“Durand’s disease” – D virus infection. Durand isolated the virus from his own blood. See also the paper by G. M. Findlay, Trans. roy. Soc. trop. Med., 1942, 35, 303-18.

Isolation of encephalomyocarditis virus.

Structural formula of vitamin K₂.

Isolation of β-biotin (formerly known as vitamin H). With D. B. Melville, P. György, and C. S. Rose.

Isolation of vitamin B_c (folic acid, pteroylglutamic acid). Preliminary communication in J. biol. Chem., 1939, 128, xlvi-xlvii.

Recognition of the Rh antigen

Choh Hao Li and colleagues isolated of the interstitial cell stimulating (luteinizing) hormone. 

The earliest complete Mexican medical text and the only medical text known to be the work of native Aztecs. Written by an Aztec physician named by the Spanish Martin de la Cruz, and translated into Latin by another native, Juan Badiano, around the time of the Spanish Conquest, the work is the earliest extant medical treatise written by a native American, and the earliest herbal written in the Americas. Fine color reproductions.

Penicillinase.

Proof of the therapeutic action in vivo of penicillin against streptococcal and other bacterial infections. Building upon Fleming’s work (No. 1933 and 10784), the consequences of which had originally been widely unappreciated, even by Fleming himself, Chain and his co-workers concentrated penicillin and showed that it was probably the most effective chemotherapeutic drug known, and that it was relatively non-toxic. This led to mass production of the drug, which has saved untold millions of lives. Biography of Florey by G. Macfarlane, 1979.

In 1945 Chain and Florey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Fleming "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases."

Bunyan bag.

First important clinical trial of sulfathiazole.

Sulphaguanidine was introduced by E. K. Marshall, A. C. Bratton, H. J. White, and J. T. Litchfield.

Synthesis of sulphamerazine, by R. O. Roblin, J. H. Williams, P. S. Winnek, and J. P. English.

Isolation of p-aminobenzoic acid, a structural analog of sulfanilamide.

Experimental evidence of the value of promin (sodium glucosulphone) in tuberculosis. With H. C. Hinshaw and H.E. Moses. See also Amer. Rev. Tuberc., 1942, 45, 303-33.

Betatron.

Continued as Kerst, "The acceleration of elecrons by magnetic induction," Phys. Rev., 60 (1941) 47-52. Digital facsimile of the 1941 paper at this link.

Obliteration of the abdominal aorta.

Smithwick operation for hypertension.

Tocantins demonstrated the possibility of transfusion of fluids via the bone marrow. See also later paper with J. F. O’Neill, Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1941, 73, 281-87.

Radio-phosphorus in treatment of leukemia.

Angiotensin. With J. C. Fasciolo, L. F. Leloir, and J. M. Muñoz. Independently isolated by Page and Helmer (see No. 2724.2) and later named angiotensin.

Isolation of angiotonin (angiotensin).

Idiopathic dilatation of the pulmonary artery reported. With D. Routier and R. Heim de Balsac.

Inulin clearance test.

Continous spinal analgesia introduced.

Recovery of influenza B virus.

Recovery of influenza B virus.

Typhus vaccine.

Lewthwaite and Savoor showed scrub typhus to be identical to tsutsugamushi fever.

Diagnosis of lymphogranuloma venereum by complement-fixation test. With G. W. Rake and M. F. Shaffer.

Discovery of the developmental forms of P. gallinaceum in the incubation period.

Independently of Mudrow, H. E. Shortt, K. P. Menon, and P. V. Seetharama Iyer found pre-erythrocytic forms of P. gallinaceum in the tissues.

Wilson died before this monumental work was completed, and it was edited by A. N. Bruce. It includes a vast amount of history and hundreds of references. Second edition, 1954.

The first American book specifically devoted to obesity research.

Published during WWII, Cott's book was the first major work on camouflage in zoology, appreciated by zoologists for its scientific information and carried by many allied soldiers during the war for survival purposes. The Wikipedia analysis of this book is especially valuable. Digital facsimile of the 1957 slightly corrected reprint from the Internet Archive at this link.

Though he developed the "skin graft inlay technique" or epithelial inlay during World War I, Esser did not fully publish it until this very extensively illustrated monograph, with about 1500 images, issued in 1940.

Warkany was the first to prove that congenital developmental disorders can be induced by exogenous factors in mammals. His studies led to the definition of both genetic and environmentally induced structural defects. See also: Warkany, J. "Effect of maternal rachitogenic diet on skeletal development of young rat," Amer J Dis Child., 66 (1943) 511. 

Digital facsimile from herablstudies.net at this link.

First report on the introduction of neutron therapy for cancer. See Hans Svensson & Torsten Landberg, "Neutron therapy--the historical background," Acta Oncologica, 33:3 (1984) 227-231. In 1938 Stone began clinical trials treating cancer with neutrons produced by E. O. Lawrence's cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. These trials were terminated because the cyclotron was needed for the war effort during World War II.

Discovery of the Rheumatoid factor.

http://vertpaleo.org/Publications/Bibliography-of-Fossil-Vertebrates.aspx

"The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates (BFV) aimed to index the world literature of vertebrate paleontology. Although no compilation can ever be complete, the BFV attempted to include every published scientific work that mentioned vertebrate fossils. In addition, it included works that dealt with closely related subjects such as evolutionary theory, geology, and the history of science, where relevant. Articles from newspapers and popular magazines were not included; nevertheless, the total number of references to books and published articles is in the neighborhood of 200,000.  The bibliographies indexed literature by taxonomy, geologic age, geography and subject areas, although the indexing changed over the years. The contents of those bibliographies have been converted to a database that can be searched using subject and taxonomic indexes, covering the literature from 1509-1993.
 

"The Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates was compiled and published as a series of volumes, beginning with the 1928-1933 Camp, et al., volume published in 1940 (see below). However, this volume continued the work begun by O. P. Hay and his colleagues, who had published two previous retrospective volumes covering the literature of North American vertebrate paleontology, in 1902 and 1929. The Camp volumes were published by the Geological Society of America. In 1962, A. S. Romer, et al. (see below) compiled a massive bibliography to complement the Hay volumes, covering the non-North American published literature up to the point when the BFV series proper was begun.
 

"In the early 1970s, the BFV indexing was done under a cooperative agreement by the SVP, the American Geological Institute (AGI) and the University of California Museum of Paleontology, under the supervision of J. T. Gregory, and the references incorporated into AGI's GeoRef.
 

"Publication of the series resumed in 1983, with a compilation of the AGI references in the 1973-1977, 1978 and 1979 volumes. The 1980-1993 volumes were supported by the SVP and the University of California Museum of Paleontology. The increasing indexing of vertebrate paleontological literature in computerized indexes, and the increasing costs of indexing caused the SVP to cease publication of the BFV in 1996. A demonstration project of the BFV Online, created by John Damuth in 1994, proved successful, and the SVP supported its expansion. A grant from the Dinosaur Society permitted keystroking of the references from the older printed volumes, which have been added to the database." (http://vertpaleo.org/Publications/Bibliography-of-Fossil-Vertebrates.aspx).

Individual volumes were published as follows, after which annual volumes appeared through 1993:

Hay, O. P. 1902. Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 179, 868 pp.
Hay, O. P. 1929. Second Bibliography and Catalogue of Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication no. 390, vol. 1, 916 pp.
Romer, A. S., N. E. Wright, T. Edinger and R. van Frank (eds). 1962. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Exclusive of North America. The Geological Scoiety of America, GSA Memoir 87.
Camp, C. L. and V. L. Vanderhoof (eds). 1940. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1928-1933. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 27.
Camp, C. L., D. N. Taylor and S. P. Welles (eds). 1942. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1934-1938. The Geological Society of America, GSA Special Paper 42.
Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1949. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1939-1943. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 37.
Camp, C. L., S. P. Welles, M. Green (eds). 1953. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1944-1948. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 57.
Camp, C. L. and H. J. Allison (eds). 1961. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1949-1953. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 84.
Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison and R. H. Nichols (eds). 1964. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1954-1958. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 92.
Camp, C. L., H. J. Allison, R. H. Nichols and H. McGinnis  (eds). 1968. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1959-1963. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 117.
Camp, C. L., R. H. Nichols, B. Brajnikov, E. Fulton and J. A. Bacskai (eds). 1972. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1964-1968. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 134.
Gregory, J. T., J. A. Bacskai, B. Brajnikov and K. Munthe (eds). 1973. Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates 1969-1972. The Geological Society of America, GSA Memoir 141.

Order of authorship in the original paper: Smithburn, Hughes, Burke. In 1937 the authors isolated a virus from the blood of an adult female with fever from the Omogo West Nile district of Uganda, and named it West Nile virus. They described pathology that involves encephalitis and can cause death in monkeys. Digital facsimile from ajtmh.org at this link

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

Lascaux, which has been called "The Sistine Chapel of the Paleolithic", was discovered on September 12, 1940 by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat when his dog, Robot, fell into a hole. Ravidar returned to the cave with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas. The four re-entered the cave and discovered the splendid cave paintings on the walls of the cave. A few days later the boys told M. Laval, a retired schoolmaster, and Maurice Thaon, a young acquaintance of Abbé Henri Breuil, of their discovery. Thaon made a few preliminary sketches of the cave art and brought them to Breuil, the leading authority on paleolithic or cave art.On September 21, 1940 the four discoverers returned to the cave with Abbé Breuil. In his first exploration of the cave Breuil was acccompanied by prehistorians Denis Peyrony, Jean Bouyssonie and André Cheynier.

Breuil published the first preliminary scientific description of the cave and its paintings in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres, September-October issue, 1940, as cited above. He also published a slightly more detailed account entitled, "Grotte de Lascaux. Rapport" in Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique du Périgord (1940). Illustrations in that brief seven-page paper included reproductions of some of Thaon’s sketches.

Watson-Jones's textbook became known as "the bible."  It was reprinted 15 times during the author's lifetime and translated into  Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Polish. "Throughout its publication, Watson-Jones found unique ways to demonstrate his theories and techniques, including acetate and radiographic overlays, question-and-answer formats, and a writing style that was not only instructive but interesting." (helio.com/orthopedics).

Medical education, the hospital system, the relationship between specialists and general practitioners, and the brain drain of doctors to Britain.

This book " became required reading in the US Army Medical Service during the Second World War. According to one US authority, C.E. Welch, Jolly’s methods ‘undoubtedly contributed more to the saving of lives of patients with abdominal wounds than any other single factor’. In Korea and Vietnam the mobile hospitals used by the US Army and its allies were based directly on the mobile surgical units that Jolly described in his book" (https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/douglas-jolly).

Cabot advocated the group practice of medicine and for budgeted prepayment systems for healthcare.

Robertson improved the accuracy and reliability of encephalography and reduced its discomforts.

Recognition of β-amenobenzoic acid as a member of the vitamin-B complex.

Moureau discovered the Rh factor independently of Levine and others whose work was not known to him owing to the military occupation of Belgium. See also his paper in Amer. J. clin. Path., 1946, 16, 373-79.

This was the first (and for many years) the only application of the Wearn-Richards procedure (No. 1239) to the mammalian kidney.

First report of the chemotherapeutic action of penicillin on humans (10 cases). 

Introduction of sulphadiazine. With E. Strauss and O. L. Peterson.

Introduction of sulfasuxidine.

Electroretinography

A scholarly tour-de-force with a bibliography of over 700 references.

Cardiolipin antigen for serological diagnosis of syphilis. For isolation and purification see J. biol. Chem., 1942, 143, 247-56.

Includes valuable information regarding the history of the subject.

Erythroblastosis fetalis due to rhesus incompatibility (Rh disease) between mother and child. With L. Burnham, E. M. Katzin, and P. Vogel.

Isolation of dicoumarol (3:3-methylene-bis-4-hydroxycoumarin). With C. F. Huebner.

Covers the literature up to 1912. Reprinted in 2 vols, as Classics of cardiology, New York, Dover, 1961. Reprinted again, with volume 3 by John A. Callahan, Thomas E. Keys & Jack E. Key, Malabar, Florida, Krieger, 1983. Volume 4 by John A. Callahan, Dwight C. McGoon, and Jack D. Key, Malabar, Krieger, 1989. Vol. 3 covers literature from 1912 to 1955 in a style similar to the first 2 vols. Vol. 4 in 2 pts. covers material published up to 1975, with an abbreviated commentary. Part 1 of Vol. 4 covers cardiac surgery; part 2 covers cardiology.

Discovery of virus hemagglutination. Between 1941 and 1942 Hirst developed the hemagglutination assay for quantifying the relative concentration of viruses, bacteria or antibodies.

Independently of Hirst, McClelland and Hare discovered virus hemagglutination.

First investigations with the cardiac catheter as a clinical method of investigation.

In 1956 Cournand in 1956 shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Forssmann (No. 2858) and Richards (No. 2883.2) "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system."

Low-sodium diet in heart failure.

Bywaters and Beali encountered cases of the “crush syndrome” among victims of the London air-raids of 1940-41.

Kopetzky improved the technique of the fenestration operation. The above has a useful history of the development of this operation. See also his earlier papers in Ann. Otol. (St. Louis), 1930, 39, 996; 1931, 40, 157.

In 1966 Huggins was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering in 1941 "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer."

Kveim’s test for sarcoidosis.

Penfield’s most widely recognized contribution was the gradual development of cortical excision as an accepted and valuable method of treating medically refractory focal epilepsy. See also No. 4914.2.

E. K. Marshall, A. C. Bratton, L. B. Edwards, and E. L. Walker were the first to use sulphaguanidine in the treatment of bacillary dysentery.

Morch established the fact that chondrodystrophy may be inherited.

With R. R. Macintosh and K. Mendelssohn. The Oxford vaporiser No. 2 is described in the same journal, pp. 64-66 by S. L. Cowan, R. D. Scott, and S. F. Suffolk.

Gregg drew attention to congenital defects in infants following rubella in the mother during the early part of pregnancy.

Proof of the transmission of L. tropica by P. papatasii.

The first cytopathology test, smear diagnosis of carcinoma of the cervix: the "Pap" test. Papanicolaou first reported in 1928 that he could recognize cancer cells (Proc. Third Race Betterment Conf., p. 528) but the importance of his findings was not generally accepted and he abandoned the work for some years.

Vesicular test for diagnosis of lymphogranuloma venereum.

Amniotic fluid embolism described.

Ladd pioneered the development of pediatric surgery in the United States. Robert E. Gross, his chief resident, succeeded to his position at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Published weekly until June, 1950, then monthly, with author and subject indexes. Cumulated indexes semi-annually. Issued by the Army Medical Library prior to its naming as the National Library of Medicine. Superseded in 1960 by Index Medicus. Digital facsimile of vols. 1-36 from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis in 1941. This was a restatement of ideas originally proposed by Archibald Garrod (No. 244.1) in 1908.

1958 Beadle and Tatum shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joshua Lederberg (No. 255.4) "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events."

In this paper about group potential and the transfer of acetyl and phosphoryl groups Lipmann proposed that acetyl phosphate acted as an acetyl door in the biosynthesis of essential metabolites and that ATP functioned as a generalized energy carrier. In this essay he also introduced the term ‘energy-rich phosphate bond’ and the squiggle to denote this distinction (~P)” (Kresge, Simoni and Hill, “Fritz Lipmann and the discovery of coenzyme A,” Journal of Biological Chemistry 280 (2005): 164-166.)

Digital facsimile from herbaltherapeutics.net at this link.

"The Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā (Ah, "Heart of Medicine") is written in poetic language. The Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha (As, "Compendium of Medicine") is a longer and less concise work, containing many parallel passages and extensive passages in prose. The Ah is written in 7120 easily understood Sanskrit verses that present a coherent account of Ayurvedic knowledge. Ashtanga in Sanskrit means ‘eight components’ and refers to the eight sections of Ayurveda: internal medicine, surgery, gynaecology and paediatrics, rejuvenation therapy, aphrodisiac therapy, toxicology, and psychiatry or spiritual healing, and ENT (ear, nose and throat). There are sections on longevity, personal hygiene, the causes of illness, the influence of season and time on the human organism, types and classifications of medicine, the significance of the sense of taste, pregnancy and possible complications during birth, Prakriti, individual constitutions and various aids for establishing a prognosis. There is also detailed information on Five-actions therapies (Skt. pañcakarma) including therapeutically induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, enemas, complications that might occur during such therapies and the necessary medications. The Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā is perhaps Ayurveda’s greatest classic, and copies of the work in manuscript libraries across India and the world outnumber any other medical work. The Ah is the central work of authority for ayurvedic practitioners in Kerala. The Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha, by contrast, is poorly represented in the manuscript record, with only a few, fragmentary manuscripts having survived to the twenty-first century. Evidently it was not widely read in pre-modern times. However, the As has come to new prominence since the twentieth century through being made part of the curriculum for ayurvedic college education in India" (Wikipedia article on Vagbhata, accessed 05-2018).

A 14-page pamphlet on epidemiology published by the  Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna, Prezydium (Jewish Social Self-Help Organization) in the Kraków Ghetto to educate Jewish activists and physicians. The author perished at Belzec concentration camp in 1942.

Bassett was the subject of William Osler's famous essay, "An Alabama Student."

Drew discovered the method for long-term storage of blood plasma, and organized America's first large-scale blood bank.

Drew's thesis for his medical degree at Columbia was entitled "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation." "The thesis also made him the first African American to earn a medical doctorate from Columbia. Scudder remarked that the thesis was “a masterpiece” and “one of the most distinguished essays ever written, both in form and content.”

"Drew’s doctoral research assessed previous blood and transfusion research, blood chemistry and fluid replacement, and evaluated variables affecting shelf-life of stored blood — from types and amounts of anticoagulants (substances that prevent blood from clotting) and preservatives, to shapes of storage containers and temperature.

"His key findings, complex procedures, and standards for collecting, processing and storing blood proved his expertise and led to an appointment to head the Blood for Britain Project (BFB), an effort to transport desperately needed blood and plasma to Great Britain, which was under attack by Germany" 

As Medical Supervisor, Blood Plasma Division, Charles R. Drew was the lead author of Part II: "Medical report submitted in behalf of the Board of Medical Control by the Medical Supervisor of the Blood Plasma Division, the Chairman of the Board, the Chairman of the Blood Plasma Committee, and the Assistant to the Board, Blood Plasma Division" (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html, accessed 5-2020).

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

Milanković’s masterwork on his astronomical theory of climate, which brought together all the mathematical elements underlying the theory of “Milanković cycles.” Milanković cycles are cyclical changes in a planet’s climate caused by the variations in its orbit, which affect the amount of solar radiation (insolation) the planet receives. On Earth these variations have played a decisive role in initiating the growth of glaciers, leading to at least five major periods of significantly colder temperatures (ice ages).

There have been two English transations:

Canon of insolation and the ice-age problem. English translation by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce and National Science Foundation, 1969.

Vol. 2, pp. 169-208 contains a comprehensive chronological account of medical publications printed in Haiti, or about medicine in Haiti, from the earliest imprints to 1941. Digital facsimile from ufdc.ufl.edu at this link.

Includes the first aerial photographs of Africa taken by Mary Light. This was the second book to reproduce aerial photographs. Richard Light was an American neurosurgeon, a noted aviator, and a photographer and cinematographer.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

“Thévenard’s disease” – hereditary sensory neuropathy, earlier reported by Auguste Nélaton: Affection singulière des os du pied. Gaz. Hôp. Paris, 1852, 4, 13.

Isolation of vitamin P (hespendin chalcone).

Report of the youngest normal implanted fertilized human ovum, fertilization age about 7 1/2 days. Hertig and Rock published a more detailed study in Contr. Embryol. Carneg. Instn. 1945, 31, 65-84.

“The birth of ecosystem ecology” (McIntosh). Lindeman described energy flow in ecosystems in a form amenable to productive abstract analysis. This paper introduced what came to be known as the "Ten percent law."

Contains some history of the subject and includes a valuable bibliography of 1,320 entries.

Sulfadimidine (also spelled Sulphadimidine) with G. S. Smith, R. W. Luxton, W. A. Ramsay, and J. Goldman. [Also designated as Vol. 239 by publishers of The Lancet.]

P. Klemperer, A. D. Pollack, and G. Baehr combined a number of diseases, hitherto regarded as unrelated, into an entity which they termed diffuse collagen disease.

Freund’s adjuvant. Freund’s procedure allowed adjuvants to be used for any antigen.

Cellular transfer of delayed hypersensitivity, establishing the criticial role of mononuclear cells in cellular immunity.

Augmented unipolar leads.

Radioisotopic bone scanning. With B. Low-Beer, H. Friedell, and J. Lawrence.

The Tanner slide operation as a relaxing incision.

Klinefelter syndrome. With E. C. Reifenstein and F. Albright.

Transmission of infective hepatitis agent.

Rich considered hypersensitivity to be an important factor in the aetiology of periarteritis nodosa.

Ellis’s classification of nephritis.

Shambaugh improved the technique of the fenestration operation. See also Ann. Otol. (St. Louis), 1942, 51, 817-25.

First successful excision of arteriovenous aneurysm of the lung.

“Degos’s disease”, malignant atrophic papulosis. With J. Delort and R. Tricot. Earlier described by W. Köhlmeier, Frankf. Z. Path., 1940, 54, 413.

These studies form the basis of the modern use of bone preserved by refrigeration.

Introduction of curare in anesthesia.

Successful transmission of rubella.

Successful transmission of kala-azar to man by the bite of Phlebotomus argentipes reported, showing it to be the vector of Leishmania. With H. E. Shortt and L. A. P. Anderson.

Retrolental fibroplasia first described. See also the same volume, pp. 1409-23, and Trans. Sect. Ophthal. Amer. med. Ass., 1942, 213-29, for later papers.

Reprinted, Dover Publications, 1960.

Monographic series.

The work which defined the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology of the early 20th century.

One of the canonical publications of the modern evolutionary synthesis. Mayr discussed the different ways different investigators identify species, and he characterized these different approaches as different species concepts. He also argued strongly for what came to be called a Biological Species Concept (BSC)—that a species consists of populations of organisms that can reproduce with one another, and that are reproductively isolated from other such populations.

The first book on contact lenses, recording attempts over the previous hundred years to fit a lens in direct contact with the eye. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

(Thanks to Richard Ramer for this reference.)

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reprinted with additions and corrections from the Bulletin of the New York Public Library of February 1940 and January, July and October 1941.

"In 1840, Griffin was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army and served under General William J. Worth in Florida and, with the rank of captain, on the Southwest frontier at Fort Gibson, Griffin came to California for the first time with General Kearney on the trek from New Mexico in 1846. He was stationed in San Diego and in Los Angeles in charge of the military hospitals, visited the California Gold Country during the 1849 Gold Rush and was stationed in Benicia until 1852. In that period he was given duty in an expedition against the Yuma Indians on the Colorado River. He was assigned to Washington, D.C., in 1853 and resigned from the service in 1854.^[3][4][7]

"Doctor Griffin's story concerns the hardships endured by General Kearney's small force as it crossed the unknown and trackless deserts, and it recounts what took place in the battles of San Pascual, San Gabriel, La Mesa and Los Angeles, and reveals his methods of treatment for wounds and diseases afflicting the soldiers in his charge. The narrative is most interesting.^[8]

"Before joining the Army, Griffin practiced for three years in Louisville, Kentucky, and returned to Los Angeles after he left the service.^[3][4] In Griffin's obituary, the Los Angeles Times noted that:

"Physicians were scarce in those days, and a man with a university education and seventeen years' experience as army surgeon and general pratictioner was instantly welcomed and called to minister to the ailments of all the best people around. Like a circuit rider he journeyed up and down Southern California to answer to the calls of American settlers and Spanish patrons.^[3]

"Griffin is said to have been the "second pioneer educated physician to arrive in Los Angeles," the first being Richard Den, who came in 1843.^[4]

"One of his staff was Bridget (Biddy) Mason, who worked for him as a midwife and nurse, becoming known for her herbal remedies. She earned $2.50 a day, considered a good wage for African-American women at that time. In 1856, Mason had been declared a person "free forever" in a successful suit she filed as a slave brought from slave-holding Texas into the free state of California in 1851. The judge rendering the decision was Benjamin Hayes, the brother of Griffin's wife.^[10][11]"

^{(Wikipedia article on John Strother Griffin, accessed 4-2020)}

Digital facsimile from militarymuseum.org at this link.

Barker succeeded William Osler as physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His autobiography provides insight into a keyt period in the history of Johns Hopkins. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Waddington coined the term epigenetics: "For the purpose of a study of inheritance, the relation between phenotypes and genotypes [...] is, from a wider biological point of view, of crucial importance, since it is the kernel of the whole problem of development. Many geneticists have recognized this and attempted to discover the processes involved in the mechanism by which the genes of the genotype bring about phenotypic effects. The first step in such an enterprise is – or rather should be, since it is often omitted by those with an undue respect for the powers of reason – to describe what can be seen of the developmental processes. For enquiries of this kind, the word 'phenogenetics' was coined by Haecker [1918, Phänogenetik]. The second and more important part of the task is to discover the causal mechanisms at work, and to relate them as far as possible to what experimental embryology has already revealed of the mechanics of development. We might use the name 'epigenetics' for such studies, thus emphasizing their relation to the concepts, so strongly favourable to the classical theory of epigenesis, which have been reached by the experimental embryologists. We certainly need to remember that between genotype and phenotype, and connecting them to each other, there lies a whole complex of developmental processes. It is convenient to have a name for this complex: 'epigenotype' seems suitable."

Beveridge's "... report to Parliament on Social Insurance and Allied Services was published in November 1942. It proposed that all people of working age should pay a weekly national insurance contribution. In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired or widowed. Beveridge argued that this system would provide a minimum standard of living "below which no one should be allowed to fall". It recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the "five giants on the road of reconstruction" of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. Beveridge included as one of three fundamental assumptions the fact that there would be a National Health Service of some sort, a policy already being worked on in the Ministry of Health" (Wikipedia article on Sir William Beveridge, accessed 9-2021).  Digital facsimile from pombo.free.fr at this link.

First identification, observation under the electron microscope, and reproduction of photomicrographs of bacteriophages taken through the electron microscope.

Digital facsimile, but with poor reproductions of the two plates, from PubMedCentral at this link.

Abraham and Chain first announced the purification of penicillin, a critical step before production of the drug could begin, in a two paragraph paper published on a single page of Nature on March 21, 1942. The method, developed by biochemist Norman Heatley, extracted penicillin from huge volumes of filtrate coming offf the production line by extracting it into amyl acetate and then back into water, using a countercurrent system. Then Edward Abraham, another biochemist, used the newly discovered technique of alumina column chromatography to remove impurities from the pencillin prior to clinical trials. The authors wrote in their announcement, "The preparation thus obtained, though not crytalline has an activity of 450-500 Oxford penicillin units per mgm., corresponding to a complete inhibition of the growth of Staphylococcus aureus in broth in a dilution of 1: 25,000,000. Pencillin must therefore regarded as one of the most powerful antibacterial substances with predominantly bacteriostatic action known."

Synthesis of biotin. With D. E. Wolf, R. Mozingo, and K. Folkers.

Isolation of α-biotin.

An important contribution to the knowledge of iron absorption. With W. F. Bale, J. F. Ross, W. M. Balfour, and G. H. Whipple.

Important experiments on gastric function, made on “Tom”, a man who had a gastric fistula from the age of 9. Second edition in 1947.

Choh Hao Li and colleagues Isolated pure adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from sheep pituitary glands. 

Isolation of ACTH from swine pituitaries. 

This work made possible the storage of whole blood for up to three weeks.

A history of sewage disposal, the privy, and related matters.

Reprinted 1980.

Synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

With W. Baker.

Promin (sodium glucosulphone) introduced in the treatment of leprosy. With R. C. Pogge, F. A. Johansen, J. F. Dinan, B. M. Prejean, and C. G. Eccles.

Mahoney and colleagues introduced penicillin in treatment of syphilis. This was the report of the first four cases of patients with early stages of the disease. Digital facsimile of the version published in the the American Journal of Public Health from PubMedCentral at this link.

See John Parascandola, "John Mahoney and the introduction of penicillin to treat syphilis," Pharmacy in history, 43 (2001) 3-13.

Vagotomy for peptic ulcer.

Gibson and Medawar placed the laws of transplantation on a firm scientific basis. A later paper by Medawar (J. Anat. [Lond.], 1944, 78, 176- 99) demonstrated that the mechanism of rejection of transplanted tissues is immunological in character.

Astwood was the first to treat human cases of hyperthyroidism with thiourea and thiouracil.

Introduction of calciferol in the treatment of lupus. A more extensive report, “Le traitement des tuberculoses cutanées par la vitamine D₂ à hautes doses”, appeared in the same journal, 1946, 8 sér., 6, 310-46.

Seddon’s classification of nerve injuries.

Plasma clot nerve suture. Preliminary communication in Science, 1942, 95, 258.

Figures demonstrating that rubella in the first or second month of pregnancy always results in an abnormal infant. With A. L. Tostevin, B. Moore, H. Mayo, and G. H. B. Black.

First use of fibrin glue for skin grafting. See also Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1943, 77, 510-13.

Most of this work is a very carefully documented history of the subject. Bibliography of 451 references.

Second edition, History and trends of professional nursing, 1950.

With E. N. Cook and L. Thompson.

Second edition, 1950.

Ablation of the tracheo-oesophageal fistula and primary end-to-end oesophageal anastomosis, first achieved in 1941.

Catalogue, without annotations, of the books and manuscripts bequeathed by Cushing to the Historical Library in the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University School of Medicine. Much like Osler, Cushing collected science as well as medicine.

Regarding Cushing as a collector see:

• The Letters and Libraries of Irving S. Cutter and Harvey Cushing by John F. Fulton
• Harvey Cushing and his Books by John F. Fulton
• The Doctor and his Books  by Harvey Cushing
• A Doctor and his Books: Harvey Cushing and his Library 
  From the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 1 (1946). Includes "Recollections of Harvey Cushing and His Book-Collecting" by E. P. Goldschmidt, "The Formation of the Harvey Cushing Collection" by E. Weil, and "Harvey Cushing and His Books" by Geoffrey Jefferson.
• Dr. Harvey Cushing and his Editor , by Edward Weeks
  From the Bulletin of the Cleveland Medical Library, Volume VI, no. 3 (July, 1959).
• Harvey Cushing: An Anecdotal Biography , by Henry R. Viets
  From the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 81 (1969).

The latest issue may viewed at www.gesnerus.ch.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Description of the 1158 manuscripts and printed volumes, particularly concerning medieval and renaissance medicine and surgery, donated by Putti to the Rizzoli Institute, followed by a listing of the collection of medical and scientific autographs collected by Putti. Limited to 200 copies printed at the expense of Contessa Carolina Rasponi. Reprinted, Bologna: A. Forni, 1963 as Catalogo della Raccolta Vittorio Putti.

"Classic atlas of the human brain (excluding the cerebral and cerebellar cortex). Each structure has a blurb with varying amounts of useful historical and factual information. There is also a very useful bibliography arranged according to major CNS regions. Most importantly, there are over 250 meticulously labeled photographs of sections in the three standard planes of section" (Larry W. Swanson).

This paper described the McCulloch-Pitts neuron, the first mathematical model of a neural network. Digital text available at this link.

The first description of “early infantile autism” as a disorder marked by extreme detachment, self-isolation, inability to form relationships, frequent failure to acquire communicative abilities, and preoccupation with sameness.

The standard annotated bibliography of Vesalius's works, known for its unusual system of numbering entries. Posthumously edited for publication by John F. Fulton and Arturo Castiglioni. Digital facsimile of the 1943 edition from whitney.yale.edu at this link. Second edition with addenda, Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1962. See also Elly Cockx-Indestege, Andreas Vesalius: A Belgian census: Contribution towards a new edition of H.W. Cushing's Bibliography (Brussels, 1994).

The first book on what became the Kaiser Permanente health plan, initially set up by Henry J. Kaiser to provide health care for his 200,000 workers.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Study of the effect of disease on economics, law, religion and science.

English translation of the six-book version of Frederick's work, edited, with numerous appendices, illustrations, and an annotated bibliography of ancient, medieval and modern falconry, by Casey A. Wood and F. Marjorie Fyfe. 

Probably one of the first books on the medical aspects of this particular subject. "In this lecture it will be our purpose, first to describe the various ordeals which befall men after their ship has been lost, the clinical effect of these privations, and the physiological problems entailed; and secondly to consider the possible measures for the alleviation of the vicissitudes in question" (p. 2). Critchley discusses "the hazards and their attendant effects under the following heads: (1) excessive cold and wet, with their general and local effects; (2) thirst due to inadequate water supply; (3) inanition and hunger, from inadequate food; (4) tropical conditions; and (5) the psychological effects of cumulated mental and physical distress" (p.4).

The authors demonstrated that the Aedes albopictus mosquito is the vector of West Nile virus.

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

A classically trained Freudian psychoanalyst reviewed the psychiatric insights - advanced for his time - that Holmes expressed in his novels.

A relatively brief anonymous account of the first century of activity the medical publisher, Blakiston.

Due to wartime paper rationing only 40 copies of the first printing of the catalogue were published when it was issued in 1943; it was reprinted in the 21st century. Ferguson is best known as the author of the extensively annotated catalogue of the Young collection of alchemy and early chemistry. However, this catalogue of around 7500 items on 900 pages demonstrates that Ferguson's personal library surpassed that of Young in various respects.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

"In 1943, after a three-year period of concentrated collaborative experience with the vaginal smear for the diagnosis of gynecologic cancer, Papanicolaou and Traut published their widely heralded monograph, Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear.... This report encompassed a variety of physiologic and pathologic states, including the menstrual cycle, puerperium, abortion, ectopic pregnancy, prepuberty, menopause, amenorrhea, endometrial hyperplasia, vaginal and cervical infections, and 179 cases of uterine cancer, 127 cervical and 52 corporeal" (Speert, Obstetric & gynecologic milestones, p. 289).

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

Macintosh larygnoscope.

This work demonstrated the absorption of the phages on the host cell, and the lysis of the host cell and the liberation of a hundred or so daughter paritcles from each cell. It also showed that the particles multiply inside the cells rather than at their surfaces, since unti lysis occurs the number of particles visible at the surface remains constant. 
Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link. For an extensive commentary on this paper, including correspondence between Anderson and Delbruck before and after publication see T. F. Anderson, "Electronic microscopy of phages," Phage and the origins of molecular biology. Expanded Edition, edited by John Cairns, Gunther Stent and James D. Watson (1992) 63-78.

Reprinted, Dover Publications, 1978.

Introduction of “pantopaque” for diagnosis of cerebral tumors. With C. E. Dungan, J. B. Furst, J. T. Plati, S. W. Smith, A. P. Darling, and E. C. Wolcott.

First in vitro fertilization of human eggs.

Cohn invented fractionation of plasma proteins, also called blood fractionation. (Order of authorship in the original publication: Cohn, Oncley, Strong, Hughes, Armstrong.) Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Introduction of dextran as plasma substitute.

Nitrofuran (nitrofurazone).

Müller introduced Dichlordiphenyltrichlorethane (DDT) as an insecticide. With H. Martin and P. Läuger. 

In 1948 Müller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."

Introduction of streptomycin. Order of authorship: Schatz, Gregory, Waksman.

In 1952 Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for ingenious, systematic, and successful studies of the soil microbes that led to the discovery of streptomycin." See also No. 1944.

Muir found diasone (a sulphone) valuable in the treatment of leprosy.

Supplements 1-5, 1952-62.

Proof that allergens that produce urticarial reactions can penetrate the skin from external contact and thus produce the reaction that the authors named “contact urticaria.” With F. Herrmann and R. Baer.

Classic work on the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and its immunology and hypersensitivity.

Reprint, New York, Arno Press, 1971.

Inhibition of tumor growth by a folic acid concentrate. With R. Lewisohn, D. Laszlo. These workers later (Proc. Soc. exp. Biol. N. Y., 1944, 56, 144-45) obtained similar results with xanthopterin.

Administration of synthetic estrogens in advanced mammary cancer caused regression of tumors. With J. M. Watkinson, E. Paterson, and P. C. Koller.

The Eaton agent, isolated from primary atypical pneumonia. With G. Meiklejohn and W. van Herick.

Kempner rice diet for the treatment of hypertension.

MacCallum and Bradley finally proved the nature of both serum and infective hepatitis.

“Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia”.

The Kolff artificial kidney. With H. T. J. Berk and others. Kolff first published his discovery in a neutral country (Sweden) since in 1944 Holland was occupied by the Germans. See also No. 1976.

Tests of hearing in children.

Resection of saccular aneurysm of thoracic aorta.

Loubatières initiated work on the hypoglycaemic sulphonamides. See his historical account in Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1957, 71, 4-11.

Bunnell originated hand surgery as a specialty.

Also published in book form, Chicago, 1945.

With J. C. Snyder, E. S. Murray, C. J. D. Zarafonetis, and R. S. Ecke.

Gamma globulin used for passive immunization against measles. With C. G. Jennings and C. A. Janeway.

Biographical notes and portraits of men and women whose names are perpetuated in well-known medical eponyms. 3rd. edition 1959.

First detailed account of the full cycle of development of the avian malaria parasite P. gallinaceum.

 Simpson's seminal contribution to the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated the facts of paleontology with those of genetics and natural selection.

"Simpson argued that the microevolution of population genetics was sufficient in itself to explain the patterns of macroevolution observed by paleontology. Simpson also highlighted the distinction between tempo and mode. "Tempo" encompasses "evolutionary rates . . . their acceleration and deceleration, the conditions of exceptionally slow or rapid evolutions, and phenomena suggestive of inertia and momentum", while "mode" embraces "the study of the way, manner, or pattern of evolution, a study in which tempo is a basic factor, but which embraces considerably more than tempo."

Simpson's Tempo and Mode attempted to draw out several distinct generalizations:

• Evolution's tempo can impart information about its mode.
• Multiple tempos can be found in the fossil record (bradytelic, tachytelic, horotelic).
• The facts of paleontology are consistent with the genetical theory of natural selection. Moreover, theories such as orthogenesis, Lamarckism, mutation pressures, and macromutations either are false or play little to no role.
• Most evolution—"nine-tenths"—occurs by the steady phyletic transformation of whole lineages (anagenesis). This contrasts with Ernst Mayr's interpretation of speciation by splitting, particularly allopatric and peripatric speciation.
• The lack of evidence for evolutionary transitions in the fossil record is best accounted for, first, by the poorness of the geological record, and, second, as a consequence of quantum evolution (which is responsible for "the origin of taxonomic units of relatively high rank, such as families, orders, and classes"). Quantum evolution built upon Sewall Wright's theory of random genetic drift." (Wikipedia article on Tempo and Mode in Evolution, accessed 03-2017).

Demonstration that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the basic material responsible for genetic transformation. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Followed by: McCarty & Avery, "Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of pneumococcal types. II. Effect of deoxyribonuclease on the biological activity of the transforming substance. III. An improved method for the isolation of the transforming substance and its application to pneumococcus types II, III, and VI, " J. exp. Med. , 83 (1946) 89-104.

This work about the physical basis of natural phenomena influenced the young James D. Watson and others. The book was a popularization of ideas developed by Max Delbrück in his paper with Timofeeff-Ressovsky in 1935. See No. 254.1.

Sydney Brenner pointed out a fundamental mistake in Schrödinger’s understanding of how genes would operate:

“Anyway, the key point is that Schrödinger says that the chromosomes contain the information to specify the future organism and the means to execute it. I have come to call this ‘Schrödinger’s fundamental error.’ In describing the structure of the chromosome fibre as a code script he states that. ‘The chromosome structures are at the same time instrumental in bringing about the development they foreshadow. They are code law and executive power, or to use another simile, they are the architect’s plan and the builder’s craft in one.’ [Schrödinger, p. 20,]. What Schrödinger is saying here is that the chromosomes not only contain a description of the future organism, but also the means to implement the description, or program, as we might call it. And that is wrong! The chromosomes contain the information to specify the future organism and a description of the means to implement this, but not the means themselves. This logical difference was made crystal clear to me when I read the von Neumann article [Hixon Symposium] because he very clearly distinguishes between the things that read the program and the program itself. In other words, the program has to build the machinery to excute itself" (Brenner, My Life, 33-34).

Early infantile autism (Asperberger's syndrome).

Includes considerable anthropological, biological, and health data. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from uair.library.arizona.edu at this link.

The authors describe the first direct recording of the blood flow in an intact fetus, a fetal lamb. The authors performed this experiment cooperation with Sir Joseph Bancroft and Dr. D. H. Barron.

This nearly 4000 page work in three unusually thick volumes, written by hundreds of authors, was an encyclopedia of medical physics for its time.

Provides all the references used in Abbott, Atlas of congenital cardiac disease. New York: American Heart Association, 1936, but not included in the 1936 work.

The Jones criteria (later revised in 1992 and 2015) for the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever.

Fleming was the first to measure blood levels of penicillin after intramuscular, intradermal, inravenous and continuous drip administration in order to determine the correct dosage. He described his micro-measurement methods in this paper.

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

In this paper Fleming and colleagues explained how to choose routes of administration of penicillin as well as dosage, and reproduced the graphs/figures that showed blood levels achieved with different doses and routes of administration.
Fleming was the first to use Procaine mixed with penicillin in order to alleviate the tremendous intramuscular pain of the injections. He showed that the anesthetic did not affect the bacterial killing power of the antibiotic. With M. Y. Young, A. J. E. Rowe.

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

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Choh Hao Li and colleagues isolated the anterior pituitary growth hormone. 

A historical survey of the classical works.

Purification and concentration of Tillett and Garner’s (No. 1924.1) substance to produce streptokinase.