Latest Entries

1813 CE

#6975

Materia medica of Hindoostan, and artisan’s and agriculturist’s nomenclature.

The first book in English on the materia medica of India, and a pioneering work in the field of Indian medical history. Ainslie joined the British East India Company as an assistant surgeon in 1788 and spent the next …

1533 CE–1534 CE

#6974

Aetii Amideni quem alii Antiochenum vocant medici clarissimi libri XVI. tomos divisi : quorum primus & ultimus Ioan. Baptista Montano Veronensi medico, secundus Iano Cornario Zuiccauiensi, & ipso medicinae professore, interpretibus latinitate donati sunt. In quo opere cuncta quae ad curandi artem pertinent congesta sunt, ex omnibus qui usq[ue] ad eius tempora scripserant, diligentissime excerpta. Additus est index in omneis tomos copiosissimus. 3 vols.

J. B. Montanus and Janus Cornarius prepared the first edition of Aetius's collected works in Latin translation. That edition was the first to include Aetius's writings on obstetrics, which epitomized all previous know…

2000 CE–2001 CE

#6973

Diocles of Carystus: A collection of the fragments with translation and commentary. Volume one: Text and translation. Volume two: Commentary

Diocles of Carystus, also known as "the younger Hippocrates", was one of the most prominent medical authorities in late antiquity. He wrote extensively on a wide range of areas such as anatomy, physiology, pathology, …

1474 CE

#146

Historiae. Tr: Laurentius Valla. Ed: Benedictus Brognolus. Add: Benedictus Brognolus: Epistola ad Nicolaum Donatum.

Born in Asia Minor, Herodotus travelled through Greece, Asia Minor and North Africa. His Historiae includes careful observations on the nature and habits of various peoples, and he may be regarded as the founder of an…

1917 CE

#6972

On growth and form.

Thompson's description of the mathematical beauty of nature eventually inspired others, such as Alan Turing, to develop the scientific explanation of morphogenesis, the process by which patterns are formed in plants a…

1853 CE

#6971

Untersuchungen über die wasserfreien organischen Säuren.

In 1853 French chemist Gerhardt was the first to prepare acetylsalicylic acid (marketed by Bayer as asprin in 1899). Gerhardt called the compound he obtained "salicylic-acetic anhydride" (wasserfreie Salicylsäure…

1763 CE

#6970

An account of the success of the bark of the willow in the cure of agues.

Stone, a vicar from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, discovered that the bark of the willow tree (active ingredient: salicylic acid) was effective in reducing a fever. This was the first report in the scientific literatu…

1538 CE

#6969

Simeonis Sethi, magistri Antiochiae, Syntagma per literarum ordinem de cibariorum facultate, Lilio Gregorio Gyraldo,... interprete.

First printed edition of Seth's Byzantine encyclopedia of foods, nutrition, and diatetics from plants and animals, with Greek text and Latin translation by scholar and poet Giglio Gregorio Giraldi. Simeon Seth was an …

1905 CE

#6968

History of osteopathy, and twentieth-century medical practice.

Revised & enlarged second edition Cincinnati: Printed for the Author, the Caxton Press, 1924. Digital facsimile of the first edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the second edition from…

1993 CE

#6967

Surgery: An illustrated history.

Text written by Ira Rutkow; captions to illustrations written by Jeremy Norman.

1997 CE

#6966

American surgery: An illustrated history.

1851 CE

#6965

Traité pratique des maladies cancéreuses et des affections curables confondues avec le cancer.

Lebert studied cancer cells under high magnification to discover the specific elements distinguishing them from normal cells. He classified tumors as either homeomorphous (composed of elements analogous to those of th…

1611 CE

#6964

Anatomicae institutiones corporis humani.

The elder Caspar Bartholin was the first to describe the workings of the olfactory nerve, and introduced the terms nervus olfactorius and nervus vagus. This was a standard textbook for many years, undergoing numerous …

1993 CE

#6963

The Cambridge world history of human disease. Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple [and 12 co-editors].

An encyclopedic world history of disease, incorporating a geographic approach.

2004 CE

#6961

Ancient medicine.

Nutton used archaeological and written evidence to survey the development of medical ideas from early Greece to Late Antiquity.

1530 CE

#6960

Catalogus illustrium medicorum sive de primis medicinae scriptoribus.

The first separately published medical bibliography, containing 750 entries listing over 300 authors and their works in chronological order. Opens with an alphabetical index of authors, and ends with a subject index. …

1540 CE

#6959

Eyn new Wund Artznei M. Johans von Parisijs. Wie mann alle wunden, sie seien gestochen, gehawen, geschossen mit pfeil oder lot gequetzt vnd gestossen [et]c. mit salben, pflastern vnnd wundttranck, durch den gantzen leip dess menschens, vom Kopff an biss auff die füss, heylen solein kurtzer, ordenlicher Bericht M. Johan von Parisiis jtzunt am newsten auss gangen.

Johannes von Beris (or Paris) lived in the mid-15th century near Metz, and is thus the earliest identifiable German surgeon, and the first to write about gunshot wounds and wound surgery. His work, which was first pub…

1981 CE

#6958

The Manchu anatomy and its historical origin. With annotations and translations by John B. de C. M. Saunders and Francis R. Lee.

The Anatomie Manchoue, a series of graphic illustrations taken from Western anatomical works, with notes in the Manchu-Tungus language. This was compiled under the supervision of Father Parrenin, a French Jesuit worki…

1995 CE

#6957

One hundred books famous in medicine. Edited by Haskell F. Norman and Hope Mayo.

Conceived, organized and with an introduction by Haskell Norman, who borrowed the most interesting copies (presentation, association, dedication, author's copies) of each work for the exhibition. Catalogue edited by H…

1988 CE

#6956

Other healers: Unorthodox medicine in America. Edited by Norman Gevitz.

2004 CE

#6955

The D.O.s: Osteopathic medicine in America. 2nd ed.

1897 CE

#6954

Autobiography of Andrew T. Still, with a history of the discovery and development of the science of osteopathy. Together with an account of the founding of the . . . . . American School of Osteopathy; and lectures delivered before that institution from time to time during the progress of the discovery.

Still founded osteopathy, and opened the first school of osteopathy, now A.T. Still University, in 1892. He was also an early promoter of preventive medicine and the philosophy that physicians should focus on treating…

1992 CE

#6953

The fabric of the body: European traditions of anatomical illustration.

An essential reinterpretation of the classics in the history of anatomical illustration, with many fine plates.

1830 CE

#6952

A demonstration of the nerves of the human body.

The largest and most splendidly produced atlas of neuroanatomy originally published in English, with plates that remain unsurpassed as works of art. Later editions were in reduced format.

1760 CE

#6951

Sur les mouvements du cerveau et de la dure-mere. Premier mémoire, sur le mouvement des parties contenues dans le crâne, considérées dans leur état naturel. Second mémoire. Sur les mouvements contre nature de ce viscère, & sur les organes qui sont le principe de son action.

Probably the first example in the literature of a definite localization of function in the brain. In the first memoir Lorry examined the normal movements of the brain; in the second memoir he set out specifically, sys…

1750 CE

#6950

Adversaria anatomica, de omnibus corporis humani partium, tum descriptionibus, cum picturis, Adversaria anatomica Prima, De omnibus cerebri, nervorum & organorum functionibus animalibus inserventium, descriptionibus & iconismis.

The first pictorial history of neuroanatomy, which contains some of the very first color engravings of the brain. The three colored copperplates were by “a certain Robert", a pupil of Le Blon, the inventor of th…

1490 CE

#6949

Philosophia pauperum, sive Isagoge in libros Aristotelis physicorum, de coelo et mundo, de generatione et corruptione, meteororum et de anima.

This edition, chronologically the fourth printed, of Albertus's commentaries on various works of Aristotle, contains the first printed illustration of the brain, showing in profile the three-cell theory of brain funct…

2008 CE

#6948

Conrad Gessner's Private Library by Urs B. Leu, Raffael Keller and Sandra Weidmann.

Includes a study of Gessner's library in the context of libraries in 16th-century Zurich, and a catalogue of the library, with listings of lost books and lost manuscripts, known from Gessner's correspondence or from a…

1927 CE

#6947

A catalogue of manuscripts and medical books printed before 1640 in the library of Le Roy Crummer

The collection was mostly bequeathed to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. See also A Doctor's Odyssey: A Sentimental Record of Le Roy Crummer: Physician, Author, Bibliophile, Artist in Living, 1872-1934, by Alex …

1840 CE

#6946

Verzeichniss der vom weil. Obermedicinalrath Blumbach nachgelassen Bucher. . . .

Catalogue of the library of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, prepared for its sale at auction. Books were listed for sale individually, organized by size. Author and title and place published were listed, as were the numb…

1961 CE

#6945

Bibliography of memory.

The most complete bibliography to date on this subject. Regarding Young, see the unusually interesting obituary in The New York Times at this link.

1517 CE

#6944

Galeni de sanitate tuenda libri sex.

First separate dated Latin translation of Galen's De sanitate tuenda (On the preservation of health), which contained his views on maintaining health and hygiene and preventing disease. Translated from the Greek by Th…

1519 CE

#1959

Galeni methodus medendi, vel de morbis curandis.

The first separately published Latin translation from the Greek by Thomas Linacre. Galen's Method of medicine was a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Gale…

1967 CE

#6942

Biomedical aspects of the laser: The introduction of laser applications into biology and medicine.

The first book on the use of lasers in medicine and biology.

1963 CE

#6941

Effect of the laser beam on the skin.

One of the first papers on the application of lasers in medicine. In 1961 Goldman became the first researcher to use a laser to treat a human skin disease when he treated melanoma. The method later became popular in r…

1947 CE

#6940

Nicolaus Pol Doctor 1494 by Max H. Fisch. With a critical text of his guaiac tract, edited with a translation by Dorothy M. Schullian.

The 1494 in the title comes from the year in which Pol became a physician, and his habit of writing his name and that date in his books. The volume includes a study of books from Nicolaus Pol's library in Cleveland an…

2015 CE

#6939

Worlds of learning. The library and world chronicle of the Nuremberg physician Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514). Edited by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Schedel's library, mostly preserved at the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek, is the most extensive and multifaceted surviving private library of a fifteenth-century German collector. According to Schedel's original manusc…

1865 CE

#6938

Catalogue de la superbe bibliothèque d'ethnographie, de zoologie, d'anatomie comparée, etc....

The auction catalogue of Vrolik's library, sold two years after his death, organized by subject. Prefaced by an essay about Vrolik's life and work by J. van der Hoeven, and a chronological list of Vrolik's publication…

1943 CE

#6937

La raccolta Vittorio Putti; antiche opere di medicina manoscritte e stampate lasciate all'Istituto Rizzoli di Bologna, compiled by Tamarro de Marinis.

Description of the 1158 manuscripts and printed volumes, particularly concerning medieval and renaissance medicine and surgery, donated by Putti to the Rizzoli Institute, followed by a listing of the collection of med…

1983 CE–1994 CE

#6936

Catalogo del fondo Haller della Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense di Milano, edited by Maria Teresa Monti. Parte prima: Libri, vol. I-III (t. I-II). Parte seconda: Dissertazioni, vol. I-V, Parte terza: libri delle biblioteche lombarde, vol. I-II (t. I-II), Indici. 13 vols.

Haller's library, which comprises 15,000 volumes and 145 manuscripts, was purchased in 1778 by order of Emperor Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa of Austria, and donated to the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense in Milan.

1974 CE

#6935

A selective inhibitor of serotonin uptake: Lilly 110140, 3-(p-Trifluoromethylphenoxy)-n-methyl-3-phenylpropylamine.

The first paper on the anti-depressant fluoxetine, marketed under the trade name Prozac. With Jong S. Horng, Frank P. Bymaster, Kenneth. L. Hauser, and Bryan B. Molloy. doi:10.1016/0024-3205(74)90345-2. PMID 4549929

1478 CE

#6934

De materia medica. Ed: Petrus de Abano. Comm: Petrus de Abano.

The first printed edition of Dioscorides, translator unidentified. A Greek physician from Anazarbus in Cilicia (now Turkey), Dioscorides traveled to the Greek mainland, to Crete, Egypt and Petra. He is believed to hav…

1539 CE

#6933

Alle Kranckheyt der Augen ... allen augen artzten hochnöttig zuwissen ....

The first work on ophthalmology after Grassi (1474) written by a known physician. At the end of the anonymous Büchlin issued by the same publisher in 1538 (No. 6932) the writer promises a bigger and better work o…

1538 CE

#6932

Ein newes hochnutzlichs Büchlin von erkantnus der Kranckheyten der Augen....

The first separate publication on diseases of the eye after Grassi (1474). This very rare anonymous work was intended, according to its title, to provide highly useful knowledge of the anatomy of the eye, and eye dise…

1526 CE

#6931

Opera omnia.

First edition of the Greek text of the works of Hippocrates, issued by Aldus Manutius of Venice one year after the first complete edition in Latin was issued in Rome. The Aldine text was edited by Aldus's brother-in-l…

1595 CE

#6930

Magni Hippocratis medicorum omnium facile principis, opera omnia quae extant in viii sectiones....

The French humanist physician Foës produced the first Greek & Latin edition of the complete extant works of Hippocrates. His edition was the most significant before that of Littré.

1481 CE

#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…

1955 CE

#6928

The crystal structure of the hexacarboxylic acid derived from B12 and the molecular structure of the vitamin.

The final structure of vitamin B12. With J. Pickworth, J.H. Robertson, K.N. Trueblood, R.J. Prosen, J. G. White. In 1964 Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of …

1987 CE

#6927

Sequencing the human genome. Summary report of the Santa Fe workshop, March 3-4, 1986.

The initial report on the Human Genome Project. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. The report is available at this link.

1977 CE

#6926

A new method for sequencing DNA.

The Gilbert-Maxam method for sequencing DNA. This paper is available from PNAS at this link. In 1980 Gilbert shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Frederick Sanger and Paul Berg. Berg received half of the priz…