Minderer’s book gives a good idea of the position of military surgery during the Thirty Years’ War. He published a pharmacopoeia in 1621; he also discovered ammonium acetate. An English edition appeared in 1674.

Four successful cases. Scott Stevenson and Guthrie (see No. 3342) state that Brasavola performed laryngotomy (in 1546) and that Sanctorius also did so.

Bonet put into practice the “combined” system of teaching the deaf to speak and the dumb to communicate with others. He showed how the deaf could be taught to speak by reducing the letters to their phonetic value, and he advocated the use of finger-spelling. It is probable that he learned his system from Pedro Ponce de León (1510-84), another Spaniard, whose writings have been lost. English translation: Simplification of the letters of the alphabet: And method of teaching deaf-mutes to speak (1890). Digital facsimile of the 1620 edition from Google Books 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.

The first psychiatric encyclopedia, citing nearly 500 medical authors, and also a literary tour de force. Burton was prompted write this book because of his own bouts with depression. It is one of the most popular psychiatric books ever written, appearing in over 70 editions since its original publication. It was one of Sir William Osler’s favorite books.

For further information on this work see HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Although much of this is a translation of Guillemeau (No. 5818), the first 112 pages are Banister’s own work, “Banister’s Breviary”. He was an itinerant but honest oculist, the first to point out that hardness of the eyeball is an essential diagnostic sign of glaucoma.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This was the second edition, with 7 additional plates, of the privately printed catalogue of the natural history collection or museum of the Nuremberg botanist Basilius Besler, author of Hortus Eystettensis (1613). The first edition, No. 11498, was undated but has been assigned the date of 1616 by most bibliographers. The engraved title shows Besler in his "cabinet" exibiting the collection to a visitor; this is also one of the few early catalogues published by the owner of a collection. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Neander described tobacco, its processing, and medical-pharmaceutical use. His book Includes images of the plants, of Indian, Oriental and European types of pipes, as well as depictions of cultivation and processing by native Americans. Digital facsimile of the 1626 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. French translation, Lyon, 1626. Digital facsimile of the French translation from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile of the second editiion "reveue corrigée & augmentée de nouveau" also printed in 1622 from BnF Gallica at this link.

Translated into English by Jacques R. Fouré, edited by Milton B. Asbell as The flower of remedies against the toothache. Boston: Dental Classics in Perspective, 1996.

The first important work on tropical diseases. Only six copies of the original edition of this book are known. It includes full accounts of malaria, typhoid, and scurvy, and the first accurate descriptions of yellow fever, amoebic hepatitis, dracontiasis, trichuriasis, and tungiasis. Abreu's description of scurvy was remarkably precise. He treated the disease with fresh milk and antiscorbutic syrups, particularly rose syrup- a rich natural source of ascorbic acid. For a study of the book see F. Guerra, Clio Medica, 1968, 1, 59-60. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The earliest scientific work dealing with spectacles. It includes sight testing tables and points out the value of convex lenses after cataract operations. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

English translation by Paul E. Runge as The use of eyeglasses. Oostende: Wayenborgh, 2004.

The Pinax theatri botanici (English, Illustrated exposition of plants) described and classified about 6,000 species. "The classification system was not particularly innovative, using traditional groups such as "trees", "shrubs", and "herbs", and using other characteristics such as utilization, for instance grouping spices into the Aromata. He did correctly group grasses, legumes, and several others. His most important contribution is in the description of genera and species. He introduced many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus, and remain in use. For species he carefully pruned the descriptions down to as few words as possible; in many cases a single word sufficed as description, thus giving the appearance of a two-part name. However, the single-word description was still a description intended to be diagnostic, not an arbitrarily-chosen name (in the Linnaean system, many species names honor individuals, for instance)" (Wikipedia article on Caspar Bauhin, accessed 03-2018). Digital facsimile from http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ at this link.

This was Bacon's direct contribution to medicine or medical philosophy, with natural and experimental observations on the prolongation of life. Translated into English as The History naturall And experimentall, of life and death, or of the prolongation of life (London, 1638).  Digital facsimile of the 1623 edition from Google Books at this link. Full text of the 1638 Translation from Early English Books Online at this link.

IN 1554 Saporta gave the earliest description of an aortic aneurysm. Many years after Saporta's death Henri Gras of Lyon discovered the manuscript of Saporta's book, and edited it for publication.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First extensive account of malaria.

The chief value of this work is in its cautious revelation of the principles of construction of various instruments that Santorio had invented, including a hygrometer, a pendulum for measuring pulse rate, a syringe for extracting bladder stones, and a bathing bed. The instruments are depicted in woodcut diagrams, the earliest illustrations of Santorio’s instruments. For the first description of Santorio’s pulse-clock see No. 572.1.

Published when barbers saw their work increasingly competed with by professional surgeons, Malfi’s book stresses medical knowledge of barbers and their expertise in performing medical procedures. It is Illustrated with portraits of famous barbers in history, anatomical models and scenes showing surgical procedures.

The work is divided into three parts The first is concerned with the art of hairdressing, and includes chapters on the dignity of the beard (Malfi’s own consists of a large twirled mustache and a thin strip of goatee) and on the damaging and deforming effects of long hair on men, as well as descriptions of the instruments and techniques needed for hair cutting and grooming. The second chapter is dedicated to bloodletting, explaining the medical rationale behind it, and introducing basic anatomy and the location of veins and arteries. The instructions for the various procedures are detailed and practical, including advice on how to position the patient, what to do when the desired vein is difficult to raise, and how to collect the blood. The illustrations to this book range from anatomical woodcuts to engraved scenes with several figures and fully realized background landscapes.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First publication of the very beautiful copperplates engraved by Francesco Valesio after Odoardo Fialetti, a pupil of Titian. Casseri commissioned these plates covering the whole field of human anatomy for his unfinished masterwork entitled Theatrum anatomicum. For this publication, the editor, Daniel Rindfleisch (Bucretius) added another 20 plates by the same artist/engraver team. See No. 61.2.

Records the discovery of the lacteal vessels. While performing vivisection on a dog that had recently fed, Aselli noticed a network of vessels in the mesentery and along the peritoneal surface of the intestine. The vessels released a whitish fluid similar to milk when incised, so Aselli called them lacteas, sive albas venas. He made a systematic study of these vessels in different species of animals, noting the chronological relationship between their engorgement and the animal's last meal, and erroneously conjectured that the vessels led to the liver; it was not until Jean Pecquet's discovery of the thoracic duct and its continuity with the lacteal vessels that the process of absorption was clearly established.

De lactibus sive lacteis venis was posthumously published in Milan at the press of Giambattista Bidelli through the efforts of Nicolas Fabry de Peiresc. The work contains a beautiful engraved title page and a portrait of Aselli by the Milanese painter and engraver Cesare Bassano. The four folding chiaroscuro woodcuts in this work, printed in black, red and two shades of brown, were the first color-printed illustrations in a medical or anatomical work. They are unsigned and authorship of these has not been established.

An important monograph on fevers.

Discovery and experimental proof of the circulation of the blood. Together with Vesalius’s Fabrica (1543), Harvey’s De motu cordus shares the honor as the greatest book in the history of medicine. Since antiquity, ideas about the physiology and pathology of most parts of the body had been based to an important degree on assumptions made about the function of the heart and blood vessels. In fundamentally changing the conception of these functions, Harvey pointed the way to reform of all of physiology and medicine.

Why Harvey chose a European publisher for his book has long provoked speculation— the most plausible conjecture is that Harvey wanted his book published on the Continent so that it would more easily gain international distribution and acceptance. His choice of the Frankfurt publisher William Fitzer seems to have arisen from his long acquaintance with Robert Fludd, whose books were then being published by Fitzer.The physical distance between Harvey and his publisher seems to have precluded Harvey from correcting proofs, as he was compelled to issue an errata leaf with no less than 126 corrections. Since very few copies of De motu cordis include this errata leaf, it has been argued that it was probably added after a large portion of the edition had already been sold. Even so, Harvey's errata list must have been compiled with some haste, as the Latin text edited by Akenside for the College of Physicians in 1766 contains 246 emendations. Fitzer had Harvey's book printed on paper of poor quality, which has deteriorated in virtually all surviving copies. The first edition must have been relatively small since only about 68 copies have survived, nearly all in institutions. Reprinted in facsimile in 1928 (Monumenta medica, Vol. 5, Florence). The Latin text, with an English translation by K. J. Franklin, was published in Oxford, 1957, and a translation with introduction and notes was published by G. Whitteridge in 1976 (Oxford, Blackwell). See also No. 6l.l.  Digital facsimile from The Warnock Library at this link.

Page 170 includes the first definite description of a blood transfusion, notably published in the same year as Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood in De motu cordis. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This summary of Hemández’s very extensive manuscript account of the natural history of Mexico (see No. 1820.1) was edited by N.A. de Recchi, and published at the expense of Prince Federico Cesi (1585-1630), with notes by Giovanni Terrentio (1575-1630), Johannes Faber (1574-1629) Fabio Colonna (1567-1650) and Cesi. Publication of the work was discontinued with the death of Cesi in 1628. It is usually seen in the reissue of 450 copies in 1648/49 or 1651, for which Francesco Stelluti was responsible. The remainder of Hemandez’s extant manuscripts were finally published in the Obras completas, 4 vols., Mexico City, 1959-66. See Nos. 1819-1 & 1820.1. Digital facsimile of the 1651 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Jacques and Paul Contant were Huguenot apothecaries in Poitiers, and notable collectors. There were among the first in France to assemble a cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer. The first work, a commentary on Dioscorides, was written by Jacques, who died in 1588. It was revised for publication by his son Paul. The fifth part of this work, Le jardin et cabinet poétique, first appeared in 1609; the other four works were published here for the first time.

The Constants' text is devoted to the most remarkable plants, animals, spices, minerals, and natural wonders and oddities mentioned by Dioscorides, with a commentary on their unusual features and properties. The frontispiece and plates illustrate 120 of these different specimens. They are keyed with a page number referring to the text. Schnapper, Le géant, la licorne, la tulipe. Collections françcaises au XVIIe siècle, 222-225.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The title is a pun on the author’s name (park-in-sun). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Fludd's Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia contain's Fludd's chief medical writings. Dated 1629, but issued in this form, Fludd's Pulsus was the first published endorsement of Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood. Fludd and Harvey were colleagues and friends. Both were also concerned with the problem of blood flow, but Harvey pursued the problem mostly from a rational, experimental perspective with some attention to the mystical, while Fludd took a primarily mystical approach. When it was time to publish De motu cordis Harvey used Fludd's publisher in Frankfurt, William Fitzer. See Allen Debus, "Harvey and Fludd: The irrational factor in the rational science of the 17th century," J. Hist. Biol., 3 (1970) 81-105. Also, Walter Pagel, William Harvey's biological ideas, 113-115. Digital facsimile from Wellcome Collection.org at this link.

(Thanks to W. Bruce Fye for insight into this work.)

Johnson, an apothecary published this record of what he collected during a herb-collecting excursion conducted on July 13, 1629, with an appendix recounting the results of a second excursion on August 1. This was the first local catalogue of plants published in England. It has also been called an early work in urban ecology.