In his work on medical statistics Gavarret improved and systematized the method of Louis and gave special consideration to therapeutic problems.

First extensive application of a mechanical computer to medical statistics. The appendix details the use of the Scheutz version of Charles Babbage’s calculating machine in the construction of English Life Table No. 3. However, the machine required constant attention, and the G.R.O. soon reverted to manual calculations employing logarithms until conversion to mechanical calculation methods in 1911. See J.M. Eyler, Victorian social medicine: the ideas and methods of William Farr, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, [1979].

The modern methods of interpreting vital statistics of large cities were devised by von Körösi.

Includes statistical calculations of the effect on life expectation if certain preventable diseases were eliminated.

Farr applied statistical methods to epidemiology and was the first mathematically to express the rise and fall of epidemic diseases, thus making possible the more accurate prediction of the occurrence of epidemics.

Davenport introduced statistical methods into American evolutionary studies.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

FitzPatrick Lectures, 1941 and 1943.

The first comprehensive history of statistics from about 1700 to 1900.

The Constitutio Criminalis of the Emperor Charles V (circa 1533) is probably the oldest European document of any importance dealing with medical jurisprudence. It authorized judges to call expert witnesses in medico-legal cases.

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

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Zacchias, a Papal physician, was one of the founders of medical jurisprudence. His treatise includes information concerning injuries of the eye, etc., and contains section on the medico-legal aspects of insanity. The last two volumes were published in Amsterdam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A work covering the whole field of medical jurisprudence as then understood, and ranking in importance with the work of Valentini. The first supplement was published in Halle, 1733. The much-expanded second edition, including the first supplement, was published in Halle in 6 vols., 1733-47.

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

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

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

First textbook in English on medical jurisprudence.

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

First notable American text on forensic medicine.

The first important work exclusively on medico-legal aspects of insanity. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

After performing an autopsy on a strangulation case, Gross set out to study the physiology involved in manual strangulation. He set up a series of experiments on dogs for this purpose and provides autopsy reports on each as well as guidelines for medical examiners investigating strangulations.

The standard English work on the subject for generations, translated, expanded and used worldwide; thirteenth edition, Principles and practice of medical jurisprudence, appeared in 1984. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

The first authoritative and comprehensive treatise in English on forensic psychiatry. Ray became the most influential American writer on forensic psychiatry in the 19th century. He put the above work through five editions, the last of which appeared in 1871. Ray's book was deployed effectively by defense lawyer Sir Alexander Cockburn in the English trial of Daniel M'Naghten (McNaghten) in 1843. At the trial, Cockburn quoted extensively from the book which rejected traditional views of the insanity defense based on the defendant's ability to distinguish "right from wrong" in favor of a broader approach based on causation. Reprint of 1st edition with introduction and notes by W. Overholser, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1962. Digital facsimile of the 1st edition (1838) from Google Books at this link;  5th edition (1871) from Google Books at this link.

Casper was a great authority on forensic medicine. He also wrote on medical statistics. Above is an important compilation on judicial autopsies.

Hamilton was a medical inspector of the U.S. Army and later became Professor of Surgery at Bellevue Hospital. See No. 4420.

Casper was the greatest name in forensic medicine in his time. His book was published in English by the New Sydenham Society in 1861-65; it was unsurpassed for many years.

Dragendorff, Professor of Pharmacy at Dorpat, Marburg, and Vienna, contributed an important book on forensic chemistry. He was responsible for the introduction of several methods for the detection of poisons in the human body.

An important German work on the subject. Hofmann’s book went through many editions and was translated into several European languages.

Brouardel was professor of forensic medicine, Paris. He was to a great extent responsible for the development of that subject in France; he instituted courses of practical instruction at the Paris morgue, and wrote several monographs on forensic medicine. English translation, as Death and sudden death, London, 1897.

Uhlenhuth was the first to use precipitins in medico-legal tests for human blood.

An important series of papers on blood-grouping and the jurisprudence of paternity. Ottenberg performed the first matched-blood transfusion.

Skin grafting used to decide the relationship of identical twins who had been accidentally separated at birth.

One of the two earliest dated printings of the Hippocratic Oath. Digital facsimile from the Dombibliothek Freising at this link. ISTC No. ip00298000. It is possible that an undated edition attributed to 1481 (Entry No. 6929) preceded this. The Hippocratic oath was also published in print in another dated edition: Franciscus Argilagnes (ed.) Articella seu Opus artis medicinae, Venice, Hermannus Liechtenstein, 1483. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link. ISTC No. ia01143000.

The first English translation of the oath by John Read appeared in Francisco ARCEO, A most excellent and compendious method of curing woundes in the head, and in other partes of the body, London: Thomas East, 1588.

The Hippocratic Oath forms the basis of medical ethics. It was probably an ancient temple oath of the Asclepiadae, and not a genuine Hippocratic document. In the above work the various manuscripts of the Oath are enumerated and critically discussed.

The first practical treatise on medical ethics. "Following opening remarks on the ideal conduct of the physician, and his duties towards his patients, their relatives, and his own colleagues while avoiding the perverse intentions of society in general, Zerbis systematically discusses six key areas in which the physician must seek to preserve himself from danger: his nature, character, and physical appearance; his training; his attitude toward God; and his attitude toward himself, and toward his patient; his relation to those present in the sickroom, the women, his disciples, ordinary folk, and druggists; and finally, the image he presents to the world at large outside the sickroom" (NLM cataloguing of this title.)

See also Nos. 363.2 and 1589.1.  ISTC No. iz00025000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link. 

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

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first American treatise on medical ethics, and the first treatise on medical ethics published in the English language. Samuel Bard was one of the founders of King’s College, New York. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.

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

The British and American medical professions adopted much of “Percival” in their ethical codes. Digital facsimile of the 1803 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

"A man of compassion, Bell made many enemies because he was outspoken about the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted by incompetent surgeons practicing in Scotland. In 1800 he became involved in an unfortunate controversy with James Gregory (1753–1821), the professor of medicine at Edinburgh. Gregory in 1800 attacked the system whereby the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh acted in rotation as surgeons at the Royal Infirmary, with the result that the younger fellows were excluded. Bell, who was among the number, composed an Answer for the Junior Members (1800), and ten years later published a collection of Letters on Professional Character and Manners, which he had addressed to Gregory. After his exclusion from the infirmary he ceased to lecture and devoted himself to study and practice. (Wikipedia article on John Bell, accessed 1-2020)

The first American publication on medical education. Morgan founded the first medical school in the United States, in connection with what is now the University of Pennsylvania.

Probably the greatest classic on the principles of physiological investigation and of the scientific method as applied to the life sciences. English translation, New York, 1927. See P.F. Cranefield, Claude Bernard’s revised edition of his Introduction à l’étude de la médecine expérimentale, New York, 1976.

This report caused massive reforms in North American medical education, including the closure or merging with stronger institutions, of 76 medical schools between 1910 and 1920. Part 1 is a history and analysis of medical education with recommendations for improvement. Part 2 describes, state by state, each medical school in existence at the time the report was prepared.

Flexner wrote the first systematic and thorough comparisons of the major systems of medical education.

A history of the organization of the medical profession with particular reference to Britain. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The only comprehensive multinational study of the development of medical education, and of limited value for coverage of the 19th century. Translated into English by Evan H. Hare as A history of medical education from the most remote to the most recent times (London, 1891), reprinted, with introduction by Erwin Ackerknecht, New York, Hafner, 1966. Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

German edition first published in 1876.

Reprint, New York, Arno Press, 1971.

Covers medical education in England.

“The first book ever written on medical geography, climatology, and anthropology” (Garrison). The Latin translation of this text was first published in Rhazes’ Liber ad Almansorem, Milan, 1481. See No. 39.1. The standard Greek edition is Hippokrates überdie Umwelt. Herausgegeben und übersetzt von H. Diller, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, I, 1,2, Berlin, 1970.

Arabic-Latin bilingual text, edited by White, incorporating a translation begun by Edward Pococke the Younger (1648-1727). Abd al-Latif gave a good description of the fauna and flora of Egypt, its inhabitants and some of its diseases. He was the first writer, according to Hirsch, to dispute the accuracy of Galen. The first printed version of his work consisted of the Arabic text alone (Tübingen, 1789). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

An outline of the medical topography of England.

Hillary included good accounts of lead colic and infective hepatitis, and probably the first description of sprue (celiac disease).

The first recognizable description of pellagra is included on pp. 327-60 of this book, which was written in 1735 but not published until 1762, after the writer’s death. He called the disease mal de la rosa. Reprinted, Oviedo, 1900.

Rutty kept continuous records of weather and diseases in Dublin from 1724-64. On page 75 of this work is the first clear description of relapsing fever. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Originally published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1751-54.

Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

The first comprehensive medical geography. See George Rosen, "Leonhard Ludwig Finke and the first medical geography," IN: Underwood, E. A. (ed.). Science and medicine in history: Essays on the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) Vol. 2, 186-193. Fincke is known to have developed a very early disease map, supposedly inspired by Zimmerman's pioneering map of the distribution of mammals. However, Fincke did not publish his map. Digital facsimile of the 1792-95 edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

A landmark in geographical pathology, superbly illustrated. Annesley’s cases, collected over many years’ service throughout India, represented the most complete treatment of diseases on the sub-continent to date. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Third edition "to which is prexied a memoir of the author by Thomas J. Pettigrew, London, 1855. Digital facsimile of the 1855 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

This classical contribution to the social / medical history of North America includes the most important work on the natural history of malaria published up to that time. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from the Internet Archive at this link. Vol. 2 was posthumously published as 2nd series, edited by S. Hanbury Smith & F. G. Smith, Philadelphia, 1854. Digital facsimile of vol. 2 from Google Books at this link.

This is perhaps the greatest historical classic on the subject. Vol.1 appeared in 2 parts, with the first part issued in 1859 and the second part issued in 1860. 

Published as supplement to Amer. J. trop. Med., 1935, 15, No. 5.

A historical survey of the classical works.

A student of Aristotle, Theophrastus succeeded his teacher as head of the Athens Peripatetic School. This is the earliest work of scientific botany, a subject not addressed in any of the writings of Aristotle. Theophrastus collated and systematized the existing botanical knowledge and described about 500 plants. His system of botanical classification was analogous to the zoological system in Aristotle’s Historia animalium. Part of the book is devoted to plant-lore and the gathering of drugs for medicinal purposes. Theophrastus noted the principle of drug tolerance, observing that the power of a drug taken over a long period diminishes in people who become accustomed to taking it. He was also aware of individual differences in assimilation.

 First edition in Greek in Aristotle, [Opera omnia], Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1495-98. ISTC No. it00155000. Digital facsimile of the 1483 edition from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Written in 47 CE, this is an important compilation of drugs and prescriptions. Among the 271 remedies are the first use of electrotherapy (for headaches) using the shock of the torpedo fish. and it records the drinking of one’s own blood as a therapeutic rite. Scribonius was the first to describe accurately the preparation of true opium. G. Helmreich edited a Latin edition of the book, published in 1887, while a German version by W. Schonack appeared in 1913. The standard Latin edition is by S. Sconocchia, Leipzig, 1983.

Dioscorides’ work is the authoritative source on the materia medica of antiquity. He described over 600 plants and plant principles. The above edition by Wellman is the definitive Greek text. It also contains the Fragmenta of Krateuas. 

A study of Assyrian material medical reproduced by cyclostyle, in the author's handwriting.

The most important early Persian pharmacological work, first published in print in Latin translation. Muvaffak flourished in Herat (current Afghanistan), under the Samanid prince Mansur I ibn Nuh, who ruled from 961 to 976. He was apparently the first to think of compiling a treatise on materia medica in Persian; to obtain the information he travelled extensively in Persia and India. Between 968 and 977 CE he wrote the Book of the Remedies (Kitab al-abnyia 'an Haqa'iq al-adwiya), the oldest prose work in modern Persian. It deals with 585 remedies (of which 466 are derived from plants, 75 from minerals, 44 from animals), classified into four groups according to their action. The above epitome was taken from a MS of 1055 CE, one of the oldest surviving texts in Persian. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. A German version appeared in 1893 under the direction of R. Robert.

This work, which first circulated in manuscript in 1140, was the first formulary to be printed. It consists of 139 prescriptions and includes the original formula for the “anesthetic sponge” (spongia somnifera), the earliest sources of which are MSS of the 8th century. It also includes a table of weights and measures which formed the basis for the apothecaries system of weights and measures, i.e. the modern grain, scruple, dram, etc. The book must have been of great practical value, as it was one of the first medical works to be printed. ISTC No. in00160000. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Serapion the Elder and Serapion the Younger were Syrian Christians who wrote in Arabic. Breviarum medicinae was an abridgement of the opinions of the Greek and Arabic physicians concerning diseases and their treatment. It also includes transcriptions from Alexander of Tralles, an author with whom few of the other Arabic writers seem to have been much acquainted.

Matthaeus Platearius, a physician from Salerno, is thought to have produced a twelfth-century Latin manuscript on medicinal herbs titled "Circa Instans" aka ("The Book of Simple Medicines"), later translated into French as "Le Livre des simples medecines." It was an alphabetic listing and textbook of simples that was based on Dioscorides "Vulgaris", which described the appearance, preparation, and uses of various drugs. Matthaeus Platearius and his brother Johannes were the sons of a female physician from the Salerno school who was married to Johannes Platearius I; it is possible that she was Trotula. ISTC No. is00466000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

De viribus herbarum carmen has been attributed to Macer Floridus, a pseudonym of Odo of Meung, who lived in the Loire area of France towards the end of the eleventh century. Macer's unillustrated text described the medicinal properties of 77 herbs and was written in Latin hexameter, a poetic verse form that was most likely employed as a mnemonic device for physicians, apothecaries and others.

"The text titled De Viribus Herbarum (On properties of plants) has been traditionally attributed to Odo de Meung (Odo Magdunensis), who is believed to have lived during the first half of the 11th century and was from Meung on the Loire. Recent research has shown, however, that the De Viribus Herbarum was probably written in an earlier version, perhaps during the tenth century in Germany. The text was further expanded, including new data from the translation of Arabic texts into Latin in Salerno from the end of the 11th century onward. If this is the case, this text is good evidence of the continuity of scientific activity in the Middle Ages: its most ancient parts come from a period when there was a revival of interest in botany and a recovery of the classical tradition, while the most recent additions integrate the contribution of the Arabic world" (Hunt Botanical Library website, accessed 2009).

ISTC no. im00001000. Digital facsimile of the unillustrated first edition from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link.

The first edition of this work illustrated with woodcuts appears to be a Geneva edition printed circa 1500: ISTC No.: im00005000.

One of the best works on natural history produced during the Middle Ages, and, like most of Albertus's works, influential throughout the medieval period, though it does not appear to have been published in print until 1867. It was written about 1250, and is based on Albertus's own accurate botanical observations, also containing some therapeutic material. See Karen Reeds, "Alberto e la philosophia naturale della vita della plante," IN: Weisheipl (ed.) Albertus Magnus and the Sciences (1994) 367-380. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The “Antidotarium magnum” by the Byzantine physician Nicolaus Myrepsus. It was the largest strictly pharmaceutical work that had appeared up to the time of its writing (about 1270-1280); it contained more than 2,500 prescriptions or compounds arranged according to purpose. The first section included hundreds of antidotes, presumably for poisons. This edition was edited, annotated, and translated from the Greek by Leonhart Fuchs. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first German pharmacopeia, and a very early work written and published in the vernacular. The book was an important German text of popular medicine in its day. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

See James Follan: Manuscripts of Ortolfs von Bayerlants ‚Arzneibuch‘: Their contents, exemplifying German mediaeval „Artesliteratur“. In: Fachliteratur des Mittelalters. Festschrift Gerhard Eis. Hrsg. von Gundolf Keil, Rainer Rudolf, Wolfram Schmitt und Hans J. Vermeer (Stuttgart, 1968) pp.  31–52. Also: James Follan (Ed.), Das Arzneibuch Ortolfs von Baierland. Nach der ältesten Handschrift (14. Jahrhundert) (Stadtarchiv Köln W 4° 24*) (= Veröffentlichungen der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Pharmazie e.V. Neue Folge, Bd. 23. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1963. ISTC No. io0010900.

The first herbal printed in Germany, and the prototype for most of the herbals printed during the remainder of the 15th century. It also contains some fanciful pictures of animals. With text in Latin and with German synonyms, this is often called the Latin Herbarius. It was the first printed book issued with a title page bearing a complete imprint, and it is also known as “Herbarius Moguntinus". It was probably compiled by Johann Wonnecke von Kaub from the works of earlier writers. ISTC No. ih00062000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link.

Nine different versions of the Herbarius latinus were issued during the 15th century, with the language of the synonyms changed to reflect the language of the countries where published. There was also a Dutch translation issued in Holland with Latin synonyms, and two Latin editions issued without synonyms. See No. 1796.

The first herbal written and printed in a modern language, sometimes called the "German Herbarius” and Gart der Gesundheit. Like the Herbarius latinus issued the previous year, the text of this work was compiled by Johann Wonnecke von Kaub, whose name was latinized as Johann von Cube. This is the first printed book with some plant illustrations drawn from nature (65 out of 379 woodcuts). The scientific illustrations have been attributed to Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht, the illustrator of Breydenbach's travels in the Holy Land. This is the first of 14 editions issued in the 15th century: ISTC No. ig00097000. 60 editions were eventually published. Digital facsimile of the first edition from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link.

First edition of an herbal and general treatise on natural history which became very popular; based on the unusually large number of surviving copies in institutions it must have also been a bestseller. The plant illustrations in this work are for the most part copied from the Gart der Gesundheit (No. 1796). 150 illustrations of animals and minerais are new or borrowed from models in manuscripts or playing cards, etc. Despite its quaint and often fanciful woodcuts of animals and plants, it stimulated other more scientific treatises on botany and zoology. Available in facsimile in W. L. Schreiber’s Die Krauterbücher des XV und XVI Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1924. An English translation of circa 1521 (S.T.C. 22367) was reprinted London, Quaritch, 1954, edited by N. Hudson. ISTC No. ih00486000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link. The ISTC lists 7 editions, including a French translation.

A correction of the botanical errors of Pliny. Remembering the times in which Leoniceno lived, Garrison considers this work “a feat of the rarest intellectual courage”. It was accepted by later botanists and thus made possible scientific description of the materia medica. The second edition, edited by Ludovico Bonaccioli, [Ferrara: per Joannem Maciochium, 1509,] contains the first printings of Leoniceno’s responses to his critics in 1493, 1503, and 1507. These responses apparently circulated in manuscript until 1509. ISTC No. il00168000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1509 edition from Google Books at this link.

Earliest English printed herbal. Published anonymously, it is usually referred to as “Banckes’ Herbal”, after its publisher, Rycharde Banckes. The text was derived from a medieval manuscript, and although the work had no claim to originality it was the basis of most English herbals until Turner, No. 1811. Only two copies are known. Reproduced with modern transcription by S. V. Larkey and T. Pyles, New York, 1941.