Splendid edition reproducing all of the drawings in color, and with the original chronology and integrity of the drawings restored. Text provides transliteration of Leonardo’s notes in the original Italian plus English translation, commentary, etc. Combines material previously published less elegantly and accurately in Nos. 364 & 365. For a scientific analysis of Leonardo’s medical writings see K.D. Keele’s Leonardo da Vinci’s elements of the science of man, New York, Academic Press, 1983. For Leonardo’s contributions to neuroanatomy see E.M. Todd, The neuroanatomy of Leonardo da Vinci, Santa Barbara, Capra Press, [1983]. For his work on vision see D.S. Strong, Leonardo on the eye, An English translation and critical commentary on Ms. D. in the Bibliothèque Nationale… New York, Garland, 1979.

For more information on Leonardo's anatomical work see a short essay that I wrote on HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

A collective work by 19 authors, edited by M. M. Wintrobe. This is a detailed history of haematology, well documented and well indexed.

Translations of extensive selections from 19 famous and/or obscure works, with commentary and summary.

Reproduces all the classic Japanese prints that concern the teeth or dentistry. By Nakahara, Yoshihisa Shindo, and Kuninori Homma. 

A section of Needham’s Science and civilisation in China series, separately published. Includes the best bibliography of early Western treatises on acupuncture.

A well-illustrated collection of essays covering medicine in Massachusetts but also applicable in some cases to the history of medicine and surgery throughout the American colonies.

Suppl. to Bull. Hist. Med., new ser., 5.

On 8 May 1980, the World Health Organization officially announced that “smallpox eradication has been achieved throughout the world”. The upper cover of this report reproduces an electron micrograph of a specimen of variola virus taken from the last case of endemic smallpox in the world, 26 October 1977. This was the successful conclusion of worldwide vaccination efforts initiated by Jenner in 1798. See No. 5423.

Subject section: 9 vols.; Biographical section: 5 vols.; Topographical section: 4 vols. Reproduces the card subject catalogue of the library and includes a cumulation of Current Work in the History of Medicine (No. 6451.1). Includes material published to 1977.

Sanger and colleagues developed the random shotgun method to prepare templates for DNA sequencing. With A. R. Coulson, B. G. Barrell, A. J. H. Smith & B. A. Roe.

The only known survey of the sexual habits of Victorian women, published for the first time nearly 100 years after the survey was initiated. Moser, an American physician, began the survey in 1892 as an undergraduate when preparing to lecture on the "Marital Relation" before the Mother's Club of the University of Wisconsin, and continued it for the duration of her career. The survey was initially controversial because of its frankness, and the overwhelmingly sex-positive views of the participants, even including the use of "male sheaths" (now called condoms) and "rubber cap over the uterus" (either a diaphragm or cervical cap) birth control. All this stood in high contrast to other existing historical literature of the time, which held that women have no sexual desires, and sex should only be used for reproduction. One theory is because the researcher was a woman gathering data from women that knew the results would only be put forth before a purely female audience, the normal strictures of propriety of that time were let down, and more realistic data was actually gathered.

Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward B. Lewis their work revealing the genetic control of embryonic development. 

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Reprinted with addition of a new preface, 1990.

Includes [1.] an English translation, made from the 1971 edition in French, of Mesmer's disseration: Disseratio physico-medica de planetarum influxu (Vienna, 1766). [2.] English translation of Lettre de M. Mesmer...à M. Unzer...sur l'usage médicinal de L'Aimant from L'Antimagnetism...by Paulet (1784) [3.] Discours de M. Mesmer sur le magnétisme from Paulet, L'Antimagnétisme...(1784). [4.] Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal. (Regarding the translation of [4.] the authors state that their translation is significantly different "especially in the sections relating to medicine."

Banks' Florilegium has been called the largest fine art printing project of the 20th century. It is the first complete publication in color of the 734 folio size copperplate engravings of newly discovered plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander  while they accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyage around the world between 1768 and 1771. Banks and Solander collected plants in Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java. 

Banks' and Solander's specimens were studied aboard the HMS Endeavour by the artist Sydney Parkinson. Parkinson drew each specimen and made notes on their color, and for some species completed watercolor illustrations. When the Endeavour returned to London Banks hired artists Frederick Polydore Nodder, John Frederick Miller, James Miller, John Cleverly and Thomas Burgis to create watercolors of all of Parkinson's drawings. Between 1771 and 1784 Banks hired 18 engravers to create the copperplate engravings from the 743 completed watercolors with the purpose of eventually publishing an edition. Because Banks was engaged in many other projects, the Florilegium was not printed in Banks' lifetime, and he bequeathed the plates to the British Museum, where they were preserved. Between 1900 and 1905 James Britten and the British Museum issued prints of 315 of the plant engravings in black ink, under the title Illustrations of Australian Plants. Others were included in black and white in the 1973 book Captain Cook's Florilegium (Wikipedia). However, the complete series of plates in Banks' Florilegium was never issued in color until the above edition.

Limited to only 100 numbered sets, the sets were issued in 101 cloth-backed portfolios housed in 35 large folio custom-made solander boxes (including Supplement). The complete Banks’ Florilegium contains 738 engraved plates printed in color by hand using a 17^th century printing technique called à la poupée, in which each color was applied directly to the copperplate by hand, and some plates were retouched with watercolor afterwards. The technique derives from a method developed by Johannes Tayler in the 17th century and revived by Pierre-Joseph Redouté in the early 19th century. The involved process of inking with a rolled up "dolly" of cotton tarlatan, printing, and cleaning the plates can take upwards of three hours for each impression.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Poiesz, Ruscetti,... Gallo. Gallo and associates announced the discovery of a human retrovirus with type C morphology causing a cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Gallo named this virus HTLV-1 (for Human T-cell Leukemia-Lymphoma Virus - 1). Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

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

A partially annotated listing of all principal natural history books published in the UK from 1495 to 1900.

https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search

The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) , an electronic bibliographic database maintained by the British Library, seeks to catalogue all known incunabula. The database lists books by individual editions, recording standard bibliographic details for each edition as well as providing a census of known copies, organized by location. It currently holds records of about 30,000 editions. Work on the ISTC began in 1980 under the leadership of the British Library's Lotte Hellinga. Frederick R. Goff's Incunabula in American Libraries (1973) was the first pre-existing catalog to be keyed into ISTC's database. Besides providing the catalog's first 12,900 entries, Goff's system for classifying information about incunables formed the basis for the structure of ISTC's records. Entries for all of the incunables in British Library and the Italian union catalog (IGI) were added next, followed by other national incunable catalogs.

"The database records nearly every item printed from movable type before 1501, but not material printed entirely from woodblocks or engraved plates. 30,518 editions are listed as of August 2016, including some 16th-century items previously assigned incorrectly to the 15th century.

"Information on each item includes authors, short titles, the language of the text, printer, place and date of printing, and format. Locations for copies have been confirmed by libraries all over the world. Many links are provided to online digital facsimiles, and also to major online catalogues of incunabula such as the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Inkunabelkatalog and Bod-Inc online.

"A number of copies recorded in ISTC are now described in detail in the Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI) database. In due course, links will be added from the copies recorded in ISTC to their descriptions in MEI" (https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search).

Discovery of the pathogenic relationship between amoebas and Legionella bacteria--a key step in understanding how this bacteria infects mankind. Legionella bacteria, along with amoeba, live in the organic contamination on the surfaces of water systems. Rowbotham demonstrated that Legionella grow inside another cell, specifically amoebas. Ordinarily amoeba eat bacteria and organic contamination, and in the process kill those bacteria.

It was later understood by others that when amoeba eat Legionella the bacteria become encapsulated, and continue to grow inside the amoeba until they are either released from the diseased amoeba into the water or a protective biofilm composed of mostly complex carbohydrate matrices containing the Legionella is released. In either form Legionella can be aerosolized and inhaled by a human host.

Once in the respiratory tract of humans, Legionella are ingested by macrophages and possess the unique ability to replicate inside the phagosome within the alveolar macrophages, which act in a protective manner for this specific bacteria. The key to the survival of Legionella within the macrophage, and thus their virulence, is the ability of Legionella  to prevent phagosome lysosome fusion and subsequent destruction.

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

A semi-popular and extensively illustrated summary of research on artificial intelligence in medicine at Stanford Medical School as directed by Edward A. Feigenbaum, Stanley N. Cohen, Carl Djerassi, and Elliott C. Levinthal. 

"The twenty-four year Framingham Study is a landmark in epidemiological investigation. Largely as a result of this study of the life habits and health of almost 6,000 men and women, atherosclerosis is no longer viewed as an inevitable result of the aging process, but rather a disease that may well be prevented or delayed if specific risk factors can be identified and controlled.

"Framingham project director Thomas Dawber now brings together in one comprehensive yet concise report the history of the study, from the development of hypotheses, to the selection of the population sample, to an examination of the methodological problems encountered in longitudinal research. Dr. Dawber’s presentation of the findings demonstrates the basis for current recommendations for decreasing blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, reducing weight, monitoring fat intake in diabetics, increasing physical activity, and discontinuing cigarette smoking" (publisher).

A biographical introduction proceeds Dewhurst's edition of John Locke's transcripts of Willis's lectures from 1663-64 (Bodleian MS Locke f19) and Richard Lower's notes from the 1661-62 lectures in the Robert Boyle papers in the Royal Society.

First successful implantation of an automatic defibrillator (AICD), developed by Mirowski and Mower, and implanted by Watkins when he was a resident.

(Order of authorship in the original publication: Mulligan, Berg.) In an understated paper the authors suggested the potential of treating recessive diseases like Lesch-Nyhan syndrome by gene therapy.

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

First purification and publication of a dust mite allergen in 1978 by Platts-Mills and Chapman.

Cline and colleagues were the first to successfully transfer a functioning gene into a living mouse, creating the first transgenic organism.

Tony Hunter discovered that tyrosine phosphorylation is a fundamental mechanism for transmembrane-signal transduction in response to growth factor stimulation, and that disregulation of such tyrosine phosphorylation, by activated oncogenic protein tyrosine kinases, is a pivotal mechanism utilized in the malignant transformation of cells. This cell-signaling mechanism revolutionized basic research on cancer. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Steitz and Lerner used immunoprecipitation with human antibodies from patients with autoimmunity to isolate and identify the novel entities snRNPs (pronounced "snurps") and detect their role in splicing. A snRNP is a specific short length of RNA, around 150 nucleotides long, associated with protein, that is involved in splicing introns out of newly transcribed RNA (pre-mRNA), a component of the spliceosomes. Steitz's paper "set the field ahead by light years and heralded the avalanche of small RNAs that have since been discovered to play a role in multiple steps in RNA biosynthesis," noted Susan Berget. Order of authorship in the original publication: Streitz, Wolin...Lerner.

Chimpanzees are the closest primates genetically to humans. In this paper the authors demonstrated the genetic changes that differentiated humans from chimpanzees. By comparing human and chimpanzee chromosomes the authors showed that essentially every band and sub band observed in man has direct counterpart in the chimps' chromosome complement. However, man has 46 chromosomes whereas the chimp has 48. They unequivocally showed that the presence of just 46 chromosomes in man vs. the 48 in chimps can be explained by fusion of 2 acrocentric chromosomes to form the human chromosome number 2, and that this "fusion" is generated by telomeric fusion. The fusion occurred at the upper 2/3 and lower 1/3 of band q13.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Yunis, Sawyer, Dunham.

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

Following up on No. 14206, the authors stated that the same excess iridium areas were found in two different areas of W. Europe and in New Zealand, and posited that “the anomalous iridium concentrations at the C [retacous]-T[ertiary] boundary is best interpreted as indicating an abnormal influx of extraterrestrial material.” They suggested that this was produced by an asteroid strike on the earth that formed an impact crater, and that some of the dust sized material about 60 times the object’s mass would eject and inject the stratosphere with pulverized dust containing iridium which would then spread around the globe. This dust from the explosion would have blocked sunlight for a long time and suppressed photosynthesis, and as a result most food chains would have collapsed, and extinctions resulted. Luis Alvarez calculated the size of the asteroid needed to produce the catastrophic impact -- an asterioid with a diameter of about 10 plus or minus 4 kilometers at the entry velocity that meteorites hit earth. They pointed out that “an asteroid of 10 km. diameter is twice the typical oceanic depth and this would produce a crater on the ocean bottom, and pulverized rock could be ejected.” They estimated that no terrestrial vertebrate heavier than about 25kg. would have survived the extinction. Finally they stated that the crater resulting from such a collision must be found to validate their hypothesis, and “there is about a 2/3 probability that this object fell in the ocean.”

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

The author does not consider this a simple translation of his Geschichte der Zahnheilkunde (1973), as in the sections devoted to the 19th and early 20th centuries it has been so substantially revised as to be “almost a different book”. This is the best history of dentistry from the bibliographic point of view. Second edition in German, 1985

A scholarly work written in a particularly entertaining style.

Deals with the structure, function, and diseases of the nervous system to the end of the 19th century.

Comprehensive work, with hundreds of bibliographical references. No index.

English translation by F.C. Blodi as The history of optical instruments for the examination of the eye, Bonn: J. P. Wayenborgh, 1986.

With E.N. Feind and G.N. Holloway.

A history of medical bibliography since World War II, focusing on the information requirements of biomedical research; supplements No. 6785.1

Describes the collection of 2305 classics in the history of medicine formed by Frederick C. Pybus (1883-1975), giving pagination and plate counts. Also included are annotated descriptions of 158 autograph letters by physicians, and descriptions of about 1000 medical portraits and other prints. Completely indexed.

Vol. 1: Ancient and medieval; Vol. 2: Renaissance; Vol. 3: 17th century; Vol.. 4: 18th century.

The Anatomie Manchoue, a series of graphic illustrations taken from Western anatomical works, with notes in the Manchu-Tungus language. This was compiled under the supervision of Father Parrenin, a  French Jesuit working at the court of the Manchu Emperior K'ang Hsi (Kangxi). The manuscript reproduced and translated in this edition contained 90 illustrations; other surviving versions of this work (9 copies are known) may contain as many as 135 illustrations. The text was apparently intended only for consultation by members of the imperial household, and no attempts were made to disseminate this information to practioners outside the court.

This 15th century manuscript (British Library Sloan 2463) predates by about a century The byrth of mankynde, previously considered the first work on the subject.

Includes a directory of Anglo-Norman physicians.

The second published report on what later became the AIDS epidemic. The report described 26 homosexual men in New York and California with Kaposi's sarcoma, and 10 more Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) cases in homosexual men in California.

The Commentaria in de motu et de incessu animalium by the Byzantine writer Michael of Ephesus are the only surviving commentaries in Greek on Aristotle's De motu animalium and De incessu animalium. This edition provides English translations of Aristotle's texts and Michael's commentaries, with detailed explanatory notes for both.

The first comprehensive book summarizing the evidence relating low-level ionizing radiation to cancer and other diseases.

"From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a non-therapeutic experiment involving over 400 black male sharecroppers infected with syphilis. The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatment. Its purpose was to trace the spontaneous evolution of the disease in order to learn how syphilis affected black subjects.

The men were not told they had syphilis; they were not warned about what the disease might do to them; and, with the exception of a smattering of medication during the first few months, they were not given health care. Instead of the powerful drugs they required, they were given aspirin for their aches and pains. Health officials systematically deceived the men into believing they were patients in a government study of “bad blood”, a catch-all phrase black sharecroppers used to describe a host of illnesses. At the end of this 40 year deathwatch, more than 100 men had died from syphilis or related complications." New and expanded edition, 1993.

"The six books of Sacred Tales “ are in a class apart. A record of revelations made to Aristides in dreams by the healing god Asclepius…they are of major importance, both as evidence for the practices associated with temple medicine, and as the fullest first-hand report of personal religious experience that survives from any pagan writer.” Modern scholarship has seen a proliferation of theories about the nature of Aristides’ illnesses (real or imagined) and about the meaning of his religious experiences; “a number of scholars have applied psychoanalytical theories to Aristides’ self-presentation” and have come to various conclusions. (Wikipedia article on Aelius Aristides, accessed 12-2016). See also Behr, Aelius Aristides and the sacred tales (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1968).

English translation of this commentary on Galen's De sectis (On sects) given by the iatrosophist and commentator on medical texts, Agnellus, circa 600 CE.

Extensively illustrated with photographs.

Definitive account of the development of academic medicine and clinical research in America during the period covered.

The poliovirus genome. Digital facsimile from PNAS through PubMedCentral at this link.

The poliovirus genome. With around 10 co-authors. 

"The primary structure of the poliovirus genome has been determined. The RNA molecule is 7,433 nucleotides long, polyadenylated at the 3′ terminus, and covalently linked to a small protein (VPg) at the 5′ terminus. An open reading frame of 2,207 consecutive triplets spans over 89% of the nucleotide sequence and codes for the viral polyprotein NCVPOO. Twelve viral polypeptides have been mapped by amino acid sequence analysis and were found to be proteolytic cleavage products of the polyprotein, cleavages occurring predominantly at Gln-Gly pairs" (Abstract).

The first paper on HIV/AIDS, reporting on June 5, 1981 on five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) seen at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) medical center. PCP was then a rare infection; however, the lead author of the paper, Michael Gottlieb, had seen five cases of this infection since January 1981, all in previously healthy young homosexual men, indicating that their immune system was not working. (Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference.)

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A period piece but valuable for its professional assessment of the state of Russian medicine during the period.

Includes annotated descriptions of numerous classics on veterinary medicine for horses.

"... restricted to literature in the English language, with over 3200 entries; it is also confined to the thought and practices of the Western world, from Biblical times to 1980." Concerns much on animal experimentation and the antivivisection movement.

Covers the 55 remaining specimens of pathological preparations by William Osler preserved at McGill University. The book is divided into 4 sections: A: presentation and discussion of those aspects of Osler's activities related to pathology. B: Osler's orientation to the disease represented. C: An atlas of the 55 specimens, each with black & white photograph, original description and annotation. D: reproductions of Osler's handwritten autopsy protocols from 10 of the 55 specimens.

Essays on the history of pioneering clinical research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

In the 15th century people still hoped that the original garden of Eden might be rediscovered, but in the 16th and 17th centuries efforts turned to collecting plants and attempting to re-create the wonder of the garden. Examines famous early botanical gardens in Paris, Oxford, Padua, Leyden, and Uppsala.

A remarkably comprehensive history of dentistry for a small country.

A critique of statistical methods and cultural motivations underlying biological determinism. "Gould argues that the primary assumption underlying biological determinism is that, “worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by measuring intelligence as a single quantity”. Biological determinism is analyzed in discussions of craniometry and psychological testing, the two principal methods used to measure intelligence as a single quantity. According to Gould, these methods possess two deep fallacies. The first fallacy is reification, which is “our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities”.^[3] Examples of reification include the intelligence quotient (IQ) and the general intelligence factor (g factor), which have been the cornerstones of much research into human intelligence. The second fallacy is that of “ranking”, which is the “propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale”.^[3] (Wikipedia article on The Mismeasure of Man, accessed 10-2020). Expanded second edition, 1996.

Evans (Nobel Prize, 2007) and Kauffman were the first to identify, isolate and successfully culture embryonic stem cells using mouse blastocysts. This discovery opened the doors to the creation of “murine genetic models” -- mice that have had one or several of their genes deleted or otherwise modified to study their function in disease.

"Mystical Bedlam explores the social history of insanity of early seventeenth-century England by means of a detailed analysis of the records of Richard Napier, a clergyman and astrological physician, who treated over 2000 mentally disturbed patients between 1597 and 1634. Napier's clients were drawn from every social rank and his therapeutic techniques included all the types of psychological healing practised at the time. His vivid descriptions of his clients' afflictions and complaints illuminate the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. This book goes beyond simply analysing mental disorder in a seventeenth-century astrological and medical practice. It reveals contemporary attitudes towards family life, describes the appeal of witchcraft and demonology to ordinary villagers, and explains the social and intellectual basis for the eclectic blend of scientific, magical, and religious therapies practised before the English Revolution" (publisher).

Messing and colleagues employed shotgun sequencing to sequence the genome of cauliflower mosaic virus, the first genome sequenced by the shotgun method. They developed the shotgun DNA sequencing method with single and paired synthetic universal primers. The method is based on fragmenting DNA into small sizes, purifying them by cloning, and defining the start of sequencing with a short oligonucleotide. Because fragmentation produces overlapping fragments, sequences can be concatenated by overlapping sequence information, thereby reconstructing contiguous sequences (contigs).
Order of authorship in the original publication: Messing, Gardner, Howarth....

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Martin used a different approach that avoided in vivo alteration. She reasoned that an ES cell line might be obtained by culturing cells isolated from blastocysts in a medium that had previously been conditioned by an established teratocarcinoma stem-cell line (such a medium might contain a factor that stimulates ES-cell proliferation and/or suppress their differentiation). Using this approach, she established a cell line directly from normal pre-implantation mouse embryos and confirmed its pluripotency by showing that individual cells of this line could differentiate to form a wide variety of cell types in vitro and in vivo.  Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Frank (Nobel Prize 2017) and colleagues developed a method that allows sorting of particle images into classes based on their orientation, as well as their structural features. Specifically Frank developed mathematical tools used for image analysis, which form the basis for single particle cryo-EM. He gathered them together in a suite of computer programs called “SPIDER”, making them readily available and useable for the scientific community.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Frank, Verschoor, Boublik.

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

The authors crystallized fragments of the 50S subunit of a thermophile bacterium’s ribosome to 3 angstroms resolution. Yonath shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Ventatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."

Order of authorship in the original publication: Appelt, Dyck, et al., Yonath.
Digital facsimile from jbc.org at this link.

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

An index to bio-bibliographical articles listed alphabetically by scientist. Supplement published, Philadelphia, 1985.

A detailed illustrated history, tracing the development of knowledge from ancient times to the present. Includes biographical notes on the important pioneers in the field and chronological tables. Revised and updated second edition entitled The history of clinical endocrinology (1993).

The most comprehensive work on the subject. Articles reprinted primarily from Brit. J. Anaesth., with new introduction and index.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Hartrampf, Scheflan, Black. The transverse rectus abdominus myocutaneous flap for breast reconstruction. Breast reconstruction without the use of an artificial implant.

Annotated bibliography of medical references in Western literature from the ancient world to time of writing. Emphasis is on summaries of the medical content. Editions cited are usually modern and always in English,

Annotated exhibition catalogue, with introductory essays, describing 99 exceptionally important medieval medical manuscripts as well as a few very early medallions.

Describes 2509 books with paginations and collations. Reproduces 89 illustrations.

An interpretive history of what Mayr calls “ultimate” explanations in biology, reflecting Mayr’s expertise in systematics, evolution, and genetics.

Sanger and colleagues sequenced the entire genome of bacteriophage lambda using a random shotgun technique. This was the first whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequence. 

Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link; from the Internet Archive at this link. Chapter XX is "Evolution of Computerized Bibliographies."

The first historical survey of human biometeorology, tracing the evolution of the Hippocratic idea that weather is one of the dterminants of health from its ancient origins to time of writing.

Edited from the Latin translation by Burgundio of the Greek text first published in the 1490 edition of Galen's works.

One of the last very large printed works of this type:  "Over 132,000 English-language titles classified by some 28,000 Library of Congress subject headings. 'A unique feature ... is that, where possible, equivalent National Library of Medicine MeSH subject headings have been provided.; Covers health science literature as well as related disciplines, e.g., podiatry, psychology, and medical sociology. Intended for practitioners, researchers, students, and librarians. Subject index contains the main listing of entries. Each entry gives cataloging as prepared by the Library of Congress. Includes guides to MeSH/LC equeivalent subject headings and LC/MeSH subject headings. Author, title indexes" (publisher).

Digital text available from U.S. Army Medical Department Office of Medical History at this link.

Includes 3332 numbered entries of works concerning Hippocrates and the Hippocratic corpus with index of author's names with their Latin form (particularly helpful for Renaissance Latinized names) and index of modern authors. 

Enlarged edition retitled: Dark paradise: A history of opiate addiction in America (2002).

Vol. 1: De l'antiquité à la révolution. Vol. 2: De la révolution française au conflit mondial de 1914. Vol. 3: De 1914 à nos jours.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997 for his work in proposing a completely novel explanation for the cause of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease") and its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

To describe the cause of the disease in this paper published on April 9, 1982 Prusiner coined the term prion, which comes from the words "proteinaceous" and "infectious," to refer to a previously undescribed form of infection, due to protein misfolding, with no DNA or RNA involved. This new concept "violated all the rules" and failed to convince the scientific community, most of whom initially thought that Prusiner was "totally insane."

The first in depth study of the demographic effects of the Spanish conquest. Cook estimated population size on the basis of archaeology, carrying capacity of the agricultural systems, disease mortality, depopulation ratios, and census projection. He also analyzed the catastrophic population decline that resulted from contact with Europeans, and compared this experience with that of the coastal region and the Andean highlands.

First successful heart-lung transplant, performed on March 9, 1981, after nearly four years of testing on primates.

Abstract

Discovery of the agent causing Lyme disease. Though the authors initially thought the disease might be a spirochetosis, the agent was attributed to a bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, named for Burgdorfer who discovered the bacterium. Order of authorship in the original publication was Burgdorfer, Barbour, Hayes....

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference.)

Sections are devoted to research and serendipity, the role of the physician, quacks and clowns, clinical descriptions in literature, doctors and students, the practice, women and healing, madness, dying, and the patient, among others.  The authors include Auden, Bellow, Dickens, Doyle, Fitzgerald, Flaubert, Goethe, Holmes, Keats, Mann, Maugham, Melville, Orwell, Schweitzer, Shakespeare, Shaw, Tolstoy, Twain, Williams, and Zinsser, etc.

Research with the biochemist Bolton enabled Prusiner to discover and characterize the specific protein causing prion disease. This paper was dated December 24, 1982.

Nearly simultaneously, Prusiner and the same co-authors published an additional, longer paper dated December 21, 1982, further characterizing the pure protein of the infectious agent:

"Further purification and characterization of Scrapie prions," Biochemistry, 21 (1982) 6942-6950. 

These papers provided the necessary evidence to convince members of the scientific community, and eventually led to Prusiner's Nobel Prize.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for these references and their interpretation.)

Documents manuscripts by Laennec preserved in the Archives de l'Académie des Sciences, and Musée Laennec de la Bibliothèque Universitaire de Nantes, Section médecine-pharmacie.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Kalyanaraman, Sarngadharan,... Gallo. Discovery by Gallo of HTLV-II, which like HTLV-I, is carcinogenic.

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

See also Boewe's The life of C.S. Rafinesque a man of uncommon zeal. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2011.

The autobiography of the great surgeon, bibliographer, scholar and book collector.

"Founded in 1982, Literature and Medicine is a peer-reviewed journal publishing scholarship that explores representational and cultural practices concerning health care and the body. Areas of interest include disease, illness, health, and disability; violence, trauma, and power relations; and the cultures of biomedical science and technology and of the clinic, as these are represented and interpreted in verbal, visual, and material texts. Literature and Medicine features one thematic and one general issue each year. Past theme issues have explored identity and difference; contagion and infection; cancer pathography; the representations of genomics; and the narration of pain. Literature and Medicine is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Program in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine" (publisher).

Vol. 37 was published in 2019.

Digital facsimile from jstor.org at this link.

The catheter ablation technique, pioneered by Gallagher and team.

Abstract
"This report describes a catheter technique for ablating the His bundle and its application in nine patients with recurrent supraventricular tachycardia that was unresponsive to medical management. A tripolar electrode catheter was positioned in the region of the His bundle, and the electrode recording a large unipolar His-bundle potential was identified. In the first patient, two shocks of 25 and 50 J, respectively, were delivered by a standard cardioversion unit to the catheter electrode, resulting in an intra-His-bundle conduction defect. Subsequent delivery of 300 J resulted in complete heart block. In the next eight patients, an initial shock of 200 J was used. The His bundle was ablated by this single shock in six of these patients and by an additional shock of 300 J in one. In the remaining patient, conduction in the atrioventricular node was modified, resulting in alternating first and second-degree atrioventricular block. A stable escape rhythm was preserved in all patients. The procedure was well tolerated, without complications, and all patients have remained free of arrhythmia, without medication, for follow-up periods of two to six months."

"In April 1980, as part of a formal research project at the French pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf for the development of glucocorticoid receptor antagonists, chemist Georges Teutsch synthesized mifepristone (RU-38486, the 38,486th compound synthesized by Roussel-Uclaf from 1949 to 1980; shortened to RU-486), which was discovered to also be a progesterone receptor antagonist.^[54][55] In October 1981, endocrinologist Étienne-Émile Baulieu, a consultant to Roussel-Uclaf, arranged tests of its use for medical abortion in 11 women in Switzerland by gynecologist Walter Herrmann at the University of Geneva's Cantonal Hospital, with successful results announced on April 19, 1982" (Wikipedia article on Mifepristone, accessed 4-2020).

The authors reported a detailed and complete analysis of the original slides of the brain done by Afons Jakob, and provided a partial translation into English, with a detailed analysis of Jakob's clinical description, of the four cases he reported in his paper of 1921, and his fifth case reported in 1923. They concluded, "In summary our review of the original sections used by Jakob establishes several important points which help in the clarification of the nosology of CJD. First, at least two of Jakob's five cases had spogiform encephalopathy which fall within the present day diagnostic criteria. These cases represent the earliest proven examples of subacute spongiform encephalopathy, and justify the retention of Jakob's name in the eponymous designation of the disease." They also stated that "...Creutzfeldt's case remains undiagnosed by modern criteria, but fit best within the acquired toxic-metabolic encephalopathies." Their findings confirmed that Jakob, and not Creutzfeldt, first described what came to be known, incorrectly, as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. 

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

Discovery of ribozymes (ribonucleic acid enzymes). Cech shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery that RNA itself could cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. "In the 1970s, Cech had been studying the splicing of RNA in the unicellular organism Tetrahymena thermophila when he discovered that an unprocessed RNA molecule could splice itself. In 1982, Cech became the first to show that RNA molecules are not restricted to being passive carriers of genetic information – they can have catalytic functions and can participate in cellular reactions. RNA-processing reactions and protein synthesis on ribosomes in particular are catalysed by RNA. RNA enzymes are known as ribozymes and have provided a new tool for gene technology. They also have the potential to provide new therapeutic agents – for example, they have the ability to destroy and cleave invading, viral RNAs" (Wikipedia article on Thomas Cech, accessed 7-22).

Chilton was the first (1977) to demonstrate the presence of a fragment of Agrobacterium Ti plasmid DNA in the nuclear DNA of crown gall tissue. Her research on Agrobacterium also showed that the genes responsible for causing disease could be removed from the bacterium without adversely affecting its ability to insert its own DNA into plant cells and modify the plant's genome. Chilton described what she had done as disarming the bacterial plasmid responsible for the DNA transfer. Using Agrobacterium carrying the disarmed Ti plasmid, in 1983 Chilton and her collaborators produced the first genetically modified plants.

Translated into English by William Sayers as A history of disability. New foreward by David T. Mitchel and Sharon L. Snyder.  Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2019.

"The first book to attempt to provide a framework for analyzing disability through the ages, Henri-Jacques Stiker's now classic A History of Disability traces the history of western cultural responses to disability, from ancient times to the present. The sweep of the volume is broad; from a rereading and reinterpretation of the Oedipus myth to legislation regarding disability, Stiker proposes an analytical history that demonstrates how societies reveal themselves through their attitudes towards disability in unexpected ways.  Through this history, Stiker examines a fundamental issue in contemporary Western discourse on disability: the cultural assumption that equality/sameness/similarity is always desired by those in society. He highlights the consequences of such a mindset, illustrating the intolerance of diversity and individualism that arises from placing such importance on equality.  Working against this thinking, Stiker argues that difference is not only acceptable, but that it is desirable, and necessary" (publisher).
 

The most complete historical treatment of the pre-1900 literature.

Well-documented history of current plastic operations using both recent surgical photographs and illustrations from classics in the historical literature. Includes brief biographies of the most important pioneers.

Well-chosen readings from original published sources, with informative commentary.

Reissued in 2002 with a new introduction as The greatest killer: Smallpox in history.

The first complete book on the medical aspects of the Sherlock Holmes stories as well as the non-fiction writings of Conan Doyle.

English translation entitled, Diseases in the ancient Greek world, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1989.

Books and printed documents 1557-1821 from Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, and manuscripts from the Americas 1575-1927. 540 items, usually with detailed notes.

A collective work edited by Pearn and O’Carrigan.

Haller's library, which comprises 15,000 volumes and 145 manuscripts, was purchased in 1778 by order of Emperor Joseph II, son of Maria Theresa of Austria, and donated to the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense in Milan.

Isolation of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). For this work Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. With J. C. Chermann, F. Rey, M.T. Nugeyre, S. Chamaret, J. Gruest, C. Dauguet, C. Axler-Blin ], F. Vezinet-Brun, C. Rouzioux, W. Rozenbaum. Bibcode:1983Sci...220..868B. doi:10.1126/science.6189183. PMID 6189183.i

Sertraline hydrochloride, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class, developed by the authors of this paper at Pfizer, and marketed under the tradename Zoloft. With R. G. Browne.

Translated into English by Stanley Hochman as Great voyages of discovery: Circumnavigators and scientists, 1764-1843. (New York: Facts on File, 1983).

First edition of the original Greek text, a medieval Latin translation based on Auxerre 240, a German translation, and a detailed commentary by Pithis of the De pulsibus by the obscure Byzantine physician Philaretos, from whose work physicians of the later Western Middle Ages and the Renaissance derived their theory of the pulses. This text, in the Galenic tradition "largely mediated through the pseudo-Galenic tract "On pulses, for Antonius" was included in the Articella from the 11th century onward. Philaretos lived sometime between the early 9th and late 11th century.

Discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer. Marshall and Warren shared the 2005 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. See also their follow-up paper published in 1984: "Unidentified curved bacilli in the stomach of patients with gastritis and peptic ulceration", Lancet, 323 (8390) 1311-15, 1984.

Digital facsimile from history.army.mil at this link.

According to popular accounts, zombies are innocent victims, raised in a comatose trance from their graves by malevolent Voodoo priests (bokors), and forced to toil indefinitely as slaves. Davis traced the material basis for zombification to a poison that lowers metabolism and simulates death to such an extent that the victim is buried alive, and later resuscitated with an antidote administrated in the graveyard by the bokor. Though the recipes for the poison vary in different parts of Haiti, the key ingredient Wade discovered to be tetrodotoxin, a powerful neurotoxin derived from fish of the order of tetraodontiformes, usually from one of two genera of the puffer fish. Digital facsimile from JSTOR at this link.

Medical History Supplement No. 3. Digital facsimile from discovery.ucl.ac.uk at this link.

"In this work, Cronon demonstrated the impact on the land of the widely disparate conceptions of ownership held by Native Americans and English colonists. English law objectified land, making it an object of which the purchaser had ownership of every aspect. Native American law conceived only the possibility of usufruct rights, the right, that is, to own the nuts or fish or wood that land or bodies of water produced, or the right to hunt, fish or live on the land, there was no possibility of owning the land itself. The second innovative aspect of Cronon's work was to reconceptualize Native Americans as actors capable of changing the ecosystems with which they interacted. Native Americans could, in Cronon's recounting, alter the nature of the forests or exterminate species. Nevertheless, because their technological capabilities were limited and, therefore, native populations were small, their impact on the land was limited. For these reasons, "the shift from Indian to European dominance entailed important changes" (Wikipedia_

Hardy's "studies on beryllium began in 1945 when she started working for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Medicine. She studied factories that produced fluorescent bulbs in Lynn, Salem, and Ipswich, Massachusetts. She discovered that many of the workers contracted berylliosis. Berylliosis is caused by the inhalation of dust or fumes containing beryllium. The disease presents itself with coughing, weight loss, shortness of breath, and scarring of the lungs. While beryllium was a main area of study for Dr. Hardy, throughout her career, she also studied anthrax, mercury poisoning, women's growth, and physical fitness" (Wikipedia).

"Owing to a paucity of relevant sources, we know rather little about Hittite medical practice, but it is clear that native therapies relied as much on magic as upon what moderns would recognize as medicine. Practitioners from Babylonia and Egypt, whose expertise was acknowledged to be superior to that of local physicians, were welcome at the Hittite court" (G. Beckman, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah30208, accessed 06-2018).

Greek text with facing French translation and commentary of On diseases II from the Hippocratic Collection, possibly from the second half of the fifth century BCE.

Includes references to the libraries of many physicians.   Digital text available from historyofscience.com at this link.

This single page document was published as a Letter to the Editor of The Lancet. Order of authorship of the letter: Anderson, Jones, Fisher-Hoch.... Identification of human parvovirus as the cause of "Fifth disease".  [The Lancet also designates the volume number as 321.]

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

Order of authorship in the original publication: Riley, Remis, Helgerson. First description in print of a particularly virulent E.coli (0157-H7) infection, for which no antibiotics were effective; the only treatment being aggressive hydration.

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

Illouz improved on the Fischers’ technique with the invention of a cannula with a blunt tip. This new type of cannula reduced blood loss and nerve damage, as well as reducing the risk of complications or death from liposuction procedures. Illouz published extensively on liposuction in French, beginning in 1977. This was his first major publication on the subject in English. 

Riggan supervised this long-term project of calculating and publishing cancer mortality rates and trends for every county in the United States over several decades. The last 30 of the 40 years of the underlying data base includes every death record in the country, not just those which indicate a cancer as a cause of death. This data remains valuable for researching the relationships between exposure to environmental factors and causes of death. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

"This textbook shows how first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are used to model the growth of a population, the administration of drugs, and the mechanism by which living cells divide. The authors present linear ODEs with constant coefficients, extend the theory to systems of equations, model biological phenomena, and offer solutions to first-order autonomous systems of nonlinear differential equations using the Poincaré phase plane. They also analyse the heartbeat, nerve impulse transmission, chemical reactions, and predator-prey problems. After covering partial differential equations and evolutionary equations, the book discusses diffusion processes, the theory of bifurcation, and chaotic behaviour. It concludes with problems of tumour growth and the spread of infectious diseases" (publisher). Second edition, with M. J. Plank, 2010.

First published report on the first successful "permanent" artificial heart operation, in which DeVries implanted the Jarvik-7 artifical heart in Barney Clark, a patient affected with end-stage congestive heart failure. The surgery took place on December 2, 1982; Clark lived for 112 days after the surgery. The Ciba Symposia issue was extensively illustrated by Frank Netter,

Abstract

"Ivermectin is the 22,23-dihydro derivative of avermectin B1, a macrocyclic lactone produced by an actinomycete, Streptomyces avermitilis. It is active at extremely low dosage against a wide variety of nematode and arthropod parasites, apparently by virtue of its action on the mediation of neurotransmission by gamma-aminobutyric acid. It is now in commercial use in various countries for the treatment and control of parasites in cattle, horses, and sheep, and is expected to become available for use in swine and dogs. Since studies with the drug in man are in a preliminary stage, it is not yet known whether ivermectin will be useful in human medicine."

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

The first chapter of this authoritative study is a very detailed historical introduction by William C. Campbell, with a comprehensive bibliography. Campbell also authored Chapter 10: Chemotherapy and Chapter 13: Epidemiology I: Modes of transmission. Chapter 14: Epidemiology II: Geographic distribution and prevalance by Charles W. Kim breaks down coverage to most countries and regions of the world.

Zur Hausen and colleageus identified HPV 16 DNA in cervical cancer tumors by Southern blot hybridization.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

"Dr. Thomas W. Evans, a Philadelphia dentist of pioneering skill and great charm, moved in the highest circles of France's Second Empire. His expertise gave American dentistry a special distinction, while his discretion made him the confidant of Europe's reigning families. When they wished to communicate discreetly, they simply made an appointment with their dentist! Dr. Evans was a guest in the court society presided over by the spirited and beautiful Empress Eugénie, and he took part in the sparkling life of the boulevards and bohemia. Dr. Evans's inside knowledge of plans for the revitalization of Paris- largely the Paris we see today- allowed him to become a multi­millionaire through well-chosen investments in real estate. Among the French bohemians, Méry Laurent, an exquisite and witty artist's model, introduced him to painters and writers of genius—Manet and Whistler, the symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, the Irish writer George Moore, and many others. When the Second Empire fell and an angry mob stormed the Tuileries palace, it was Evans who saved the Empress from prison, and perhaps the guillotine, in a dangerous and romantic escape to England. Always a staunch American, Dr. Evans visited President Lincoln, Secretary of State William Seward, and General Grant during the Civil War and helped convince Napoleon III to remain neutral during the conflict. Later Evans labored to bring the medical lessons of that war to the attention of European governments" (publisher).

Brinster and Palmiter created the first "transgenic" animals, transferring non-native genes into mice through genetic engineering techniques. The cover of the issue of Science magazine in which this paper was published includes a picture of a normal mouse and a human growth-hormone enhanced mouse. With G. Norstedt, R. E. Gelinas, R. E. Hammer.

Schell and Montagu discovered the gene transfer mechanism between Agrobacterium and plants, which resulted in the development of methods to alter Agrobacterium into an efficient delivery system for gene engineering in plants.

Abstract of the paper: "Foreign genes introduced into plant cells with Ti-plasmid vectors are not expressed. We have constructed an expression vector derived from the promoter sequence of nopaline synthase, and have inserted the coding sequences of the octopine synthase gene and a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene into this vector. These chimaeric genes are functionally expressed in plant cells after their transfer via a Ti-plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens."

Lefkowitz (Nobel Prize 2012) and colleagues showed that there are two different types of beta receptors, distinguishing them as Beta-1 and Beta-2. They noticed that each has specific pharmacological characteristics.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Stiles, Strasser, Caron, Lefkowitz. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

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

The authors illustrated and proved that “heating V770-NPI-R containing anthrax strains, to exactly 42.5 degrees centigrade, as Pasteur and colleagues reported in GM 14211, essentially ‘cured’ these strains of their plasmid and caused a loss of detectable lethal toxin.” Near the end of their paper they stated, “In assessing Pasteur’s experimental regimen, and by utilizing modern techniques, we are able to offer a reasonable explanation for a century old molecular event which has had such a significant impact in the field of medical microbiology and it is
very likely that his attenuation of the anthrax bacillus occurred as a result of curing the strain of plasmid
component which encoded for toxin structural and regulatory proteins.”

Order of authorship in the original publication: Mikesell, Ivins, Ristroph.... Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

See also: Mikesell, Ivins, Ristroph et all, "Plasmids, Pasteur, and anthrax," ASM News (1984) 320-322.

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

Galen's system of medicine based on the minutiae of pulse variations persisted into the 18th century.

Includes a comprehensive listing of manufacturers and the models each produced.

Published for the bicentenary of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. 

A collective work, edited by Pecker, superbly illustrated. Includes Paul Dumaître, "La Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Médecine de Paris,"

A collective work, edited by della Peruta.

Vol. 2 co-edited with Jacques Bernier. This work is complemented by C.G. Roland and P. Potter, An annotated bibliography of Canadian medical periodicals, 1826-1975, Toronto, Hannah Institute, 1979.

Fourth edition, revised and enlarged, 2009.

Gallo, Popovic, and colleagues demonstrated that a retrovirus they had isolated, called HTLV-III, was the cause of AIDS.  M. G. Sarngadharan, and E. Read. Bibcode:1984Sci...224..497P. doi:10.1126/science.6200935. PMID 6200935. This is the first of 4 related papers that Gallo's team published in Science in May 1984. In 1986 Gallo received his second Lasker Award, “For determining that the retrovirus now known as HIV-1 is the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)."

Anthology of selections from the writings of some of the more famous English physician travellers.

An historical and analytical review of the literature up to 1984, with detailed bibliographies, by several outstanding authorities, edited by Smith and Spencer. Includes, pp. 411-483, Milford H. Wolpott, Wu Xin Zhi, and Alan G. Thomas, "Modern Homo sapiens Origins: A General Theory of Hominid Evolution Involving the Fossil Evidence from East Asia." This proposed the multiregional hypothesis of the origin of modern humans, a view in opposition to the prevailing recent African origin of modern humans hypothesis, or "Out of Africa" theory (OOA).