“Poupart’s ligament”, the inguinal ligament.

Douglas described the peritoneum in detail; his name is perpetuated in the “pouch”, “line”, and “fold of Douglas”. He was a friend of John Hunter and brother of John Douglas, the lithotomist.

Le Dran, famous French lithotomist, improved the operation of lithotomy. Murphy credits him for originating the lateral lithotomy usually attributed to Cheselden, whose method he discusses. Le Dran was one of Haller’s teachers.

An early work specifically on hemorrhoids.

Martine was the first to perform tracheotomy for diphtheria.

Includes the first clear account of chicken pox as a distinct disease, and the first distinction between the spots made by flea bites from those seen in eruptive fevers.

A deluxe sale catalogue illustrated with 21 plates, including 7 mezzotints. 

"The Catalogus Plantarum is notable as one of the earliest flower books to contain plates printed in colors. It is perhaps unique in that one third of its plates are so printed, in mezzotint from a single plate, while two thirds are engraved and handcolored in the usual way. The book is also unusual in that it was ostensibly the work of twenty authors, listed as the Society of Gardeners at the end of the Preface, though it is usually assumed that one of their number, Philip Miller, was responsible for the text....One intention of the Society was to agree on a nomenclature, so as to limit confusion in ordering plants; but that does not make it easy to translate into modern binominals. The present list of plants is offered as a means to a better one." (Hunt Botanical Library, No. 485)

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Recamier (1829) is credited with coining the term metastasis with respect to cancer. It is evident that Hoffmann and his pupil Sontag used the term nearly 100 years earlier in this general thesis on disease. They did not apply it specifically to cancer though they mentioned tumors twice in the dissertation, on pp. 12 and 14. The title of Sontag's thesis may be translated as Inaugural medical dissertation on metastasis or the altered seat of disease. How one disease often turns into another.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Classic description of chlorosis. Lange accurately diagnosed this condition, but it was left to Hoffmann to separate it as a definite entity. Hoffmann published his contribution to this subject in the thesis of his student Gottfried Emmrich.

First known description of Ichthyosis hystrix, a group of rare skin disorders in the ichthyosis family of skin disorders characterized by massive hyperkeratosis with an appearance like spiny scales. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

Machin’s observations referred to the Lambert family, and were followed through successive generations of the family by Henry Baker in "A supplement to the account of a distempered skin, published in the 424th number of the Philosophical Transactions," Phil. Trans., 1755, 49,  21-24. Digital facsimile of Baker's paper from the Royal Society at this link. 

A pioneer history of medical writing, for which the historian, Stolle, collaborated with the medical historian/biographer/bibliographer Kestner. Digital facsimile from the Google Books at this link.

Clifton argued that physicians should base their judgments about the effects of treatments on a sufficient number of their own observations, or trusted observations by other physicians, rather than on the correlation of treatments with established theory. He recommended that the clinical data should be organized in tables.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The only attempt to record the natural history of a region of America during the colonial period. Includes 220 fine handcolored etched plates after and by Catesby and mostly signed with his cipher, excepting plates 61 and 96 in vol. 2 by Georg Dionysius Ehret. Publication in parts began in 1729. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Though the title might be translated as a library of medical writings, the set is an extensive bio-bibliographical dictionary of medical writers. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This was the first English bird book issued with hand-colored plates, colored by Albin and his daughter Elizabeth. "For the most part Albin delineated one bird per plate. The birds are placed on a branch or on the ground, each part coloured. The proportions of the birds are a distinct improvment on those in Willoughby and Ray... Albin produced his paints in a rather strange manner according to Petiver’s account. For his reds he washed and dried vermilion pigment in four waters and then proceeded to “grind it in boys urine three times, yn [then] gum arabic it and grind it in Brandy wine.” Whatever his methods and however singular the contribution by his sons, this very first effort at colouring plates depicting birds is highly commendable and the results were gratifying, for the book was popular." (Jackson, Bird Etchings).

From 1738 to 1740 Albin published a second issue of this work with the plates apparently colored entirely by himself, as those title pages read, "exactly colour'd by the Author" instead of "carefully colour'd by his daughter and self."

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Miller was chief gardener and curator (or 'Hortulanus') at the Apothecaries' (later Physic) Garden in Chelsea. Besides covering methods of cultivation, Miller's Dictionary provided a systematic botanical compendium of all wild-growing and cultivated plants then known in Britain. Digital facsimile of the 8th and last edition edited by Miller, expanded into 3 vols. from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Boerhaave was the first to separate out urea from urine, and to do so without adding chemical substances such as alcohol or nitric acid. He first published his method for isolating it in the above work. English translation, London, 1735.

Chovet was born in England and died in Philadelphia. He made many beautiful wax models to illustrate his lectures, and was among the first to popularize the use of wax and natural preparations in the teaching of anatomy, devices which he advocated in his Syllabus. The book gives an interesting picture of the methods employed in the teaching of anatomy in the mid 18th century. Chovet’s famous collection of models went to the University of Pennsylvania, where it later perished in a fire.

The foramen between the greater and lesser sacs of the peritoneum (described on pages 352-65), is named after Winslow. His Exposition is distinguished as being the first book on descriptive anatomy to discard physiological details and hypothetical explanations foreign to the subject. He did much to condense and systematize the anatomical knowledge of his time.

-Sect. VI deals with the nerves. Winslow designated the ganglion chain “the grand sympathetic nerve”, and the smaller branches “the lesser sympathetic”, terms which remain today. The work includes a reprint of the text of Stensen, Discours sur I’anatomie du cerveau, Paris, 1669. English translation by G. Douglas, 2 vols., 1733-34. That includes the first English translation of Stensen's work.

Littré was first to suggest colostomy in intestinal obstruction – “Littré’s operation”.

Instead of assessing the efficacy of therapies by their correlation with theories, Clifton argued that physicians should base their judgments about the effects of treatments on a sufficient number of their own observations, or observations by other physicians that they trusted. This data he organized in tables. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Catalogue of the rare plants growing at Eltham, London, in the collection of James Sherard, who, after making a fortune as an apothecary, devoted himself to gardening and music. For this work Dillenius wrote the text and executed 324 plates. The book was described by Linnaeus, who spent a month with him at Oxford in 1736, and afterwards dedicated his Critica Botanica to him, as opus botanicum quo absolutius mundus non vidit, "a botanical work of which the world has not seen one more authoritative."   

"According to Blanche Henrey^[10] it [Hortus Elthamensis] was "the most important book to be published in England during the eighteenth century on the plants growing in a private garden" and a major work for the pre-Linnaean taxonomy of South African plants, notably the succulents of the Cape Province. Dillenius' herbarium specimens from Eltham are preserved in the herbarium of the Oxford Botanical Garden." (Wikipedia article on James Sherard, accessed 2-2020).

Digital facsimile from Real Jardín Botánico at this link.

This splendidly designed and illustrated work contained full and accurate descriptions of all the human bones, as well as many of animals. Cheselden is the first person to have used the camera obscura to gain precision in his illustrations, and the vignette on the title page shows him using this instrument. The engravings are beautifully executed by Van der Gucht. In 1720 Cheselden inaugurated lectures on anatomy and surgery at St. Thomas’s Hospital. See the paper by K. F. Russell, Bull. Hist. Med., 1954, 28, 32-49, which mentions a trial issue of the book, dated 1728. See also Russell, British Anatomy 1525-1800, 2nd ed., 1987. Facsimile reprint of the undated remainder issue printed without text, Philadelphia, 1968.

Cheyne attributed hypochondria (“Cheyne’s disease”) to the moisture of the air and variability of the weather in the British Isles. Cheyne himself suffered from this disease and the work includes a careful account of his own case history.

First description of congenital atresia of the ileum.

This was originally a letter to Pott. Park became famous for his operation of excision and arthrodesis as a treatment for destructive joint disease. The title page is misprinted “MDCCXXXIII”; the letter is dated 1783. The second edition of this work, Glasgow, 1806, contains the English translation of No. 4440.

Gives the first published account of the forceps, kept secret by the Chamberlen family for generations. Chapman was the second person in England to teach midwifery publicly. The first edition of his book was not illustrated. In the second edition of 1735 he included an illustration of the forceps.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Arbuthnot believed that air had significant effects on personality, and he believed that the air of locations resulted in the characteristics of the people, as well as particular diseaes. He recommended ventilation of sickrooms, and urged readers to seek fresh air in crowded, poorly sanitized Augustan era cities. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Réaumur’s greatest work describes the appearance, habits and locality of all the known insects except the beetles, and includes 267 plates. Posthumously published: Tome VII: Histoire des fourmis, (Paris: Paul Lechevalier éditeur, 1928), and Histoire des scarabées (Paris: Paul Le Chevalier éditeur,1955) with 21 plates.

The first portion of Reaumur's encyclopedic work that was translated into English appears to have been his studies of bees. This was translated by Gilles Auguste Bazin and as published as The natural history of bees:  Containing an account of their production, their oeconomy, the manner of their making wax and honey, and the best methods for the improvement and preservation of them (London: J and P. Knapton, 1744). Digital facsimile of the 1744 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Digital editions of all six volumes of the original edition of the Mémoires are available from the Internet Archive at these links.

De Baillou, “the first epidemiologist of modern times”, foreshadowed much that was afterwards taught by Sydenham. He first described whooping-cough and is often credit with introducing the term “rheumatism”. Baillou was Court physician during the reign of Henri IV of France. See the article on Baillou by E. W. Goodall in Annals of Medical History, 1935, 7, 409-27. (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.)

Important tracts on the anatomy and physiology of the ear. Cassebohm’s studies of the embryonic ear far surpassed his predecessors, including Valsalva and Morgagni, and were not themselves surpassed until the work of Huschke and von Baer.

Atkins was an English naval surgeon. His book includes some useful case reports and contains the first English description of African trypanosomiasis.

Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps. His book contains, under case 14, the earliest published record of the use of the hitherto secret Chamberlen forceps, in 1726, together with illustrations of two variant types.

Giffard was the first English obstetrician to publish substantial contributions to clinical midwifery. He described the Ritgen maneuver almost a century before Ritgen, as well as a case of ectopic gestation, which he illustrated on plate 2.

With 4 folio volumes this is probably the most elaborate catalogue of a private natural history museum, wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities ever published. The text is printed in Latin and Dutch. The work includes 446 copperplates, many double-page, and entirely hand-colored in some copies. Digital facsimiles of colored and uncolored copies from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Very detailed descriptions of all the muscles of the human body, with illustrations drawn and engraved by Jan Wandelaar depicting the muscles of the hand, life-size with all the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. These were the first plates in which Wandelaar applied the 'architectonic' procedure of 'projective' transposition of the objects to paper with the aid of a pair of compasses and a ruler. See Punt, Albinus, p. 7. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first medical hand-book for lay persons written and published in America. It is probable that this book was first published in 1734, though the earliest recorded copy or copies appear to be the "second edition" with that date. Digital facsimile of the 1971 type facsimile of the 1734 edition from Google Books at this link.

In Systema naturae Linnaeus developed the first logical and modern classifications of plants, animals and minerals. Its most valuable feature, the binomial nomenclature (genus and species), was probably devised in the first place by Joachim Jung, about 1640. Jung never published his system during his lifetime, and its posthumous publications were relatively obscure.

Linnaeus issued the first edition of this work as a series of large charts printed on both sides of seven sheets, or as a series of charts printed on one side only of twelve sheets. The most important edition of the Systema naturae is the tenth, published in 2 vols., 1758-59.

Behrens gave the name “morbus maculosus haemorrhagicus” to the disease purpura haemorrhagica. His paper is reprinted in Werlhof’s Opera medica, Hannover, 1775, 2,615-36.

Werlhof gave a classic description of purpura haemorrhagica (“Werlhof’s disease”).

Atkins, surgeon on the voyage, included information about the slave trade and the natural history of the Gold Coast. "Atkins describes the manatee accurately, and tells much about fetish worship. He shows that there was no evidence of a general cannibalism in any negro tribe, but mentions how an English captain made one slave eat the liver of another as a punishment. He gives full accounts of the winds and currents" (Wikipedia article on John Atkins, accessed 01-2017). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Posthumously published works of Alpini on the natural history and botany of Egypt, and Vesling on the botany of Egypt. The second volume, on botany by Alpini was edited by Johannes Vesling, with the addition of his own botanical observations. In 1628 Vesling traveled to Egypt and Jerusalem, where he was the personal physician of the Venice consul, and also conducted extensive studies of regional flora (particularly medicinal plants). Later in his career, Vesling succeeded Alpini as director of the botanical garden at the University of Padua. Remarkably this work was not published until around 80 years after Vesling's death.

Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link; of the 2nd volume at this link. 

Nesbitt pointed out that bones may develop in membrane as well as cartilage, an observation which was ignored until the 19th century. He left an outstanding description of bone growth.

First recorded successful appendectomy. Amyand was Sergeant-Surgeon to George II and first principal surgeon to Westminster Hospital. See also the paper in Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1953, 97, 643-52, which reproduces part of the text.

Douglass left the first adequate clinical description of scarlet fever, which he called angina ulcusculosa, in his account of New England’s first scarlet fever epidemic. He was one of the first American physicians to hold the M.D.

A comprehensive book on the subject, including a careful review of the existing literature. Astruc stated that syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1493. The book was translated into English in 1737. Digital facsimile of the 1736 edition from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

In 1740 Astruc issued the much-enlarged second edition expanded to two volumes. At the end of vol. 1, paginated in Roman numerals, he published Dissertatio I. De origine, appelatione, natura & curatione morborum venerorum inter Sinas, reproducing various Chinese characters with their explanations. This was probably the first Chinese treatise on venereal disease published in Europe. Digital facsimile of the second edition from Google Books at this link.

The small color mezzotint printed by the painter Jan Ladmiral included with this pamphlet on the arteries and veins of the human intestine was among the earliest applications of full color printing, and the first use of the three-color printing  process in a medical or scientific book. Between 1736 and 1741 Albinus issued six pamphlets, each containing a color mezzotint by Ladmiral, forming the first series of full-color, color-printed anatomical illustrations ever made. The other dissertations included De sede et causa coloris Aethiopum et caeterorum hominum (1737), a treatise on the anatomy and color of human skin; Icon durae matris in coava superficie visae (1738), on the anatomy of the brain; Icon durae matris in convexa superfice visae, ex capite (1738); Icon membranae vasculosae (1738), on the vascular membranes; and Effigies penis humani (1741), on the anatomy of the penis. These six images are  the only color prints produced by Jan Ladmiral, who had learned the process of color printing from the artist Jacob Christoph le Blon, the inventor of the process for printing color mezzotints using the three primary colors.

Black and white digital facsimile, unfortunately not including the color-printed image, from Google Books at this link.

A partial English translation of Luisinus's, De morbo gallico omnia quae extant (1566-67) as expanded by Boerhaave (1728).  Digital facsimile of the 1736 work from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The splendid series of 40 large copperplates of the bones and muscles in this work were drawn and engraved by Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759). They established a newstandard in anatomical illustration, and remain unsurpassed for their artistic beauty and scientific accuracy. English translation with new engravings of the plates, London, Knapton, 1749. The first extensive biography of Albinus, Punt, Bernard Siegfried Albinus…on “human nature” (Amsterdam, 1983) published the original plans, designs and drawings for Albinus's anatomy.

Linnaeus’s botanical classification, the starting-point of modern systematic botany. The book is dedicated to Boerhaave. English translation by Erasmus Darwin, Lichfield, 1787.

English translation, 1743.

The treatment of fevers by means of the cold pack was revived by S. Hahn and by his son J. S. Hahn; in his treatise, the latter advised the use of water in all diseases. A seventh edition of the book appeared as recently as 1938.

The largest and most attractive book by Linnaeus, describing and illustrating plants in the garden and herbarium of George Clifford, governor of the Dutch East India Company, at Clifford's summer estate, Harlecamp. The book has been called the "first scholarly classification of an English garden." Engravings after botanical artist Georg Dionysius Ehret. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Swammerdam's extensive collection of microscopical observations on insects was written in Dutch, and edited for publication 57 years after Swammerdam's death, with an extensive life of the author, by Herman Boerhaave. By the end of 1679 Swammerdam completed his manuscript, and the illustrations were virtually finished; two plates had been engraved, and the translation from Dutch to Latin was underway. However, Swammerdam’s health took a turn for the worse when his malaria returned. At Swammerdam's death in 1680 the manuscript passed to his friend Melchisédec Thévenot, with a request that the work be published. Unfortunately Thévenot could not meet the request of his dying friend. On Thévenot's death his papers were sold and the manuscript was bought by the King's painter, Joubert; on Joubert's death the manuscript was sold once again. In 1727 Boerhaave acquired the manuscript, but did not complete the editorial process and see the work into print until ten years later. The 2-volume folio work, published in 2-columns, includes a parallel Latin translation by Hieronymus David Gaubius. English translation, with title mistranslated as "Book of Nature" London, 1758. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

Brickell accompanied provincial governor George Burrington to North Carolina in 1724, remaining in the region for six years and becoming one of the first medical doctors in North Carolina. Brickell took the material on the flora and fauna of North Carolina from the work of John Lawson (1709) but the accounts of social and economic history, and of the medical practices of the native tribes is Brickell's work. The book also includes a short comparative vocabulary of the Woccon, Pamticoe, and Tuskeruro Indians.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first significant French book on dentistry after Fauchard. Geraudly's "book...contributed to the diffusion of dental knowledge relative to dental prophylaxis and therapeutics, but apart from this brought no increment to the progress of practical dentistry. Some of the ideas of the author, however, merit consideration...” (Guerini, pp. 302–303). 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first illustrated flora of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). Burman, a Dutch physician, was a friend and correspondent of Linnaeus and professor of botany. "Indeed, Linnaeus, as a guest at the Burman house, had a hand in the perfecting of the 'Thesaurus Zeylanicus' itself" (Hunt 501). The final part is subtitled Catalogi duo plantarum Africanorum and is basically a list of plants collected by Paul Hermann, who had visited South Africa on his way to Ceylon. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, p.165). Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

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.

The first book on the history of spectacles. Manni gave credit for the invention to the Florentine Armati (fl. 1300).

After Artedi's mysterious and premature death by drowning at the age of 30 Linnaeus raised money to pay off Artedi's creditors and obtained his papers. These he published in the present five part work. The five parts are:

I. Bibliotheca Ichthyologica or Historia litteraria Icthyologiae, a chronologically arranged, annotated comprehensive analytical review of previous literature on fishes.

2. Philosophia Ichthyologica: Artedi's philosophy for establishing ichthyology as a science,

3. Genera Piscium, a classification of the fishes recognized by Artedi, containing 52 genera and 242 species.

4. Synonymia specierum, a list of names applicable to each of the species that Artedi recognized.

5. Descriptiones specierum piscium, descriptions of 71 species of fish, plus a whale that Artedi saw in London. 

Alwyne Wheeler, "Peter Artedi, founder of modern ichthyology," Proc. V Congr. europ. Ichtyol. Stockholm, 1985, 3-10. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This is the second and best edition in 2 volumes of works that were first issued separately in 1673 and 1693 respectively. For Rauwolf see No. 7327. Digital facsimile of the 1738 edition from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

This was the text of the first Croonian Lecture at the Royal Society. In it Stuart promoted a strictly hydraulic iatromechanism as a theory of muscular motion. This work was translated into English in 1739. Digital facsimile of the 1738 edition from Google Books at this link.

A treatise on prescriptions. Gaub was professor of chemistry at Leiden.

Huxham left a vivid account of the “Devonshire colic”. He was at fault, however, in ascribing it to the tartar extracted from apples in the process of making cider.

Boerhaave’s library contained about 3,300 volumes on a wide range of subjects, including many outstanding illustrated works in botany and fine illustrated works on anatomy. As one would have expected, Boerhaave, the editor of a new edition of the writings of Vesalius, owned a first edition of the Fabrica. What one might not have expected was that he also owned all of the rare first editions of Berengario da Carpi, whose anatomical works prior to Vesalius would certainly have had no practical scientific value by the eighteenth century. Boerhaave also owned a fifteenth-century edition of Mondino, confirming that he was a book collector as well as a scholar. At the end of the catalogue is a group of “Libri Prohibiti” including first editions of Spinoza. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first national pharmacopoeia issued in Spain, also controlling drug preparation and use for the Spanish empire. It included botanical, mineral and animal substances, and substances obtained from the Spanish empire overseas.

"The first edition of the Pharmacopoeia Matritensis that appeared in 1739 was divided into six main parts. The first part provided an introduction to pharmacy with a chapter on the 'subject and object' of pharmacy, on medical simples, on the instruments used in pharmacy, and on 'common pharmaceutical operations.' The second part included more than thirty chapters describing different kinds of compositions and "medical mixtures', while the third, fourth and fifth parts described recipes for different types of prepared medicines, including extracts, conserves, juleps, syrups, powders, pills, oils, and others. Finally, the sixth and seventh parts dealt with 'chemical operations,' including the distillation of waters, spirits, oils, and other chemical preparations" (Matthew & Gabriel, Drugs on the page: Pharmacopeias and healing knowledge in the early modern Atlantic world).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first textbook of anatomy published by a Portuguese author in Portuguese. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.