This  work sums up all the previous knowledge on the subject, and includes Balfour’s own significant contributions. Balfour, a pupil of Michael Foster, became professor of animal morphology in 1882; in the same year he met his death in a mountaineering accident. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A systematic account of early human embryology that stimulated further investigation in a field in which His stood highest among his contemporaries. He was the first to study the human embryo as a whole.

The Hertwig brothers formulated the “coelom” theory to account for the classification and phylogeny of metazoan animals. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This work extended Hertwig’s work on fertilization (No. 495) down to the level of chromosomes, which were clearly visible in Ascaris after the sperm and egg united.

Pflüger was one of the earliest workers in the field of experimental embryology. Above, his first work on the subject, deals with the cross fertilization of different species of frog.

Roux is regarded as the founder of developmental mechanics (“Entwicklungsmechanik” as he named it). His work on the production of half-embryos initiated a turning point by shifting emphasis from descriptive to experimental embryology. Roux believed that the above work showed that the nucleus of each blastomere is capable of directing a specific independent line of differentiation. He eventually concluded that the nucleus is made up of hereditary particles. Partial English translation in No. 534.3.

In the spring of 1891 Driesch succeeded in separating the blastomeres of the cleaving sea urchin egg. English translation in No. 534.3.

Wilson traced the development of Nereis in minute detail from fertilized egg to the free-swimming larval stage, a pioneer study of cell-lineage.

English translation in Loeb’s Studies in general physiology, Vol.l., Chicago, 1905.

First work in English on experimental embryology.

Loeb first achieved parthenogenesis in 1899.

Part 3, with 365 pages and illustrations was the main work of this series. Mall began the introduction to the third part as follows:

"The present communication is the outcome of a study of 163 pathological human embryos which I have collected during the past fifteen years. The first contribution which I made to this subject included a report of 53, and the second of 20 of these embryos. These two studies are rather anatomical in nature and do not consider the causes which produce pathological embryos, nor their relation to ordinary human monsters. A more careful study of my specimens, which have more than doubled in number during the past five years, establishes beyond doubt (1) the identity of pathological embryos and small monsters, that is many of them would have developed in real monsters if they had not been aborted, and (2) that all of them are developed from normal ova due to external influences, — in man to a condition which I shall term faulty implantation."

In his study of the testicles of the firebug (Pyrrhocoris) Henking noticed that one chromosome did not take part in meiosis. He named this X element because its strange behavior made him unsure whether it was genuinely a chromosome. After it was established that the "X element" was indeed a chromosome it became known as the X chromosome.

McClung showed that the accessory chromosomes are the determinants of sex.

Harrison demonstrated the development of nerve fibres by independent growth from cells outside the organism.

The “Bryce-Teacher ovum”, age estimated at 13-14 days.

Artificial parthenogenesis. For Loeb’s first paper on this subject see No. 515.1. Translated and revised in Loeb’s Artificial parthenogenesis and fertilization, 1913.

The important studies on human embryos, originated by His, were carried on by his pupils, Keibel and Mall. This classic work written by American and German experts “has not yet been superseded” (D.S.B., late 20th century). The set was published "simultaneously" in German and English, though the German edition of the second volume was dated 1911. J. Playfair McMurrich translated the chapters written in German into English for the English language edition while Franz Keibel translated the chapters written in English into German for the German edition.

Important studies on the survival of primitive types of neuromuscular mechanism in some of the higher vertebrates.

Translated into English William J. Dakin as The Mechanism and Physiology of Sex Determination (London: Methuen & Co., 1923). Digital facsimile of the 1920 edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the English translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

This was Hilde Mangold's thesis. Spemann designed the experiment, and Mangold performed the work, and was the co-discoverer of the "organizer," the chemical that directs the embryonic development of tissues and organs. Spemann added his name to Mangold's paper over her objections. Digital facsimile of the English translation by Viktor Hamburger is available at www.ijdb.ehu.es/web/descarga/paper/11291841. See also Spemann's Experimentelle Beiträge zu einer Theorie der Entwicklung. Deutsche Ausgabe der Silliman Lectures gehalten an der Yale University im Spätjahr 1933 (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1936). Translated into English as Embryonic development and induction (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938). See Hamburger, The heritage of experimental embryology: Hans Spemann and the organizer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

In 1935 Spemann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development." Because Mangold died at the early age of 26 when the gas heater in her apartment exploded, she was unable to share the Nobel Prize with Spemann.

Tissue affinity as a means of embryonic morphogenesis. English translation in No. 534.3.

Report of the youngest normal implanted fertilized human ovum, fertilization age about 7 1/2 days. Hertig and Rock published a more detailed study in Contr. Embryol. Carneg. Instn. 1945, 31, 65-84.

First in vitro fertilization of human eggs.

Discovery that maturation of the sperm in the mammalian female tract is a necessary step in reproduction. This was co-discovered and called capacitation by Austin in the same year. See C.R. Austin, Observation on the penetration of the sperm into the mammalian eggs. Aust. J. sci. Res., 1951, B4, 581-.

The birth of normal rabbits from in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer was the first proof that births resulting from this procedure are normal.

First successful in-vitro fertilization of human oocytes.

In 2010 Robert Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the development of in vitro fertilization."

First successful human birth after in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.

An exhaustive history of the subject. Deals with embryology from the earliest times to the beginning of the 19th century and includes a valuable bibliography and many illustrations. Second edition, with the assistance of Arthur Hughes, 1959.

Includes a fine bibliography.

Vol. 1 is an exhaustive biography of Malpighi; the remaining 4 volumes provide an extensive account of the development of embryology, and annotated English translations of Nos. 468 & 469.

Translated into English by Robert Ellrich as The life sciences in eighteenth-century French thought, edited by Keith R. Benson, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.

14 classic contributions to embryology (in English translations where appropriate) with historical commentaries.

A survey of the history of developmental biology from 1880.

This encyclopedic chronology of portentious events in human history includes many monstrous births, both human and animal. Actual cases are uncritically mingled with mythical creatures. German translation, 1557. English translaion: The doome warning all men to the iudgemente: wherein are contayned for the most parte all the straunge prodigies hapned in the worlde, with diuers secrete figures of reuelations tending to mannes stayed conuersion towardes God: in maner of a generall chronicle, gathered out of sundrie approued authors by St. Batman professor in diuinite. (London, 1581).

Many reports of real malformations are intermixed with mythical accounts. English translations, 1634, and later. Recent English translation, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982. Digital facsimile of the 1573 edition from BnF Gallica at this link.

One of the earliest classifications of deformities, Liceti’s work was still under review in works on malformation in the 19th century. Includes both real and imaginary cases. The first of many illustrated editions appeared in Padua, 1634. The 1634 edition includes accurate descriptions of cases observed by Liceti in the years following the first edition issued in 1616. Digital facsimile of the 1634 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Translated into French as De la nature, des causes, des differences des monstres: D'après Fortunio Liceti. Traduit et résumé par le Dr. François Houssay. Préface du Dr. Louis Ombrédanne. Paris: Ed. Hippocrate, 1937.

Aldrovandi assembled a large collection of specimens and notes on monsters which were published posthumously by Ambrosini, who added a number of personally observed cases. Those included the first detailed description and illustration of bladder exstrophy. Valuable case descriptions are mingled with fictitious ones, including specimens of false chimeras apparently created to please Aldrovandi’s patrons. Some of these can still be seen in the Aldrovandi collection at the University of Bologna. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Reprints and updates Haller’s earlier essays on various malformations. This work marks the beginning of scientific teratology, placing it on a foundation of sound anatomical description.

Most of the plates demonstrate a progressive series of specimens with duplication anomalies of the face and head, from midfacial cleft to complete dicephalus. This arrangement of malformations into a continuous series with definable steps anticipated the taxonomic approach of the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaires.

Meckel classified malformations systematically, on the basis of altered developmental mechanisms, basing his work on embryology. See No. 2284.

The elder Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is credited with coining the word teratology, and was the first seriously to attempt the experimental production of anomalies, by manipulating chick eggs. See T. Cahn, La vie et l'oeuvre d’Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Paris, 1962.  Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Isidore, the son of Étienne (See No. 534.57) organized all known human and animal malformations taxonomically. Many principles governing abnormal development were enunciated for the first time in this work. It also introduced hundreds of names for specific malformations, many of which are still in use. For comprehensive coverage of rare anomalies it is still of value as a reference source.

The most comprehensive treatise on malformations of domesticated animals, as well as an important contribution to general teratology. The superb atlas illustrates many rare animal terata. See also his Uber thierische Missgeburten, ein Beitrag zur pathologischen Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte. Berlin, A. Hirschwald, 1877. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Brief but accurate descriptions of 600 human and animal specimens, with 30 outstanding plates.

The 100 plates of this volume contain some of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of human and animal malformations ever published. Text in Dutch and Latin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first monograph on experimental teratology.

An encyclopedia of cases from the literature and from Forster’s personal experience. It contains an extremely useful bibliography of teratology, which served as the basis for all subsequent bibliographies of the subject.

Includes a valuable history of teratology with a detailed bibliography. Fisher assembled one of the largest of all libraries on teratology. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Dareste devoted his career to experimental teratology, and in this work established the field as a science. The second edition (1891) was greatly revised and enlarged. Contains a valuable history of experimental teratology.

Reproduces plates of important specimens from otherwise inaccessible sources. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The most extensive history and bibliography of teratology ever published, even though the section on malformations of single organs and parts was never completed. Contains excerpts and detailed abstracts of innumerable rare specimens from sources that are obscure and otherwise extremely difficult to obtain. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimiles of most, if not all, volumes are available from Google Books.

The first large work on the subject illustrated primarily by photographs of specimens, and one of the last to use to the term "monster" as a medical descriptor. Digital facsimile of the 4 volumes from the Internet Archive at this link.

Ballantyne was a pioneer advocate of antenatal care. Volume 2, The Embryo,  is the most complete history of teratology in English, and among the best in any language. American edition, New York, 1905. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first volume is an important contribution to general teratology, including a good history of the topic, and enunciating Schwalbe’s “teratogenic termination period”, the guiding principle for estimating the timing of teratogenic events. Volume 2 (1907) covers diploteratology. Volume 3 on individual malformations appeared in 3 parts between 1909 and 1937. Posthumous volumes were edited by Georg B. Gruber beginning in 1927. Vol. 3: Supplement, edited by G. Gruber in 1960.

Warkany's contributions span all aspects of teratology, both clinical and experimental. This has been called his magnum opus. It includes 124 chapters, each with detailed bibliography, on a total of 1271 pages.

Includes (pp. 71-100) his essay, De renibus, in which he described the uriniferous tubules and the “Malpighian bodies”. The great detail and clarity of Malpighi’s description was unsurpassed until Bowman (No. 1231). The book also includes (pp. 125-26) the first description of Hodgkin’s disease. Strangely enough, Malpighi gives no illustration of the kidney in this work. For a reproduction and English translation  see Annals of Medical History 1925, 7, 245-6 

Malpighi was the founder of microscopic anatomy and a pioneer in the study of plant development. He approached the subject through the study of plant tissues. His Appendix adds to the work on chick embryology Malpighi published in 1673.  As Adelmann noted (1966, p. 697), Malpighii's De ovo incubato work was submitted to Henry Oldenburg of the Royal Society in February, 1672 and the Appendix was submitted to him 8 months later, in October—although it was not published until 1675, along with the first part of the Anatome Plantarum. The second dissertation (the Appendix) was based on “an epochal advance in technique” that “was of enormous assistance to him”: the discovery that he could remove the blastoderm from the yolk and mount it on glass for examination under the microscope (Adelmann, 1966, p. 833 ff.).

Bichat conceived the idea of a science of anatomy and pathology based upon an accurate classification of the various tissues of the body, their distribution in the various organs and parts, and their particular susceptibilities to disease (Corner). He is regarded as the founder of modern histology and tissue pathology. English translation, Boston, 1813.

Müller’s most important histological work. In it he described the microscopic anatomy of a large series of secreting glands. Müller’s greatest influence was not so much through his own work as through the influence he had upon his pupils at Bonn and Berlin. English translation, 1839.

Henle first described the epithelia of the skin and intestines, and defined the structure and function of columnar and ciliated epithelium. He applied the term “epithelium” to all mucous membranes in the body. Modern knowledge of the epithelial tissues starts with Henle. English translation and commentary in L.J. Rather, P. Rather, & J.B. Frerichs, Johannes Müller and the nineteenth century origins of tumor cell theory, Canton, Mass.: Science History Publications, 1986.

Henle broadened the scope of his study of epithelium (No. 539) to include the covering layers of the true body cavities.

In 1839 Purkynĕ was the first to use the term protoplasma, by which he described the embryonic ground substance. This fact is recorded in the inaugural dissertation of one of his students, J. Rosenthal.

Classical description of striated muscle

Many of the histological discoveries of Henle are described in the above. He classified tissues histologically. In the section on Gefässnerven (pp. 510, 690) Henle demonstrated the presence of smooth muscle in the endothelial coat of small arteries. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

One of the earliest atlases of pathological histology. Lebert’s work played an important role in introducing the cellular idea of pathology, laying the groundwork for Virchow’s theories.

First English textbook on microscopical anatomy. His description of the concentric corpuscles of the thymus (p. 9) led to the term “Hassall’s corpuscles”.

The discovery of the “fibers of Sharpey” is reported on pp. cxlii-cxliii.

Isolation of smooth muscle.

Gerlach introduced several staining methods, the most important of which (a transparent solution of ammonia carmine and gelatin) is called “Gerlach’s stain”; it was the first satisfactory histological stain.

Recklinghausen described granular cells in the frog mesentery, later named “mast cells” by Ehrlich (No. 553.1).

Introduction of paraffin embedding

 Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English by Henry Power as Manual of human and comparative histology. Edited by S. Stricker. 3 vols. London: New Sydenham Society, 1870-73. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Includes first account of the demonstration of nerve endings by means of the gold chloride method.

“Kupffer cells” – macrophage stellate cells in the lining of the blood channels in the liver.

Confocal microscopy picture showing the steady-state location and interactions between Kupffer cells (Red), hepatic stellate cells (green) and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (blue). Cell nuclei are in grey. (Wikipedia article on Kupffer cell, accessed 4-2020).

Introduction of collodion for embedding.

Mast cells; see No. 548.1.

Ehrlich’s method of intravital staining.

Part 1 was translated as The cell: outlines of general anatomy and physiology, London, 1895.

Formalin first used for tissue fixation.

Tissue culture was made possible by Harrison’s proof of the outgrowth of nerve-fibers from ganglion cells.

Extra-vital cultivation and rejuvenation of tissue. 

Carrel demonstrated the potential immortality of mammalian tissue. He was able to keep the excised viscera of an animal alive and functioning physiologically in vitro. For his later work see the same journal, 1911, 14, 244-7; 1913, 18, 155-61.

The most complete work on the subject so far written. Ramón y Cajal, great neuroanatomist and histologist, was for many years in charge of the institute bearing his name at Madrid. He gained the Nobel Prize in 1906. English translation by Raoul M. May, 2 vols., London, 1928. This translated was edited, with an introduction, corrections, a glossary of modern expressions for neuroanatomical terms, and additional translations, by Javier DeFelipe and Edward G. Jones as Cajal's Degeneration and regeneration of the nevous system (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).

Original investigations upon the visible mitochondria.

In an earlier paper on this subject (Münch, med. Wschr., 1922, 69, 1352-56) Aschoff introduced the term “reticulo-endothelial system”; as early as 1914 he grouped certain phagocytic cells into his system.

First modern organ cultures.

Sanford was the first to clone in vitro a single living cell of a mammal—in this instance, a rodent. She performed this feat in search of a means to research how cells transform into malignancy.

First detailed account of lysosomes.

Lysosomes. With B. C. Pressman, R. Gianetto, R. Wattiaux and F. Appelmans.

De motu animalium. De incessu animalium. In his Works, edited by J.A. Smith and W.D. Ross, 5, 698a-714b., Oxford, 1912. 

De Anima. In his Works… translated into English. Edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. 3, 402a-35b., Oxford, 1931.

Aristotle, regarded as the founder of psychology, meant by anima or psyche the living principle which characterizes living substance.

Greek-English edition in the Loeb Classical Library. This was one of the first, if not the actual first, modern English translations of Galen. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First separate edition, edited from the prior printed editions and the surviving early manuscripts, of Galen's treatise on the function, use and purpose of the individual parts of the body. In this treatise Galen explained the value of anatomical understanding of the human body in a way that was accessible to non-physicians. For the English translation see May (1968). Digital facsimile of the 1907-09 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Nemesius’ De natura hominis, a physiological and psychological study of man, was highly esteemed during the Middle Ages. Nemesius, who wrote in the 4th century CE, was one of the first to propose that mental processes were localized in the cells or ventricles of the brain; his comments on the heartbeat and pulse have been erroneously interpreted as an anticipation of Harvey’s theory of the circulation. English translation, London, 1636. New English translation: Nemesius on the nature of man. Translated with an introduction and notes by R. W. Sharples and P. J. van der Eijk (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008).

Digital facsimile from e-rara.ch at this link.

The earliest work devoted exclusively to physiology and the first to call the subject by that name. It was re-issued in 1554 as part of Fernel’s Medicina (No. 2271). Femel suggested that physicians should  study the human body themselves, and not accept tradition.

See Sir Charles Sherrington’s The endeavour of Jean Femel, Cambridge, 1946.  See also the English translation of the 1567 edition: The physiologia of Jean Fernel (1567). Translated and annotated by John M. Forrester. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2003.

First mention of Santorio’s pulse-clock (“pulsilogium”) and his scale. Through most of the 17th and 18th centuries Santorio’s name was linked with that of Harvey as the greatest figure in physiology and experimental medicine because of his introduction of precision instruments for quantitative studies. He was also the founder of modern metabolic research.

First printed mention of the air thermometer, an instrument that played a vital part in the creation of static medicine. This device was similar to Galileo’s open-air thermoscope, of which Santorio may have known, but he was the first to transform the thermoscope into a thermometer by adding a scale with fixed reference points

This collection of aphorisms is the work by which Santorio’s ideas became widely known. Santorio used a beam balance to measure metabolism. See also nos. 572.1 & 572.2. For description of his experiments, see No. 2668. English translations by Abdiah Cole (1663), John Davies (1676), and others.

Descartes considered the human body a material machine, directed by a rational soul located in the pineal body. This book was the first attempt to cover the whole field of “animal physiology”. The work is really a physiological appendix to his Discourse on method, 1637. The first edition was translated from the French. The French text first appeared in 1664. It was translated, with commentary by T. S. Hall, and published in Cambridge, Mass., in 1972 as Treatise of man. See G.A. Lindeboom, Descartes and medicine, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1979.

Croone accumulated a large fortune from his practice; with it his widow endowed the Croonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, London. He believed muscular contraction to be brought about by the action of a “spirituous liquor” passing from the nerves and interacting with substances in the muscle. Translation of an extract in J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 207-9. Complete translation by P. Maquet as On the reason of the movement of the muscles. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2000.

Stensen described the structure of muscles, the fibra motrix, confirming that contraction actually occurs in the muscle fibres, not in the tendon as Galen had thought. He attempted a geometrical description of muscle contraction. He described the anatomy of the heart and its function as a muscle, and described the anatomy and function of the respiratory muscles including the diaphragm. English translation of the section on the muscles and the tongue in J.E. Poulson & E. Snorrason, Nicolaus Steno 1638-1686, A re-consideration by Danish scientists. Gentofte, Denmark, 1986.

In this work Stensen, in collaboration with the mathematician Vincenzio Viviani (1622-1703), a pupil of Galileo, developed a geometrical description of muscular contraction, and attempted to show theoretically that muscles did not increase in volume during contraction. The appendix contains his anatomical descriptions of the head of two sharks. In discussing the relationship of the shark teeth to similar-shaped fossil stones found in the Mediterranean, Stensen developed theories of how geological structures and fossils might be formed. This was translated by A. Garboe as The earliest geological treatise (1667), London, 1958.

Mayow was the first to locate the seat of animal heat in the muscles; he discovered the double articulation of the ribs with the spine and came near to discovering oxygen in his suggestion that the object of breathing was to abstract from the air a definite group of life-giving “particles”. He was the first to make the definite suggestion that it is only a special fraction of the air that is of use in respiration. His Tractatus, embodying all his brilliant conclusions, is one of the best English medical classics. English translation, Edinburgh: The Alembic Club, 1907. Digital facsimile of the 1907 translation from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1674 edition from Google Books at this link. In the second edition of the Tractatus quinque Mayow recorded a case of mitral stenosis, probably the first description. Reprinted in his Medico-physical works, Edinburgh, 1907, pp. 295-97.

Glisson introduced the idea of irritability as a specific property of all human tissue, a hypothesis which had no effect upon contemporary physiology, but which was later demonstrated experimentally by Haller (No. 587).

Includes the first recorded experiment in hypnotism in animals.

Institutiones medicae, Boerhaave’s first book, represented lectures given by Boerhaave on June 23, 1701; it was soon being used in virtually every medical school in Europe, going though numerous authorized and unauthorized editions and translations. It was one of the earliest modern textbooks of physiology, and was responsible, more than any other work, for establishing the study of physiology as an academic discipline. Boerhaave wrote the work to serve as the textbook for his course in the institutes of medicine, a discipline including pathology, symptoms, hygiene and therapeutics as well as physiology, but he apparently felt that physiology was a neglected subject in the curriculum, as his chapter on it was larger than the other four chapters combined, and the only one to contain footnotes. The Institutiones is also significant as a work of medical bibliography, introducing its readers to the medical literature of the past and present through Boerhaave’s numerous detailed bibliographical citations. Because of its unusually large number of book recommendations, Boerhaave's extremely influential text may have influenced many of his students to collect libraries of the works which he deemed classical and significant. That some books might have been printed a century or more before the lectures were given does not seem to have been a critical issue. Lindeboom, Bibliographia Boerhaaviana (1959) No. 40. Lindeboom lists 50 different editions and translations of this work, including a manuscript translation into Arabic made in 1733.

The work was translated into English by "Mr. Samber" and published in London in 1719 under the following title: A Method of Studying Physick. Containing What a Physician ought to know in Relation to the Nature of Bodies, the Laws of Motion; Staticks, hydrostaticks, Hydraulicks, and the Proprieties of Fluids: Chymistry, Pharmacy and Botany: Osteology, Myology, Splanchnology, Angiology and Dissection: The Theory and Practice of Physick: Physiology, Pathology, Surgery, Diet, &c. And the whole Praxis Medica Interna; with the Names and Characters of the Most excellent Authors on all these several Subjects in every Age: Systematicks, Observators, Operators, & their best Editions, and the method of reading them.  

Stahl tried to explain vital phenomena by mystical means. He was the head of the so-called Animistic School which explained disease as caused by misdirected activities on the part of the soul. A three-volume German translation of the above was published in Berlin in 1831-33.

Hoffmann was the first to perceive pathology as an aspect of physiology. His Fundamenta is an outstanding treatise on physiology. English translation with introduction by Lester S. King, London, 1971.

Belchier fed animals with madder, noting that new bone formed subsequent to its ingestion was stained red. This was the earliest attempt at vital staining, and is also important as making possible the study of osteogenesis.

Haller was one of the most imposing figures in the whole of medicine, besides being a superb bibliographer and the founder of medical bibliography. As a physiologist he was the greatest of his time. Many apparently “new” discoveries of later times had already been accounted for by Haller. The above work includes (p. 259) Haller’s resonance theory, similar to that already propounded by Du Verney and (more than 100 years later) by Helmholtz (No. 1562).

Translated into English by Samuel Mihles as Dr. Albert Haller's physiology; being a course of lectures upon the visceral anatomy and vital oeconomy of human bodies. 2 vols. London, 1754

La Mettrie attempted among other things to prove the materialism of the soul. Because of his blatant and aggressive atheism, all of La Mettrie’s writings were placed on the Index and systematically burned. Owing to its heretical nature, this anonymous work was also ordered to be burnt by the magistrates of Leiden. An English translation appeared in 1749. See Vartanian, L’homme machine, a study in the origins of an idea, Princeton, 1960.

Glisson in 1677 had introduced the concept of “irritability” as a specific property of all tissues. Haller, in the above work, recorded his experimental proof of this, and distinguished between nerve impulse (sensibility) and muscular contraction (irritability). English translation, including preface by Simon André Tissot from the French translation, as A dissertation on the sensible and irritable parts of animals, London: J. Nourse, 1755. This includes a supplement by Haller and his "Essay on the cause of the motion of the heart." Abbreviated translation in Bull. Hist. Med., 1936, 4, 651-99.
Digital facsimile of the 1755 translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

(Thanks to Malcolm Kotter for information regarding the English translations of this entry.)

Haller synthesized the whole physiological knowledge of his time. In the above, probably his greatest work, Haller included some anatomical descriptions which were most valuable. He is said to have written more than 1300 scientific papers.

The first 5 vols. of this work were issued in Lausanne; vols. 6-7 in Berne.

The first accurate study of the electrical organs of the torpedo fish were made by Walsh, who was given the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his work on the subject. Walsh proved that the shock of the torpedo was electrical, and that the fish could only send the shock through a conductor.

First demonstration of the importance of perspiration in the maintenance of constant body temperature.

Earliest experiments upon animal calorimetry.

These workers invented an ice calorimeter, with it measured the respiratory quotient of a pig, and demonstrated the analogy between respiration and combustion.

In the course of his experiments on irritable responses caused by static electricity applied to frog muscles, Galvani produced electric current from the contact of two different metals in a moist environment. Galvani mistakenly believed this phenomenon (which his nephew Giovanni Aldini called “galvanism”) to be animal electricity. See No. 594.1 Facsimile of Volta’s copy, with English translation, and bibliography of editions and translations by J.F. Fulton and M.E. Stanton, Norwalk, Conn., Bumdy Library, 1953.

Séguin and Lavoisier measured the metabolism of a man (Séguin himself). They made three observations of fundamental importance in this respect; that the intensity of oxidation in man is dependent upon (1) food, (2) environmental temperature, and (3) mechanical work.

The first account of Galvani’s electrical experiments without the presence of metals, in which he demonstrated the presence of electrical energy in living tissue by showing that convulsions in frog nerve-muscle preparations could be produced simply by touching nerve to muscle. This observation of the injury current of nerve or demarcation current was the first proof of animal electricity. The key experiment appears in a 23-page “Supplemento” following p. 168. Some authorities consider this a joint publication of Galvani and Aldini. See No. 593.

Demonstration that carbon dioxide is given off by the skin. This book was first privately printed in 1779; above is the corrected edition.

Reil advanced the doctrine of the life-force as the chemical expression of physiological function. Like Glisson and Hunter, he recognized irritability as a specific property of tissue. He founded the Archiv für die Physiologie, the first journal of physiology. Volume 1 was issued in 3 parts. This first issue of the journal, containing Reil's long paper, appeared in 1795. The volume was complete in 1796, at which time a title page for the complete volume was issued, dated 1796. Reil published 12 volumes of the Archiv für die Physiologie from 1796 to 1813.

When Volta questioned the validity of experiments claiming to show responsiveness of an ex vivo heart, devoid of blood flow and nervous connections, Bichat obtained permission to experiment upon the freshly killed bodies of those guillotined during the French Revolution. His trials on both laboratory animals and human cadavers led him to conclude that cardiac excitation by electricity would occur only when the organ was stimulated by direct contact. English translation of second edition, Philadelphia, 1809.

The first modern physiology textbook, in which doctrine gave way to simple, precise descriptions of experimental facts. Vol. 2 contains Magendie’s classic demonstration of the importance of nitrogenous food, or protein, in the food supply of mammals. In the course of his experiments on dogs fed non-nitrogenous substances, Magendie also induced the first experimental cases of what would later be called an avitaminosis (specifically, lack of vitamin A.) Translated into English by John Revere as A summary of physiology, Baltimore, Edward J. Coale & Co., 1822.

Digital facsimile of the 1822 edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Magendie, the pioneer of experimental physiology in France, demonstrated the absorption of fluids and semisolids to be a function of the blood-vessels, as well as of the lymphatics. He was the founder, in 1821, of the Journal de physiologie expérimentale.

Edwards studied the influence of environmental factors on animal life, concluding that vital processes depend on external physical and chemical forces but are not entirely controlled by them. The work includes an account of Edwards’ important experimental work regarding the effect of light on the body. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.  For the English translation by Thomas Hodgkin, with important additional material by Hodgkin and others see No. 12197.

Burdach’s great textbook of physiology was planned to run to 10 vols., but the death of his wife quenched his enthusiasm for the task. Parts of the text were written by von Baer, Rathke, Johannes Müller, R. Wagner and others, under the direction of Burdach. Von Baer’s contribution includes material also published the same year in Ueber Entwicklungsgeschichte der Thiere. Burdach’s unsatisfactory editing of it for Die Physiologie stimulated von Baer to have his own separate book published. See No. 479.