Heberden’s first printed work. His criticism of current superstitions conceming these two concoctions resulted ultimately in their removal from the pharmacopoeia. No publisher's name appears on the title page. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

The only collected edition of early bills of mortality, which were generally published as broadsides and are not available separately. Includes reprints of Nos. 1686 and 1688. This work has traditionally been attributed to Thomas Birch, but Hull (1899) gives strong evidence that Heberden was the author.

A classic description of nyctalopia. Report of a single case.

In a paper read before the (Royal) College of Physicians on 11 August 1767, Heberden first definitely differentiated chickenpox from smallpox.

This classic description of angina pectoris is the substance of a paper read on July 21, 1768. Although descriptions of angina are to be found in the works of earlier writers, these mention only dyspnoea in their cases. The merit of Herberden’s account (in which, incidently, he used the name “angina pectoris”) lies in the fact that he was the first to include a description of the paroxysmal oppression in the thorax. Reprinted with other writings by Heberden in An Introduction to the Study of Physic, New York, 1929.

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