This ninth century palimpsest codex contains as its undertext a text of Galen's On Simple Drugs in the Syriac translation by Sergius of Reshaina. It has not yet been formally published. For further information see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. For this discovery the authors shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The paper is available at  doi:10.1073/pnas.76.7.3107,PMC 383772, PMID 290989.

See also Hershko, A.; Ciechanover, A.; Heller, H.; Haas, A.L.; Rose, I.A. (1980), "Proposed role of ATP in protein breakdown: conjugation of protein with multiple chains of the polypeptide of ATP-dependent proteolysis", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77 (4): 1783-1786. doi:10.1073/pnas.77.4.1783,  PMC 348591, PMID 6990414.

The most comprehensive biography of Morton, and the most comprehensive account of the ether controversy between Morton and Charles Thomas Jackson.

The most comprehensive history of the development of spectacles and other vision aids in Europe, America, Japan, and China. With over 780 photographs, of which 310 are in color. 

The beginning of the development of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) — interactive computer programs, or expert systems, designed to assist physicians and other health professionals with decision making tasks, including diagnosis. For further information see HistoryofInformation.com at this link. The paper is available at doi:10.1126/science.130.3366.9. JSTOR 1758070.

Ledley and team developed the developed the ACTA 0100 CT Scanner (Automatic Computerized Traverse Axial)— the first whole-body computed tomography scanner. With G. Di Chiro, A. J. Luessenhop, and H.L. Twigg. For further information see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

The first paper published in a scientific journal on the application of an electronic computer to computational biology. At the second English computer conference held in Manchester from July 9-12, 1951 computer scientist John Makepiece Bennett and biochemist and crystallographer John Kendrew described their use of the Cambridge EDSAC for the computation of Fourier syntheses in the calculation of structure factors of the protein molecule myoglobin. Their paper in Acta Crystallographica was an expansion of a briefer summary published in the Manchester University Computer Conference Proceedings (1951). It represents a more thorough presentation intended for x-ray crystallographers, and must have been submitted almost immediately after the Manchester Conference, since it was received by Acta Crystallographica on July 28, 1951.

Initial paper on the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein, for which Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Max Perutz. Computing the molecular structure in 3 dimensions was possible through the use of the Cambridge EDSAC stored-program electronic computer. Co-authored by G. Bodo, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Kendrew's second paper reporting the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein, for which he shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Max Perutz, who solved the structure of the related and more complex protein, hemoglobin, two years after Kendrew’s achievement. With R. E. Dickerson, B. E. Strandberg, R. G. Hart, D. R. Davies, D. C. Phillips, and V. C. Shore.

Thirty years after beginning his research on hemoglobin Perutz solved the Fourier synthesis of hemoglobin at 2.8Å (high resolution) and built an atomic model of the molecule. With Hilary Muirhead, J. M. Cox & L. C. G. Goaman.

This book set forth in detail Pauling's valence-bond theory based on the quantum-mechanical concept of resonance between two energy states, which led to his highly innovative idea that the hybridization of orbitals (electron waves) between atoms is what makes molecular structure possible. Pauling’s work “taught a couple of generations of chemists that the sizes and electrical charges of atoms determine exactly [emphasis mine] their arrangement in molecules” (Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation, p. 57). For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Haurowitz discovered that crystalline deoxyhemoglobin changes in shape and color on reaction with oxygen, suggesting that it is a molecular lung.

Perutz opened up "the field of 'molecular pathology,' relating a structural abnormality to a disease" (Aaron Klug, "Max Perutz 1914-2002," Science 295 ([2002] 2383). Specifically Perutz showed that hemoglobin molecules collapse into a sickle shape in the blood disorder sickle-cell anemia. 

Discovery of the diffraction of X-rays in crystals. Laue’s discovery was of dual importance: it allowed the subsequent investigation of X-radiation by means of wavelength determination, and it provided the means for the Braggs’ structural analysis of crystals, for which they received the Nobel Prize in 1915. X-ray analysis of crystals, as initially developed by Sir Lawrence Bragg, became the most widely used technique for the investigation of molecular structure, leading to incalculable advances in both inorganic and organic chemistry, as well as molecular biology. After Max Perutz and his student John Kendrew first successfully applied Braggs’ X-ray crystallographic techniques to the study of the structure of proteins, these techniques were employed by hundreds of thousands of researchers around the world. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Astbury, a student of William Lawrence Bragg, was the first to study proteins by X-ray analysis. He applied X-ray analysis to the structure of hair, wool, and related fibers, of which the protein keratin is the principal component, and identified two states: α-keratin and β-keratin. With A. Street. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. Astbury's paper is available from jstor at this link.

At the age of 22, Bragg discovered that the regular pattern of dots produced on a photographic plate by an X-ray beam passing through a crystal could be regarded as a reflection of electromagnetic radiation from planes in a crystal that were especially densely studded with atoms. From this work the younger Bragg derived the “Bragg relation” or Bragg's law (nλ = 2d sin O). This relates the wavelength of the X-ray to the angle at which such a reflection could occur. See also: W. H. Bragg, “X-rays and Crystals,” Nature 90 (23 Jan. 1913) 572.

Discovery of X-ray crystallography. The father and son team of physicists, William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg, constructed the first X-ray spectrometer using crystals as gratings, using a known wavelength to determine the distances between atomic planes—and thus the structure—of crystalline substances. By the end of 1913 the Braggs reduced the problem of crystal structure analysis to a standard procedure. For further information see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. The Braggs' paper is available from the Royal Society at this link.

Hünefeld accidentally observed the first protein crystals— those of hemoglobin—in partically dried samples of mammalian blood blood pressed between glass plates. On page 160 Hünefeld noted that he had seen, in some samples, “tabular, crystalline precipitations, which under the microscope appeared sharply defined and colored bright red.” Figures 7 and 8 in the plate illustrating Hünefeld’s work show the crystals he observed in pig’s blood and human blood respectively; these represent the first published illustrations of hemoglobin crystals. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

Pasteur reported a series of “investigations into the relation between optical activity, crystalline structure, and chemical composition in organic compounds, particularly tartaric and paratartaric acids. This work focused attention on the relationship between optical activity and life, and provided much inspiration and several of the most important techniques for an entirely new approach to the study of chemical structure and composition. In essence, Pasteur opened the way to a consideration of the disposition of atoms in space.” (DSB)

Bernal and Hodgkin took the first X-ray photograph of a protein structure—crystalline pepsin. They showed that crystals of pepsin give an X-ray diffaction pattern, beginning protein crystallography. This may also be the beginning of structural molecular biology. The paper is freely available from Nature at this link.

Perhaps the only mathematician to name a new biological discipline, in 1938, as Director of the Natural Sciences Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, Weaver coined the term molecular biology to describe the use of techniques from the physical sciences (X-rays, radioisotopes, ultracentrifuges, mathematics, etc.) to study living matter. In the same year the Rockefeller Foundation awarded research grants to Linus Pauling for research on the structure of hemoglobin. Under Weaver's direction the Rockefeller Foundation became a primary funder of early research in molecular biology.

Lippmann's discovery illuminated “the process by which cells make available the energy to drive their manufacturing processes” (Judson, Eighth Day of Creation, 246-48, quote from p.  245).

The Gilbert-Maxam method for sequencing DNA. In 1980 Gilbert shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Frederick Sanger and Paul Berg. Berg received half of the prize "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA". The other half was split between Gilbert and Frederick Sanger "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids". This paper is available from PNAS at this link.

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.

The final structure of vitamin B12, for which Hodgkin was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. With J. Pickworth, J.H. Robertson, K.N. Trueblood, R.J. Prosen, J. G. White.  

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 itself, the ISTC ih00277500 attributes it to "about 1481", making it, and an edition of Hippocrates' De insomniis Ed: Andreas Brentius also attributed by ISTC ih00277000 to Rome: Oliverius Servius, "about 1481", possibly the earliest printed editions of any of Hippocrates's works. Digital edition of De insomniis from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

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.

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-law Gian Francesco Torresani d'Asola, using a fifteenth-century manuscript now in Paris (BNF MS gr. 2141), with corrections provided by a second manuscript from the library of Cardinal Bessarion (Venice, Bibliotheca Marciana MS gr. 269). The Aldine Torresani edition corrected some errors in the Latin translation by Marco Fabio Calvo published the previous year, and also included a few works not in Calvo's edition.

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 diseases and their various remedies. After two pages on anatomy, discussion of affections of the eye begin, with references to cataract, affections of the cornea, conjunctiva, pruritus, clearing the sight, etc. 

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 on eye diseases in the near future. This was Fuchs's treatise, which has 32 pages, as opposed to the 24 pages of the 1538 Büchlin, and which details many more diseases, using a more learned Latin terminology. Like the anonymous 1538 pamphlet, Fuchs's work is very rare.

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 have served in the army of the emperor Nero, and may have practiced in Rome in the first century CE. His work, which was of great practical medicinal value, remained in circulation throughout the Middle Ages, in Latin, Greek, and Arabic versions, and was often supplemented with commentary and additions from Arabic and Indian sources. The text which Medemblick published in print was a medieval Latin translation, reworked into alphabetical order, with commentary by the thirteenth century professor of medicine at Padua, Pietro d' Abano. ISTC No. id00261000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link.

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

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.

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 medical and scientific autographs collected by Putti. Limited to 200 copies printed at the expense of Contessa Carolina Rasponi. Reprinted, Bologna: A. Forni, 1963 as Catalogo della Raccolta Vittorio Putti.

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 publications. Contains over 2000 works in comparative anatomy, zoology, embryology, teratology, ethnography, medicine and related subjects. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

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 manuscript catalogue, the library consisted of 623 works in 645 volumes of which about 190 works were on medicine. With numerous fine color plates. Schedel also owned a collection of prints and drawings, described and illustrated in Die Graphiksammulung des Humanisten Hartmann Schedel by Béatrice Hernad (Munich, 1990).

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 and Yale, and a list of printed books and manuscripts known to have belonged to Pol, estimated possibly as high as 1350 volumes—an enormous, and unlikely number for the time. After Pol's death in 1532, his library passed to Innichen Abbey in South Tyrol. Surviving volumes of his library are now scattered; some are in Innichen, Innsbruck, and Vienna, and in the USA in the National Library of Medicine, Yale and in the Dittrick Museum of Medical History, Cleveland (33 volumes bought in 1929 from Maggs Bros., for GBP 2,500).

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 removing birthmarks and tattoos without leaving much scarring. With D. J. Blaney, D. J. Kindel Jr., and E. K. Franke. See also Goldman, L., Blaney, D. J., Kindel, D. J. Jr, Richfield, D., Franke,  E. K.,  "Pathology of the effect of the laser beam on the skin," Nature 197 (1963) 912– 914.

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

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 Galen’s greatest and most influential works. Enlivening the detailed case studies Galen presented are many theoretical and polemical discussions, acute social commentary, and personal reflections. The British physician, scholar and humanist Linacre was one of the first Englishmen to study Greek in Italy and to bring the "new learning" of Renaissance humanism back to his native land. As few English printers issued books in Latin, Linacre had his translation published in France. It was reprinted many times during the 16th century. Reflecting demand for the work, the Greek editio princeps of Methodus medendi was published at Venice from the press of Z. Callierges in 1500--one of the earliest of Galen's works to appear in the original Greek. Books 3-6 of the 14 were published in an English translation by T. Gale, in London, 1566. The complete Method of medicine was translated into English by Ian Johnston and G. H. R. Hosley for the Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Galen’s shorter textbook on these subjects, Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo, was translated into French by C. Daremberg in Oeuvres anatomiques, physiologiques et médicales de Galien, Paris, 1856, 2, 706-784.

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 Thomas Linacre.

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

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 number of pages, and whether or not there were plates; date of publication was not mentioned, however. Digital facsimile from HistoryofScience.com at this link.

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 Gaylord Beaman (1935). 

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 annotations in other books. The catalogue of 395 items describes the detailed annotations that Gessner wrote in many of the volumes. As Gessner's library was eventually dispersed after his death, this catalogue is the result of the scholars' many years' of efforts at its reconstruction by identifying surviving volumes.

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 function in a schematic way that was based very loosely on Galen, but initially formalized in the late 4^th century by the Christian theologian, Nemesius, Bishop of Emesa. "In his book, De Natura Hominis (On the Nature of Man), Nemesius postulated that all faculties of the immaterial soul are located entirely in the ventricles, with each of them being responsible for a specific quality based on Aristotle’s classification of these functions. Essentially Nemesius attributed sensation and the unification of images (common sense) to the refinement of psychic pneuma (animal spirits) in our lateral ventricles (together the first ventricle), cognition to our third ventricle (the second ventricle), and memory to our fourth ventricle (the third ventricle). This exceptionally complex topic was greatly elaborated over the centuries, and crudely illustrated in certain manuscripts before the version printed in 1490. The relevant manuscript and early printed versions are thoroughly illustrated by Clarke & Dewhurst (1996)" (communication from Larry W. Swanson). ISTC no. ia00296000.

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 three-color printing. The plates in this volume were printed in red and black, using only two plates. The book provides a chronological survey of ideas about the nervous system from Magnus Hundt (1501) to Tarin and his contemporaries, including Willis and Vieussens. Many parts of the brain are described, some for the first time (the fascia dentata Tarini and Tarin’s pons—the dentate gyrus, Huxley’s term, and posterior perforated space or region of the interpeduncular nucleus, respectively). (communication from Larry W. Swanson). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

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, systematically, and experimentally to find “which particular organ within the bony casing of the brain, can produce sudden death” (Neuburger, Historical development of experimental brain and spinal cord physiology [1981] p. 97). As explained by Neuburger Chapter 6, Lorry systematically eliminated the cerebrum, cerebellum, and most of the spinal cord, and so focussed in on the medulla. He found that sudden death occurred in dogs only when the rostral spinal cord was punctured between the first and second vertebra in small animals and between the second and third vertebra in large animals. Puncture caudal to this level produced paralysis but not death. He had damaged the phrenic nucleus, the origin of the phrenic nerve controlling contraction of the diaphragm and thus breathing. “These precise data constitute probably the first example in the literature of a definite localization of function. This was the first center to be established, the earliest identification of ‘the ganglion of life’ ” (Neuburger p. 98). (communication from Larry W. Swanson)

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.

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

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 the disease rather than just the symptoms. (American-trained osteopathic physicians (D.O.s) are licensed to practice medicine and surgery throughout the U.S., and are recognized in sixty other countries.) Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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 Hope Mayo. Based on an exhibition held at The Grolier Club 20 September - 23 November 1994. Descriptions of individual items were written by collectors, booksellers, scholars and bibliographers.

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 working at the court of the Manchu Emperior K'ang Hsi (Kangxi). The manuscript reproduced and translated in this edition contained 90 illustrations; other surviving versions of this work (9 copies are known) may contain as many as 135 illustrations. The text was apparently intended only for consultation by members of the imperial household, and no attempts were made to disseminate this information to practioners outside the court.

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 published in the above undated edition that was probably issued about 1540, is the oldest German surgical text. Beris "was the teacher of Heinrich von Pfolsprundt, whose manuscript, first published in the nineteenth century, is often cited as the first German work on surgery. Johannes is mentioned by Pfolsprundt with great praise as his most influential teacher. Johannes' original manuscdript is in the Metz Stadtbibliothek. The illustrations in the printed edition include a blood-letting man that is copied after Johann Stoeffler, a zodiac and wound man, and several bedside scenes" (Eugene S. Flamm, Printing and the Brain of Man (New York: The Grolier Club, 2011) No. 51.

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. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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

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

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 editions. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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 the normal organism) or heteromorphous (composed of elements having no analogy in the body). Lebert’s treatise “described the characteristics of malignant cells, their variation of sizes, and noted the commonly increased size of the nucleus compared to the cytoplasm (later known as the ‘karyoplasmic ratio’). This is the first description of altered karyoplasmic ratios in cancer cells. Alteration of karyoplasmic ratios is a morphometric criterion still used today in diagnostics” (De las Heras and Schirmer, “The nuclear envelope and cancer: A diagnostic perspective and historical overview,” Cancer Biology and the Nuclear Envelope [2014], p. 8, pp. 5-26). “Lebert characterized the cancer cell itself as follows: ‘The pattern of the cancerous cell is that of a small regular sphere with an elliptical nucleus, placed eccentrically, occupying almost half or even more of the inside and enclosing one or several big nucleoli’” (Wolff, Cancerous Disease [1907] 109). Assuming that only tumors containing this type of cell could be considered cancers, Lebert excluded several types of tumors that had previously been classed as cancerous, calling these tumors “pseudocancer” and “cancroid.”

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

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 the Hathi Trust at this link.

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 11th-century Jewish Byzantine doctor and scholar originally from Antioch, who became grand Chamberlain (protovestiarius) under Michael VII Doukas. "Simeon Seth was the great Orientalist of Byzantine medicine... [he] selected the best, not only from the Greek materia medica but also from Persian, Arabic, and Indian sources" (Owsei Temkin, "Byzantine Medicine: Tradition and Empiricism", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16 [1962] 95-115). Seth was a contemporary of the monk, philosopher, politician and historian Michael Psellos. His work has been called a revision of Psellos's Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus or De cibarium facultate, "On the Properties of Foods"), which criticizes Galen and emphasizes eastern medical traditions. Psellos wrote the work for the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, and Seth revised it for Michael VII Doukas, adding a brief introduction (the proem.), some corrections to the text, and omitting some chapters. The work considers some two hundred and twenty-eight plants and animals. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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 literature of a traditional remedy known since antiquity, and an ethnobotanical remedy widely used by native Americans, and perhaps other native peoples. Remarkably the remedy seems to have been forgotten or unknown to the scientific establishment until Stone published. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

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-Essigsäure). However, Gerhard did not pursue the matter further. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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 and animals. Digital facsimile of the 1917 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of Thompson's revised second edition (1942) from the Internet Archive at this link. Abridged edition edited by John Tyler Bonner, Cambridge, 1992.

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, therapeutics, embryology, gynaecology, dietetics, foods and poisons. This edition largely supercedes that of Wellmann.

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 knowledge of the subject. J. V. Ricci prepared an annotated translation of Aetius's obstetrical writings from the improved Latin edition of Basel, 1542, and published it in Philadelphia, 1950. 

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 27 years in India, eventually rising to the position of superintending surgeon of the southern division of the army in Madras. He was one of the first European scholars to investigate the traditional Hindu medical system known as Ayurveda,. The specific purpose of his book was to make indigenous remedies available to the British Army, thus reducing its reliance on expensive imported drugs; however, his larger purpose was to bridge the gap between the medical cultures of Europe and Asia. He was careful to distinguish the Indian medicines already known in Europe from those exclusively used by native physicians. Ainslie drew upon works in Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian and Arabic, all of which he cited in his bibliography. The names of the medicaments listed in the work are given in several languages, using roman, Tamil and Arabic types. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Aretaeus, a Greek physician who lived during the reign of Nero or Vespasian, wrote a general treatise on diseases which displays great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and is of great value in the diagnosis of disease. His work, written in Ionic Greek, survived in relatively complete form. It consists of 8 books, the Latin translation of the titles of which are De causis et signis acutorum morborum (2 books), De causis et signis diuturnorum morborum (2 books), De curatione acutorum morborum (2 books), and De curatione diuturnorum morborum (2 books). Aretaeus's works were first published in Latin translation by Junius Paulus Crassus (Giunio Paolo Grassi) along with Grassi's translation of Rufus of Ephesus, in 1552. Rufus's work is the earliest treatise on the anatomical nomenclature of the human body. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Aretaeus's Greek text was first published in Paris by classical scholar and printer Adrianus Turnebus (Adrien Turnèbe or Tournebeuf) in 1554.Though the editor of that edition is unidentified, the work has been attributed to Jacques Goupyl. In 1723 a major edition in folio was published at the Clarendon press at Oxford, edited by John Wigan, containing an improved text, a new Latin version, learned dissertations and notes, and a copious index by Michel Maittaire. In 1731, Herman Boerhaave brought out a new annotated edition, of which the text and Latin version had been printed before the appearance of Wigan's; this edition contained annotations by Pierre Petit and Daniel Wilhelm Triller, as well as all the notes in Wigan's edition. The edition by C. G. Kühn, Leipzig 1828, included Wigan's text, Latin version, dissertations, etc., together with Petit's commentary, Triller's emendations, and Maittaire's index.The more recent standard edition is by Karl Hude (1860–1936) in the Corpus medicorum graecorum (2nd ed., Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1958, online at this link.The four books, De causis et signis, were published in an annotated bilingual edition in Greek and French, Arétée de Cappadoce, Des causes et des signes des maladies aiguës et chroniques, trans. R.T.H. Laennec, ed. and comm. Mirko D. Grmek, pref. by Danielle Gourevitch, Geneva, 2000.

Extensively annotated and well-illustrated catalogue of books, prints, sculptures, and anatomical models from the 15th to 20th centuries, written by Jeremy Norman for the auction sale of Dean Edell's library sold at Christie's, New York, on October 5, 2007. 

This 15th century manuscript (British Library Sloan 2463) predates by about a century The byrth of mankynde, previously considered the first work on the subject.

Includes a directory of Anglo-Norman physicians.

Written about in the early 13th century by the poet, chronicler and physician Peter of Eboli, the didactic poem, De balneis Putelolanis (The baths of Pozzuoli) was the first widely distributed medieval guidebook to medicinal baths, of which there were 35 in the Pozzuoli region, near Naples. Of copies made from the 13th to 15th centuries, 20 survived, 10 of which were illuminated, each with one miniature for each of the 35 baths described. These are the only surviving examples of medieval secular book illumination on a subject of predominantly local interest as opposed to herbals or romances. The facsimile edition cited is of the 13th century copy in the Bibliotheca Angelica, Rome. Digital facsimile of a 15th century illuminated manuscript of the text from Roderic.uv.es at this link. Digital facsimile of a 14th century manuscript from the Fondation Martin Bodmer at this link. 

Sixty images (reproduced in color where appropriate) with detailed commentary and bibliographical references, arranged in chronological order, from the first images viewed through the microscope to electron micrographs.

Dumbarton Oaks Papers No. 38, 1984. 

The "Bible" of Thomsonism or "Thomsonian medicine", which employed botanical remedies, often based on native American medicines. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

D. D. Palmer founded chiropractic; his son B. J. developed the practice. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link.

Notable British Trials Series. Transcripts of the trials of the most famous "resurrection men", with related documents. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The second published report on what later became the AIDS epidemic. The report described 26 homosexual men in New York and California with Kaposi's sarcoma, and 10 more Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) cases in homosexual men in California.

Isolation of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). For this work Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. With J. C. Chermann, F. Rey, M.T. Nugeyre, S. Chamaret, J. Gruest, C. Dauguet, C. Axler-Blin ], F. Vezinet-Brun, C. Rouzioux, W. Rozenbaum. Bibcode:1983Sci...220..868B. doi:10.1126/science.6189183. PMID 6189183.i

Gallo, Popovic, and colleagues demonstrated that a retrovirus they had isolated, called HTLV-III, was the cause of AIDS.  M. G. Sarngadharan, and E. Read. Bibcode:1984Sci...224..497P. doi:10.1126/science.6200935. PMID 6200935. This is the first of 4 related papers that Gallo's team published in Science in May 1984. In 1986 Gallo received his second Lasker Award, “For determining that the retrovirus now known as HIV-1 is the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)."

Shilts, an investigative journalist, chronicled the discovery and spread of HIV / AIDS with special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a gay disease. Shilts' premise was that the AIDS epidemic was allowed to happen, and incompetence and apathy toward those who were initially affected by AIDS allowed the spread of the disease to become much worse than it might have been. Shilts died of complications from AIDS in 1994.

In 1993 Shilts's book became the subject of an American television docudrama, also entitled And the Band Played On, directed by Roger Spottiswood, and starring Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Ian McKellen, Lily Tomlin, and  Richard Gere. 

The standard edition in French includes a very extensive bibliography of both manuscript and printed versions. English translation of sections on wounds and fractures, Chicago, 1923.