A biographical study by his grand-daughter, based on previously unpublished letters and journals of John James Audubon. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

First printed edition of the "virtually complete" series of original water-color paintings for Audubon's The Birds of America, preserved in The New York Historical Society. 

Contains information on 833 species.

Study of the "Al-Ṭibb al-jadīd al-kīmiyāʼī alladhī ikhtaraʻahu Barākalsūs (The new chemical medicine invented by Paracelsus), an Arabic compendium of alchemical works from early modern Europe by Salih ibn Nasrallah al-Halabi ibn Sallum (died 1671). Ibn Sallum was a noted physician in Aleppo and subsequently chief physician in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. Ibn Sallum’s work is on iatrochemistry and consists of translations of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (1493‒1541), an alchemist, physician, and medical reformer, and of alchemist and physician Oswald Crollius (circa 1563–1609). The first part of Ibn Sallum’s work is an Arabic translation of Paracelsus, which includes an introduction and four chapters (each of which are divided further into sections). The introduction, an overview of the history of alchemy, describes the invention of alchemy by “Hermes Trismegistus the Egyptian” (a legendary “thrice-great Hermes” to whom a large corpus of writing was attributed) and the subsequent transfer of alchemical knowledge to the Hellenistic and Islamic worlds. The book also discusses Paracelsus and his transformation of alchemy into a field of medicine, with a dual focus on the perfection and purification of metals and on preserving the health of the human body. Chapter one is entitled al-Juz’ al-naẓarī min ashyā’ gharība wa huwa al-ṭibb al-kīmīyā’ī fī al-umūr al-ṭabī‘īya (On the speculative part of paranormal objects, i.e., alchemical medicine regarding the affairs of nature). This chapter includes a discussion of such topics as al-Hayūlā al-ūlā wa al-sirr al-akbar (prime matter and the great secret). The second chapter is entitled Asās ṭibb al-kīmīyā (On the principles of alchemical medicine). Presented in this chapter are sections on asbāb al-amrāḍ (the causes of illness), al-nabḍ (the pulse), and al-ʻalāj al-kullī (general treatments). The third chapter, Bayān kayfīyat tadbīr al-adwīya (On an explication of the manner of managing medicines), discusses chemical procedures involving metals and minerals. The fourth chapter, Fī al-ʻamaliyāt (On operations), discusses such procedures as the distillation of water. The second part of this compendium is an Arabic rendition of Basilica Chymica, by Crollius, who was influenced by Paracelsus. The first edition of Crollius’s work was probably printed in 1609 in Frankfurt, with a French translation appearing in 1622. The Arabic version of this work, which takes up roughly the second half of the manuscript, deals with the general treatment of diseases as well as the treatment of ailments that are specific to various organs. The bismallah (in the name of God) and the invocation to God and the Prophet have been omitted from the introduction to this manuscript. Also omitted is the subsequent sentence which identifies the work, and lists Paraclesus as the inventor of the new alchemical medicine" (https://www.wdl.org/en/item/17155/).

Readings in English translation, with commentaries, from classical medical texts.

First edition in Latin of Paul of Aegina's treatise on pharmacological simples, the ingredients for preparing medicines. This describes the properties of about 750 plants and minerals, listing them in alphabetical order. The translation of the second work, De ratione victus, was prepared by Wilhelm Kopp from Basel, who moved to Paris in 1512 and became personal physician to Louis XII. That work describes about 100 medicines.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

First Latin translation of a three-part pharmaceutical treatise on the properties and effects of medicines derived from animals, plants, and minerals, attributed to the medieval Egyptian polymath Abd Al-Rahman Al-Suyuti, but probably assembled from various Arabic sources. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"Serapion the Younger ... is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from Serapion the Elder, aka Yahya ibn Sarafyun, an earlier medical writer with whom he was often confused. Serapion the Younger's Simple Medicaments was likely written in Arabic, but no Arabic copy survives, and there is no record of a knowledge of the book among medieval Arabic authors.^[1] The book was translated to Latin in the late 13th century and was widely circulated in late medieval Latin medical circles.^[2] Portions of the Latin text make a good match with portions of a surviving Arabic text Kitab al-adwiya al-mufrada attributed to Ibn Wafid (died 1074 or 1067).^[3] The entire Latin text is very heavily reliant on medieval Arabic medicinal literature; and it is essentially just a compilation of such literature. It is exceedingly clear that the book was not originally written in a Latin language.^[2]

"In the title Simple Medicaments, "simple" means non-compound: a practical medicine most often consisted of a mix of two or more "simples". The work was written for physicians and apothecaries. In the book's early part, Serapion the Younger classifies substances according to their medicinal properties, and discourses on their actions.^[5] The remainder and largest part of the book is a compendium of information on individual medicaments quoted from Dioscorides, Galen, and numerous named medieval Arabic writers on medicaments, with relatively brief supporting remarks by himself" (Wikipedia article on Serapion the Younger, accessed 5-2020).

ISTC No. is00467000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

The first independent bibliography of chemistry and alchemy, citing 4000 books and manuscripts, including authors or titles now lost or obtainable today only with great difficulty. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first Brussels pharmacopeia, modeled after the first Paris pharmacopeia.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomelibrary.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Pages 275-288 are titled "Note sur la médecine des Mongols." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English as Observations on diseases incidental to seamen. Translated from the Latin edition printed at Leyden. London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, jun, 1772. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

The Sefer Asaf, the earliest known Hebrew work on medicine, is "extant in 16 manuscripts, some complete; it constitutes a source of information on ancient customs and Jewish medical ethics as well as of ancient Jewish remedies and Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Latin, and Greek medical terminology. Excerpts from Greek medical books, some of which have been lost and are not known from any other sources, appear in Hebrew in this book. The most complete manuscripts are in Munich, Oxford, Brit. Museum London, Florence, and Paris. The book was not written by Asaph himself, but by his disciples. They mention, as teachers, R. Johanan b. Zavda and R. Judah ha-Yarhoni, as well as Asaph. Some sections of the book are very old, though others were written or translated from other languages as late as the seventh until the tenth century. The antiquity of the work is apparent from its style, similar to that of the older Midrashim, from its use of Persian (rather than Arabic) synonyms, and from the mention of weights current in Palestine during the talmudic period" (Encyclopedia Judaica, 2008)

Digital facsimile of the revised edition published in 1907 from Google Books at this link.

The first textbook of pediatric endocrinology.

Drew discovered the method for long-term storage of blood plasma, and organized America's first large-scale blood bank.

Drew's thesis for his medical degree at Columbia was entitled "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation." "The thesis also made him the first African American to earn a medical doctorate from Columbia. Scudder remarked that the thesis was “a masterpiece” and “one of the most distinguished essays ever written, both in form and content.”

"Drew’s doctoral research assessed previous blood and transfusion research, blood chemistry and fluid replacement, and evaluated variables affecting shelf-life of stored blood — from types and amounts of anticoagulants (substances that prevent blood from clotting) and preservatives, to shapes of storage containers and temperature.

"His key findings, complex procedures, and standards for collecting, processing and storing blood proved his expertise and led to an appointment to head the Blood for Britain Project (BFB), an effort to transport desperately needed blood and plasma to Great Britain, which was under attack by Germany" 

As Medical Supervisor, Blood Plasma Division, Charles R. Drew was the lead author of Part II: "Medical report submitted in behalf of the Board of Medical Control by the Medical Supervisor of the Blood Plasma Division, the Chairman of the Board, the Chairman of the Blood Plasma Committee, and the Assistant to the Board, Blood Plasma Division" (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html, accessed 5-2020).

Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

"This volume catalogues Cassiano dal Pozzo’s copy of the Codex Cruz-Badianus, an Aztec herbal prepared for the son of the Viceroy of Mexico in 1552 and the earliest medical text to have survived from the New World. The original codex was presented to Cassiano’s patron, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, during a papal legation to Spain in 1626, and was copied on the Cardinal’s return to Rome for Cassiano’s fellow members of the Accademia dei Lincei, who at that time were completing their own vast illustrated natural history of Central America.

"Cassiano’s copy of the Codex Cruz-Badianus is preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle together with the larger surviving part of his ‘Paper Museum’, an encyclopaedic collection of prints and drawings of antiquities, architecture and natural history subjects, acquired by George III in 1762.

"Each folio of the Windsor manuscript is reproduced in colour together with full comparative illustrations of the Codex Cruz-Badianus. The Latin text is transcribed with a parallel English translation, and each of the 184 drawings of plants is analysed. The catalogue is preceded by general introductions to the Paper Museum and to the natural history drawings, and by two thematic essays: Luigi Guerrini discusses the Windsor copy in the context of the Lincei’s researches into the natural history of the New World; and Alejandro de Ávila reviews the current state of research into the original Codex Cruz-Badianus, including the fieldwork and linguistic researches in Mexico that are changing our understanding of the manuscript" (publisher).

Sir Joseph Banks was responsible for publishing most of Kaempfer's studies of Japanese plants, which had remained unpublished for more than 70 years. This work introduced many Japanese plants to Western botanists.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Analysis of publishing and editorial aspects of the many editions of Galen's collected works published during the height of Galen's influence after the invention of printing. This filled a gap in Galenic bibliography since Richard Durling did not cover most of these editions in his Chronological census (1961).

One of the more unusually titled travel accounts including the mention that "the author became the prisoner of 40,000 black revolutionaries, and was rescued by the French army." "Following his marriage to the daughter of Rossignol-Desdunes, who had plantations in Artibonite, he [Descourtilz] went to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1798, on the way visiting Charleston, South Carolina, and Santiago de Cuba. Descourtilz became involved in the Negro revolution and, in spite of the protection of Toussaint L'Ouverture was nearly executed by Dessalines. but in 1803 escaped and sailed to Cádiz. Most of his original drawings and manuscripts, as well as his herbarium, were burned in Haiti; and in writing his books he had to rely on the works of Plumier, Joseph Surian, Alexandre Poiteau, and Turpin. His zoological contributions, particularly those on the caiman, were highly praised" (DSB). This set included 43 stipple engraved plates.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

One of the most comprehensive repositories of North American ornithology, published over 50 years, in a series of volumes in the United States National Museum Bulletin.  Bent used his own experiences traveling over the United States, the published literature, and contributions from hundreds of other people to create a series of works totalling over 9,000 pages with over 1,400 plates. The volumes appeared as follows:

• 1919 - Life Histories of North American Diving Birds (NMB 107)
• 1921 - Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns (NMB 113)
• 1922 - Life Histories of North American Petrels and Pelicans and Their Allies (NMB 121)
• 1923 - Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part 1) (NMB 126)
• 1925 - Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part 2) (NMB 130)
• 1926 - Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds (NMB 135)
• 1927 - Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (part 1) (NMB 142)
• 1929 - Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (part 2) (NMB 146)
• 1932 - Life Histories of North American Gallinaceous Birds (NMB 162)
• 1937 - Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (part 1) (NMB 167)
• 1938 - Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (part 2) (NMB 170)
• 1939 - Life Histories of North American Woodpeckers (NMB 174)
• 1940 - Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds, and Their Allies (NMB 176)
• 1942 - Life Histories of North American Flycatchers, Larks, Swallows, and Their Allies (NMB 179)
• 1946 - Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice (NMB 191)
• 1948 - Life Histories of North American Nuthatches, Wrens, Thrashers, and Their Allies (NMB 195)
• 1949 - Life Histories of North American Thrushes, Kinglets, and Their Allies (NMB 196)
• 1950 - Life Histories of North American Wagtails, Shrikes, Vireos, and Their Allies (NMB 197)
• 1953 - Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers (NMB 203)
• 1958 - Life Histories of North American Blackbirds, Orioles, Tanagers, and Allies (NMB 211)
• 1968 - Life Histories of North American Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Buntings, Towhees, Finches, Sparrows, and Allies (3 parts) (Arthur Cleveland Bent and Collaborators, compiled and edited by Oliver L. Austin, Jr.) (NMB 237)

In this rather utopian work with emblematic illustrations Pérez presented a plan for a state funded public health system and poor relief program. His ten essays concerned hospital sanitation, kitchen gardens, care of disable veterans, prisoners and the indigen, housing for the working proof and government subsized textile and tapestry manufacture to employ the homeless. This medical emblem book contains ten large woodcut emblems and a full-page woodcut floor plan of an almshouse. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Tilesius's doctoral dissertation introduced the laboratory technique of moving-boundary electrophoresis, a technique for separation of chemical compounds by electrophoresis in free solution.

For this work, and the work published in entries 12831, 12832, and 2576.8, Tilesius received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research on electrophoresis and absorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of serum proteins."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Between 1931 and 1937, with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Tiselius developed his "Tiselius apparatus" for moving boundary electrophoresis. In this paper he demonstrated that electrophoresis separated protein fractions into four bands that he named: 1) albumin, 2) alpha, 3) beta, 4) gamma.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Tiselius showed that an antibody that he produced in a rabbit by immunizing it with albumin (ovalbumin) was clearly located in the gamma globulin fraction. He summarized the paper with this statement: "Investigation of a highly potent anti-egg albumin ('ovalbumin') serum from rabbit showed that the antibody function migrated with the gamma globulin fraction only."

Consequences of separation and identification of the antibody were that it could be studied and characterized, could be quantitated, and could be used to identify pathologic conditions in which it was either absent or low.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Griffith discussed complex physical chemistry mechanisms by which the scrapie agent could arise from information encoded in protein structure which could then be transferred to other protein molecules. He also considered means by which the same protein might take up different conformations (some being disease related) without changes in its primary structure, and the polymerization of the protein might provide it with different biological properties. He hypothesized that protein could undergo "self replication."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

This paper, which predated Griffith's' paper (No. 12833), demonstrated that the scrapie agent replicates without nucleic acids. Alper and colleagues irradiated scrapie infected mouse brain extracts with lethal ultraviolet rays at both 254-265 and 280-285 wavelengths, which would kill all viruses and bacteria then known, and inactivate or destroy nucleic acids. They did not draw the conclusion that the scapie agent must be associated with a protein, but that was the clear implication of their research. This paper was a catalyst for Griffith to develop the work published in No. 12833.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

The authors showed that the " 'normal prion protein' in the brains of living mice can be converted into different forms depending on the type of abnormal human prion that initiated the conversion. The result is different patterns of pathological changes in the host, as would be expected for different prion strains." Prusiner proposed that "infection with one of the misfolded proteins can induce disease by forcing healthy PrP molecules to refold themselves into abnormal prions." 

(Order of authorship in the original publication: Telling, Parchi De Armond...Prusiner.)

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

The authors modified Koch's Postulates within the context of prion disease. To do so the followed these steps:

1) They created recombinant mouse prion proteins in an E. coli and polymerized them.
2) They proved that these prion proteins were pure, and could not have any extraneous contaminating cellular or DNA/RNA material.
3) They injected these prion proteins aseptically into the brains of normal mice, fed them, reared them, and waited.
4) The mice developed neurologic dysfunction typical of a prion disease between 380 and 660 days after the injection.
5) Extracts from the brains of the mice were confirmed by Western blot analytic technique to be prionic in nature.
6) These abnormal prion proteins extracted from the mouse brains, when inoculated into and transmitted to other healthy mice, induced the typical neuropathological findings of the same prion illness.

(Order of authorship in the original publication: Legname, Baskakov, Nguyen....Prusiner.)

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

"The name of Hippocrates has been invoked as an inspiration of medicine since antiquity, and medical practitioners have turned to Hippocrates for ethical and social standards. While most modern commentators accept that medicine has sometimes fallen short of Hippocratic ideals, these ideals are usually portrayed as having a timeless appeal, departure from which is viewed as an aberration that only a return to Hippocratic values will correct. Recent historical work has begun to question such an image of Hippocrates and his medicine. Instead of examining Hippocratic ideals and values as an unchanging legacy passed to us from antiquity, historians have increasingly come to explore the many different ways in which Hippocrates and his medicine have been constructed and reconstructed over time. Thus scholars have tended to abandon attempts to extract a real Hippocrates from the mass of conflicting opinions about him. Rather, they tend to ask why he was portrayed in particular ways, by particular groups, at particular times. This volume explores the multiple uses, constructions, and meanings of Hippocrates and Hippocratic medicine since the Renaissance, and elucidates the cultural and social circumstances that shaped their development. Recent research has suggested that whilst the process of constructing and reconstructing Hippocrates began during antiquity, it was during the sixteenth century that the modern picture emerged. Many scholastic endeavours today, it is claimed, are attempts to answer Hippocratic questions first posed in the sixteenth century" (publisher).

First work in English on regional anesthesia. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"After arriving from South Asia approximately a thousand years ago, cannabis quickly spread throughout the African continent. European accounts of cannabis in Africa—often fictionalized and reliant upon racial stereotypes—shaped widespread myths about the plant and were used to depict the continent as a cultural backwater and Africans as predisposed to drug use. These myths continue to influence contemporary thinking about cannabis. In The African Roots of Marijuana, Chris S. Duvall corrects common misconceptions while providing an authoritative history of cannabis as it flowed into, throughout, and out of Africa. Duvall shows how preexisting smoking cultures in Africa transformed the plant into a fast-acting and easily dosed drug and how it later became linked with global capitalism and the slave trade" (publisher).

Latin text with parallel English translation.

An eyewitness account of the retreat from Italy of Charles VIII of France in 1495, written by a physician of Verona, who was chief surgeon of the Venetian troops in the campaign. Although the book is not written primarily from the medical standpoint, it exemplifies a physician’s eye for detail and provides information about health conditions and diseases prevailing in the camps of the French troops.

This is probably the first published narrative written by a physician that concerns military history and military medicine of the Renaissance. Notably, it was relatively current information, being published one year after the retreat.

ISTC No. ib00320400. Digital facsimile from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

Lecluse treated in a succinct but correct manner the anatomy of the mouth; invented some and perfected other instruments, the most important of which is the elevator that still bears his name, and . . . he frequently performed the operation of replantation, warmly recommended by him as an excellent means of cure in certain cases of caries" (Guerini, History of Dentistry, p. 305). "Louis Lecluse . . . was a scintillating personality, whose activity was divided his entire life between dentistry, the theater, and poetry. . . . This book contains an anatomical section, a practical section, and a section devoted to the deciduous teeth. The special oral anatomy . . . is divided, just as our modern textbooks, into osteological, myological, angiological, neurological, and sarcological parts. . . . On the practical side. Lecluse mentions some new tooth removers. . . . Mainly he mentions his own specialized instrument for luxation of the mandibular third molar (he also used it for the maxillary counterparts). This instrument which is adjusted with a bayonet-shaped bending joint is still used today as the 'Lecluse', and numerous modern levers operate on its principle. Point A is applied diagonally between the last two molars, and levers the third molar out when turned with the next-to-last tooth as a fulcrum. . . . The third section . . . concerns itself with generalities . . . with a wide variety of good suggestions for preservation of the primary teeth" (Hoffmann-Axthelm, History of Dentistry, p. 210).

"Dr. Thomas W. Evans, a Philadelphia dentist of pioneering skill and great charm, moved in the highest circles of France's Second Empire. His expertise gave American dentistry a special distinction, while his discretion made him the confidant of Europe's reigning families. When they wished to communicate discreetly, they simply made an appointment with their dentist! Dr. Evans was a guest in the court society presided over by the spirited and beautiful Empress Eugénie, and he took part in the sparkling life of the boulevards and bohemia. Dr. Evans's inside knowledge of plans for the revitalization of Paris- largely the Paris we see today- allowed him to become a multi­millionaire through well-chosen investments in real estate. Among the French bohemians, Méry Laurent, an exquisite and witty artist's model, introduced him to painters and writers of genius—Manet and Whistler, the symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, the Irish writer George Moore, and many others. When the Second Empire fell and an angry mob stormed the Tuileries palace, it was Evans who saved the Empress from prison, and perhaps the guillotine, in a dangerous and romantic escape to England. Always a staunch American, Dr. Evans visited President Lincoln, Secretary of State William Seward, and General Grant during the Civil War and helped convince Napoleon III to remain neutral during the conflict. Later Evans labored to bring the medical lessons of that war to the attention of European governments" (publisher).

An exceptionally well-written bio-bibliographical study of Jourdain's accomplishments and publications published in the year of his death. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first dental monograph published in Swedish.

"Joel Assur was born in Bernburg, Germany as the son of the Jewish merchant Anschel Levin Joel Assur and Zipora Joel. He emigrated from Mecklenburg in 1791, and established himself as a dentist in Stockholm . He is referred to as "one of Sweden's first dentists". Assur was successful and had a high reputation. He was appointed chief dentist with the title of Congl. Hovdentist.

"At this time, the dental profession was not fully formalized in Sweden, except that since 1663 permission was required to practice it and that they were prohibited from practicing other forms of medical care. The profession was practiced by surgeons, quackers, barbers and bathers who called themselves "dental doctors", "dentists", "dental doctors" or "dental artists". It was not until 1797 that a controlled degree began to be required, and the profession was formalized, and Assur was one of the first legitimate dentists in the modern sense.

"In 1799 he published a book on dentistry. It was a pioneer script: he was the first in Sweden to urge the public to brush their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste, and warned of the sugar's bad effects on teeth. In his book, he admitted that dentists during this time "bear enough general contempt and are counted in the same class with Charlatans and Adventurers" (Wikipedia article on Joel Assur, accessed 5-2020).

Gariot promoted himself as "Dentist to King of Spain."

"The invention of articulators for holding the casts of artifical teeth is attributed to ...J. B. Gariot. Gariot designed his first model in 1805 from impressions of the gum in a lifelike position. This invention allowed artifical teeth to be propertly arranged. Some 35 years passed, however, before certain essential improvements on articulators were introduced that made them more practical and useful" (Harmarneh, "Dental exhibition & reference collection at the Smithsonian Institution," Health Services Reports, 97 (1972) 297.

Digital facsimile of the original French edition from Google Books at this link. Translated into English by J. B. Savier for the American Library of Dental Science, with notes by the editors as: Treatise on the diseases of the mouth; comprising the structure and functions of the mouth, the history of its diseases, the means of preserving it in beauty and health, and operations appretaining to the dental art. Baltimore, 1843. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

An early, if relatively brief (24pp.), effort at a study of contributions of ancient Greek and Roman writers to dentistry. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

In this work Serres described the glands of Serres, epithelial remnants of the dental lamina. These have the capicity to form small cysts (Bohn's nodules). Serres believed that gingival crevicular fluid was secreted from this tissue.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859) was one of the outstanding dental practitioners and teachers in the early part of the eighteenth century, both in America and Europe. He published two highly regarded books, practiced and taught in London for several years, before returning to America, where he became the most eminent dental practitioner in the southern United States. He had great financial success and used his time and money to offer free dental service to children. His major contribution to dental science was the concept that dental caries was caused by external influences related to foreign material on the tooth surface. This was before our knowledge of dental plaque and the action of the oral bacteria. Based upon this concept, he stressed the importance of clean teeth to prevent tooth decay" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12641168/).

In addition to his dental training Parrott was a merchant, businessman, consult to Mexico (1834-1836) and confidential U.S. agent to Mexico during 1845-1848, the period of the Mexican-American War.  This 72 page booklet was the first separate publication on dentistry printed in Mexico. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This work with its elaborate series of 26 lithographed schematic drawings was certainly the most comprehensive work on hand and foot protheses of its time.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Some copies of this work were issued with hand-colored plates.  The illustrator of this work, Jean-Charles Werner, was one of the most distinguished natural history artists of his time.
Digital facsimile of a black & white copy from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Bell distinguished himself in both zoology and dentistry, and published several zoological works. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this work Snell described and illustrated his "operating chair," the first reclining dental chair with adjustable headrest. The chair also had a convenient mirror mounted on one of the arms for the patient to look at his own teeth. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Brown founded the first US dental school, the first US national dental society, called The American Association of Dental Surgeons, and the first US dental journal, entitled the American Journal and Library of Dental Science.  This work was an unusual type of partnership between Brown and Parmly, with Brown composing the poem, and Parmly, who was also a dentist-poet, composing all the extensive notes which occupied about half the volume. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

This 11-page pamphlet was the first American work on orthodontics.

"This was a complete work on dental science, pathology, and thereapeutics, far in advance of anything heretofore published in the English language containing many practical ideas" (Thorpe, Biographies of pioneer American dentists and their successors (1910) 55).  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this work "Koecker was the first English writer to describe corectly the principle upon which artifical teeth should be applied and constructed" (Thorpe, Biographies of pioneer American dentists and their successors" (1910) 55).

The first scientific analysis of the effects of ether anesthesis. Though ether anesthesia was invented in America, its inventors and early users were either scientifically untrained like Morton, or men of practical scientific or medical skills like Jackson, Warren and Bigelow. Thus, the first scientific studies of how ether anesthesia actually worked took place in France where anesthesia attracted the attention of the neurophysiologist, Longet, and his colleague, Pierre Flourens. At the time many scientists believed that ether anesthesia's effects on the nerves were analogous to those of asphyxia. While Flourens correctly distinguished between the two states, Longet, in a series of animal experiments, determined that "death from overdosage [of ether] appeared to be due to a kind of asphyxia undoubtedly connected with the etherization of the medulla oblongata (bulbe) itself" (Duncum pp. 160-61).

The first German handbook of scientific dentistry, a collaboration between the Linderers, father and son. Second edition, revised and expanded by Joseph Linderer, 2 vols, 1842. Digital facsimile of the 1842 edition from Google Books at this link.

Pages 343-480 concern the history and literature of dentistry from ancient Egypt to the time of publication.  This was Joseph Linderer's final book form publication.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

La Condamine's journal of his ten year long voyage to South America, the scientific results of which included proof that the earth is a spheroid flattened at the poles. Other scientific observations including botanical studies of cinchona and rubber trees, and the recognition that cinchona bark was a remedy for malaria. La Condamine was also the first European to report on the South American botanic alkaloid poison curare. He was also one of the first to explore the Amazon. Digital facsimile of the 1751 volume from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Digital facsimile of the supplement from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In 1745 Condamine issued an abridgment of the journal prior to the full publication: Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale. Depuis la côte de la Mer du Sud, jusqu'aux côtes du Brésil & de la Guiane, en descendant la rivière des Amazones.

This was translated into English as A succinct abridgment of a voyage made within the Inland parts of South America from the coasts of the South Sea to the coasts of Brazil & Guiana, down the Rrver of Amazonas. London: E. Withers, 1747.

The first attempt to isolate and describe fibrinogen, the blood protein essential for clotting. “Prosper-Sylvain Denis, in his Mémoire sur le sang (1859), was the first to recognize that plasma contained a clottable substance, not defined as a liquid fibrin, but different from fibrin, and he attempted to purify and characterize this protein. He independently proposed the name fibrinogène” (Rosenfeld, Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry, p. 438).

This 13-page pamphlet was probably the only medical publication by the English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Paine's essay was first published in newspapers in 1806.

The first French book on local anesthesia.

This was the first English bird book issued with hand-colored plates, colored by Albin and his daughter Elizabeth. "For the most part Albin delineated one bird per plate. The birds are placed on a branch or on the ground, each part coloured. The proportions of the birds are a distinct improvment on those in Willoughby and Ray... Albin produced his paints in a rather strange manner according to Petiver’s account. For his reds he washed and dried vermilion pigment in four waters and then proceeded to “grind it in boys urine three times, yn [then] gum arabic it and grind it in Brandy wine.” Whatever his methods and however singular the contribution by his sons, this very first effort at colouring plates depicting birds is highly commendable and the results were gratifying, for the book was popular." (Jackson, Bird Etchings).

From 1738 to 1740 Albin published a second issue of this work with the plates apparently colored entirely by himself, as those title pages read, "exactly colour'd by the Author" instead of "carefully colour'd by his daughter and self."

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This work contains 36 plates by lithographed Joseph Smit from drawings by Joseph Wolf, and handcolored by J.D. White. Wolf was regarded as the greatest bird artist of his time. Among the birds of paradise there are some of the most colorful and spectacular birds, and these plates (with those of the male pheasants) proved that Wolf was equally talented at painting exotic, highly colourful birds ... and the published prints show the extraordinary coloration of the birds of paradise, including iridescent feathers’ (K. Schulze-Hagen & A. Geus, Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) animal painter, 212). In the preface of the book Elliot comments, "The drawings of Mr. Wolf will, I am sure, receive the admiration of those who see them; for, like all that artist's productions, they cannot be surpassed, if equalled, at the present time. Mr. J. Smit has lithographed the drawings with his usual conscientious fidelity, and his share of the work has left me nothing to desire... In the colouring of the plates Mr. J.D. White has faithfully followed the originals; and in the difficult portions where it was necessary to produce metallic hues, he has been very successful."

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Describes 8,096 mineral specimens from a wide range places, including a suite of specimens from Potosí, Bolivia, as well as many items from Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay. The catalog also lists 5,253 shells, 600 preserved animals, 101 plants, 3,915 fossils, 154 bezoars and calculi, 402 books, over 12,000 prints and engravings, 1,741 original artworks, 441 maps, as well as various scientific instruments and precious stones.

"Pedro Francisco Dávila, possessor of the largest collection of natural history specimens in Paris, and wishing to establish an institution in Spain to preserve it, approached King Carlos III of Spain. But political difficulties and an approaching war with England distracted the king, who declined the purchase. Because of debts incurred building the collection, creditors forced Dávila to put the accumulation up for auction in Paris. For this purpose, a detailed collection catalog was required. Dávila had already written many descriptions, but it was his introduction through Balthasar Sage to the young Romé de l'Isle that created this remarkable record of the collection. 

"Romé de l'Isle took the existing material, added considerably to the mineralogical descriptions, and put the catalog into publishable form. In this task he was assisted by Abbé Duguat who helped with the mineralogical descriptions and Abbé Gua de Malves [1712-1786] who described the shells. Through their efforts, two volumes describing natural history specimens were produced, one of which was entirely devoted to minerals. In addition, a third volume written by Romé de l'Isle probably with assistance from Pierre Remy, describes the fossils, artwork and books" (The Mineralogical Record).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

An extenisvely illustrated work promoting the medicinal value of the sulphur springs of Aachen and Burscheid. Blondel devoted his life to the promotion of the medicinal value of these springs, becoming inspector of the springs in 1666. Since Roman times these springs had been known to provide relief against rheumatism, gout and scrofulous disorders. This work was reprinted and translated several times in the 17th century with testimonials from German and Dutch physicians. Digital facsimile of the 1688 edition from Google Books at this link.

Translated into English as Pain: A cultural history by Sarah Thomas and Paul House. Houndsmills, Basingsgoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Mantegazza performed pioneering research into the physiology of pain at his experimental laboratory. His work marks the beginning of algometry, the scientific measurement of responses to pain stimuli.

Mantegazza invented an “algometer,” a device for measuring the physiological effects of pain in laboratory animals, and also investigated the facial expressions of individuals subjected to painful stimuli. His pain researches, conducted during the 1860s and 1870s, are summarized in his Fisiolgia del dolore.

This set includes 528 chromolithographed and hand-colored plates by John Nugent Fitch on 527 sheets. It was published periodically by B. S. Williams from his nurseries in Holloway, London, from 1882 until his death in 1890. The set includes the obituary of B. S. Williams in vol. 9. His son, Henry Williams, continued the publication through to its conclusion in 1897. These dates are important as they mark the period when the last significant new varieties of orchids were discovered in the wild. This work therefore, with its selection based largely on the discoveries made during the nineteenth century, offers an unparalleled record of all the best orchid varieties before the impact of the 'captive-bred' hybrids. 

The Orchid Album was published at the height of the 'Orchidelirium' which had been building in Britain for some decades, but which seized the imaginations of late Victorian horticulturists in the same way that the tulip craze inflamed the minds of collectors in Golden Age Holland. "Some of the grander Victorian growers, such as the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth in Derbyshire and the Duke of Northumberland at Syon House in Middlesex, employed their own collectors, but orchid fanciers like John Day acquired their best treasures at auction. Nurserymen such as Veitch, Conrad Loddiges and Benjamin Samuel Williams of the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries in Upper Holloway, regularly sent consignments of orchids to be auctioned by Messrs Stevens of King St, Covent Garden. It was in their sale room that, after an epic battle with a fellow enthusiast, Sir Trevor Lawrence, a contemporary of Day's, acquired the one single plant of Aerides lawrenciae imported by Frederick Sander from the Philippines," (Anna Pavord, review of A Very Victorian Passion The Orchid Paintings of John Day, Independent, 29 May 2004).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In 1855, Robert Arthur discovered that by heating the gold foil impurities could be driven off, and the gold could be made to adhere to itself, a property known as cohesion. He passed each portion of foil through a flame before inserting it in the cavity, and devised methodical routines for filing cavities of different shapes with metal of consistent density, by using plugging instruments with small working ends, and so exerting high pressures to compact the gold, and weld it into a solid mass. 

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

The first American treatise on materia medica written specifically for dentists.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Flatau presented the full clinical picture of migraine and described the disease as an innate disposition to pathological metabolic processes in the nervous system. He described its distinguished characters - ocular, epileptic, mental and facial. The book was based on observations of himself and about 500 cases from his own practice.

Also published in Polish:
Migrena. La migraine. Warszawa, Nakladem Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego, 1912. (Wydawnictwa Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego. III.- Wydzial nauk matematycznych i przyrodniczych.)

"The 1898 suppression of white phosphorous in the French match industry was a victory of organized labour. At a time when most French workers did not have the power to effect changes in the health and safety conditions of their work, the match workers succeeded. At a time when most French women were not unionised and did not pursue effective action on occupational health problems, French women in the match industry succeeded" (publisher).

The first history of dentistry in America written by James E. Dexter for the American Academy of Dental Science.
Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

One of the first and the most extensive comparative anatomical studies of the tongues of animals. The book contrasts the tongues of fish, amphibians and reptiles, birds and mammals, through various sectional illustrations. Prince Ludwig Ferdinand, who was trained in medicine, wrote and illustrated this book himself.

An encyclopedia in dictionary form, combining all the elements described in the title in one alphabetical sequence. This work underwent numerous later editions. Digital facsimile of the 1849 edition from Google Books at this link.

One of the first treatises on gum diseases, which around a century later would be called periodontics. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Probably the first comprehensive and comprehensively illustrated general treatise on dentistry published in the United States.
It is prefaced with a rather comprehensive historical summary.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

On August 3, 1908 the brothers Amédée and Jean Bouyssonie and Lucien Bardon, three French priests with a keen interest in paleontology, unearthed a Neanderthal skeleton in the limestone bedrock of the Bouffia Bonneval cave near the village of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, 40 km southwest of Brive, Corrèze. Though the skeleton was incomplete, it was the most extensive Neanderthal skeleton found up to that time. The remains included the skull, jaw, most of the vertebrae, several ribs, most of the long bones of the arms and legs, plus some of the smaller bones of the hands and feet. The well-preserved skull showed the low, receding foreheading, protruding midface, and heavy brow ridges typical of Homo neanderthalensis. With it were discovered numerous flint tools of the Mousterian type, and an assortment of extinct animal bones, including those of the woolly rhinoceros and reindeer. The Chapelle-aux-Saints find became a "type" skeleton for Neanderthals.

Originally published in four parts in Vols. 6-8 (1911-13) of the Annales de paléontologie. The La Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton (La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1), discovered in 1908, was the most complete single Neanderthal skeleton found up to that time. The remains, now estimated to date from around 60,000 years BP, were of a male approximately 40 years old at the time of death, who had suffered from advanced arthritis, tooth loss and other ailments associated with old age. The skeleton, together with the stone tools and mammalian fossils found with it, were sent to Boule at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle for evaluation. "In November of that year [1908], Boule announced the discovery of what was to become the 'type' skeleton for the Neandertals. In the next years, using La Chapelle as the centerpiece and supplementing this fossil with some bones from other French Neandertals . . . Boule published a magisterial series of works that became exemplars in the scientific community studying human evolution. As a result, La Chapelle became the archetype of the incompletely erect Neandertal slouching his way into evolutionary oblivion. Unfortunately, in his zeal to demonstrate how morphologically removed the Neandertals were from modern humans and how simian-like they were, Boule misrepresented many aspects of the La Chapelle skeleton" (Spencer 1997, 2, p. 266).  Boule's errors of reconstruction were later corrected by Straus and Cave (1957), Dastague and de Lumley (1976) and Trinkaus (1985).

iIlustrated with 77 photographs, Bedin's work describes the methods and practices of forensic photography developed at Nancy between 1905 and 1908. The work is divided into two parts: The first part contains four chapters discussing the history and bibliography of forensic photography, its usefulness as an investigative tool, its employment at crime scenes, laboratories and hospitals, and methods of classifying and presenting forensic photographs. The second part, consisting of three chapters, describes the forensic photography techniques developed at the Nancy laboratory. The accompanying plates include photographs of murder weapons, gunshot wounds, strangulation marks, damaged organs, incinerated corpses, exhumations, footprint casts, bloodstains and fingerprints.

A “guide in the treatment of cases of emergency occurring in medical, surgical, or obstetrical practice” (p. 3), covering such topics as hemorrhage, burns, loss of consciousness, asphyxia, sunstroke, poisoning and complications of labor.  Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.