“Bastian’s law”, transverse lesion of the cord above the lumbar enlargement results in the abolition of the tendon reflexes of the lower extremities.

Mosso invented the ergograph from the study of voluntary contraction. The description of the instrument is on pages 124-41 of the above article.

The epidemic character of poliomyelitis was first noted by Medin. The disease is also known as “Heine–Medin disease” from the descriptions given by these two writers (see also No. 4664). German version in Verh. X. Int. Med. Kongr., 1890, 2, Abt. 6, 37-47, 1891. English translation in Bick, Classics of orthopaedics, 116-23.

First demonstration of the essential role of calcium in the mechanism of blood coagulation.

Hedin’s hematocrit. He first briefly described it in Upsala läkPören. Förh., 1889, 24, 440. 

Includes description of “Howell’s bodies” seen in mature erythrocytes and called also “Howell–Jolly bodies” after the later description by J. M. J. Jolly.

Frenkel devised certain muscular exercises for use in the treatment of tabes dorsalis.

Billings was responsible for the designing of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. “It marked a new departure in hospital construction…It was the most perfect and best equipped institution of its time” (Kelly & Burrage).

Loeb founded the theory of “tropisms” as the basis of the psychology of the lower forms of life. English translation in Loeb’s Studies in general physiology, Vol. 1, 1-88. Chicago, 1905.

“Pick’s bundle” of nerve fibres in the medulla oblongata.

Mitochondria described, p. 145.

Simon "viewed the state as provider of the basic conditions needed for subsistence (without interfering in the iron law of wages) through sanitary reform of the environment, prevention of epidemic diseases, and the regulation of unadulterated food and drugs" (Dorothy Porter, Doctors, the state, and the ethics of political medical practice [2007]).  

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bowditch demonstrated the indefatigability of nerve (“Bowditch’s law”).

Measurement by means of photography, of the speed of the nervous impulse.

Psycho-galvanic reflex described.

Introduction of Strophanthus hispidus.

In 1890, Koch announced the discovery of tuberculin, a substance derived from tubercle bacilli, which he thought was capable of arresting bacterial development in-vitro and in animals. This news gave rise to tremendous hope throughout the world, which was soon replaced by disillusionment when the product turned out to be an ineffective therapeutic agent. In this paper Koch provided his definitive expression of "Koch's Postulates."

The second paper described “Koch’s phenomenon”, and tuberculin skin test. Koch showed that tuberculin injected intradermally would elicit a severe local inflammatory reaction in tuberculous patients. This was the first diagnostic skin test. Abbreviated English translation of second paper in Bibel, Milestones of immunology (1988).

“Russell’s bodies.”

Frazer’s theoretical evolutionary sequence of magical, religious, and scientific thought is no longer accepted, and his broad general psychological theory has proved unsatisfactory; however it enabled him to compare and synthesize (in the 3rd edition, 12 vols., 1911-15) a wider range of information and religious and magical practices than was achieved by any other single anthropologist. New abridgement, 1959.

Antitoxins and their immunizing powers were discovered when Behring and Kitasato published their paper dealing with immunity to tetanus and diphtheria. This work laid the foundation of all future treatment with antitoxins, and was the basis of serotherapy. The paper was reprinted in the same journal, 1940, 66, 1348-49. Part 2, which deals with diphtheria, is by Behring alone. Behring was the first recipient (1901) of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. English translation in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988).

Török made an exhaustive study of craniometry as applied to an unusually wide range of fields in medicine, and art, and proposed 5,000 different measurements of a single skull. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

König gave a detailed description of joint involvement in hemophilia.

Boas, who devised the test breakfast, became the foremost gastroenterologist in Europe. He founded the Archivfür Verdauungskrankheiten, the first journal devoted to the subject of gastroenterology.

Rindfleisch made the first clear statement of the bone marrow changes in pernicious anemia.

Lawson Tait was the first British surgeon to diagnose acute appendicitis and to treat it by removal of the appendix (May 1880). See J. A. Shepherd, Lawson Tait. The rebellious surgeon. Lawrence, Kansas, Coronado Press, 1980.

Schede introduced the method of extensive rib resection for the treatment of empyema.

Eijkman produced beriberi experimentally in fowls; from this he was led to conclude that a diet of over-milled rice was the chief cause, both in fowls and humans. Thus his work was of great importance in determining the aetiology of beriberi, and he further had the distinction of being the first to produce experimentally a disease of dietary deficiency origin. He shared a Nobel Prize with F. G. Hopkins in 1929. German translation in Virchows Arch. path. Anat., 1897, 148, 523-32.

First thyroid transplantation (for treatment of cretinism).

Stacke introduced the operation of excision of the ossicles.

Minkowski produced experimental diabetes by removing the pancreas of a dog. This proof of the role of the pancreas in diabetes was of the first importance; previous experiments on similar lines had attracted attention. Partial English translation in No. 2241. Preliminary report in Centralblatt für Klinische Medizin (June 8, 1889) 393-394.

Bottini’s Operation for hypertrophy of the prostate.

“Trendelenburg’s operation” – ligation of the great saphenous vein for the treatment of varicose veins in the leg. Reprinted, with translation, in Med. Classics, 1940, 4,989-1023. The paper also describes his test for insuffiency of the valves, a procedure previously described by Brodie (No. 2995).

First description of acanthosis nigricans.

Sebaceous adenoma, type Pringle.

Gasserian ganglionectomy for trigeminal neuralgia; the patient lived for at least two years.

“Jadassohn’s disease” – maculo-papular erythrodermia; Anetoderma erythematosum of Jadassohn.

In 1884 Miller became professor of dentistry at the University of Berlin, the first foreigner ever to receive a professorial appointment at a German University. Inspired by study of bacteriology under Robert Koch, Miller argued that “carbohydrates trapped around the teeth were fermented by bacterial components of the normal oral flora and the resulting acids decalcified the tooth enamel; other bacteria then entered the tooth through the initial defect and destroyed the underlying dentine” (Ring). His book first appeared in a German edition in 1889. Reprint of English edition, Basel, Karger, 1973

“Ollier’s disease”. He described a form of dyschondroplasia.

Includes a description of the “Bradford frame”, used in the treatment of spinal disorders.

Original description of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, sometimes called “Bamberger–Marie disease”.

Hoffa’s method of operative treatment of congenital dislocation of the hip-joint.

Artificial immunity to diphtheria produced in guinea-pigs by injection of attenuated cultures of the bacillus. Fraenkel's account appeared one day before the  paper of Behring and Kitasato. Behring, Die Geschichte der Diphtherie, recounts the history.

Includes an account of his attempt, 1886, to cure hydronephrosis by a plastic operation – the first recorded surgical intervention for the relief of this condition.

Includes description of the “Trendelenburg position”. Reprinted with translation, in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 936-88. The first description of Trendelenburg’s elevated pelvic position was given by one of his students, W. Meyer, in Arch. klin. Chir., 1885, 31, 494-525.

These workers introduced the term “amoebic dysentery” in their important investigation of the condition.

The foundation of the American school of experimental psychology. Under the influence of Wundt, James viewed psychology as an experimental science based on physiology. He founded the earliest laboratory for the study of experimental psychology in America.
The Principles was printed from stereotype plates, with numerous printings all made from the original set of plates. The first impression can be distinguished by the reading “the seat of intellectual power” in Vol. I, p. 10, lines 9-10, and by the reading “object of sensation” in Vol. II, p. 101, line 20.

Isolation of Actinomyces graminis from human actinomycosis, and staining method for Actinomyces.

Halsted showed that optimum wound healing was most easily obtained by avoiding hematoma formation. Contains description of Halsted’s method of radical mastectomy – one of the greatest contributions ever made to the treatment of mammary cancer. This paper also contains the first mention of the use of rubber gloves (a Halsted invention) in an operating room. This paper and No. 5777 contain the first illustrations published by Max Brödel after he moved to Johns Hopkins Hospital.

 Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Maximilian Oberst’s method of conduction anesthesia was first reported by Pernice, his pupil.

Canalis demonstrated and clearly differentiated Plasmodium falciparum from the species vivax and malariae.

The Tait–Porro operation, by which Tait performed Caesarean section in cases of placenta previa.

Reprinted Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1966.

An important summary of the knowledge concerning aphasia appears in vols. 5-7.

First description of dystrophia myotonica (“Déléage’s disease”).

The standard edition in French includes a very extensive bibliography of both manuscript and printed versions. English translation of sections on wounds and fractures, Chicago, 1923.

The first total joint replacements: Gluck replaced the tuberculous knee joint of a 17 year old woman with a hinged ivory prosthesis on May 20, 1890, followed by a total wrist replacement in another patient three weeks later. His joint arthroplasties were remarkably successful in the short term, but all ultimately failed because of chronic infection. "A report of five cases was published, all tuberculous joints. Three prostheses were subsequently removed, but one knee and one wrist replacement were left in situ despite fistula formation. Gluck, a rigid follower of asepsis, later realised that prior joint infection was a contraindication to joint replacement. Sadly, because of the opposition of his colleagues, Gluck stopped this work altogether...." (Eynon-Lewis, N. J.; Ferry, D.; Pearse, M. F., "Themistocles Gluck: an unreognized genius," Brit. Med. J., 305 (1992) 1535-1536.)

One of the earliest accounts of the recognition of loss of hearing due to firearms and explosions during war. Foster, secretary and treasurer of the Silent Army of Deaf Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, presented 100 cases of hearing loss and associated symptoms of tinnitus and vertigo in Civil War veterans. Compensation to veterans for hearing loss did not occur until after World War iI.

The first comprehensive monograph on the Republic of Liberia, published 50 years after its colonization by freed American slaves and their descendents. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Translated into English and edited by Henk Dop and Phillip T. Robinson as Travel Sketches from Liberia. Johann Büttikofer's 19th century rainforest explorations in West Africa. (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

On the title page Dymock is identified as "Brigade Surgeon, Bombay Army, Principal Medical Storekeeper to Government." Warden is identified as "Surgeon-Major, Bengal Army, Professor of Chemistry in the Calcutta Medical College." Hooper is identified as "Quinologist to the Government of Madras, Ootacamund." Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

The first separately published work on human origins published in the continent of Africa. Hillier's text was read on his behalf before the Eastern Province Literary and Scientific Society in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and published in the Grahamstown Journal  on 23 and 25 November 1886. It was reprinted in the 1887 New Year edition of the East London Dispatch, a newspaper also published in the South African province of Eastern Cape. 

In his Descent of man (1871) Darwin postulated that the ancestors of humanity would eventually be found in Africa, based on the extensive primate populations there. However, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the exception of Alfred Hillier and Langham Dale, paleoanthropologists focused their researches in Europe and Asia rather than Africa. This focus only very gradually began to change after Raymond Dart discovered Australopithecus africanus in 1924.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

In his research on nitrifying bacteria Winogradsky discovered the first known form of chemoautotrophy in which organisms obtain energy by oxidation of electron donors in their environments without the intervention of light energy. This was a key discovery in the nitrogen cycle.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

"2364 references to bibliographies, journal articles, books, dictionaries, directories, histories, biographical accounts, and miscellaneous literature. Intended to provide the basic references from which the development of American medicine can be traced. Entries give bibliographical information. Miscellaneous appendixes. Author, title, subject indexes" (publisher).

Among other things, Krafft-Ebing introduced the terms sadism and masochism in this work. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

This three page paper is primarily a detailed bibliographical listing of a selection of rare books that Billings brought from the Army Medical Library for exhibition at Johns Hopkins Hospital. This was probably the first exhibition of rare medical books in the United States for which a catalogue was published. Billings preceded the catalogue with general observations on the nature of the market for rare medical books, including remarks on how different categories of rare medical books were priced. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link
 .

The first large work on the subject illustrated primarily by photographs of specimens, and one of the last to use to the term "monster" as a medical descriptor. Digital facsimile of the 4 volumes from the Internet Archive at this link.

Charii I malformation. See No. 4581.1. See also Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1896, 63, 71-116.

Investigation of the mechanics of motion of the knee joint on mathematical lines. See also No. 645.

Important studies on thermodynamics of muscular work.

Mosso investigated muscular fatigue with the ergograph of his invention. He showed fatigue to be due to a toxin produced by muscular contraction. English translation, 1906.

Freud refuted the Wernicke–Lichtheim doctrine (Nos. 4623 & 4626) that the losses of function in aphasia were due to lesions to anatomically circumscribed centers corresponding to the various functions involved in language. He distinguished between defects in naming objects, which he called asymbolic aphasia, and defects in recognizing objects, for which he introduced the term “agnosia”. English translation, London, 1953.

“Hartmann’s pouch”, a dilatation of the neck of the gall-bladder.

Extension of Ehrlich’s work on the differential blood count. By means of his methods of staining blood cells Ehrlich differentiated two types of leukemia, lymphatic and myelogenous.

Drechsel discovered that the protein molecule contains both mono and di-amino acids.

Destruction of sugar in the blood.

“Leyden’s (acute) ataxia”.

Gley re-discovered the parathyroids and later came across Sandström’s description (see No. 1127). Gley seems to have been the first to understand their real significance; his work showed the necessity of the parathyroids for the maintenance of life.

“Werdnig-Hoffmann muscular atrophy”, an infantile familial form of progressive muscular atrophy. Hoffmann independently described it (see No. 4756).

“Hoffmann’s muscular atrophy” – independently described by Werdnig (No. 4755).

In his study of the testicles of the firebug (Pyrrhocoris) Henking noticed that one chromosome did not take part in meiosis. He named this X element because its strange behavior made him unsure whether it was genuinely a chromosome. After it was established that the "X element" was indeed a chromosome it became known as the X chromosome.

Isolation of spermin from the testis.

First description of “Unverricht’s disease” – familial myoclonus epilepsy.

A statement of the neuron theory, to which Waldeyer gave the name.

This great work deals with the history, administration, and planning of hospitals, and includes a bibliography. The author was an English financier and philanthropist rather than a professional historian or hospital administrator. He devoted most of his philanthropic work to hospitals and nursing facilities.

Gotch and Horsley showed that electric currents are produced in the mammalian brain, and they recorded them with the string galvanometer of the capillary electrometer. Their work led eventually to the development of the electroencephalograph.

Luciani succeeded in keeping dogs alive after total extirpation of the cerebellum, and initiated the modern study of cerebellar function. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A classical contribution to modern epidemiology, of which Creighton may be said to have been the founder. Reprinted with new introductory material, 1965. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

In 1889 Morau transferred epitheliomata in mice and by 1893 had carried his experiments through 17 generations, the first systematic survey of tumor-host relationships from a purely biological viewpoint.

Berkefeld kieselguhr filter.

Important study of gastric syphilis.

Paul’s tube introduced.

Sahli’s test for estimating the functional activity of the stomach.

Old antipneumococcal serum.

“Avellis’s syndrome”, recurrent paralysis of the soft palate.

First account of the pathology of carotid body tumors.

Murray injected thyroid extract subcutaneously in the treatment of myxedema with highly successful results.

Jassinowsky experimented with arterial sutures on animals. His thesis, Die Arteriennaht: Eine experimentell-chirurgische Studie, Dorpat, 1889, was an experimental-surgical study of the subject.

Includes Ballance’s scale of measurement of caliber of arteries.

Angioma serpiginosum.

Mibelli gave the name to angiokeratoma although it had already been described by Cottle in 1877. It is also called “Mibelli’s disease”.

First description of hereditary oedema of the legs, generally known as “Milroy’s disease” or as “Meige’s disease” (No. 4129).

Burckhardt, physician at a Swiss mental hospital, performed frontal lobotomy on four patients in 1890, with good results in some cases. Digital facsimile from Universitätsbibliothek Bern at this link.

Horsley, with J. Taylor and W. S. Coleman, devised an operation for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia in which the Gasserian ganglion was removed by a temporal approach.

Keen was a pioneer in linear craniotomy and one of the first successfully to operate for meningioma. He was Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College.

Spastic torticollis treated by division of spinal accessory nerve and posterior roots of first, second, and third spinal nerves.

Lumbar puncture. Reprinted in Middx. Hosp. J., 1951, 51, 147.

Quincke popularized lumbar puncture, which he had introduced independently of Wynter and others. He used it both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He first presented his method at the German Congress of Internal Medicine (Verb. Congr. inn. Med., 1891, 10, 321-31).

Hoffa, a leading German orthopedist, made important contributions to the subject and founded the Zeitschrift für orthopädische Chirurgie.

Recklinghausen gave an important description of generalized osteitis fibrosa. His reference to the earlier case reported by Engel (see No. 4335) has led to this condition being sometimes referred to as “Engel–Recklinghausen disease” or “von Recklinghausen’s disease of bone”.

Classic description of “Sprengel’s deformity”, a congenital upward displacement of the scapula.

“In a case of fracture-dislocation of the cervical spine (C 6-7) he [Hadra] performed open reduction, twisting metal wires around the spinous processes to stabilize the injured sector” (Bick). This is the first report of any type of spinal surgical immobilization being planned and successfully carried out.

First spinal fusion.

An account of the pathological changes brought about by experimental inoculation of diphtheria toxins.

First successful total cystectomy.

Includes description of “Albarran’s glands”, subtrigonal glands in the bladder. He introduced a classification based on embryological origin. See also No. 4195.

Mallein reaction for the diagnosis of glanders.

Eppinger isolated Cladothrix (Nocardia) asteroides in a patient suffering from pseudotuberculosis with brain abscesses and meningitis.

Isolation of Actinomyces bovis, later called Actinomyces israelii.

The first reduction rhinoplasty to enhance the appearance of a patient. See No. 5755.3.

Includes (p. 262 et seq.) description of Edridge-Green’s lantern test for color-blindness. This was officially adopted in Great Britain in 1915 in place of the Holmgren test.

Confirmation of the work of Laveran.

Guttmann and Ehrlich demonstrated methylene blue to be lethal in vitro for the malaria parasite – the beginning of Ehrlich’s work on chemotherapy.

Romanovsky made important studies of the malaria parasite and introduced a special stain for its demonstration. German version in St. Petersburger med. Wschr., 1891, 8, 297-302, 306-15. English translation in Kean (No. 2268.1).

By “amphimixis” Weismann meant the union of the two parent germs, which he considered the principal source of heritable variation in evolution by natural selection. English translation in Weismann’s Essays upon Heredity, Vol. 2, Oxford, 1892.

Nepveu, whilst in Algeria, was the first to see trypanosomes in human blood.

In 1889, nearly 20 years before Horsley and Clarke published their paper on the use of stereotaxy to examine the brain, Dmitrii Zernov, a professor of anatomy at Moscow University, invented the first prototype of a stereotaxic instrument, an arc-based device for cerebral mapping that he called an encephalometer. Zernov briefly described this device in  preliminary communication published in the Russian journal Trudy Fiziko-meditsynskogo Obshestva Moscovskogo Universiteta (Vol. 2 [1889]: 70-80).

Two years later Zernov’s student Nikolai Altukhov provided a complete description of the encephalomete, including six detailed projection maps based on 40 post-mortem examinations. “Projections of anterior and posterior parts of the corpus callosum, insula and some basal ganglia (thalamus, nucleus lenticularis and caput nuclei caudate) were localized on the surface of the head. [Altukhov] also noted similarity in female and pediatric brains and concluded that the former are underdeveloped” (Lichterman, p. 3). Since both Zernov and Altukhov’s papers were published only in Russian, Western scientists did not learn of Zernov’s encephalometer until much later. Lichterman, “The first instrument for cerebral mapping: Zernov’s encephalometer and its modifications,” Kopf Carrier no. 61 (April 2005): 1-5.

Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Translated in to German as: Der Unrat in Sitte, Brauch, Glauben und Gewohnheitrecht der Völker, von John Gregory Bourke. Verdeutscht und neubearbeitet von Friedrich S. Krauss und H. Ihm. Mit einem Geleitwort von Prof. Dr. Sigmund Freud. (Leipzig: Ethnologischer Verlag, 1913).

"The subject of saddles and sore backs [of horses] is such an important one that I have considered the lectures delivered by me on the subject, in this school, might be of more permanent value if printed.

"Every officer, non-commissioned officer and man, should be instructed in saddle-fitting, to recognise the various causes of injury, and how to remedy them.

"I have divided my subject under four heads:-

"The Anatomy and Physiology of the Back.

"The Saddle

"Fitting the Saddle

"Sore Backs, how they are caused, prevented and remedied." (Introduction).

Through at least World War I horses were so strategic for the British Army that the author, Sir Frederick Smith, reached the rank of Major General as head of the veterinary corps.

Digital facsimile the 1897 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Based on manuscript catalogue begun by Charles Murchison in 1855 and continued by subsequent curators, including Dr. Broadbent.--Preface, p. [3. ]Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Includes 97 beautiful chromolithographed plates dissected, photographed, and colored from nature by McClellan. Digital facsimile of the 2nd edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first systematic treatise on dermatology published in America. Piffard was a pioneer of "indoor" magnesium flashlight photography, and took most of the 50 photographs reproduced in this book by this technique. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital edition from Gutenberg.org at this link.

This was Howard's only book. Osler, in his anonymous obituary of his mentor R. Palmer Howard (1823-1889), wrote, "As a teacher of medicine for thirty-three years, Dr. Howard enjoyed a unique reputation in his own country. To him was due, in great part, the development of that admirable and systematic plan of clinical instruction which has prevailed for so long in the Montreal General Hospital." (Osler, "Robert Palmer Howard," Med. News. 1889, 54, 419). (Quoted by W. Bruce Fye).

A collection of articles by various experts supporting the opening of the planned Johns Hopkins Medical School to women. Contributors included Cardinal Gibbons, Mary Putnam Jacobi, Josephine Lowell, C. F. Folsom, Carey M. Thomas, and Osler. "In light of the experience in Switzerland, Dr. Osler expressed himself as entirely in favor of the admission of women on a co-educational basis." When it opened in 1893 The Johns Hopkins Medical School accepted a limited number of women students.

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

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

This appears to be the second catalogue of a U.S. exhibition of rare books on any scientific subject, following John Shaw Billing's catalogue of his exhibition of books from the Army Medical Library at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1899. (See GM 13587.) Bolton's briefly annotated catalogue records a selection of 110 highlights from what was presumably Bolton's much larger private library. For Bolton's "select" bibliography of chemistry and the history of chemistry, containing 12,031 entries, see No. 11425.

Digital facsimile of Bolton's 1891 exhibition catalogue from historyofscience.com at this link.

An index to the world's literature on parasites and parasitisms of man, of domestic animals, and of wild animals whose parasites may be transmitted to man and domestic animals. It also contains references to fur-bearing animals, wild life, and to free-living and plant parasitic nematodes or roundworms, which impact food or forage crops. The index eventually extended to about 100 volumes, and around 20,000 pages, in about 30 languages.

The Texas A&M University Medical Sciences Library and the Oklahoma State University Libraries partnered to digitize the Index-Catalogue of Medical and Veterinary Zoology (ICVMZ), and made it available online at this link.

The phlebograph, which developed into the polygraph. With it Mackenzie obtained simultaneous tracings of the pulsations of the jugular vein and radial artery.

“Schmidt’s syndrome” – a hemiplegia affecting the vocal cord, palate, trapezius, and sternocleidomastoid muscles, due to lesion of the nucleus ambiguus and nucleus accessorius.

Westphal was Professor of Psychiatry at Berlin; at this time was common for physicians to practice both psychiatry and neurology. Vol. 1: psychiatry; Vol. 2: neurology.

“Wolff’s law” stated that every change in form and function of a bone, or in its function alone, is followed by certain definite changes in its internal architecture and equally definite secondary alterations in its mathematical laws. English translation by P. Maquet and R. Furlong as The law of bone remodelling. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Schmidt established several new facts regarding blood coagulation.

Hopkins’s method of estimating uric acid in urine.

“Brodie’s ligament”, the transverse humoral ligament, described.

“Pick’s disease” – circumscribed atrophy of the brain with the development of aphasia and presenile dementia.

One of the earliest accounts of bilateral athetosis (“Vogt syndrome”, No. 4720).

Vassale and Sacchi showed water and mineral metabolism to be affected by hypophysectomy.

In the spring of 1891 Driesch succeeded in separating the blastomeres of the cleaving sea urchin egg. English translation in No. 534.3.

Erb’s classic description of syphilitic spinal paralysis, sometimes called “Erb’s disease”.

English translation, 1900.

Wilson traced the development of Nereis in minute detail from fertilized egg to the free-swimming larval stage, a pioneer study of cell-lineage.

Goltz was able to keep dogs alive for eight months after he had performed subtotal decerebration. He found them incapable of purposive movements but able to walk with adequate co-ordination. Frontal decortication caused restlessness; from his experiments Goltz concluded that the site of integration of pseudo-affective mechanisms is subcortical.

Translated into English as "The contraction of the vena portae and its influence upon the circulation," Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, I (1896) 111-157. Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Introduction of high-frequency currents in electrotherapy.

Ramón y Cajal, son of a struggling Aragonese doctor, lived to become one of the greatest of all histologists. He devised many staining methods for nervous tissue and did work of fundamental importance to neuroanatomy. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology with Golgi in 1906. By this and later work Cajal provided evidence to support the neuron doctrine. French translation including 2 additional papers, Paris, 1894. Translated into English by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson as New ideas on the structure of the nervous system in man and vertebrates (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990).

An analysis of the distribution of the ventral nerve roots. Sherrington showed the association of the lateral horn cells with the sympathetic outflow.

Ewald clarified the function of the eighth cranial nerve.

Ferry modified Weber’s law on the relationship between stimulus and sensation. Following the work of Porter, Proc. roy. Soc. (Lond.), 1898, 63, 347; 1902, 70, 313, the term “Ferry–Porter Law” came into being.

Metchnikoff delivered his classic lectures on inflammation in French at the Pasteur Institute. They were translated into Russian as Lektsii o sravnitelnoi patologii vospaleniy, and published in St. Petersburg by K. L. Rikker in 1892. The lectures were translated into English from the French by F.A. Starling and E. H. Starling as Lectures on the comparative pathology of inflammation, and published in London in 1893, Digital facsimile of the original French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the English translation from the Internet Archive at this link.

The Russian botanist Ivanovski demonstrated that the agent responsible for tobacco mosaic disease could pass through the finest filter then available. This was the starting point of research into the etiology of virus diseases. An English version is in Phytopathological Classics (American Phytopathological Society), No. 7, pp. 25-30, Ithaca, N.Y., 1942. See No. 2503.1.

Isolation of Salm. typhi-murium.

Discovery of the gas gangrene bacillus (Welch bacillus) Cl. perfringens. Reprinted in Medical Classics, 1941, 5, 852-85.

Sternberg, U. S. Surgeon General 1893-1902, was a pioneer bacteriologist. Independently of Pasteur he discovered the pneumococcus and was first in America to photograph the tubercle bacillus. He sent Walter Reed off to make his great discoveries regarding yellow fever.

The use of fingerprints as identification marks was known to the Chinese, but Galton was among the first to explain their possibilities in the identification of criminals. “Galton’s delta” is a triangular area of papillary ridges on the distal pads of the digits.

Sternberg demonstrated that the serum of an animal recovered from vaccinia possesses the property of neutralizing the activity of the causative virus. His test was readily adaptable for use in various host-systems.

Vaquez first described polycythemia vera (erythremia). Osler’s paper on the subject (No. 3073) made it generally known in the English-speaking world, and the condition has since been named “Vaquez–Osler disease”. For translation, see Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 497.

One of the best known of Lauder Brunton’s works.

Osler’s textbook was the best English work on medicine of its time. He became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford in 1904. Besides being one of the greatest of all clinicians, he was possessed of a fine literary style and an extensive knowledge of medical bibliography. Garrison has written of him: “When he came to die, Osler was, in a very real sense, the greatest physician of our time … Good looks, distinction, blithe, benignant manners, a sunbright personality, radiant with kind feeling and good will toward his fellow men, an Apollonian poise, swiftness and surety of thought and speech, every gift of the gods was his; and to these were added careful training, unsurpassed clinical ability, the widest knowledge of his subject, the deepest interest in everything human, and a serene hold upon his fellows that was as a seal set upon them”.

For Osler’s own account of the preparation of his textbook, see the Bibliotheca Osleriana (No. 6772), item 3544. See also Richard L. Golden & Charles G. Roland, Sir William Osler: An annotated bibliography with illustrations, San Francisco, 1988, and Harvey Cushing’s Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vols., Oxford, 1925. Also see Harvey & McKusick, eds., Osler's textbook revisited (New York, 1967) and  Richard L. Golden, A history of William Osler's Principles and Practice of medicine (Montreal, 2004). 

Copies of the first issue of the first edition have the title of Plato's Socratic dialogue Gorgias misspelled "Georgias" (on the verso of the third leaf), and the publisher's advertisements dated November 1891. The advertisements in later copies of the first printing are dated March 1892. 3000 copies of the first printing were sold within two months. The second printing, with "Georgias" corrected to "Gorgias," was published in April 1892. 

Abbe, a New York surgeon, introduced catgut rings for intestinal suturing. See also Med. News (Phila.), 1889, 54, 589-92.

Bloch was first to employ the two-stage (Mikulicz) operation for cancer of the colon. See also No. 3527.

Einhorn introduced the concept of achylia gastrica, to indicate a primary nervous functional disorder of the gastric secretion.

Introduction of gastroduodenostomy.

In 1892 Ludwig Heusner (1846-1916) successfully sutured a perforated gastric ulcer, the first successful case on record. It was reported by H. Kriege.

First description of the syndrome of symmetrical inflammation of the lacrymal and salivary glands (“Mikulicz’s disease”). English translation in Medical Classics, 1937, 2, 165-86.

“Murphy’s button” introduced.

Kocher’s hernia operation.

Marcy wrote a great deal on hernia, describing high ligation of the sac, transplantion of the spermatic cord, and careful reconstruction of the inguinal canal. This work, illustrated with 66 full-page plates, is one of the most spectacular of 19th century American surgical monographs. See No. 3594.

Naunyn produced a classic monograph on gall-stones, devising an accurate chemical classification. He was one of Frerichs’s best pupils and became Professor of Clinical Medicine successively at Dorpat, Berne, Königsberg, and Strasburg. English translation, London, 1896.

Dreschfeld preceded Kundrat in differentiating Hodgkin’s disease and lymphosarcoma.

Experimental production of tetany by excision of the thyroid of a cat, previously successfully transplanted into the abdomen.

First successful ligation of the left subclavian artery. This was the first “successful ligation of the first part of either subclavian artery and the first one of complete extirpation of such an aneurysm” (MacCallum). "Of his numerous publications on vascular surgery, Halsted's most scholarly and interesting." Wangensteen 263. This exhaustive monograph has a series of 8 photographs of the preoperative and postoperative appearance of a 29-year-old black man on whom Halsted operated.

Stacke did much to improve the surgery of the middle ear. He made important modifications in the radical mastoidectomy operation of Küster and von Bergmann.

Gradenigo’s test for tone decay. Translation in Arch. Otol. (N.Y.), 1893, 22, 213-15.

Mastoidectomy for the efficient drainage of the results of middle ear suppuration.

“Besnier’s prurigo”.

Independently of Nonne (No. 4106) Milroy described congenital edema of the legs; it has been given the eponym “Milroy’s disease”.

Unna described the different fungi of favus. He founded the above-mentioned journal, and he is one of the most eminent figures in modern dermatology.

Hartley originated the operation of intracranial neurectomy for trigeminal neuralgia.

Hartley–Krause operation for relief of trigeminal neuralgia (see also No. 4870).

“Kümmell’s disease”. He described a form of traumatic spondylitis.

Bechterev’s disease – ankylosing spondylitis, previously described by Strümpell. A German translation of the paper is in Neurol. Zbl., 1893, 12, 426-34.

First study of the cartilage changes in achondroplasia.

First description of “Klippel’s disease”, arthritic general pseudoparalysis.

First successful tendon transplantation.

Haffkine’s vaccine against cholera was the first to meet with any success.

First successful plastic operation for the relief of hydronephrosis.

Pfeiffer discovered a bacillus, Haemophilus influenzae, “Pfeiffer’s bacillus”, which he believed to be the causal organism of influenza.

Reduction rhinoplasty by the endonasal approach. “The beginnings of the logical step-by-step rhinoplasty in use today” (McDowell).

As an intern in Buenos Aires, Posadas described an Argentine soldier who had a dermatological problem since 1889. Posadas had seen the patient while a medical student in 1891, and skin biopsies revealed organisms resembling the protozoan Coccidia. See No. 5528.2.

Posadas (No. 5528.1) and Wernicke, a professor pathology in Buenos Aires, were the first to report cases of coccidioidomycosis. German translation of Wernicke’s paper in Zbl. Bakt., 1892, 12, 859-61.

“Schimmelbusch’s disease”.

Henri de Mondeville was the teacher of Guy de Chauliac; he belonged to the School of Montpellier. His work was first printed as above; French translations by E. Nicaise, 1893, and A. Bos, 1897; the latter was reprinted in 1965.

Discovery of Staph. epidermidis (albus) and its relation to the infection of wounds.

Infiltration anesthesia was developed by Schleich after pioneer work by Halsted (No. 5679) Schleich published a paper in English on the subject in Int. Clin., 1895, 5 ser., 2, 177-92.

Bokay was the first to suggest an etiological relationship between varicella and herpes zoster. See also his paper in Wien. klin. Wschr., 1909, 22, 1323-26.

Baer’s operation.

Lawson Tait was apparently the first to describe what is now known as Meigs’s syndrome (ovarian fibroma combined with pleural effusion).

Henrotin’s method of removing the uterus.

Bossi originated the method of induction of premature labour by means of forced dilatation of the cervix.

Tuberous (“Breus”) mole first described.

Bourke, a U.S. Army officer with experience on the American Indian frontier, was a pioneer student of native American medicine and anthropology. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

French translation in Arch. ital. Biol., 1892, 17, 456-71.

A summary of the Italian work on malaria. English translation, 1894.

Döderlein's study of the vaginal secretion in relation to puerperal fever includes the first description of “Döderlein’s bacillus” (Lactobacillus). Döderlein introduced the concept of normal body bacteria or "normal body flora" --what would much later be named the microbiome. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

Of particular value for researching homeopathic literature, societies and institutions in America from 1825 to 1891. Digital facsimile from the Hathitrust at this link.

Weismann produced experimental evidence that acquired characters are not transmitted.

Weismann elaborated the theory of the continuity of the germ plasm. English edition, 1893.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Remarkably comprehensive discussion, with an innovative classification, of a very wide range of occupations. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

On p. 452 of his paper Ogle reproduces in type "A copy of the earliest known Weekly Bill of Mortality. British Museum. Egerton MSS. 2603, f.4." Ogle states that Creighton attributed this manuscript bill of mortality to the year 1532, "in which year an Order of Council was issued calling on the mayor [of London] to furnish a bill of the deaths from plague." Bills of Mortality were not printed until 1603. Digital facsimile of Ogle's paper from Google Books at this link.

This 6,000-word short story by is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating and critiquing 19th century attitudes toward women's health, both physical and mental. Digital facsimile from the U. S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

The first half of the book concerns mineral springs and health resorts in California and how to use them; the second half mostly concerns mineral springs and other health resorts in North America and Europe. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first cross-sectional anatomy of the pelvic anatomy during the puerperium, the period of about six weeks after childbirth during which the mother's reproductive organs return to their original non-pregnant condition. Webster reproduces in color cross-sectional anatomies of women who died of diseases on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 15th days of the puerperium. The final chapter describes and illustrates with cross-sectional images "the femal pelvis in the beginning of the fifth month of pregnancy." Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Published at the end of the 19th century, and employing the wide variety of illustration technologies then available, including color lithography, lithography, and photography, this work testifies to the breadth and depth of Bramwell’s medical knowledge; it illustrates, with extensive accompanying text for each image, a wide range of disorders including Addison’s disease, smallpox, cancer, hemiplegia, muscular dystrophy and the various stages of syphilis. Also included is a remarkable series of portraits of the insane, depicting patients suffering from “melancholia,” “melancholia with fear,” “melancholia with strong suicidal tendency,” “hilarious mania” and “mania.” As a contribution to the artistic depiction of disease this work is unsurpassed.

Includes 14 photographic illustrations showing Kelly's gynecological operating room, antiseptic and aseptic apparatus, and his assistants preparing for surgery. The text includes descriptions of the apparatus and techniques for antiseptic and aseptic surgery.

Translated into English by P. Maquet and R. Furlong as Determination of the moments of intertia of the human body and its limbs. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

This set includes 528 chromolithographed and hand-colored plates by John Nugent Fitch on 527 sheets. It was published periodically by B. S. Williams from his nurseries in Holloway, London, from 1882 until his death in 1890. The set includes the obituary of B. S. Williams in vol. 9. His son, Henry Williams, continued the publication through to its conclusion in 1897. These dates are important as they mark the period when the last significant new varieties of orchids were discovered in the wild. This work therefore, with its selection based largely on the discoveries made during the nineteenth century, offers an unparalleled record of all the best orchid varieties before the impact of the 'captive-bred' hybrids. 

The Orchid Album was published at the height of the 'Orchidelirium' which had been building in Britain for some decades, but which seized the imaginations of late Victorian horticulturists in the same way that the tulip craze inflamed the minds of collectors in Golden Age Holland. "Some of the grander Victorian growers, such as the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth in Derbyshire and the Duke of Northumberland at Syon House in Middlesex, employed their own collectors, but orchid fanciers like John Day acquired their best treasures at auction. Nurserymen such as Veitch, Conrad Loddiges and Benjamin Samuel Williams of the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries in Upper Holloway, regularly sent consignments of orchids to be auctioned by Messrs Stevens of King St, Covent Garden. It was in their sale room that, after an epic battle with a fellow enthusiast, Sir Trevor Lawrence, a contemporary of Day's, acquired the one single plant of Aerides lawrenciae imported by Frederick Sander from the Philippines," (Anna Pavord, review of A Very Victorian Passion The Orchid Paintings of John Day, Independent, 29 May 2004).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

A short, memorable novel about a woman who faces the agonizing choice between career and marriage, and chooses medicine. Among her achievements, Meyer was a founder of Barnard College. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

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

The scientific study of the mechanics of flight begins with Leonardo’s investigations on birds, undertaken during his attempts to build a flying machine. At the time of publication Sabachnikoff owned the manuscript. After publishing this facsimile he donated the original to Umberto I, who turned it over to the Royal Library of Torino. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Gonococci isolated from an arthritic joint.

Part 1 was translated as The cell: outlines of general anatomy and physiology, London, 1895.

Formalin first used for tissue fixation.

First description of hypertrophic progressive interstitial neuritis. “Dejerine–Sottas disease”.

Kent also discovered the atrioventricular bundle (“bundle of Kent”), a narrow band of muscle between the auricles and ventricles of the heart. Its purpose is to act as a bridge for contractile impulses between the auricles and ventricles.

His described the atrioventricular bundle which was later named after him. English translation in F. A. Willius and T. E. Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, p. 695.

Intended to supplement and illustrate Macewen’s neurosurgical textbook published the same year (No. 4872). Includes coronal, sagittal and horizontal sections with commentary on each.

See No. 702.

Original description of hereditary cerebellar ataxia.

Myasthenia pseudoparalytica (Erb–Goldflam symptom complex). See No. 4746.

“Following coronary ligation Porter noted that the procedure frequently resulted in fibrillary contractions of the heart and sudden death. However, death did not always occur and this led him to conclude that Cohnheim’s (1881) consistently fatal results were due to operative trauma and that the coronary arteries were not end arteries” (Willius & Dry).
Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Continued with his "Further researches on the closure of the coronary arteries," J. exp. Med., 1 (1896) 46-70. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

The first of Sherrington’s papers investigating reciprocal innervation of muscles.

Ladd-Franklin theory of vision.

Kundrat separated lymphosarcoma (“Kundrat’s disease”) from other malignant tumors involving the lymphatic system.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

See No. 3512.

Pénières of Toulouse conceived the idea of the valvular method of gastrostomy.

A careful examination of the records of post mortems carried out at Guy’s Hospital, 1826-92, was made by Perry and Shaw, who showed that of 70 reports of duodenal ulcer, ten occurred in cases of severe burns.

Senn, Professor of Surgery at Chicago, was one of the first to investigate experimentally the subject of gastro-intestinal anastomosis.

Ssabanejew and Frank independently developed a new method of gastrostomy, the Ssabanejew-Frank operation. The above is an abstract of the original, which appeared in Khirurgitscheski Vestnik, June 1893.

First thoracoplasty.

Caldwell–Luc operation (see also No. 3301). Scanes Spicer independently devised a similar operation (Brit. med. J., 1894, 2, 1359-60).

Grünwald was the first to attempt the surgical treatment of nasal suppuration and disease involving the ethmoid and sphenoid bones. English translation, 1900.

“Schultze’s acroparaesthesia.” Schultze described the simple form of acroparesthesia.

Bassini’s operation for femoral hernia.

Franks finally demonstrated the advantages of primary resection for gangrenous gut in strangulated hernia.

Lockwood’s operation for femoral hernia.

Written about 100 CE, On Medicine (Ιατρικα) is partially preserved in a papyrus in the British Library (PBrLibr inv. 137 = P.Lit.Lond. 165). It is the most important surviving ancient Greek medical papyrus, a key source of information about the history of ancient Greek medical thought. 

"While only fragments survive of some portions of the text, the papyrus containing the work of Anonymus Londinensis is exceptionally well preserved, with 3.5 meters of the roll largely intact, containing almost 2,000 lines of text in 39 columns. It seems to be an unfinished draft (breaking off in mid-column) in the hand of the author, who compiled, digested, and manipulated various sources as he wrote, so that we may even observe the process of his thinking as he writes. The text consists of three parts: a series of definitions related to the affections of the body and soul (cols. 1-4), a doxographical part (cols. 4-20), and a physiological part (cols. 21-39)" (Wikipedia article on Anonymus Londonensis, accessed 06-02-2015).

It contains extracts from a lost collection of the opinions of earlier Greek physicians. It was found in 1891 and first described by Sir Frederick Kenyon in 1892, with the Greek text first edited and published by Hermann Diels. It was first translated into German by Heinrich Beckh and Franz Spät as Anonymus Londinensis. Auszüge eines unbekannten aus Aristoteles-Menons Handbuch der Medizin und aus Werken anderer älterer Aerzte. (Berlin, 1896). Digital facsimile of the 1893 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1896 edition in German from Google Books at this link.

Müller demonstrated that an increased metabolism accompanies exophthalmic goitre.

First attempt (unsuccessful) to treat acromegaly operatively. Decompression was performed to relieve cranial pressure.

Partial lobectomy in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Robinson wrote an excellent textbook on dermatology in 1884, the year in which he published the first description of hydrocystoma (“Robinson’s disease”).

Acanthosis nigricans.

Mibelli is sometimes credited with the original description of porokeratosis (“Mibélli’s disease”), but Neumann described it in 1875 under the name of “dermatitis circumscripta herpetiformis”. See No. 4068.

First description of hyperkeratosis excentrica, porokeratosis.

Macewen’s greatest work was in connection with the surgery of the brain. In the above book he included extensive case reports of 65 patients under his care, with details of operative procedures. A biography of Macewen was written by A. K. Bowman, London, 1942. See No. 431.

Tendo Achilles bursitis, “Albert’s disease”.

In 1890 Behring and Kitasato discovered the diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins (see No. 5060). The above papers deal more fully with the use of the diphtheria antitoxin.

Bergé stated all the essential facts concerning the aetiology of scarlet fever, and definitely attributed its cause to a streptococcus. He published a thesis on the subject in 1895.