Facets

1799 CE

#10511

A description of the American yellow fever, which prevailed at Charleston, in South Carolina, in the year 1748.

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

1916 CE

#10522

"The path of the destroyer": A history of leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands, and thirty years research into the means by which it has been spread.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1677 CE

#5406

A brief rule to guide the common-people of New-England how to order themselves and theirs in the small pocks, or measels.

The first medical publication of North America and the only one to appear in the 17th century. Only one copy of the original printing of this broadside survived, written by Thacher, a Boston minister. The sheet was re…

1976 CE

#10781

A cluster of arthritis in children and adults in Lyme, Connecticut.

The first publication on Lyme Disease. Abstract from the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Scientific Session of the American Rheumatism Association. Order of authorship in the original paper was Steere, Malawista, Snydm…

1793 CE

#5452

A description of the malignant, infectious fever prevailing at present in Philadelphia; with an account of the means to prevent infection, and the remedies and method of treatment, which have been found most successful.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1794 CE

#5453.1

A narrative of the proceedings of the black people during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793: and a refutation of some censures thrown upon them in some late publications.

A refutation of slights by Matthew Carey in his Short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia (1793; No. 5451) to the important contributions of black people, many of whom served as nurses and…

2012 CE

#10915

A new phlebovirus associated with severe febrile illness in Missouri.

Order of authorship in the original paper: McMullan, Folk, Kelly. Discovery of a new Phlebovirus, which the authors name the "Heartland virus" and with high probability that Amblyoma is the tick vector. Digital facsim…

1900 CE

#5456

A note on the interval between infecting and secondary cases of yellow fever from the records of yellow fever at Orwood and Taylor, Mississippi, in 1898.

Carter's determination of the incubation period yellow fever influenced the direction of Reed’s researches, and was instrumental in the discovery of the mode of transmission of the yellow fever virus.

1800 CE–1802 CE

#5424

A prospect of exterminating the small-pox, being the history of the variolae vaccinae, or kine-pox, commonly called the cow-pox; as it has appeared in England: With an account of a series of inoculations performed for the kine-pox in Massachusetts. [Part II:] A prospect of exterminating the small pox part II, being a continuation of a narrative of facts concerning the progress of the new inoculation in America; together with practical observations on the local appearance, symptoms, and mode of treating the variola vaccina, or kine pock; including some letters to the author, from distinguished characters, on the subject of this benign remedy, now passing with a rapid step through all ranks of society in Europe and America.

Waterhouse introduced Jennerian vaccination into the U.S.A. He vaccinated his own child as his first case. See J. B. Blake, Benjamin Waterhouse and the introduction of vaccination. A reappraisal. Philadelphia, 1957. D…

1793 CE

#5451

A short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia: With a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject in different parts of the United States.

Carey was a Philadelphia publisher and economist rather than a physician. In this little book, which passed through four editions in a few months, Carey left a graphic description of the great yellow fever epidemic of…

1819 CE

#10456

A statement of the occurrences during a malignant yellow fever in the city of New-York, in the summer and autumnal months of 1819; and of the check given to its progress, by the measures adopted by the Board of Health. With a list of cases and names of sick persons, and a map of their places of residence within the infected and proscribed limits: With a view of ascertaining, by comparative arguments, whether the distemper was engendered by domestic causes, or communicated by human contagion from foreign ports.

Pascalis mapped this yellow fever outbreak using a method similar to Valentine Seaman, but with a more extensive and detailed list of cases. A condensation of his 60-page pamphlet with a reissue of his map appeared in…

1850 CE–1854 CE

#1777

A systematic treatise, historical, etiological, and practical, on the principal diseases of the interior valley of North America as they appear in the Causcasian, African, Indian, and Esquimaux varieties of Its population. 2 vols.

This classical contribution to the social / medical history of North America includes the most important work on the natural history of malaria published up to that time. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from the Internet …

2015 CE

#12714

Acute flaccid myelitis of unknown etiology in California, 2012-2015

The authors presented a retrospective study based on demographics, race, ethnicity, signs, lab results, MRI results of 59 patients identified between June 2012 and July 2015 who presented symptoms that they characteri…

2014 CE

#12713

Acute neurologic illness of unknown etiology in children - Colorado, August-September 2014.

The authors reported a cluster of 9 children seen at Colorado Children's Hospital with an acute neurologic illness characterized by extremity weakness, cranial nerve dysfunction, diplopia (double vision), facial droop…

1789 CE

#5470

An account of the bilious remitting fever. In his Medical inquiries and observations, 1, 104-21

One of the first important accounts of dengue (“breakbone fever”). Rush described the Philadelphia outbreak of 1780.

1794 CE

#5453

An account of the bilious remitting yellow fever, as it appeared in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1793.

Benjamin Rush was the most eminent figure in Philadelphia medicine in his day. His description of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 is classic. He did magnificent work in treating the sick during the epidemic and in p…

1722 CE

#5414

An account of the method and success of inoculating the small pox in Boston in New England.

Mather republished reports of earlier writers on inoculation. He persuaded Boylston to adopt the practice in June 1721, and he supported Boylston during a period of great opposition to inoculation.

1839 CE

#13896

An account of the yellow fever which appeared in the city of Galveston, Republic of Texas, in the autumn of 1839, with cases and dissections,

In 1839 Smith treated the victims of a yellow fever epidemic in Galveston while writing reports about the treatment of the disease in the Galveston News. As a result of this experience, he wrote the first treatise on …

1822 CE

#9523

An account of the yellow fever which occurred in the city of New York, in the year 1822, to which is prefixed a brief sketch of the different pestilential diseases, with which this city was afflicted, in the years 1798, 1799, 1803 & 1805, with the opinion of several of our most eminent physicians, respecting the origin of the disease, its prevention and cure.To which is added a correct list of all the deaths by yellow fever during the late season.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1743 CE

#5416

An essay on inoculation, occasioned by the small-pox being brought into South Carolina in the year 1738.

After its initial popularity, inoculation fell into disuse in England. Kirkpatrick, who became a prominent inoculator in England after experience in America, helped considerably in reviving its popularity. He attempte…

1726 CE

#5415

An historical account of the small-pox inoculated in New-England, upon all sorts of persons, whites, blacks, and of all ages and constitutions: With some account of the nature of the infection in the natural and inoculated way, and their different effects on human bodies; with some short directions to the unexperienced in this method of practice .

Boylston was the first in America to inoculate for smallpox, at Boston on 26 June 1721. "During a smallpox outbreak in 1721 in Boston, he inoculated about 248 people[5] by applying pus from a smallpox sore to a small …

1810 CE

#4675

An inaugural dissertation on the disease termed petechial, or spotted fever. Submitted to the Examining Committee of the Medical Society of Connecticut, for the county of Hartford.

This graduation dissertation was the first published brochure on cerebrospinal meningitis. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1797 CE

#7687

An inquiry into the cause of the prevalence of the yellow fever in New-York.

Includes four early plot maps; Seaman was one of the first to create maps that attempted to show the spread of contagious disease.

2019 CE

#12715

Association of enterovirus D68 with Acute flaccid myelitis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 2009-2018.

The authors correlated increases of Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) with EV-D68 outbreaks. They noted that EV-D68 infected mice exhibited paralyzed limbs, and they reported that EV-D68 had undergone genome evolutiion tha…

1970 CE

#10887

Babesiosis in a Massachusetts resident.

Order of authorship in the original paper was Western, Benson, Gleason. First report of babesiosis in a non-immuncompromised patient, confirming the potential wide spread of this tick-transmitted illness. (Thanks to J…

1981 CE

#8091

Bad blood: The Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

"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 treatmen…

2015 CE

#7504

Cherokee medicine, colonial germs: An indigenous nation’s fight against smallpox, 1518–1824.

2013 CE

#12141

Cholera in Detroit: A history.

1926 CE

#5396

Clinical observations on endemic typhus (Brill’s disease) in Southern United States.

Maxcy described murine (flea-borne) typhus (“Maxcy’s disease”).

1950 CE

#5546.1

Colorado tick fever. Isolation of the virus from Dermacentor andersoni in nature and a laboratory study of the transmission of the virus in the tick.

Isolation of the virus of Colorado tick fever. With M. S. Miller and E. R. Mugrage.

1751 CE

#1832

Descriptions, virtues, and uses of sundry plants of these northern parts of America, and particularly of the newly discovered Indian cure for the venereal disease.

Bartram founded one of the first botanical gardens in America (at Kingsessing). Linnaeus referred to him as the “greatest natural botanist in the world”. A few copies of this 7-page work printed by Benjami…

1858 CE

#12152

Diphtheritis: A concise historical and critical essay on the late epidemic pseudo-membranous sore throat of California (1856-7), with a few remarks illustrating the diagnosis, pathology, and treatment of the disease.

For publishing this 46-page pamphlet Fourgeaud has been called "California's first medical historian." Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1972 CE

#9189

Disease and society in provincial Massachusetts: Collected accounts, 1736-1939.

Includes Caulfield's "A history of the terrible epidemic, vulgarly called the throat distemper, as it occurred in His Majesty's New England colonies between 1735 and 1740," Yale J Biol Med. 11 (1939) 219–272. av…

1998 CE

#10900

Ehrlichia chaffeensis in Missouri ticks.

Order of authorship in the original paper: Roland, Everett, Cyr. Using PCR, the authors demonstrated that the tick Amblyoma americanum (the Lone Star Tick) was the insect vector of Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Digital facsi…

1999 CE

#10903

Ehrlichia ewingii, a newly recognized agent of human Ehrlichiosis.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Buller, Arens, Hmiel. The authors confirmed that the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), is Ehrlichia ewingii, a pathogen carried by dogs and known in that …

2011 CE

#10904

Emergence of a new pathogenic Ehrlichia species, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 2009.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Pritt, Sloan, Johnson. Discovery of a new species of Ehrlichia, initially denoted as "Wisconsin and Minnesota, 2009," that was not related to E. chaffeensiis or E. ewin…

1933 CE

#4656

Encephalitis: studies on experimental transmission.

Isolation of the St. Louis encephalitis virus. With C. Armstrong and H. A. McCordock.

1909 CE

#10406

Eradicating plague in San Francisco. Report of the Citizen's Health Committee and an account of its work. With brief descriptions of the measures taken, copies of ordinances in aid of sanitation, articles by sanitarians on the nature of plague and the best means of getting rid of it, facsimiles of circulars issued by the committee and a list of subscribers to the health fund. March 31, 1909. Prepared by Frank Morton Todd, historian for the Committee.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1934 CE

#4688

Experimental lymphocytic choriomeningitis of monkeys and mice produced by a virus encountered in studies of the 1933 St. Louis encephalitis epidemic.

Isolation of the virus of benign lymphocytic choriomeningits.

2017 CE

#10945

Genomic epidemiology reveals multiple introductions of Zika virus into the United States.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Grubaugh, Ladner, Kraemer. The authors found that the Zika virus was introduced into Florida at least 4 times, but perhaps as many as 40 times, before it was detected, …

1667 CE

#6823

Gods terrible voice in the city of London wherein you have the narration of the two late dreadful judgements of plague and fire, inflicted by the Lord upon that city; the former in the year 1665. The latter in the year 1666

This edition of a plague tract by English puritan minister Thomas Vincent was the first medical or biological publication in North America. It was issued by printer Samuel Green, using a press in Cambridge, Massachuse…

1979 CE

#10888

Human babesiosis on Nantucket Island, USA: Description of the vector, Ixodes dammini, N. Sp. (Acarina: Ixodidae)

Order of authorship in the original paper was Spielman, Clifford, Piesman. The authors identified and described the insect vector of Babesiosis. This was a new species; the same species causes Lyme disease. (Thanks to…

1994 CE

#10901

Human granulocytic Ehrlichiosis in the Upper Midwest United States. A new species emerging?

Order of authorship in the original paper: Bakken, Dumler, Chen. First description of the Ehrlichia ewingii species of Ehrlichiosis (HGE) from a patient in Duluth, Minnesota, though the infectious agent was not yet na…

2016 CE

#10922

Identification of a novel pathogenic Borrelia species causing Lyme borreliosis with unusually high spirochaetemia: A descriptive study.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Pritt, Mead, Johnson. Discovery of Lyme Borreliosis or Borrelia mayonii, a new variant of B. burgdorferi. (Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

1995 CE

#10889

Infection with a Babesia-like organism in Northern California.

Order of authorship in the original paper was Persing, Herwaldt, Glaser. First report of a Basisa duncani infection in humans (4 patients). The authors designated the infection as Babesia (WA1) strain transmitted by I…

1722 CE

#5412

Inoculation of the smallpox as practised in Boston.

1893 CE

#5529

Investigations into the nature, causation and prevention of Texas or Southern cattle fever.

U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry, Bulletin No. 1. Discovery of the parasite of Texas cattle fever, Pyrosoma bigeminum, and proof that its transmission is due to the cattle tick, Boöphilus bovis. This was the first …

1999 CE

#10954

Isolation of West Nile virus from mosquitoes, crows, and a Cooper's hawk in Connecticut.

First definite identification of the West Nile virus in the Western hemisphere. This paper was immediately followed in the same issue of Science by Lanciott, R.S., Roehrig, J.T., Deubet, V. et al, "Origin of the West …

1981 CE

#6995

Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia among homosexual men--New York City and California.

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 ho…

1886 CE

#10521

Leprosy in Hawaii. Extracts from reports of presidents of the board of health, government physicians and others, and from official records, in regard to leprosy before and after the passage of the “Act to prevent the spread of leprosy”, approved Jan. 3, 1865. The laws and regulations in regard to leprosy in the Hawaiian Kingdom.