura cognitio traditur; nimirum de conceptione, articulatione, maturitate, de partuum numero, pariendique terminis ac temporibus; utrum ante septimum mensem, ac post decimum, undecimique initium partus naturaliter edi possit. De septimestri, nonomestri, decimestri, undecimestrique partu, deque veris horum omnium causis plenissime Aristotele duce disputatur ... Item ejusdem auctoris compendiosa de eodem partu disceptatio ...

An encyclopedic work on ancient and contemporary medical, scientific and juridical opinion on premature birth and the period of gestation. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1602

#1719

De relationibus medicorum libri quatuor. In quibus ea omnia, quae in forensibus, ac publicis causis medici referre solent, plenissime traduntur.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1614

#1759

Medicus-politicus: Sive de officiis medico-politicis tractatus.

One of the first “modern” works on medical ethics. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1621 –1661

#1720

Quaestiones medico-legales. 9 vols.

Zacchias, a Papal physician, was one of the founders of medical jurisprudence. His treatise includes information concerning injuries of the eye, etc., and contains section on the medico-legal aspects of insanity. The …

1623

#10491

Historia vitae & mortis. Sive, titulus secundus in historia naturali & experimentali ad condendam philosophiam: Quae est instaurationis magnae pars tertia.

This was Bacon's direct contribution to medicine or medical philosophy, with natural and experimental observations on the prolongation of life. Translated into English as The History naturall And experimentall, of lif…

1630

#1721

Disputatio medica de notis virginitatis.

Details the methods of previous and contemporary writers concerning the determination of virginity. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1638

#1760

Politia medica.

1660

#1722

Rationale vulnerum lethalium judicium, in quo de vulnerum lethalium natura et causis, legitima item eorundem inspectione, ac aliis circa hanc materiam scitu dignis juxta, quam necessariis, agitur.

Welsch stressed the need for autopsy in medico-legal cases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1666

#10343

Ventilabrum medico-theologicum: Quo omnes casus, tum medicos, cum aegros, aliosque concernentes euentilantur, et quod SS.PP. conformius, scholasticis probabilius, & in conscientia tutius est, secernitur ...

An early work on Catholic medical morality. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1667

#1723

De gemellis et partu numerosiore.

Medico-legal aspects of multiple births. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1667

#1724

Tractatus physico-anatomico-medicus de respiratione usuque pulmonum.

Swammerdam’s earliest published work. In it he recorded his discovery that the lungs of newborn infants will float on water if respiration has taken place, an important medico-legal point.

1682

#10017

Mercurius compitalitius, sive, Index medico-practicus.per decisiones, cautiones, animadversiones, castigationes & observationes in sugulis affectibus praeter naturam et praesidiis medicis, deaeteticis, cheirurgicis & pharmaceuticis... Accessit appendix de medici munere.

Discusses 63 topics on medical ethics and decorum, patient behavior, medical diagnosis, prognosis, and practice guidelines, including how to relate to the patient in all matters, including extreme old age and death. "…

1683

#1761

The conclave of physicians, detecting their intrigues, frauds, and plots, against their patients.

1684

#1725

La doctrine des rapports de chirurgie, fondées sur les maximes d’usage et sur la disposition des nouvelles ordonnances.

De Blégny explained the obligation of surgeons to report any suspicion of crime, and explained how to prepare expert opinion for presentation before the court.

1684

#1762

Medicus peccans, sive tractatus de peccatis medicorum.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1689

#1726

De renunciatione vulnerum, seu vulnerum lethalium examen.

“The best work on fatal injuries, with frequent references of medicolegal importance” (Nemec).

1690

#1727

Erörterung und Erläuterung der Frage: Ob es ein gewiss Zeichen wenn, eines todten Kindes Lunge im Wasser untersincket, dass solches in MutterLeiber gestorben sey? Zu Rettung seiner Ehre in Druck befördert.

Swammerdam’s discovery that the fetal lungs will float on water if respiration has taken place was first put to practical use by Schreyer, who thereby secured the acquittal of a girl accused of infanticide.

1703

#14121

L'art de faire les raports en chirurgie, où l'on ensiegne la pratique, les formules & le stile le plus en usage parmi les chirurgiens commis aux rapports; avec un extrait des arrest, statuts & reglemens faits en consequence.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. (Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

1722

#1728

Corpus juris medico-legale.

This reprints Valentini’s Pandectae medico legales (1701) and Novellae medico-legales (1711) with the addition of Authentica iatro-forensia.

1725 –1729

#1729

Systema jurisprudentiae medicae. 2 vols.

A work covering the whole field of medical jurisprudence as then understood, and ranking in importance with the work of Valentini. The first supplement was published in Halle, 1733. The much-expanded second edition, i…

1725

#11387

Theatrum medico-juridicum, continens varias easque maxime notabiles tam ad tribunalia ecclesiastico-civilia, quam ad medicinam forensem, pertinentes materias. Ex diversis optimorum authorum ... voluminibus excerptum .... Opus jctis, physicis, practicis, studiosis, chirurgis, aliisque utile et necessarium.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1741 –1751

#10344

Nuevo aspecto de theologia medico-moral y ambos derechos, ó paradoxas phisico-theologico-legales. 3 vols.

Rodríguez, a self-taught Cistercian monk, dealt with issues in medical ethics in this manual for confessors.

1742

#11407

An mortis incertae signa minus incerta a chirurgicis quam ab aliis experimenti?

Between the mid-1700s and the early 1900s many physicians lost confidence in their ability to declare legal death. This phenomenon was in part sparked by Winslow, whose dissertation claimed the existence of a death-li…

1763

#1730

Mémoire sur une question anatomique relative à la jurisprudence; dans lequel on établit les principes pour distinguer, à l’inspection d’un corps trouvé pendu, les signes du suicide d’avec ceux de l’assassinat.

Louis was a pioneer of French medical jurisprudence. Above is a classic discussion on the differential signs of murder and suicide in cases of hanging.

1764

#1731

Mémoire contre la légitimité des naissances prétendues tardives.

An attempt to set the minimum and maximum time limits of duration of human pregnancy. Supplement published in 1764.

1767

#13081

The law of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries: Containing all the statutes, cases at large, arguments, resolutions, and judgments concerning them. Compiled, by desire of a great personage, for the use of such gentlemen of the faculty as are enemies to quackery, in order to point out the defects in the law, as it now Stands, relative to those professions, and To propose such expedients for remedying them as they shall think necessary, before the next session of parliament, when it is intended to apply for an act for regulating the practice of physick, and suppressing empirical nostrums.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1769

#1763

A discourse upon the duties of a physician, with some sentiments, on the usefulness and necessity of a public hospital: Delivered before the president and governors of King's College, at the commencement, held on the 16th of May, 1769. As advice to those gentlemen who then received the first medical degrees conferred by that university.

The first American treatise on medical ethics, and the first treatise on medical ethics published in the English language. Samuel Bard was one of the founders of King’s College, New York. Digital facsimile from the Na…

1770

#8132

Observations on the duties and offices of a physician; and on the method of prosecuting enquiries in philosophy.

"The first philosophical, secular medical ethics in the English language" (Lawrence, Paul. "(John Gregory." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.). "Gregory divided the practice of medicine into four parts, or bran…

1777

#10347

Two essays. [Essay I. Of suicide]

Of suicide, "probably the most widely read and most influential philosophical treatment of suicide written in modern times," was written in 1755 and originally intended to be published as one of five essays, including…

1784

#1732

On the uncertainty of the signs of murder, in the case of bastard children.

This essay on the signs of murder in illegitimate children is, in Garrison’s view, the most important early contribution to forensic medicine by a British writer.

1788

#1733

Elements of medical jurisprudence.

First textbook in English on medical jurisprudence.

1789

#10348

Observations on the duties of a physician, and the methods of improving medicine. Accommodated to the present state of society and manners in the United States. Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, February 7, 1789, at the conclusion of a course of lectures upon chemistry and the practice of physic.

Full text available from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link.

1798

#10035

Of the treatment of the dying: Disturb him not - let him pass peaceably. IN: Medical histories and reflections, volume 3, 191-208.

"This apparently first-ever full essay on palliative care is tightly reasoned and carefully crafted—an innovative classic that attests to years of first-hand experience in the care of gravely ill and dying persons" (V…

1799

#1734

Les lois éclairées par les sciences physiques, ou traité de médecine légale et hygiène publique. 3 vols.

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

1803

#1764

Medical ethics; or, a code of institutes and precepts, adapted to the professional conduct of physicians and surgeons. To which is added an appendix; containing a discourse on hospital duties ....

An incomplete version was first printed for private circulation, 1794. Two variants dated 1794 are known: One is dated February 24, 1794 on the "advertisement" at the end, the other is dated April 4, 1794 on a leaf at…

1809

#10267

Recueil général des lois, réglemens, décisions et circulaires sur le service des hôpitaux militaires. 2 vols.

On the organization and administration of French military hospitals during the Napoleonic era, and probably the most comprehensive account published up to this time on the administration of military hospitals in gener…

1810

#1765

Letters on professional character and manners.

"A man of compassion, Bell made many enemies because he was outspoken about the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted by incompetent surgeons practicing in Scotland. In 1800 he became involved in an unfortunate con…

1814 –1815

#2072

Traité des poisons tirés des règnes minéral, végétal et animal; ou, toxicologie générale. 2 vols, each in 2 parts.

Orfila, pioneer toxicologist, was the leading medico-legal expert of his time. He was born in Minorca, studied at Valencia, Barcelona, and Paris, and was one of the founders of the Académie de Médecine. Digital facsim…

1817

#7108

Medical jurisprudence as it relates to insanity, according to the laws of England.

The first English work on the forensic aspects of mental illness. Digital facsimile from Wellcome Forensics Collection, Internet Archive, at this link.