Parkinson, the last of the old English herbalists, was Apothecary to James I. His massive herbal of 1,755 pages described nearly 3,800 plants, nearly double the number described in the first edition of Gerard. Parkinson was more original than either Gerard or Johnson. Rohde called the Theatrum botanicum the “largest herbal in the English language”. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

A pupil of Fernel, De Baillou was a follower of Hippocrates in his advancement of the doctrine of “epidemic constitutions”. Crookshank regards him as the first modern epidemiologist. This work includes the first description of whooping cough. This was originally written in 1578. Baillou called it “tussis quintana”. For translation see R. H. Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 210.  The above work includes a description of the epidemic of diphtheria in Paris, 1576. Later de Baillou advocated tracheotomy, although there is no evidence that he performed that operation.

“Hamond, author and explorer, published a translation of Ambroise Paré’s ‘Methode de traicter les Playes faictes par Harquebuses et aultres batons a feu,’ 1617, 4to. He was in the service of the East India Company, and was employed by them to explore Madagascar and report on the advisability of annexing the island, of which he gave a glowing description” (DNB).
"Hamond spent four months on the island, as a surgeon. However his treatise portrays an exaggerated prospect of it, stating that “for wealth and riches, no Island in the world can be preferred before it. As for gold, silver, pearle and precious jems, questionlesse the Island is plentifully stored with them... great quantities of Aloes... the first fruits of a most plentifull harvest, which is better than the gleanings of America”. “Early descriptions of Madagascar and it’s vegetation illustrate the kind of attractions that tempted colonisers and traders to undertake arduous voyages to the island in pursuit of advancement. Walter Hammond, .. spent some time on Madagascar in 1630, (and) published a pamphlet in 1640 entitled ‘A paradox....’... He drew attention to its strategic use as a useful port of call to and from the East Indies, and to the fertility of its soil. By this time, Hammond had resigned his post in the company and was clearly writing tracks to encourage rivals to challenge his monopoly. His next attempt, ‘Madagascar the richest and most fruitful island in the world’ (1643), also makes a strong case for colonisation” (Lincoln. British Pirates and Society, 1680-1730). 

Digital text from Early English Books Online at this link.

Hafenreffer believed that the sound of music could assist in regulating an abnormal pulse by means of vibrating air. His book included graphic representations of irregular pulses. Digital facsimile from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

La Brosse founded the Jardin des Plantes (originally Jardin du Roi), the first botanical garden in Paris. It was the second garden of this type in France, after the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier founded in 1593. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

In this revision of his father’s anatomical treatise, Thomas Bartholin included the first depiction of the fissure of Sylvius, the lateral cerebral fissure, and the only part of the surface of the cerebral hemispheres to be given a name between 1641 and end of the 18th century when Reil described the "island of Reil" (1796; No. 1387). Sylvius (Franciscus de Le Boë) made his neurological observations in 1637 but did not publish them officially until issuing his Disputationes medicarum pars prima (Amsterdam, 1663). Sylvius collaborated with Bartholin on the above work, publishing in it ten illustrations of the brain after his own drawings.

Sennert gave the first scientific description of scarlet fever. He was the first to mention the scarlatinal desquamation, the early arthritis, and post-scarlatinal edema, but made no mention of sore throat.

Vesling provided an early discussion of the human lymphatic system. He was one of the first physicians to describe the brain's circle of Willis. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

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

De Baillou is usually credited with introducing the term “rheumatism”. He was court physician in Paris at the time of Henri IV. His book, the first on rheumatism, was translated into English by C. C. Barnard in Brit. J. Rheum., London, 1940, 2, 141-62. (According to Webb Dordick, the antiquarian bookseller Emil Offenbacher pointed out in his catalogue 28, item 94, a use of the word rheumatism as early as 1577:  Petrus Pichotus. De rheumatismo . . . , Bordeaux, 1577.)  A digital facsimile of Pichotus's book is available from Google Books at this link.

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.

Bontius was probably the first to regard tropical medicine as an independent branch of medical science. He spent the last four years of his life in the Dutch East Indies, and his book incorporates the experience he gained there. It is the first Dutch work on tropical medicine and includes the first modern description of beri-beri and cholera. On pp. 115-120 of the first edition Bontius provided the first modern description of Beri-beri, the deficiency disease endemic to Eastern and Southern Asia (sporadic elsewhere). This diseases results from a thiamine deficiency caused by too great a dependence on polished rice in the diet. (See No. 3740). It was mentioned in Chinese literature before the Christian era. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Translated into English anonymously as An account of the diseases, natural history and medicines of the East Indies to which are added annotations by a physician (London, 1769). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

The most famous work of English literature written by a physician. Browne did not intend to have it published, but manuscripts of the work circulated privately. Two unauthorized and inaccurate editions were issued surreptitiously by the same publisher in the same year.

This was Sir William Osler's favorite book. He may have learned the entire work by heart, and was fond of giving copies of later editions to friends. Full text of the first and second editions from penelope.uchicago.edu at this link.

An encyclopedic work on sexuality and physical love in all its aspects, practical and credulous, including the widest variety of possible positions, the anatomy and physiology of the sexual organs and varous aspects of sexuality including arousal, masturbation, eunuchs, aphrodisiacs, nocturnal emissions etc. etc. It was first translated into English in bowderized form as The cabinet of venus unlocked and her secrets laid open (1658). Digital facsimile of the 1642 edition from Google Books at this link.

Wirsung, assistant to the celebrated German anatomist Johann Vesling, discovered the excretory duct of the pancreas named for him in 1642. To announce his discovery, Wirsung chose the extremely unusual method of publishing a single-sheet engraving with explanatory notes. On August 23, 1643, a year after publishing his plate, Wirsung was assassinated by a doctor from Dalmatia. Very few copies of Wirsung's print survived. Erik Waller owned a copy now at the University of Upsalla, listed as item 10362 in the catalogue of Waller's library, and illustrated as plate 48 in that catalogue. A different version of the plate was issued in Amsterdam in 1644 with the title Pancreatis, novique in eo ductus seu vasis a Io. Georgio Wirsung observati. . . . The creator(s) of the 1644 plate, while familiar with Wirsung's discovery, may never have seen the original 1642 plate as the images are quite different. Wirsung's plate focuses on the ductus pancreaticus, and is fairly simple and schematic, while the Amsterdam plate shows the pancreas in its entirety, and is much more artistic in its rendition. The Wikipedia reproduces an image of the 1644 plate at this link.

Renaudot, physician, philanthropist and journalist, published this self-diagnostic handbook so that charity patients could communicate with their physicians by correspondence. Digital facsimile from biusante.paris.descartes at this link.

Bulwer was the first Englishman to write about the teaching of deaf-mutes. "Chirologia is often cited as Bulwer’s link to later Deaf studies because it focuses on hand gestures ^[15] which have come to be seen as the domain of deaf communication. In fact the book only mentions the deaf in passing.^[16] He believed it was Nature's recompense that deaf people should communicate through gesture, "that wonder of necessity that Nature worketh in men that are born deafe and dumb; who can argue and dispute rhetorically by signes" (page 5). The handshapes described in Chirologia are still used in British Sign Language.^[17] Bulwer does mention fingerspelling describing how "the ancients did...order an alphabet upon the joints of their fingers...showing those letters by a distinct and grammatical succession", in addition to their use as mnemonic devices Bulwer suggest that manual alphabets could be "ordered to serve for privy ciphers for any secret intimation" (Chironomia, p149). Chirologia is a compendium of manual gestures, citing their meaning and use from a wide range of sources; literary, Religious and Medical. Chironomia is a manual for the effective use of Gesture in public speaking" (Wikipedia).  New edition, edited and annotated by James W. Cleary, Carbondale, 1974. Digital facsimile of the 1644 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first microscopical section in biology is discussed and illustrated in Odierna’s study of the fly’s eye, which is also the first description of the faceted eye of an arthropod.

"Digby's Two Treatises was intended to prove the immortality of the rational soul and its distinction from the material body, a dualistic view shared by many of his contemporaries. the work is noteworthy on several counts: it contains the first fully developed atomistic system of the seventeenth century, the first important defense in English of Harvey's theory of the circulation, imporant discussions of reflex action and embryological development, and account of the first patch test for allergy, the fullest early account in English of teaching the deaf to lip read, and material on behavioral conditioning that anticipates the work of Pavlov. Digby's introduction of Gassendian and Cartesian atomism into England provided Boyle and Newton with the foundation for their achievements in chemistry and physics" (Norman Library, 639).

Digital text from Early English Books Online at this link.

‘It is apparent that by the 1640’s Paracelsian medicine had gained momentum in Italy and that iatrochemical theories were being adopted by a number of Italian physicians. […] In 1644 there appeared the first Italian translation from Paracelsus, made by ... Ludovico Locatelli, who included a version of Paracelsus’ Erklärung über etliche Aphorismen des Hippokrates in his Teatro d’arcani. Unlike Bardi, Locatelli was a fervent Paracelsian; he espoused Paracelsus’ medicine and philosophy, and explicitly rejected traditional medicine. Locatelli, who travelled to Germany in 1642, maintained that chemical reactions took place in the human body that were the same as those produced in the laboratory. Natural bodies contained a subtle and pure spiritual substance that chemists could extract and use for their remedies. Following Bovio, Locatelli attacked Galenists as ignorant and greedy, and promoted a great number of chemical remedies, like arcanum corallinum, tartar, vitriol, mercurius vitae, and aurum potabile, most of them taken from Paracelsus. (A. Clericuzio, ‘Chemical Medicine and Paracelsianism in Italy, 1550–1650’, in M. Pelling and S. Mandelbrote, eds., The Practice of Reform in Health, Medicine, and Science, 1500–2000, 2005, p. 77). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

An article which announces the discovery of the long process of the malleus. Folius “accurately discussed the general configuration of the middle ear, described the round and oval windows, delineated the three ossicles with the so-called fourth ossicle, the semicircular canals and cochlea” (Mettler). Also in A. Haller, Disputationes ad morborum historiam, etc. 1749, 4, 365-68.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. 

In his 26th year Whistler published his graduation thesis at Leiden; this was the first description of rickets as a definite disease manifesting itself by a more or less constant association of symptoms. Still (No. 6356) gives an interesting account of Whistler, with abstracts from the above work. The book attracted little attention, and the credit for the first description is usually given to Glisson. English translation by G.T. Smerdon, J. Hist. Med., 1950, 5, 397-415.

Spieghel succeeded Casseri in the chair of anatomy at Padua. This edition of his collected writings contains the second printing of the 97 copperplates first printed in Casseri’s Tabulae anatomicae (No. 381) plus 9 exquisite plates also by Valesio and Fialetti from Casseri’s treatise, De formatu foetu, and a tenth plate representing the hymen. This splendid volume contains the second edition of No. 5229, and, in addition to Spigelius’s writings, contains the 4th edition of Aselli (No. 1094), and the 5th edition of Harvey (No. 759).

One of the most important of the early works on comparative anatomy. It includes the Anatomia porci, attributed to Copho of Salerno. Severinus dissected many animals and was convinced that the microscope would throw light on comparative anatomy. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The collected works of the “father of German surgery”. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBiliothek at this link.

German translation: Wund-Artzney, gantzes Werck und aller Bücher, so viel deren vorhanden, welche theils vor diesem getruckt, theils anjetzo erst an das Tagliecht kommen. Mit einem vollkommenen Register aller denckwürden Sachen und Wörter Alle von dem Authore auffs new übersehen, an vielen Orthen so wohl mit Sendschreiben vortrefflicher Leut, als newen Warnehmungen, Exempeln und vielen raren Instrumenten vermehret: mit einem vollkommenen Register. Aus dem Lateinischen in das Teutsche übersetzt, durch Friderich Greiffen. Hanaw, Getruckt bey Johann Aubry, Frankfurth am Mayn, In Verlegung Johann Beyers, 1652. Digital facsimile of the 1652 edition from Google Books at this link.

English translation, 1722. Digital facsimile of the Amsterdam 1665 edition revised and expanded by the author from Google Books at this link.

In this widely read work of popular science that underwent six editions in Browne's lifetime Browne debunked numerous quack cures, etc. Full text from quod.lib.umich.edu at this link. Digital facsimile of the 4th edition (1658) from the Internet Archive 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.

Helmont was one of the founders of biochemistry. He was the first to realize the physiological importance of ferments and gases, and indeed invented the word “gas”. He introduced the gravimetric idea in the analysis of urine. Helmont published very little during his life. The above work is a collection of his writings, issued by his son, Franz Mercurius, who also worked with the Cabalist scholar/mystic, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-89) on the expanded German language version (Sulzbach, Endters Söhne, 1683), considered the best edition of the text. English translation from the Latin, London, L. Loyd, 1662. The German edition was reprinted with notes by W. Pagel & K. Kemp, Munich, Kösel, 1971.

Piso's study of the natural history of Brazil was also a pioneer work on tropical medicine, and also the largest work from the standpoint of format published by the Elzeviers. The folio includes De medicina brasiliensi by Piso and Historia rerum naturalium brasiliae by the German naturalist and astronomer Georg Marggraf.

Piso was the first to separate yaws from syphilis. The second edition, entitled De lndiae utriusque re naturali et medica libri xiv (Amsterdam, 1658), included additional material by Piso and by de Bondt (see No. 2263). It also included a different version of the frontispiece. See also Nos. 1825. Digital facsimile of a copy of the 1648 edition with a hand-colored frontispiece from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1658 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

"Bulmer promoted what we would call today 'central nervous system plasticity,' in describing how one sense could take over the duties of another. This is well illustrated in the frontispiece of this work, which is the first representation of bone conduction, illustrated by the person 'listening' to the cello with his teeth. The figure in the middle shows the effects of speech articulation by blowing smoke. At the bottom are four faces. 'The first head shows a man with the mouth not in the normal position but located in the middle of the nose (smell), meaning that he can taste through his nose. The second man lacks a nose, and his mouth is shifted to the area of his nasal root, meaning that he can smell through his mouth (taste). The third man is blind, however, in each auricle an eye is engraved, thus he is able to see with his ears. The man on the right has no ears, but he hears with the right eye which is shown by the engraver by an auricle replacing the eye" (Robert Ruben, Hear, Hear! Six Centuries of Otology [2002] No. 80). Reproduction of the engraved frontispiece from the Folger Shakespeare Library at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1648 edition lacking the frontispiece from Gallaudet University, Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the University of Bologna at this link.

In book III, chapter 8 Riolan discusses the heart and presents his views on the circulation of the blood. "Riolan's opinion of the blood movement seems to have arisen from his attempt to reconcile strict Galenic belief with Harvey's theory of the circulation. The resulting inconsistences and contradictions Harvey was not slow to point out. Indeed, so little of either truth or sense is there in the whole passage, that one can only admire Harvey's patience and his reply. What is abundantly clear from the passage is that Riolan is theorizing without looking, and his theorizing is dictated by his passionate desire to see the medicine of Galen kept intact and his fear lest Harvey's doctrine overturn its foundations" (Whitteridge). "The significance of the volume is that it stimulated William Harvey to extend his experiments and to publish a detailed critique of Riolan's work. Whitteridge summarizes the content of Harvey's first letter (published in Cambridge, England, in 1649)....She indicated that Harvey had two goals: 'To refute Riolan on every point and to show that his own doctrine of the total circulation of the blood does not destroy the ancient physic but further[s] it. Whitteridge goes on to explain that the second letter from Harvey to Riolan 'partakes of a totally different character from the first'. She continues, 'The greater part of Harvey's Second Letter is a restatement of his hypothesis concerning the circulation of the blood, supported by further experimental proof" (W. Bruce Fye). Whitteridge, William Harvey and the circulation of the blood (New York, 1971).

Translated into English as A sure guide, or, The best and nearest way to physick and chyrurgery that is to say, the arts of healing by medicine and manual operation : being an anatomical description of the whol body of man and its parts : with their respective diseases demonstrated from the fabrick and vse of the said parts : in six books ... at the end of the six books, are added twenty four tables, cut in brass, containing one hundred eighty four figures, with an explanation of them : which are referred to in above a thousand places in the books for the help of young artists / written in Latine by Johannes Riolanus ...; Englished by Nich. Culpeper ... and W.R. ...London: Printed by peter Cole, 1657. Digital text available from Early English Books Online at this link

Boate who spent many years in Ireland, included a full first-hand account of rickets in Chapter 12 of the above book (“De tabe pectorea”). He showed how widespread the disease was at that time. Reprinted in Opuscula Selecta Neerlandicorum, Fase. 5, pp. 260-73, Amsterdam, 1926.

Descartes believed the soul to be a definite entity, giving rise to thoughts, feelings, and acts of volition. He was one of the first to regard the brain as an organ integrating the functions of mind and body. English translation, London, 1650.

In this work Harvey first described the circulation of blood through the coronary arteries. Harvey also described experiments that he made to provide further support to his theory of the circulation since the publication of De motu cordis in 1628. He was motivated to publish this work to refute the misconceptions of Jean Riolan the younger. published in Riolan's Encheiridium anatomicum (1648). Published simultaneously by Daniel in Cambridge and Arnold Leers in Rotterdam.