Purmann was a skilful army surgeon – one of the most famous of the period. Despite this he believed in the efficacy of the weapon-salve and the sympathetic powder.

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.

Locke, a physician, laid the foundation of modern psychology. For two centuries the principles laid down by him were unquestioned. The writing of the Essay occupied him on and off for twenty years.

With Mauriceau, Justine Siegemundin was responsible for introducing the practice of puncturing the amniotic sac to arrest hemorrhage in placenta praevia. She was midwife to the Court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and the most celebrated of the German midwives of the 17th century.

One of the most eloquent and learned discussions of death. Full annotated text from penelope.uchicago.edu at this link.

In this treatise on the flowering plants in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden Hermann coined the term Angiospermae as the name of one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This division included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from what Hermann named "Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked" (Wikipedia article on Flowering plant, accessed 1-2020). Hermann used the term "Angiopolyspermae" on p. 1 of this work. Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Rivinus (Bachmann) introduced the concept of classification of plants based upon the structure of the flower.  He also introduced the ORDER as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a higher genus (genus summum)). Rivinus developed and explained his classification system in the following extensively illustrated treatises:

Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Monopetalo. Lipsiae: Typis Christoph. Fleischeri, 1690.
Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Tetrapetalo. Lipsiae: Typis Christoph. Fleischeri, 1691.
Ordo Plantarum qvae sunt Flore Irregulari Pentapetalo. Lipsiae: Typis Joh. Heinrici Richteri, 1699.



Digital facsimile from atena.beic.it at this link.

Contains 56 copper-plates, excellent anatomically and artistically, with commentary by Giovanni Maria Lancisi. This is one of the finest of all books on anatomy for artists. English translation with plates re-engraved, London: Senex, [1723].

Havers discovered the Haversian canals and made important observations of the physiology of bone growth and repair. The Haversian lamellae, glands, and folds, are also named after him. The Haversian canals were observed by van Leeuwenhoek in 1686.

Description of the “canal of Nuck”.

First reported case of temporary cardiac arrest with syncopal attacks, the syndrome to which the names of Stokes (No. 2756) and Adams (No. 2745) were later attached.

Illustrates several early microscopes, including the famous microscopes of the Bolognese Joseph Campani. Contradicting Redi, Bonanni tried to show that spontaneous generation was possible in animals "without blood and a heart." Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Includes Ruysch's catalogue of the extent of his medical museum in 1691. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile of the much-enlarged 1692 second edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

An early separately published biography of a contributor to the history of the life sciences. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

English translation, 1694, by John Wallis (see No. 3348).

Father Du Molinet's "cabinet" incorporated the major part of Fabri de Peiresc's collection. The first part of this work, extensively illustrated with engravings, described antiquities: Christian, Egyptian and Roman; funerary objects; weights and measures; coins; medals; engraved gems; talismans and seals (including a section on Gnostic seals); and lamps.The second part concerned  natural history objects, including birds; animals; fish; fruits; plants; shells; stones; and minerals.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This work was widely used for some years after publication, superseding Bartholin in popularity. Second edition, with supplement, 2 vols., Louvain, 1706-12.

Halley, the astronomer, compiled the “Breslau tables” to show “the proportion of men able to bear arms … to estimate mortality rates, to ascertain the price of annuities upon lives, and was thus the virtual founder of vital statistics” (Garrison). The data on which Halley based his conclusions were supplied to him by Caspar Neumann, a pastor of Breslau. Because Neumann's correspondence with the Royal Society was lost, Halley's paper is the only record of the statistics that Neumann collected.

First description of ankylosing spondylitis. The British Museum copy of the title page of this work has been mutilated, apparently deliberately, in two places; the author’s surname may originally have appeared as “O’Connor”, and the last part of the date has been cut away and appears as MDCXCI; other authorities give 1693 as date. The copy presented to the Royal Society of London is also mutilated to read “Connor”. Connor graduated MD in Reims in 1693. Partial translation by Baruch S. and Jean L. Blumberg, "Bernard Connor (1666-1698) and his contribution to the pathology of ankylosing spondylitis," J. Hist. Med., 1958, 13, 349-66.

(This annotation was last revised in April 2015.)

This work contains the first really systematic classification of animals. Much of its general arrangement of animals survives in modern systems of classification.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Botanicus at this link.

First experimental demonstration of the sexuality of plants. Camerer showed that in flowering plants the anthers are male organs, and that the ovary with style and stigma are female, and that pollen is required for the production of viable seeds. Until his work, the continuity of reproductive processes in plants and animals had been a matter of speculation; after it, the scientific study of fertilization and hybridization became possible. Second edition in Valentini's Polychresta exotica (1700). Digital facsimile of the 1700 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Pomet became chief druggist to Louis XIV.  His work was considered the most complete materia medica of the time. It also covered non-botanical drugs. Digital facsimile from bibdigital.rjb.csic.es at this link. English translation, London, 1712 and later editions and revisions.

The first scientific description of yellow fever in Brazil by the first European physician to treat the disease in Brazil, and perhaps in all of Latin America. It includes the description of the first autopsy of a yellow fever victim in Brazil. The author received his medical training at Coimbra and practiced for many years in Recife. There was speculation that he may have been a native of that Brazilian city, where he had the opportunity to see the first epidemics of the malady, then referred to as "o mal da bicha". If Ferreira da Rosa was born in Brazil, this would be the first scientific book by a Brazilian author. (My thanks to Richard Ramer for this entry).

Arrieta published two very early disease maps in this work showing locations of plague in the province of Bari, Italy, and his employment of troops to isolate those areas. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. (Only portions of the two disease maps were visible in the facsimile when I created this entry in April 2018).

Digital facsimile from e-rara.ch at this link. Facsimile edition translated into English, with a related thesis by Bernouilli, by Paul Macquet, assisted by August Zigellar, with an introduction by Troels Kardel as Dissertations on the mechanics of effervescence and fermentation and on the mechanics and movement of the muscles (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997). (Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., 87, No. 3, 1997).

Though Tournefort's classification was completely artificial, and neglected some important divisions established by earlier botanists, and was a step backwards in systematics, the text was so clearly written and well structured, and contained so much valuable information on individual species, that it became popular amongst botanists, and nearly all classifications published for the next fifty years were based upon it.

"Tournefort is often credited with being the first to make a clear distinction between genus and species. Though he did indeed cluster the 7,000 plant species that he described into around 700 genera, this was not particularly original. Concepts of genus and species had been framed as early as the 16th century, and Kaspar Bauhin in particular consistently distinguished genera and species. Augustus Quirinus Rivinus had even advocated the use of binary nomenclature shortly before Tournefort's work was published.^[2] (Wikipedia article on Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, accessed 3-2020).

Digital facsimile of a hand-colored copy from BnF Gallica at this link,.

First anatomical supplement to the Historia conchyliorum. This was the first separate work devoted to snails. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first book on the brain in the English language, including the first account of the circular venous sinus which Ridley names, and the first English account of a pineal tumor.  In it Ridley gives the first account of the circular venous sinus which he names. He also gives the first English account of a pineal tumour" (Russell).  The copperplates were engraved by van der Gucht from drawings by William Cowper.

This “quiz-compend” passed through eighteen editions. Among other things it mentions the use of vitriol buttons for checking hemorrhage and the mode of manual compression used at the Hôtel-Dieu. English translation, London, 1696.

First printing of the sixteenth-century statues of the London hospitals. Tradition has it that it was published at the instigation of Samuel Pepys. Hospitals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were of more general use than they are today. They were charitable houses erected to provide a range of benefits the poor: schools, places of apprenticeship for poor children, workhouses, prisons, places of resort for the old and disabled as well as lying-inn hospitals and places for the sick and diseased.  

 D'Arcy Power in "Notes on the bibliography of three sixteenth-century English books connected with London Hospitals" (The Library, 4th series) also Foundations of Medical History, 1931, p.124-8, observed of this book: "a casual examination of the book shows no reason to doubt the statement of the year 1557 made on the title page". The clue to the real date of publication is the name "Goodfellow" at the end of the minutes of the 5th printed page. John Goodfellow was town clerk from 1690-1700 and his name is printed here verifying the correct transcription of the sixteenth-century ordinance. In 1681 the court of Alderman, the governing body of the City of London, made a concerted attempt to regain control of the management of the four London hospitals which were becoming more independent. The 1557 ordinances confirmed the Corporation's authority but existed only in manuscript. Copies were therefore printed and distributed to the governors of the hospitals and every member of the Corporation of the City of London. Pepys was governor of the Mathematical School of Christ's Hospital, recently established at his instigation, and it is said that he was responsible for the edition. The statutes contain sections on the number and duties of the governors, the courts governing the hospitals, the rules governing the admission of children and pensioners, of putting the children into service, the examination of single women found to be with child, the officers of President, Treasurer, Surveyor and all the lesser officers of the hospital including the Matron, The Nurses and Keepers of Wards, Butler, Porter, Shoemaker, Schoolmaster, Barber and Beadles. One of the chief officers was the Matron who was responsible for the condition of the women and children in the House and her duties mainly comprised keeping the nurses in order and seeing to the cleanliness and hygiene of the place.   

The first work was intended as the second anatomical supplement to Lister's Historia conchyliorum.

On conjoined twins, including the record of autopsy of conjoined twins in Lima in 1694. Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo edited work for publication at the request of the Viceroy, Melchor Fernandez Portocarrero. Digital facsimile from US National Library of Medicine at this link

Cockburn studied medicine at Leiden; he became famous on account of his secret remedy for dysentery. The book is a record of two years spent as a ship’s doctor.

The first book on the lives of papal physicians.

Catalogue of the museum of Christian V, King of Denmark by Jacobaeus, physician, traveller, and writer. Digital facsimile from Getty Research Institute, Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Archive at this link.

Third anatomical supplement to Lister's Historia concyliorum.

This study of the ipecacuanha root and its effects as a emetic, nauseant, expectorant and dispahoretic, Leibniz issued on what he called "the new American antidysentery drug" after reading about the root in Piso and Marggraf's Historia naturalis Brasilia (1648). The report is considered Leibniz's most comprehensive contribution to medicine. The printer of the work, Freytag, issued it in three different ways: As an appendix to Freytag's edition of Martin Lister's Sex exercitationes medicales de quibusdam morbis chronicis (Frankfurt, 1696), and also in Freytag's early periodical, Miscellanea curiosa, sive Ephemeridum medico-physicarum Germanicarum (Nuremberg, 1696). From that publication a separate pamphlet, or an early journal offprint, was also issued.

In 1682 Jan Commelin helped establish the Amsterdam Botanical Garden, which introduced many new exotic plants to Europe, collected during the voyages of the Dutch East and West India Companies (VOC and WIC) in the East Indies, the Americas, Africa and the Far East. From these many new herbal remedies were created. Commelin's nephew Caspar Commelin took charge of the garden's foreign plants in 1696, while Frederik Ruysch took charge of the domestic plants. Jan Commelin prepared most of vol. 1, with special emphasis on plants of the East and West Indies. The set was posthumously published by Caspar, who also prepared most of vol. 2, with special emphasis on South African plants. Frederik Ruysch and Frans Kiggelaar provided editorial help and contributed additional notes.  This work includes 225  botanical  engravings after drawings by Jan Moninckx (ca. 1655/56–1714) and his daughter Maria (1673–1757). Digital facsimile from the Biodiviersity Heritage Library at this link.

An illustrated catalogue of plants on display in the Royal Botanical Garden of Montpellier. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The largest in format, and most elaborate and beautiful of all 17th century English treatises on anatomy, and also one of the most extraordinary plagiarisms in the entire history of medicine. Cowper purchased sets of the van Gunst copperplates used to illustrate Bidloo’s book from Bidloo's publisher apparently without Bidloo's permission, and issued them under his own name with an improved text in English, and a new illustrated appendix. For the frontispiece Cowper had a small printed flap with his own name pasted over Bidloo’s own engraved title and name. All of this was apparently done without Bidloo's permission, so even though Cowper credited Bidloo with the plates, Bidloo accused Cowper of plagiarism and published the record of the case in the following polemic: Gulielmus Cowper, criminis literarii citatus, coram tribunali nobiliss., ampliss: Societatis Britanno-Regiae, Leiden, 1700.

Floyer provided the first clear descriptions of cases of bronchial asthma. Floyer himself suffered from asthma for over 30 years. He recognized the influence of heredity in asthma. The above includes (p. 239) an important early account of emphysema, from a post mortem on a broken-winded horse.

There is evidence that amoebic dysentery was known to Hippocrates. The history of treatment begins with the use of ipecacuanha, the dried root of Cephaelis ipecacuanha, a plant from Brazil.  This was first mentioned as a remedy in Purchas’s Pilgrimes, 1625. 

The most extensive library sold at auction in London during the seventeenth century, with almost 15,000 lots, of which only part was medical. Bernard was Physician to James II.

This was the first published catalogue of the anatomical museum of the University of Leiden. Several later editions of this version were published in Dutch; a later edition was compiled by Franciscus Schuyl (No. 11314). Blanken's edition was translated into English as A catalogue of all the cheifest rarities in the publick theater and anatomie-hall of the University of Leyden which are so set in order that all may easily bee found in their places. Printed in Leiden by Hubert vander Boxe, 1704. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link; of the 1697 Dutch edition at this link.

Includes observations of natural history collections, estates and libraries of Parisians, and commentary on science, art, food, wine, medicine, and more. Late in 1697, William Bentinck, Lord Portland, was sent on a diplomatic mission to Paris, and Lister accompanied him as physician. Lister's duties left him ample time to meet and talk with other intellectuals, to see their collections and gardens, and to explore the city. Digital facsimile of the first of three 1699 editions from the Internet Archive at this link. Edited reprint, with annotations, a life of Lister and a Lister bliography, by Raymond Phineas Stearns (Urbana, IL, 1967). 

In this pioneering experimental study of coronary function, describing the first experimental tying of a coronary vessel, Chirac demonstrated that cardiac arrest occurs in response to coronary ligation. “A special position must be allocated to the French physician Pierre Chirac for having performed the first experimental ligation of a coronary artery in a dog. His book De motu cordis (1698) is an early attempt at experimental pathology with regard to the coronary vessels. Likewise there is much information on the fibers of the heart; some ideas are also expressed as to measuring the heart’s power . . . the blood volume, too, was estimated” (Leibowitz, The History of Coronary Heart Disease, p. 305). Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Catalogue of the plants in the Hortus Botanicus Leiden, posthumously edited from Hermann's unpublished manuscript, and reproducing 111 of Hermann's botanical illustrations, by William Sherard. Digital facsimile from Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid at this link.

Cowper’s description of the glands which bear his name. He was forestalled in their discovery by Jean Méry.

A pioneer statistician, Petty took the first census of Ireland. He was Professor of Anatomy at Oxford and later Graham Professor of Music. SeeNo. 1686.

The earliest work of importance in comparative morphology. Tyson compared the anatomy of man and monkeys and between the two he placed the chimpanzee, which he regarded as the typical pygmy. This was the origin of the idea of a “missing link” in the ascent of man from the apes. Facsimile reprint with introduction, 1966. Biography of Tyson by Ashley Montagu, Philadelphia, 1943.

An aggressive criticism of quack medicines, apothecaries who produced them, and physicians who prescribed them.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.