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.

Cuvier played a leading part in the development of paleontology and stimulated the study of comparative anatomy. He ranks with von Baer as one of the founders of modern morphology. Vols. 1-2 ed. by C. Duméril, and vols. 3-5 ed. by G.L. Duvernoy, but Cuvier took full responsibility for the contents of this work. The posthumous second edition, revised and expanded by Georges Cuvier's younger brother, Georges-Frédéric Cuvier  to 8 vols., appeared from 1835-1846.

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.

Arabic-Latin bilingual text, edited by White, incorporating a translation begun by Edward Pococke the Younger (1648-1727). Abd al-Latif gave a good description of the fauna and flora of Egypt, its inhabitants and some of its diseases. He was the first writer, according to Hirsch, to dispute the accuracy of Galen. The first printed version of his work consisted of the Arabic text alone (Tübingen, 1789). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The great military surgeon Larrey served during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, where he was the first to observe the contagiousness of trachoma shortly after the successful invasion in 1798. The disease spread to Europe under the name of “military ophthalmia” or “Egyptian ophthalmia”. This pamphlet was printed at Napoleon's press in Cairo, the first printing press established in Egypt. Reprinted in Larrey’s, Rélation historique et chirurgicale de I’expedition de l'Armée d’Orient, Paris, 1803.

Davy discovered the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide and suggested its use during surgical operations. This suggestion was applied until 1844 when the American dentist Horace Wells volunteered to have the effects of nitrous oxide demonstrated on him by Gardner Quincy Colton, a member of a traveling circus. Wells felt nothing, and was the first patient to be operated on under anesthesia, having his tooth extracted later that year by his associate, John Riggs. See No. 5660. Digital facsimile of Davy's book from the Internet Archive at this link.

Waterhouse introduced Jennerian vaccination into the U.S.A. He vaccinated his own child as his first case. See J. B. Blake, Benjamin Waterhouse and the introduction of vaccination. A reappraisal. Philadelphia, 1957. Digital facsimile of pt 1 from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link; of part 2 from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Landré-Beauvais gave the first reasonably accurate description of rheumatoid arthritis.

Frere described the discovery of several flint artifacts, which he believed to be “weapons of war,” associated with “some extraordinary bones, particularly a jaw-bone of enormous size of some unknown animal” (p. 204). The flints, which included handaxes, were excavated at a brick-field in Hoxne, from a layer of gravelly soil about 12 feet beneath the surface. Frere speculated that the flints were possibly of great antiquity: “The situation in which these weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period indeed; even beyond that of the present world . . . the manner in which they lie would lead to the persuasion that it was a place of their manufacture and not of their accidental deposit” (p. 205). 

The first clinical demonstration of the placebo effect, specifically in the context of Perkins' metallic tractors. Haybarth  demonstrated the placebo effect caused by the tractors by obtaining the same results with wooden ones. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

"For Insects of India Donovan described and figured specimens in his own cabinet, that were originally collected by the late Duchess of Portland, Marmaduke Tunstall, a Governor Holford (many years resident in India), a Mr. Ellis, George Keate, a Mr. Yeats, and a Mr. Bailey. He also studied the collections of John Francillon, Mr. Drury and Alexander Macleay. His patron was Joseph Banks. It is the first illustrated publication dealing with the entomology of India. The exact publication date, stated on the title page as being 1800, is also unclear as most plates are later; for example, the plate for Cicada indica is dated Feb 1, 1804. Many of the butterflies figured are from the Americas. In the works of Fabricius on which the Epitome was based "Indiis" confusingly refers to the West Indies or northern South America" (Wikipedia)

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from digitale-sammlungen.de at this link. Followed by Erster Nachtrag zu der Beschreibung des botanischen Gartens der Universität zu Halle (1801). Digital facsimile of the 1801 Nachtrag from bab-muenchen.de at this link.

Bichat revolutionized descriptive anatomy. Where Morgagni and others had conceived of whole organs being diseased, Bichat showed how individual tissues could be separately affected. He covered tissue pathology, system by system in the Anatomie générale, showing that tissues from different organs are similar and subject to the same diseases, and identifying 21 different types of tissues. This was done essentially without a microscope, but marks the beginning of modern histology. The above work and No. 404 are remarkable in their total reliance on verbal description to convey anatomical detail, since neither work contains a single illustration. Translated into English by George Hayward as General anatomy, applied to physiology and medicine. 3 vols., Boston: Richardson and Lord, 1822. Digital facsimile of the French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the English translation also from the Internet Archive at this link.

Like de Bordeu, and more definitely, Legallois anticipated the conception of internal secretions. He surmised from the identity in composition of all varieties of arterial blood and the diversity of venous blood in different parts of the body, that this diversity is acquired, in each case from the loss of some substance from the organ from which the vein proceeds.

The first herbal both produced and printed in the United States, as opposed to those which were reprints of European works. Includes information on native American remedies. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Includes the first description of astigmatism, with measurements and optical constants.

Soemmerring is best remembered for his fine anatomical illustrations, of which those devoted to the human eye are a good example. In 1791 he made important observations on the macula lutea: "De foramine centrali limbo luteo cincto retinae humanae," Comment. Soc. reg. Sci. Gotting., 1795-98 (1799), 13, 3-13; on p. 4 he states that he made these observations on January 27, 1791. French translation in Demours, No. 5842.1.

Grapengiesser was the first physician to use Volta’s “pile”, the first battery, which Volta first described in print in 1800. Grapengiesser “noted that in paralyzed muscle excitability could be so poor that 150 elements were necessary to produce contraction. He placed conductors on moistened skin and found by trial and error that the best results were obtained with the zinc pole placed over the nerve trunk and the other pole over the branches of the nerve. He also noted that contraction occurred on the make and break of the circuit”. (Licht).

The “Discours d’ouverture” contains Lamarck’s first published statement of the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. See No. 316.

Camper illustrated his own work, and was an outstanding anatomical artist. His illustrations of hernias are of great value.

Sir Astley Cooper reported three cases of Eustachian obstruction deafness relieved by perforation of the membrana tympani (myringotomy), an operation first performed by Eli, a quack, in 1760. Cooper’s earlier paper on the subject appeared in vol. 90 of the Phil. Trans. He also demonstrated air and bone conduction by watch (precursor of Rinne’s test). For this work he received the Copley Medal.

Saucerotte described before the Académie de Chirurgie in 1772 a case of what is now known to have been acromegaly. This is the first known clinical description of the disease, and is one of the five cases included in Pierre Marie’s classic account (No. 3884). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

First American book on the teeth, a pamphlet of 26pp. It was intended for the lay public and listed sound rules of oral hygiene, explained the nature of dental diseases and their treatment, and stressed preventive maintenance of the teeth. In 1792 Skinner founded at the New York Dispensary the first in-hospital dental clinic in the United States. He also offered his services free of charge to the Hospital and Alms House of New York City, establishing the first dental clinic for the poor in America. Reprinted New York, Argosy, 1967.

Pinel founded the French School of Psychiatry. He was among the first to treat the insane humanely; he dispensed with chains and placed his patients under the care of specially selected physicians. Garrison considered the above book one of the foremost medical classics, giving as it did a great impetus to humanitarian treatment of the insane. English translation, Sheffield, 1806. The second French edition, Paris, Brosson, 1809 was very substantially enlarged by Pinel. 

A pupil of Pinel, Itard pioneered in the attempt to educate a young “wild boy” who had lived since infancy entirely apart from human contact. In adapting the methods of teaching deaf-mutes to his extraordinary pupil, Itard created a new system of pedagogy which profoundly influenced modern educational methods. He was very optimistic in the above work issued nine months after he had started working with the boy. By his second account, Rapport sur les nouveaux développemens et I’état actuel du sauvage de I’Aveyron, Paris, 1807, Itard regretfully concluded that the boy was incapable of learning speech and that some of the effects of prolonged isolation are irreversible, especially when the isolation occurs during the crucial period of early childhood. English translation of first work as An historical account of the discovery and education of a savage man, or of the first developments physical and moral, of the young savage caught in the woods near Aveyron, in the year 1798. London, 1802.

Itard's accounts became the subject of a very sensitive 1970 film by François Truffault entitled l'Enfant sauvage. Filmed in Aveyron, France, and often using Itard's language for narration, the film captured the spirit of Itard's experience.

Digital facsimile of the 1801 work from BnF Gallica at this link. Both of Itard's works were reprinted with supplementary material as Rapports et mémoires sur les sauvage de l'Aveyron l'idiotie et la surdi-mutité part Itard avec une appréciation de ces rapports par Delasiauve. Préface par Bourneville. Éloge d'Itard par Bousquet. Paris: Aux Bureaux du Progrès Médical & Félix Alcan, 1894.

John Bell, the Scottish anatomist and brother of Charles Bell, is regarded as a founder of surgical anatomy. He was first to ligate the gluteal artery (Vol. I, pp, 421-26), and tied the common carotid and internal iliac. His illustrations were his own work, and were of a high standard.

Himly used hyoscyamine to dilate the pupil to facilitate removal of the lens. (p. 97).

This beautifully illustrated work was the first textbook on the subject to be published in the Italian language. Its author has been called “the father of Italian ophthalmology”. English translation, London, 1806.

Inflammation of the iris was named iritis by Schmidt. In 1801, with Himly, he founded the first journal devoted to ophthalmology, the Ophthalmologische Bibliothek. Digital facsimile of Schmidt's 1801 work from the Internet Archive at this link.

Interstitial pregnancy first reported.

A classified subject index to the contents of learned society journals to the end of the 18th century. Vols. 10-16 deal with medicine and surgery. Reprinted, New York, Franklin, 1961.

Publication date is estimated. Digital facsimile from the Beinicke Library, Yale University, at this link.

Bichat was the creator of descriptive anatomy. He introduced the terms “animal” and “vegetative” system. This was his last work, unfinished at his death. Vol. 4 was prepared by Bichat's student and cousin, Mathieu-François Buisson, and vol. 5 by Philibert-Joseph Roux. Vol. 3, pp. 319-68 includes Bichat's Nerfs de la vie organique. Digital facsimiles of all 5 vols are available from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In this work Playfair invented the pie chart. It has also been suggested that Playfair, often short of funds, may have colored the charts in all the copies himself—the process he characterized as "staining" in the title. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Pie chart from Playfair's Statistical Breviary (1801), showing the proportions of the Turkish Empire located in Asia, Europe and Africa before 1789

Heberden observed that the number of deaths from dysentery sharply decreased over the 18th century, but that deaths attributed to apoplexy increased. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first census of England, Scotland and Wales. The study of population was one of the major concerns of political economy at this time and the first census came at a crucial point in the debate. When Malthus published his Essay on Population in 1798 demographic knowledge was necessarily limited. Rickman, a British government official and statistician, drafted the bill that became the 1800 Census Act, establishing for the first time a national decennial census of Britain’s general population.  After the Census Bill passed Rickman helped to carry out the first four British censuses, which included not only a population count, but also the collection and analysis of parish register returns. Once the first census results were known Malthus extensively revised and expanded his Essay, incorporating insights gained from the census and other sources, and published it virtually as new work in 1803. Digital facsimile of the first census reports from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

At the time of publication Assalini, a military surgeon with Napoleon, characterized himself on the title page as "Docteur en Médecine et Chirugien de 1re classe de la Garde des Consuls..." Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Translated into English by Adam Neale as: Observations on the disease called the plague, the dysentery, the ophthalmy of Egypt, and on the means of prevention. : With some remarks on the yellow fever of Cadiz, and the description and plan of an hospital for the reception of patients affected with epidemic and contagious diseases. London: J. Mawman, 1804. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Published as Apuntamientos par ala historia natural de los Páxaros del Paragüay y Rio de la Plata. 2 vols. Madrid: La Imprenta de la Viuda de Ibarra, 1802. Digital facsimile of the Spanish edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Simultaneously with Lamarck, Treviranus coined the term “biology” for the study of living things, and he was the first to use it in a book title. This massive work was a summary of all basic knowledge about the structure and function of living matter. Treviranus wrote that any living creature has the ability to adapt its organization to changing external conditions. Thus both Haeckel and Weismann considered Treviranus to be a precurser of evolution theory, even though Treviranus never explained how changes in organic structures occurred nor how they could become hereditary. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Schell was the author of the first 2 vols, which were the first major work on transfusion since the 17th century and an excellent early history of the subject. Scheel reviewed both transfusion and intravenous injection. J.F. Dieffenbach wrote the third volume, Die Transfusion des Blutes und die Infusion der Arzeneien in die Blutgefässe, published in Berlin, 1828. Digital facsimile of the third volume from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Isolation of alkaloids from opium.

A chronological history of epidemics (plagues, contagions and epizootics) occurring in Spain to the end of the 18th century. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

King has been called the first great economic statistician, surpassing Petty. King was an engraver, herald, surveyor, and Secretary to the Commissioners for the Public Accounts, but he is best known for his 1696 estimates of the wealth and population of England. Writing in 1696, but calculating for the year 1688, he put the population at approximately 5.5 million, and his work was not published at the time because it was considered strategic information. It was rediscovered and first published, with a life of King by antiquarian and political writer George Chalmers as an appendix to the 1802 edition of Chalmers's work.  It first appeared as a separate treatise issued by Stockdale in 1804. Reprinted in Two Tracts by Gregory King.(a) Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England. (b) Of the Naval Trade of England Ao. 1688 and the National Profit then arising thereby. Edited with an introduction by George E. Barnett. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1936.) Digital facsimile of the 1802 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Young, the “Father of physiological optics”, established the wave theory of light, explaining the phenomena of interference and dispersion.

Samuel Johnson called Heberden “the last of our learned physicians”. The above work included all his important papers, which had earned him his great reputation, and which are dealt with elsewhere in this database (see Nos. 2887, 2291, 5438, 5831). Heberden's book was published posthumously by Heberden’s son, and at once acquired a European reputation; “it had the distinction of being the last important medical treatise written in Latin” (Rolleston). An English translation also appeared in 1802. Chap. 78 reports two cases of anaphylactoid (abdominal) purpura. Henoch (No. 3065) and Schönlein (No. 3058) established this condition as a distinct entity. In his chapter De nodis digitorum Heberden described a form of rheumatic gout in which nodules (“Heberden’s nodes”) appeared at the interphalangeal joints of the fingers. Heberden's introduction to the book, written in 1767, was not published until the 4th edition (1816).

One of the earliest accounts of exophthalmic goitre. The author noted cardiac disturbances in thyroid enlargement.

Coxe did much to destroy ignorant prejudice against vaccination; he was the first in Philadelphia to practice it. Like Waterhouse, he inoculated his own child as his first case.

Rauch was particularly concerned with deforestation, which not only affected the agriculture and scenery of the countryside, but also the whole ecological balance of crops, flora and fauna, and human interaction with the ecological system. He discussed the interrelationships between climate, terrain and vegetation, and suggested ways to establish a state of 'harmony' between the environment and man. He included topics such as the ecological balance found in mountain regions, and  suggested in the final chapter, that a ministerial department "of the interior" be set up in order to monitor ecological issues and supervise relevant matters at a local level were included. In his extensively revised second edition of 1818, which bore the title Régenération de la nature végétale.... (2 vols.) his attention turned to the idea of "regeneration" he argued that it is necessary to reverse the process of human destruction of the environment, particularly the world-wide destruction of forests, in order to return the planet to a state better supportive of life. He Rauch began with a consideration of the relationship of forests to weather conditions, surveyed the effects of deforestation world-wide on climate, and animal and human populations, and set out steps to be taken: what sorts of vegetation should be planted where, renewal of water sources, and the establishment of governmental agencies in France and all over the globe to observe the environment and take action. He urged the agencies, for example, to consider changes over short periods of time ("to what extant animals and birds are scarcer in the last thirty years" in a particular area), and to attempt regulation of factory fuel sources. In his closing argument he urges the obligation "to conserve the noble economy," and "to conserve that from which we benefit." Digital facsimile of the 1802 edition from Google Books at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1818 edition from Google Books at this link.

Tilesius continued the study of the Lambert family of sufferers from ichthyosis hystrix begun by Machin and Baker (see No. 4013). Notably Tilesius illustrated the bizarre condition with several color plates. In 2016 one of his illustrations was available from the Wikipedia at this link.

Napoleon appointed Desgenettes physician-in-chief for his expedition into Egypt. Desgenette's Histoire contained 19 separate chapters written by expedition personel. Digital facsimile of the 1802 from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the expanded third edition (1835) from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. Also published in Mémoires sur l'Egypte: ... Publiés dans les années VII, VIII et IX, Volume 4, (An X) pp. 125-156.

"the paint is laid on so thickly that it is frequently impossible to see the engraved lines underneath. The already rich colouring is heightened by the addition of burnished highlights, albumen overglazes and metallic paints to give an overall effect reminiscent of the work of a miniaturist. Surprisingly, these techniques were often combined to produce a very pleasing and delicate effect: the multiple ruses of the colourist triumph over the draughtsman's numerous failures. Donovan overreached himself and died penniless ." (Dance, Art of natural History p. 87)

The first original British work on podiatry, with several illustrations, one hand-colored. Disappointed at being refused a medical degree, Lion, a German Jewish émigré, wrote this book, taking the unusual step of having his name published in both English and Hebrew characters on the title page. “His odd and arrogant writing led to the book being generally derided by the lay and professional press. In fact it is first class and was based completely on his personal experiences and observations. Stripped of its padding it can be seen to be a great improvement on Laforest’s book…. The greatest praise we can give to Lion’s book is to say that every chiropodial writer since has used and borrowed from Upon Spinæ Pedum” (Dagnall, “The history of chiropodial literature,” Journal of the Society of Chiropodists, 20, 1965). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
    

Includes the earliest record in the English of the origin and growth of veterinary literature. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The date of this undated work has been inferred. The 40-page pamphlet issued during the early stages of the French expedition to the island, provided instructions by the chief medical officers of the army for medical personel in hospitals and in the field, concerning the external and internal diseases of the troops in Saint-Domingue, and their treatment.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The text and accompanying plates reported the observations and conclusions of a deputation of the medico-surgical class of the Accademia Virgiliana, sent to determine on anatomical grounds the sex of twenty-two-year-old Giacoma Foroni, living since baptism as a girl and engaged to be married. The deputation determined that this intersex person was male, preventing the marriage.

Young, one of the first American experimental physiologists, showed the solvent principle in the gastric juice to be an acid, but wrongly inferred that it was phosphoric acid. He also deduced the association and synchrony between gastric juice and saliva. Reprinted, Urbana, Ill., 1959.

An incomplete version was first printed for private circulation, 1794. Two variants dated 1794 are known: One is dated February 24, 1794 on the "advertisement" at the end, the other is dated April 4, 1794 on a leaf at the beginning.

The British and American medical professions adopted much of “Percival” in their ethical codes. Digital facsimile of the 1803 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Otto recognized and adequately described hemophilia, noting that females are not affected but may transmit the disease. His paper is one of the first great contributions to medicine in North America. Reproduced in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 522.

One of the first works in the English language entirely devoted to medical electricity. Carpue also played a key role in the development of rhinoplasty. See No. 5737.

Nephew of Galvani (see No. 593), Aldini developed and promoted animal electricity. His sensational experiments on the body of a criminal executed at Newgate, conducted with Carpue (No. 1989) were significant for the prehistory of the later development of cardiac electrostimulation. He also was among the first to treat melancholy (schizophrenia) with electricity, precursing modern shock therapy.

First accurate description of the pathological anatomy of congenital club-foot. English translation, Edinburgh, 1818.

Hey is remembered for “Hey’s saw” and “Hey’s internal derangement of the knee,” a phrase that he coined. He was an outstanding surgeon in his day; he founded and was senior surgeon of the General Infirmary, Leeds. He devised a type of amputation of the foot (“Hey’s amputation”). His book includes the description of the falciform ligament of the saphenous opening, “Hey’s ligament”. Hey described subacute osteomyelitis of the tibia before Brodie (No. 4311). He may have become interested in the knee after banging his own knee while getting out of a bath in 1773. He remained lame for the rest of his life. 

This work contains one of the earliest histories of dentistry.

Fox’s classic treatise on the teeth is the first to include explicit directions for correcting dental irregularities. It is the first work on orthodontics.

The versatile Reil, physician and physiologist, was an early advocate of humane treatment for the insane. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first journal devoted to mental disease – the Magazin für Nervenheilkunde.

Excision and arthrodesis in joint disease. Moreau was the first to excise the elbow. English translation, Glasgow, 1806. See No. 4438.

Schmidt was Professor of Ophthalmology at Vienna. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In his travels in Africa, Winterbottom, physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone (now Republic of Sierra Leone) on the west coast of Africa, saw sleeping sickness, which he described in vol. 2, pp. 29-31, as a species of lethargy. He also noticed that slave-dealers would not buy slaves whose neck glands showed signs of enlargement. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from the Internet Archive at this link;  digital facsimile of vol. 2 from the Hathi Trust at this link.;

Wittman described the plague and other epidemics that afflicted both the Ottoman and British armies. In the Appendix he provided medical suggestions for treatment, together with a history of the plague. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

On November 30, 1803 Spanish physician Francisco Javier de Balmis and his team embarked from Spain, on an expedition to vaccinate the people of Spanish America against smallpox. This three year voyage, which became known as the Balmis Expedition, is considered the first international health care expedition. Of it Edward Jenner wrote, " I don’t imagine the annals of history furnish an example of philanthropy so noble, so extensive as this." On the ship Maria Pita Balmis sailed with a deputy surgeon, two assistants, two first-aid practitioners, three nurses, Isabel López de Gandalia, the rectoress of Casa de Expósitos, an orphanage in La Coruña, and 22 orphan boys, eight to ten years old, who served as successive carriers of the disease. The mission carried the vaccine to the Canary Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and China. The ship carried also scientific instruments and copies of Balmis's translation into Spanish of Traité historique et pratique de la vaccine (1801) by Jacques-Louis Moreau de la Sarthe. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Collins, a British doctor and planter, spent fourteen years in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. Written from the utilitarian perspective of a master, this handbook on slave medicine was intended to maximize the output of the plantation by minimizing labor losses due to disease. Collins emphasized providing appropriate diet, clothing, and housing while reducing or eliminating extreme forms of physical punishment. This book is an example of slave management as occupational medicine. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Erasmus Darwin's last poem, which mainly expounds his theories of evolution. He traces the progress of life form its origin as microscopic specks in premeval seas to its culmination in a civilized human society. The first canto shows life's origin and its evolution from aquatic to land forms. The second deals with reproduction--asexual, hermaphroditic and finally sexual reproduction with all its advantages. The third canto traces the progress of the mind, from its origin as a mere meeting-place of nerves to its present complexity in man. In the fourth canto Darwin descrbies the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest. The essay-length scientific notes (last 124pp.) contain summaries of theories of spontaneous generation, etc. Erasmus Darwin's theory of evolution has been compared to Lamarckism.

The first American textbook of botany. Digital facsimile of the revised 1804 London edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Written by the first great American painter. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Spallanzani's experimental data laid the groundwork for modern conceptions of respiratory physiology. In concluding that the blood transported carbon dioxide as a product of tissue oxidation, Spallanzani discovered parenchymatous respiration--usually accredited to the biochemist Liebig half a century later. Spallanzani demonstrated that the tissues consume oxygen and give off carbon dioxide.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

"The French government sent Michaux to the United States to collect North American seeds, shrubs, and trees ; he landed at New York City on 1 October, accompanied by his son [François-André Michaux] and a gardener. In 1786 he established a nursery at Hackensack, N.J., and the following year another at Charleston, S.C., from both of which he shipped many boxes of seeds and thousands of trees to the park at Rambouillet, France.

"Between 1786 and 1792 he botanized through much of the United States from New York to Florida and as far west as West Virginia and eastern Kentucky; in the same period he also visited Spanish Florida and the Bahamas. In 1792 Michaux decided to pursue his botanical studies in Lower Canada. On 2 June he met the retired fur trader Peter Pond near New Haven, Conn.; Pond informed him that the fur-trade canoes to the west, which Michaux may have considered accompanying, had left Montreal at the end of April. Michaux eventually proceeded to Montreal, where he arrived on 30 June. He remained there into July, botanizing and meeting several members of the fur-trading merchant class, including Joseph Frobisher and Alexander Henry, whom he undoubtedly questioned about the flora of the west. He then went to Quebec, where he spent several days with Dr John Mervin Nooth, discussing Nooth’s scientific inventions, inspecting his garden, herborizing, and preparing a voyage to James Bay.

"Late in July, Michaux, accompanied by a mixed-blood interpreter, left Quebec for the Rivière Saguenay. On 5 August he arrived at Tadoussac, where he hired three Indian guides, and on the 7th the party started up the Saguenay in two bark canoes. On the 10th they reached the fur-trade post of Chicoutimi, and six days later Lac Saint-Jean, where Michaux explored extensively the shores and the surrounding forest. Following the Rivière Mistassini and small rivers and lakes, he arrived at Lac Mistassini on 4 September. Two days later, after proceeding about 25 miles down the Rivière de Rupert, which flows into James Bay, he was forced by bad weather and the late season to turn back, about 400 miles short of his objective.

"As on all his voyages, Michaux daily recorded in a journal the conditions of travel, the day’s progress, and the plants he had observed or discovered ; as well, when possible, he noted their most northerly limits. He observed, for example, that the great rapids on the Mistassini marked the limit of Potentilla tridentata, or three-toothed cinquefoil, and that Gaultheria procumbens, or wintergreen, disappeared ten leagues up the same river from Lac Saint-Jean. One of the last specimens he collected was Primula mistassinica, or bird’s-eye primrose, found along the Rivière de Rupert, and named by him. Michaux also wrote of his admiration for his guides’ ability to manipulate the canoes and added that, although he never feared drowning, “these voyages are frightening for those not accustomed to them, and I would advise the Little Masters of London or Paris . . . to stay home.”

"Michaux arrived at Montreal in October 1792. On 2 December he was back at New York City, and in January 1793 he shipped to France seeds he had collected. In May he met Edmond Charles Genet, minister plenipotentiary to the United States of the French revolutionary government, who hoped to promote the revolution in Lower Canada; Michaux gave him several memoranda containing his observations on former French colonies in North America, including Canada. Genêt persuaded Michaux to undertake a secret political mmission to Kentucky, the nature of which is still largely unclear. From 1793 to 1796 he continued to botanize in the United States, travelling as far west as the Mississippi River. He was increasingly hampered by the French government’s failure since 1789 to support him financially, and in 1796 he was finally obliged to abandon his project. On 13 August he left Charleston, but one month later his ship was wrecked off the coast of Holland ; his herbarium was damaged, some of his manuscripts were lost, and Michaux himself almost perished. He reached Paris in January 1797 to discover that, of the thousands of trees he had sent since his arrival in North America, few had survived the ravages of the revolution. Moreover, he was unsuccessful in efforts to recover the arrears of his salary or to obtain financial support for a return trip to North America.

"In October 1800 Michaux was engaged as a naturalist in a scientific expedition bound for Australia under the direction of Captain Nicolas Baudin. Always more comfortable working alone, Michaux left ship at Île de France (Mauritius) in April 1801 and proceeded to Madagascar, where he died of fever – according to some historians, on 13 Nov. 1802 near Tamatave, but, according to a member of the expedition, on 11 Oct. 1803 at Tananarive." (Judith F. M. Hoeniger, ).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Larrey's history of his experiences with Napoleon and Napoleon's armies during the Egypt campaign. Includes a reprint of Larrey's treatise on trachoma, which was first published at Napoleon's press in Cairo.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This medical satire in doggerel verse, which was ostensibly an attack on Perkins' metallic tractors, or "Perkinism" was actually written in support of them. The work was best known for its second and greatly expanded illustrated edition--the form in which it was reprinted in England and America through the 1830s: Terrible Tractoration!! A poetical Petition against galvanising Trumpery, and the Perkinistic Institution. In four Cantos. Most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians, by Christopher Caustic … Second Edition, with great Additions issued by the same publishers later in 1803.
Digital facsimile of the 1803 London second edition from the Hathi Trust at this link,
Digital facsimile of the first American edition (1804) reprinting the second London edition with additional illustrations, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

The author was a military surgeon on Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. (32pp.)

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In this foundation work on phytochemistry, Saussure analysed the chief active components of plants, their synthesis and decomposition. He specified the relationships between vegetation and the environment. He showed that plants grown in closed vessels took their entire carbon content from the enclosed gas, and thus demolished the old theory that plants derive carbon from the so-called “humus” of the soil.

The first book on alcoholism, expanded from Trotter's MD dissertation: Dissertatio medica inauguralis, quædam de ebrietate, ejusque effectibus in corpus humanum complectens, quam ... pro gradu doctoris ... (Edinburgh: Apud Balfour et Smellie, 1788). Digital facsimile of the 1804 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

First important work on diseases of the nose and nasal sinuses.

Scarpa distinguished true from false aneurysms. He introduced the concept of arteriosclerosis. English translations, Edinburgh, 1808 and 1819. Digital facsimile from Heidelberg University Library at this link.

The first paper on orthopedic surgery published in the United States. Physick introduced the use of the seton in the treatment of ununited fractures.

Zinke transmitted rabies from a rabid dog to a normal one, and to a rabbit and a hen, by injection of saliva and proved the disease to be infectious. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

Baronio was among the first to attempt transplantation and experimental surgery in animals. He successfully carried out full-thickness skin grafts after detachment from the body, and the first purely scientific research in the history of plastic surgery. Baronio devoted an entire chapter (pp. 27-32) to the transplantation of teeth from one person to another, an operation that he credited to John Hunter. "The transplanting of teeth from one person to another is performed according to the English surgeon without great difficulty, provided that the tooth to be transplanted is fresh and has a root suitable for the alveolus of the recipient. . . . One can reduce the length or diameter of the root by filing it down, and there is certain proof that a fresh tooth, however much its root has been filed down, will take as well as one which hasn't been filed. Such a wonderful operation, despite its simplicity, is practically unknown in Italy . . . whilst in England, on the contrary, there was a time when it was so common that ladies were ashamed to appear in society if they were lacking a tooth. . . . But it often happened that those people willing to sell their good teeth were infected with poison, either venereal or scrofulous, and through them these diseases were transmitted to those who had the misfortune to come upon diseased donors. Thus it was that the transplanting of teeth fell into disrepute. . . " (Baronio, On Grafting in Animals [1985], translated by Joan Bond Sax, pp. 48-49).

Digital facsimile of the 1804 edition from the Medical Heritage Library at the Internet Archive at this link.

English translation, Uttoxeter, 1805. Like his father, Heberden junior was a great clinician. It is probable that the above was compiled from notes left by Heberden senior.

One of the first natural history museums in the U.S., supported by subscription. According to the text, David Hosack and Wright Post were among the supporters of the project. The copy at the U.S. National Library of Medicine bears Hosack's signature. Digital facsimile of Hosack's copy at NLM at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Abernethy published the first classification of tumors based on pathologic anatomy. "Abernethy is best known for his lectures and writings on surgery and for the first attempt at classification of tumors, some of which he considered hereditary." "His classification divided tumors into several types of sarcomas, such as: common vascular, adipose, pancreatic, cystic, mammary, tuberculated, medullary, and carcinomatous, each illustrated by one or more of his 'cases.'

"ABERNETHY'S CLASSIFICATION

1. Common Vascular or Organized Sarcoma
2. Adipose Sarcoma
3. Pancreatic Sarcoma
4. Cystic Sarcoma
5. Mastoid or Mammary Sarcoma
6. Tuberculated Sarcoma
7. Medullary Sarcoma
8. Carcinomatous Sarcoma

"With his accurate observations, Abernethy provided much information concerning tumors upon which later scientists could build. However, almost 150 years later, with highly sophisticated equipment, we are still trying to solve the enigma of cancer" (Krush, Anne J., "The Classification of Tumors by John Abernethy Early in the Nineteenth Century," Transactions Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies. [1980] 290).

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The first monograph on acute rheumatism. 

Blumenbach, physiologist and anthropologist, was Professor of Medicine at Göttingen. He was the first to show the value of comparative anatomy in the study of anthropology; his classic text went through many editions; it was translated into English in 1807.

Vicq d’Azyr has been called the greatest comparative anatomist of the 18th century. The mammillo-thalamic tract is named the “bundle of Vicq d’Azyr”. See No. 401.2. Digital facsimile of from the Internet Archive at this link.

Treatment for the quintessential American war injury suffered by troops and settlers alike on the American frontier.

First definite description of cerebrospinal meningitis. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

Oken maintained that all organic beings originate from, and consist of, cells, and that organisms are produced by an agglomeration of these cells.

Isolation of morphine from opium. This was the first isolation of an active ingredient from a plant. 

One of the first works on the geographical distribution of plants. Humboldt was a pioneer student of geographical–ecological plant associations. The sheets of this work were reissued as Vol. I of the authors' Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1700, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, with an extra half-title and general title and the plate colored. Digital facsimile of the 1805 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation: Essay on the geography of plants, edited with an introduction by Stephen T. Jackson, translated by Sylvie Romanowski. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

The first recorded colostomy for intestinal obstruction was performed by Fine in 1797. The patient survived 3.5 months.

The first serious attempt at repairing intestinal injuries in America, and the first use of dogs for experimental surgery in America.

Hahnemann's first published homeopathic book, his first title on Materia Medica and Repertory, and the first collection of drug provings on the healthy body. The book lists the health effects of 27 drugs in common use as recorded in the medical literature along with Hahnemann's own observations from taking the drugs himself. 

Also published as a monograph, Berlin: In commission bei L. W. Wittich. 1805.  

"Apart from occasional excursions in England and Wales Donovan never left London. His Insects of New Holland is based on specimens collected by Joseph Banks and William Bayly an astronomer on the second and third voyages of James Cook, specimens in the collection of Dru Drury and other private collections as well as his own museum. It is the first publication dealing exclusively with the insects of Australia. In the preface Donovan writes "There is perhaps, no extent of country in the world, that can boast a more copious or diversified assemblage of interesting objects in every department of natural history than New Holland and its contiguous island". Most of the plates depict butterflies together with exotic plants. Donovan often used thick paints, burnished highlights, albumen overglazes and metallic paints. These covered the engravings (from his own copper plates, Donovan personally undertook all steps of the illustration process for his books, the drawing, the etching and engraving and the handcolouring) which are not visible. At other times the fineness of his engraving and etching is apparent giving his illustrations the appearance of being watercolours" (Wikipedia).

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bourgelat, a French lawyer, observed that certain diseases were devastating French herds, and forsaking his law practice, devoted his time to seeking out a remedy for the epizootic (rinderpest). In the process Bourgelat founded the first veterinary college in the world at Lyons in 1761. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Gariot promoted himself as "Dentist to King of Spain."

"The invention of articulators for holding the casts of artifical teeth is attributed to ...J. B. Gariot. Gariot designed his first model in 1805 from impressions of the gum in a lifelike position. This invention allowed artifical teeth to be propertly arranged. Some 35 years passed, however, before certain essential improvements on articulators were introduced that made them more practical and useful" (Harmarneh, "Dental exhibition & reference collection at the Smithsonian Institution," Health Services Reports, 97 (1972) 297.

Digital facsimile of the original French edition from Google Books at this link. Translated into English by J. B. Savier for the American Library of Dental Science, with notes by the editors as: Treatise on the diseases of the mouth; comprising the structure and functions of the mouth, the history of its diseases, the means of preserving it in beauty and health, and operations appretaining to the dental art. Baltimore, 1843. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

The first European history of Arab or Islamic medicine. Amoreux was professor in the faculty of medicine in Montpellier (an Arabist medical center in the Renaissance), and also the librarian. He stated in the introduction that he was motivated to write this book because previous historians of medicine such as LeClerc did not cover this aspect of the history of medicine. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Duvillard showed statistically the effect of smallpox vaccination on the mortality rate. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Although Tenon did not discover the fibrous capsule and the interfascial space of the orbit, they are named after him.

Bozzini introduced a speculum in which the idea of illumination and reflection by mirrors was utilized. English translation in Urology, 1974, 3, 119-23. Bozzini published his work in book form, Der Lichtleiter, Weimar, 1807, which is translated in Quart. Bull. Northw. Univ. med. Sch., 1949, 23, 332-54.

Corvisart really created cardiac symptomatology and made possible the differentiation between cardiac and pulmonary disorders. He was first to explain heart failure mechanically and to describe the dyspnoea of effort. His translation of Auenbrugger’s book on percussion resulted in the universal adoption of that procedure. Corvisart was Napoleon’s favorite physician. English translation, 1812, reproduced 1962.

Saunders was the first to advise paracentesis in acute middle-ear suppuration.

The largest and most spectacular of the early classics of dermatology, with hand-colored illustrations unsurpassed for their quality of execution. The illustrations are also the first on the subject in a French book. This book also contains the first description of mycosis fungoides (pian fungoide, framboesia mycoides), one of several conditions to which the name of Alibert has been attached.

Includes description of “Hesselbach’s hernia” and “triangle”. He wrote a further volume on the subject in 1814.

Fox was a surgeon practicing dentistry. By some of the authorities his book is considered more valuable than Hunter’s (No. 3676). This is the first book to illustrate diseases of the teeth.

Bell’s artistic and literary skills combined with his knowledge of anatomy and physiology to make this work a tour de force of art history and the anatomical and physiological basis of facial expression.

Auction catalogue in six parts. Digital facsimile from Biodiviersity Heritage Library at this link. Facsimile reprint, London: Harmer Johnson and John Hewett, 1979 with a 69-page manuscript appendix of an extra five days and a manuscript index of the buyers' names. The sale lasted sixty-five days without intermission, excepting Sundays and the King's birthday. The reprint also included a reproduction of the 1790 Companion to the museum (No. 7657).

Probably the first catalogue of a medical museum in the United States and also possibly the first catalogue of an institutional medical library. The library was open to users for a one time payment of $30, later raised to $40. Paid members received a copy of the printed library catalogue. Thmae lending rules were very strict, and limited to a maximum of two loaned books at a time. A folio could be borrowed for 4 weeks, quartos for 3 weeks, octavos and duodecimos for two weeks. The librarian required a hefty cash deposit for all books loaned, at least one-third more than the book's value, to be refunded only if books were returned "undefaced." Plus a fine of 12.5 cents per week was levied for late returns. After three months books were considered lost, and deposits forfeited. Certain books, that were apparently much in demand, would not be lent out of the hospital. Those are listed on p. vii. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Much expanded edition, 1818.

The first book on pediatric odontology, later called pedodontics. English translation, New York, 1841.

Isolation of Asparagine, the first amino acid to be isolated.

Cadet de Vaux discussed the history of coffee, including the origins of the coffee bean and plant, the proper climate for growing coffee, coffee drinking culture and its introduction to Europe. He also described the beneficial properties of coffee, listing ailments that could be cured by drinking coffee. Charles-Louis Cadet, Antoine-Alexis's nephew, described how to brew the perfect cup of coffee, also mentioning different methods of making coffee, like cold coffee or with alcohol. He also provided a chemical analysis of coffee. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

Coxe's "formulary" was the first attempt at standarization of drugs and their preparation in the United States. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

Describes the yellow fever epidemic that swept through French troops on the island of Saint Domingue (Haiti) in 1802. In the midst of the slave uprising that led to the island’s independence, Napoleon sent an expeditionary force of thirty thousand soldiers to Saint Domingue in order to restore order. This force was virtually wiped out by malaria. As a result, the French failed to regain control over the island, and Saint Domingue subsequently declared independence. The author was Chirurgien-Major in the hospitals and artillery corps at Cap-français, and formerly physician of the expeditonary force at Saint-Dominique. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

One of the most comprehensive works on gerontology ever written, with a bibliography of 1800 references, supplemented by abstracts, translated excerpts from ancient authors, national data, etc.

Oken’s vertebral theory of the skull.

Cooper’s first book, luxuriously produced, in which he described for the first time the transversalis fascia, with full appreciation of its importance in hernia, as well as the superior pubic ligament with bears his name. Cooper made a study of femoral hernia and described “Cooper’s ligament”. He also studied diaphragmatic hernia. The second edition of 1827, entitled The anatomy and surgical treatment of abdominal hernia included his description of “Cooper’s hernia” (hernia femoralis fasciae superficialis).

First description of ecthyma terebrans, “pemphigus gangrenosa”.

Famous as anatomist, physiologist, and neurologist, Charles Bell was also, like his brother John, an eminent surgeon. His artistic talent was even greater than that of his brother. (See No. 5588.)

Vetch described trachoma.

First significant textbook on obstetrics written by an American. Bard gave an excellent description of the mechanism of labor, and of pre-eclampsia. Woodcut illustrations were engraved by American physician and illustrator Alexander Anderson (1775-1870). Anderson was not credited in the book.  Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Van Deijl introduced an achromatic objective.

Ewell, then practicing in Savannah, Georgia, wrote this self-help book for southern residents, directing his book toward plantation owners. It was "the constant friend of a large number of slave-masters. In emergencies it was not uncommon for planters to sit with book in hand by the bedside of a sick Negro, look up the symptoms, compare the remedies and then administer the drug. Not infrequently their wives would minister to sick slaves" (Morais, The history of the Negro in medicine [1968]  16-17.),. The book underwent at least 11 editions, under different titles. Digital facsimile of the Baltimore, 1811 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

In 1799 Humboldt and Bonpland embarked on a six-year tour of research through South America and Mexico, a trip which would afterwards be called, justifiably, "the scientific discovery of America."  The two amassed exhaustive data in a wide array of fields from meteorology to ethnography, and gathered 60,000 plant specimens, 6,300 of which were previously unknown in Europe. Their American travel journals— issued under the general title Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804— were published in thirty-four volumes between 1807 and 1834. Digital facsimiles are available from the Internet Archive and Bnf Gallica. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Pozzi was the firector of the newly formed Royal Veterinary School, Milan, and professor of pathology and hygiene.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Vol. 1. Historique, by François Péron. 1807

Vol. 2. Historique [by Francois Péron, completed by L. de Freycinet] 1816.

Vol. 3. Navigation et géographie, [by L. Freycinet.] 1815. 

Atlas historique [by C. A. Leseur & N. Petit] 1817.

[The following summary of the complex authorship and history of this voyage is a conflation of selections from various articles from the Wikipedia, accessed 3-2020:]

In October 1800  Napoleon selected the French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) to lead what became known as the Baudin expedition to map the coast of Australia (New Holland). To make the voyage and conduct research Baudin had two ships, Géographe and Naturaliste captained by Hamelin, and a suite of nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour. Baudin left Le Havre on 19 October 1800, stopped off in St. Croix, Tenerife, then sailed straight to the Ile de France arriving on 15 March 1801, 145 days later. The voyage, overlong with early rationing left sailors and scientists feeling discouraged, but the colony was happy to build up the crews in case of conflict and to make use of the new skills they brought with them. Baudin reached Australia in May 1801, and would explore and map the western coast and a part of the little-known southern coast of the continent. The scientific expedition proved a great success, with more than 2500 new species discovered. The French also met Aboriginal peoples and treated them with great respect.

In April 1802 Baudin met Matthew Flinders, also engaged in charting the coastline, in Encounter Bay in present-day South Australia. Baudin then stopped at the British colony at Sydney for supplies, and from there he sent home the Naturaliste, carrying all of the specimens that had been collected by both ships up to that time. Realizing that the Géographe could not venture into some of the shallow waters along the Australian coast that he was intending to survey, he bought a new ship — Casuarina — named after the wood it was made from, and placed it under the command of Louis de Freycinet, who would 15 years later make his own circumnavigation in the corvette l'Uranie. Baudin then headed back to Tasmania, before continuing along the southern and western coasts of Australia to Timor, mapping as he went. In very poor health, Baudin then turned for home, stopping at Mauritius, where he died.

During the voyage, which charted significant stretches of the Australian coast between 1801 and 1803, the naturalist François Péron clashed repeatedly with Baudin. When Stanislas Levillain and René Maugé died, Péron rose to prominence as the sole remaining zoologist. (Baudin had already lost numerous officers, sailors, savants and artists who deserted in Mauritius.) With the aid of the artist Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Péron was largely responsible for gathering some 100,000 zoological specimens—the most comprehensive Australian natural history collection to date. Although he died before he could fully study his specimens, Péron made a major contribution to the foundations of the natural sciences in Australia and was a prescient ecological thinker. He was also a pioneer oceanographer who conducted important experiments on sea water temperatures at depth.

Baudin died before he could return to France, and it was Péron who began writing the official account of the expedition: Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes. In doing so, he committed a great injustice to his former commander's memory by magnifying his faults and frequently distorting the historical record. In the wake of the resumed fighting between France and Britain, Péron also drafted a secret Mémoire sur les établissements anglais à la Nouvelle Hollande, which advocated a French conquest of Port Jackson with the aid of rebellious Irish convicts.^[1]

Péron died of tuberculosis in his hometown of Cérilly in 1810. He was just thirty-five years old. The task of completing the official account of the expedition fell to Louis de Freycinet.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This 13-page pamphlet was probably the only medical publication by the English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Paine's essay was first published in newspapers in 1806.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Edited English translation by Roger L. Williams as "On the establishment of the principal gardens of botany: A bibliographical essay by Jean-Philippe-François Deleuze," Huntia, 14 (2011) 147-176. Digital fracsimile from huntbotanical.org at this link.

Digital facsimile facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In 1804 the Berlin Akademie der Naturwissenschaften offered a prize for the best essay on the structure and function of the lungs. The prize was won by Reisseisen, while Soemmerring received honorable mention. The texts of both works were published in one volume; Soemmerring’s essay was entitled “Ueber die Structur, die Verrichtung und den Gebrauch der Lungen”. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Acute hydrocephalus first described.

A system of helminthology. Rudolphi gave the name “echinococcus” to the common vesicular hydatid, describing three species. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link .

Badham distinguished acute and chronic bronchitis from pneumonia and pleurisy, with which it had previously been confused. He gave the disease its present name. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Fonzi, an Italian dentist living in Paris, produced the first sets of individual porcelain teeth mounted on a base. "While previously the entire mineral denture, both base and teeth, had been fired as a single piece, Fonzi in 1808 published a method for the manufacture of individual teeth with platinum hooks fired into them. . . . With the invention of these “Dents terro-metalliques” . . . which could be soldered to a metal bar, the determining step towards modern dental prosthetics had been taken (Hofmann-Axthelm, History of Dentistry, p. 256). Fonzi also discovered a method using a combination of procelain paste and various metallic oxides, of partially imitating the semitransparent tint peculiar to natural teeth. His artificial teeth could be manufactured in a range of natural colors. See Guerini, Life and Works of Giuseppangelo Fonzi (1925).

Wardrop was the first to classify the various inflammations of the eye according to the structures attacked. He was also the first to use the term “keratitis”.

The first use of ergot in the induction of labor in America. Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic Contributions to Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1935, pp. 21-23.

A revised edition, with 40,000 additional citations, of Nos. 6750 and 6750.1. A supplement (1 vol.) was published in 1813.

Considered the "father of American ornithology," Wilson was the greatest American ornithologist before Audubon. Wilson died with the 7th volume in press, and the 8th and 9th volumes were completed by Wilson's friend George Ord, who included a memoir of Wilson in the final volume. Because of the limitation of Wilson's travels and his early death, the work was incomplete, but it was by far the most extensive work about American birds to date, and the color plates set a new standard for works produced in America, even though Wilson's artistry was sometimes crude, and his depictions of birds were stiff and out of scale. The set has been called "the first truly outstanding American color plate book of any type" (Bennett). Digital facsimile of the complete set from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

The first state pharmacopeia issued in the United States. Jackson and Warren were the "Committee for the Pharmacopoeia." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

An early, if relatively brief (24pp.), effort at a study of contributions of ancient Greek and Roman writers to dentistry. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Besides Ventenat's library of botanical works lots 603-11 included Ventenat’s collections of botanical specimens (lot 603 contained 14- 15,000 specimens from all over the world!). The auction catalogue was prefaced by a life of Ventenat. The auctioneer supplied indices of authors and of anonymous works. 

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from biusante.parisdescartes.fr at this link.

“Meckel’s diverticulum”.

First notable work on the subject in English. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Includes description of “Rolando’s substance”, “tubercle”, and “funiculus”. Rolando described ablation experiments for brain localization similar to Flourens (No. 1391). They were largely unknown until Magendie published a French translation of them in his J. Phys. exper. path., 1823, 3, 95-113, which was reprinted by Flourens in No. 1493. Rolando was correct in allocating motor activity to the cerebral hemispheres; however his views on cerebellar function were replaced by those advanced by Flourens.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Cheyne’s important book deals mainly with the lesions of croup.

Lamarck was one of the greatest of the comparative anatomists. This work is considered the greatest exposition of his argument that evolution occurred by the inheritance of characteristics acquired by animals as a result of the use or disuse of organs in response to external stimuli. English translation by H. Elliot, 1914. Digital facsimile of the 1809 edition from Google Books at this link.

This splendidly illustrated work with life-size plates includes the description of “Scarpa’s fascia” (creasteric fascia) and Scarpa’s triangle of the thigh.

Account of nine cases of rheumatic endocarditis.

Cooper ligated the common carotid artery on Nov. 1, 1805; the patient died, but a second case (June 22, 1808) proved successful. (See also No. 2955).

A pupil of John Hunter, Abernethy became a leading surgeon in London. He was most industrious, and it is said that not even on his wedding day did he fail to give his usual daily lecture at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. His book was, in the view of D’Arcy Power, epoch-making; on pp. 234-92 he recorded the first successful ligation of the external iliac artery for aneurysm, an operation carried out by Abernethy in 1796. 

Cooper was surgeon on the field at Waterloo, and was later appointed to the chair of surgery at University College, London. His great dictionary went through seven editions during his lifetime and was translated into French, German and Italian.

Burns described endocarditis and reported three cases of mitral stenosis. He recognized the thrill present in the latter condition and seems to have understood the mechanism of a cardiac murmur. He also described unilateral paralysis of the diaphragm resulting from pressure on the phrenic nerve by a thoracic aneurysm. Burns was also among the first to suggest (see p. 136) that angina pectoris is an expression of coronary obstruction. Biography by J. B. Herrick, 1935.

"The following Directions, framed by the late Mr. John Hunter, are intended to facilitate, and render effectual, the Endeavours of such Friends to scientific Inquiries as shall be inclined to futher the designs of the Court [of Assistants], but are not well acquainted with the Arts of preparing, and preserving, animal substances, for anatomical Investigation" (p. 4). Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

The earliest monograph on medicine published in Brazil. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

In 1809 Magendie presented to the Académie des Sciences and to the Société Philomatique the results of his first experimental work, which he carried out in collaboration with the botanist and physician Alire Raffeneau-Delille. In a series of experiments on various animals the two investigators studied the toxic action of several botanic drugs, particularly upas, nux vomica, and St.-Ignatius's bean. These experiments marked the beginning of experimental pharmacology. They were the first experimental comparisons of the similar effects produced by drugs of different botanical origin.

Magendie believed that the toxic or medicinal action of natural drugs depends on the chemical substances they contain, and that it  be would to obtain these substances in the pure state. As early as 1809 he suspected the existence of strychnine, later isolated, in accord with his predictions, by Pierre Joseph Pelletier  in 1819. Moreover, in 1817, in collaboration with Pelletier, Magendie discovered emetine, the active principle of the root of Carapichea ipecacuanha or ipecac.

See also Magendie's follow-up paper: Mémoire sur les organes de l'absorption chez les mammifères. Lu à l'Institut, le sept Août 1809.

Digital facsimile of the offprint of the April 1809 paper from BnF Gallica at this link.

Guthery characterized himself on the title page as "Chirurgo-Podist to the Royal Family." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

On the organization and administration of French military hospitals during the Napoleonic era, and probably the most comprehensive account published up to this time on the administration of military hospitals in general. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Bullock founded his Museum of Natural Curiosities at 24 Lord Street in Liverpool in 1795. While still trading as a jeweller and goldsmith, in 1801 he published a descriptive catalogue of the works of art, armor, objects of natural history, and other curiosities in the museum, some of which had been brought back by members of James Cook's expeditions. In 1809, Bullock moved to London and the museum, housed first at 22 Piccadilly and in 1812 in the newly built Piccadilly Egyptian Hall, proved extremely popular. The collection, which included over 32,000 items, was disposed of by auction in 1819. Digital facsimile of the 7th edition of the 1809 catalogue from the Internet Archive at this link. An illustrated catalogue of the museum, with 30 plates, was first published in 1812.

The first monograph on heart disease written and published in the United States. Digital text from Project Gutenberg at this link.

Link described Polyangium, the first bacterium to be described that is still recognized today. Link also described Penicillium for the first time.

A 585-page treatise on this later-debunked therapy published around the time of its greatest vogue. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The most spectacular illustrated book on the flora of Portugal. The delicate illustrations, mostly stipple-engraved and colored by hand, based on the travels of Hoffmannsegg through Portugal between 1797 and 1801, were executed in the manner of Pierre-Joseph Redouté. 

Digital facsimiles from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

One of the more unusually titled travel accounts including the mention that "the author became the prisoner of 40,000 black revolutionaries, and was rescued by the French army." "Following his marriage to the daughter of Rossignol-Desdunes, who had plantations in Artibonite, he [Descourtilz] went to Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1798, on the way visiting Charleston, South Carolina, and Santiago de Cuba. Descourtilz became involved in the Negro revolution and, in spite of the protection of Toussaint L'Ouverture was nearly executed by Dessalines. but in 1803 escaped and sailed to Cádiz. Most of his original drawings and manuscripts, as well as his herbarium, were burned in Haiti; and in writing his books he had to rely on the works of Plumier, Joseph Surian, Alexandre Poiteau, and Turpin. His zoological contributions, particularly those on the caiman, were highly praised" (DSB). This set included 43 stipple engraved plates.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Ferriar coined the term "bibliomania" in this work. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.