1780–1789

1786

#11099

Des moyens de conserver la santé des blancs et des négres, aux Antilles ou climats chauds et humides de l'Amerique. Contenant un exposé des causes des malades propres....

Bertin practiced medicine in the West Indies, and wrote about the physical effects of the voyage there, the causes of diseases and their cures, and the effects of the Caribbean climate and humidity on health. The impr…

1786

#11534

The first American edition, An abridgement of the practice of midwifery: and a set of anatomical tables.

An abridgement of Smellie's obstetrical writings, with plates engraved by the editor and publisher, John Norman, was the first medical book with engraved illustrations published in North America, and also the first bo…

1786

#11711

Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis febribus.

Stoll was one of the few physicians of the Viennese school who supported Auenbrugger's views on percussion. In this treatise on fevers Stoll referred favorably to the practice, and it is thought that Corvisart became …

1786

#13176

Académie Royale des Sciences. Extrait des registres . . . du 22 novembre 1786. Rapport des commissaires charges par l'Académie, de l'examen du project d'un nouvel Hotel-Dieu.

Lavoisier was a member of the committee appointed by the French Academy of Sciences to report on the state of Parisian hospitals and on the plan to construct a new hospital on the Isle des Cygnes. The committee's repo…

1786

#14119

Manuel pour le service des malades, ou précis des connoissances nécessaires aux personnes chargées du soin des malades, femmes en couche, enfans nouveaux-nés, &c.

The first French book on nursing. Digital facsimile of the 1787 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. (Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

1787

#1104

Vasorum lymphaticorum corporis humani historia et ichnographia.

Mascagni, Professor of Anatomy at Siena, made several discoveries regarding the lymphatics. His beautiful atlas contained 41 engravings of the lymphatics and gained him lasting fame. He had previously published a Prod…

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…

1787

#2467

Dell’arte de fare il vino.

Fabbroni was the first to promote modern ideas on the nature of fermentation. He showed that air was not considered necessary for fermentation to take place; he was first to regard the ferment as an albumenoid substan…

1787

#156.1

An essay on the causes of the variety of complexion and figure in the human species.

In the first significant anthropological work produced in America, Smith argued that racial differences were produced by environment, contradicting the prevalent theories of separate creations of discrete and differen…

1787

#5198

First lines of theory and practice in venereal diseases.

First complete description of lymphatic chancre – “Nisbet’s chancre”.

1787

#7214

A Discourse before the Humane Society, ... Delivered on the Second Tuesday of June, 1787.

The first separate work on resuscitation published in the United States. A list of “Methods of Treatment to be used with Persons apparently dead from drowning, &c.” appears on p. iv; these methods included warming the…

1787

#8026

Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natural las mas del ramo maritimo.

This catalogue of Carrbean fish was the first scientific treatise printed in Cuba and also the first illustrated book printed in Cuba. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1787

#10480

Gifthistorie des Thier- Pflanzen- und Mineralreichs, nebst den Gegengiften, und der medicinischen Anwendung der Gifte, nach den neuesten Toxicologen.

This work was not illustrated. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

1787

#12163

A collection of engravings, tending to illustrate the generation and parturition of animals, and of the human species.

An idiosyncratic collection of rarely reproduced images with explanatory commentaries in English and French, concerning reproduction and obstetric complications in animals and humans. Topics include: The Funis of a nu…

1787

#12976

Museum Geversianum, sive, index rerum naturalium: Continens instructissimam copiam pretiosissimorum omnis generis ex tribus regnis naturae objectorum: Quam dum in vivis erat magna diligentia multaque cura comparavit Abrahamus Gevers.

Posthumously published classified listing of the immense museum of natural history specimens collected by Gevers, member of the town council, may of Rotterdam, and director of the Dutch East-Indian Company (VOC). Digi…

1787

#13908

Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natura, las mas del ramo maritimo.

The first scientific book printed in Cuba. The striking illustrations are by the author's son, and depict fish, turtles, and crustacieans observed along the Cuban shoreline. The final section contains three alarming i…

1787

#14359

Essai sur la maladie de la face, nommée le tic douloureux; avec quelques réflexions sur la raptus caninus de Caelius Aurelianus.

The first monograph exclusively on trigeminal neuralgia, which Pujol called “tic douloureux”, or painful tic, as it had originally been designated by Caelius Aurelianus. Pujol provided a valuable description of the sy…

1788

#399.2

A description of all the bursae mucosae of the human body.

The first serious study of this subject and the most original anatomical work by the greatest of the Monro dynasty. See No. 1385.

1788

#1600

Mémoires sur les hôpitaux de Paris.

Reforms quickly followed Tenon’s disclosures of the dreadful conditions prevailing in the hospitals of Paris in the 18th century. He was also instrumental in the foundation of a special hospital for children. English …

1788

#2028.53

The connexion of life with respiration; or, an experimental inquiry into the effects of submersion, strangulation, and several kinds of noxious airs, on living animals.

Goodwyn emphasized the importance of ventilation in resuscitation.

1788

#2028.54

An essay on the recovery of the apparently dead.

Kite recommended the use of artificial respiration and was probably the first to recommend electric shock for resuscitation.

1788

#2280

An account of a remarkable transportation of the viscera.

Baillie recorded a case of congenital dextrocardia with complete situs inversus viscerum. Reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 257-62.

1788

#1733

Elements of medical jurisprudence.

First textbook in English on medical jurisprudence.

1788

#3929

A singular case of diabetes, consisting entirely in the quality of the urine; with an inquiry into the different theories of that disease.

Cawley was the first to suggest a relationship between the pancreas and diabetes, observing that the disease may follow injury to that organ.

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…

1788

#4304.1

Dissertatio medica descriptionem et casus aliquot osteomalaciae sistens.

In his doctoral thesis Ekman gave an account of osteogenesis imperfecta in three generations. For extensive translation see No. 4404.1. K.S. Seedorff, Osteogenesis imperfecta, Copenhagen, 1949.

1788

#4305

Description de plusieurs nouveaux moyens mécaniques propres à prevénir, borner et même corriger dans certains cas les courbures latérales et la torsion de l’épine du dos.

Venel stressed the necessity for prolonged periods of recumbency, rather than exercise, in the correction of spinal curvature. He invented a corset and extension bed for treating spinal deformities. His extension bed …

1788

#3677

Dissertation sur les avantages des nouvelles dents, et rateliers artificiels, incorruptibles et sans odeur.

Dubois de Chémant was the first dentist to manufacture porcelain teeth by a process modified from that originally invented by an apothecary named Alexis Duchâteau in 1776. His book was translated into English as A Dis…

1788 –1789

#5199

Abhandlung über die venerische Krankheit. 3 vols.

Girtanner’s important textbook on the venereal diseases contains some history.

1788

#8216

Observations sur le tétanos; Ses différences, ses causes, ses symptômes, avec le traitement de cette maladie & les moyens de la prévenir. Précédées d'un discours sur les moyens de perfectionner la médecine-pratique sous la zone torride. Suivies d'observations sur la santé des femmes enceintes dans ces régions; leurs maladies aux différentes époques de la grossesse; l'accouchement & les suites; la conservation des nouveau-nés jusqu'à l'adolescence. Terminées par le rapprochement des vices & des abus des hôpitaux d'entre les tropiques, & les moyens d'y remédier. Par M. Dazille. Pour servir de développement & de suite à ce que cet auteur a écrit du tétanos dans ses ouvrages sur les maladies des nègrse [sic], & sur les maladies des climats chauds.

Primarily concerning the diseases of black slaves. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1788

#9896

Recherches, mémoires et observations sur les maladies épizootiques de Saint-Dominique, recueillis & publiés par le Cercle des Philadelphes du Cap-François.

The Cercle des Philadelphes, of which Charles Arthaud was president, was an academic scientific society in Saint-Domingue, in existence between 1784 and 1791. It was the most prominent academic society in the Americas…

1788

#10004

A dissertation on the influence of passions upon disorders of the body.

A treatise on the psychosomatic aspects of certain diseases. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1788

#10106

Bibliotheca elementar chirurgico-anatomica, ou compendio historico-critico, e chronologico sobre a cirurgia e anatomia em geral, que contém os seus principios, incrementos e ultimo estado, assim em Portugal, como nas mais partes cultas do mundo; com a especificação de seus respectivos auctores, suas obras, vidas, methodos e inventos, desde os primeiros seculos até o presente ….

The first bibliography of historical medical literature in Portuguese. The preliminary leaves evaluate the status of medical history and bibliography. Part 1 describes the history of medicine to 1600; part 2, its hist…

1788

#10813

An account of the slave trade on the coast of Africa.

Falconbridge was a surgeon in the slave trade before becoming an abolitionist. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1788

#13163

Voyages intéressans dans différentes colonies françaises, espagnoles, anglaises, &c; contenant des observations importantes relatives à ces contrées; & un mémoire sur les maladies les plus communes à Saint-Domingue, leurs remèdes, & le moyen de s'en préserver moralement & phisiquement: Avec des anecdotes singulières, qui n'avaient jamais été publiés....

The final section addresses maladies affecting the residents of Saint-Domingue. Unlike many of his contemporaries Bourgeois assiduously recorded the medical practices of the enslaved and subjugated African and Indigen…

1788

#13366

Les eaux minérales et thermales de Saint-Dominique. Tome 1 (All Published).

One of the earliest medical publications printed in Haiti. Duvivier, Bibliographie générale et méthodique d'Haiti, 2, p. 206.

1788

#13593

The theory of rain.

In this paper on the operation of the water-cycle in meteorology Hutton hypothesized that rain was caused by a mixture of air currents of differing temperatures, either saturated or nearly saturated with moisture. "Hi…

1789

#1552

Observationes anatomicae de aure interna comparata.

1789 –1793

#80

Medical inquiries and observations. 2 vols.

Rush was considered the ablest American clinician of his time. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His many writings are distinguished for their classical st…

1789

#1601

An account of the principle lazarettos in Europe. With various papers relative to the plague: Together with further observations on some foreign prisons and hospitals and additional remarks on the present state of those in Great Britain and Ireland.

Following on his work for the improvement of the conditions in prisons, Howard travelled extensively in Europe, carrying out an elaborate investigation into the conditions of hospitals. Digital facsimile of the second…

1789

#1838

A treatise of the materia medica. 2 vols.

An expansion of Cullen’s “Lectures on materia medica”, 1773.

1789

#1453

Anatomicae disquisitiones de auditu et olfactu.

Scarpa made important researches concerning the auditory and olfactory apparatus of fishes, birds, reptiles, and man. See L. Sellers and B. Anson, [Scarpa’s] Anatomical observations on the round window, Arch. Otolaryn…

1789

#3809

Su i gozzi e sulla stupidità che in alcuni paesi gli accompagna tentativi

Hirsch considered this the first important work on cretinism and goitre. See also Malacarne’s Lettre, in J. P. Frank: Delectus opusculorum medicorum, 1789, 6, 241-58. Digital facsimile of Malacarne's pamphlet from Goo…

1789

#4920.2

Remarks and rules set by him in: Regolamento dei Regi Spedali di Santa Maria Nuova & di Bonifazio.

Chiarugi’s regulations for the Bonifazio mental asylum mark the first appearance in print of his landmark reforms in the humane treatment of the mentally ill. Chiarugi was the first to practise the humanitarian treatm…

1789

#4409

Dissertatio de fractura patellae et olecrani.

1789 –1790

#5833.1

Précis ou cours d’ opérations sur la chirurgie des yeux. 2 vols.,

The first separate book on ophthalmic surgery.

1789

#6021

An account of a particular change of structure in the human ovarium.

Matthew Baillie’s notable anatomico-pathological studies on dermoid cysts of the ovary. Also published in Lond. med. J., 1789, 10, 322-32.

1789

#5470

An account of the bilious remitting fever. In his Medical inquiries and observations, 1, 104-21

One of the first important accounts of dengue (“breakbone fever”). Rush described the Philadelphia outbreak of 1780.

1789

#8371

An arithmetical and medical analysis of the diseases and mortality of the human species.

Black analyzed the London bills of mortality from 1701-1776. His work was the only study to provide a numerical account of insanity, a disease on people's minds because of George III's illness.

1789 –1791

#8921

The botanic garden: A poem in two parts. Part I. Containing the economy of vegetation. Part II. The loves of the plants. With philosophical notes. 2 vols.

The first edition of part 2, preceded part 1, being published in 1789. This poem was the chief source of Erasmus Darwin's literary fame during his lifetime. Like his other works, this poem contains a great deal of fre…