An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

HUMBOLDT, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von

7 entries
  • 7119

Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser: nebst Vermuthungen über den chemischen Process des Lebens in der Thier- und Pflanzenwelt. 2 vols.

Posen, Germany: Decker und Compagnie, 1797.

Digital facsimile from The Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link



Subjects: PHYSIOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY › Electrophysiology
  • 145.55

Essai sur la géographie des plantes; accompagné d’un tableau physique des régions équinoxiales.

Paris: Levrault, Schoell, 1805.

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



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, BOTANY, Biogeography, Biogeography › Phytogeography, NATURAL HISTORY
  • 7452

Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804. 34 vols.

Paris, 18071834.

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



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, BOTANY, Biogeography, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › South America, NATURAL HISTORY, NATURAL HISTORY › Art & Natural History, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists, ZOOLOGY
  • 13324

An illustration of the genus cinchona; comprising descriptions of all the officinal Peruvian barks, including several new species. Baron de Humboldt's Account of the Cinchona forests of South America, and Laubert's Memoir on the different species of quinquina: To which are added several dissertations of Don Hippolito Ruiz on various medicinal plants of South America ... And a short account of the spikenard of the ancients.

London: Printed for J. Searle, 1821.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Peru, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Botanic Sources of Single Component Drugs › Cinchona Bark, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Botanic Sources of Single Component Drugs › Cinchona Bark › Quinine
  • 608

Sur le courant électrique des muscles des animaux vivants ou récemment tués.

C. R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 16, 197-200, 1843.

Matteucci’s “rheoscopic frog” effect.



Subjects: PHYSIOLOGY › Electrophysiology
  • 8223

Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung. 5 vols. and atlas.

Stuttgart: Cotta, 18451862.

This work includes founding material in geography, plant geography, orography, climatology and meterology, among other sciences, and citations to 9,000 sources. The atlas was issued without Humboldt's participation, and published by Krais & Hoffmann (1851). The fifth volume comprising the lengthy index, was issued after Humboldt's death. 

There were several English translations: by A. Prichard in 2 vols., London: H. Baillière, 1845; by Mrs. Eliz. Sabine, 4 vols, London: Longmans, 1846-58, and the most complete in 5 vols. by E. C. Otté (vols 1-3), Otté and B. H. Paul (vol. 4), and Otté and W. S. Dallas (vol. 5), London, 1849-52. The best introduction to the work is that to Vol. 1 by Nicolaas A. Rupke, Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. There are numerous digital facsimiles available.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › Ecology / Environment, Biogeography, Geography of Disease / Health Geography, NATURAL HISTORY
  • 13431

The Humboldt Library. A catalogue of the library of Alexander von Humboldt. With a bibliographical and biographical memoir by Henry Stevens.

London: Henry Stevens, American Agency, 1863.


Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Catalogues of Physicians' / Scientists' Libraries