Boston

1786 CE

#11534

The first American edition, An abridgement of the practice of midwifery: and a set of anatomical tables.

An abridgement of Smellie's obstetrical writings, with plates engraved by the editor and publisher, John Norman, was the first medical book with engraved illustrations published in North America, and also the first bo…

1815 CE

#13487

Sketches of epidemic diseases in the state of Vermont; from the first settlement to the year 1815, with a consideration of their causes, phenomena, and treatment. To which is added remarks on pulmonary consumption.

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

1829 CE

#11760

Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy

The petition to the Massachusetts legislature to legalize "the procuring of subjects for anatomical dissections" (from George Hayward's printed notice on the verso of the title page). Nine members of the Massachusetts…

1831 CE

#11759

Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives ... legalizing the study of anatomy.

This was the first law passed in the United States consigning the bodies of those who died in workhouses, hospitals, and similar institutions, the bodies of whom were "unclaimed," to medical schools for dissection. "S…

1834 CE

#12900

The conchologist.

The first American manual of conchology. The author, John Warren, was an Englishman who sold shells and other collectibles in Boston as well as to other collectors in the United States. His book organized shells accor…

1835 CE

#12688

Memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M. D. with extracts from his letters to his father: and medical cases, collected by him.

Jackson published this biography of his son, James Jackson, Jr. after his son's premature death in 1834. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1835 CE

#13744

Observations on the influence of religion upon the health and physical welfare of mankind.

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

1839 CE

#12011

Anatomical, pathological and therapeutic researches on the yellow fever of Gibraltar of 1828, by P. Ch. A. Louis. From observations taken by himself and M. Trousseau as memebers of the French Commission at Gibraltar. Translated from the manuscript by G. C. Shattuck.

The Translator's Introduction begins as follows: "The work now presented to the public has heretofore existed in manuscript only. Circumstances have delayed its publication in France, and some years may yet elapse bef…

1842 CE

#11260

Homoeópathy, and its kindred delusions; Two lectures delivered before the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1843 CE

#13612

Memorial. To the Legislature of Massachusetts.

Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill in various U.S. states. This was probably the first of her many publications advoca…

1846 CE

#11724

Physical education and the preservation of health.

An expanded version of a lecture first delivered and published as a pamphlet in 1830. This is the first edition in book form, and one of the first American works on the value of exercise for the preservation of health…

1847 CE

#11913

Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice. [Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, April 12, 1847.]

Hayward's case report of the first major operation performed under ether anesthesia, which he performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital on November 7, 1846, three weeks after Warren's first operation using ether…

1848 CE

#11727

Etherization: With surgical remarks.

Warren performed the first surgical operation under anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846. This work presents his experience with anesthesia in the year following. Digital facsimile from U.S…

1849 CE

#14327

Effects of chloroform and of strong chloric ether, as narcotic agents.

“On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Warren participated in the first public demonstration of anesthesia for surgery. He was the surgeon for the first surgical patient given ether anesthesia,…

1856 CE

#14125

Glances and glimpses; or fifty years social, including twenty years professional life.

The autobiography of the first woman to practice medicine professionally in the United States. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1862 CE

#11311

Health: Its friends and foes.

This work, which promoted vegetarianism and abstinence from tobacco along with other hygiene and overall health advice, was written as the author stated in his preface, "to meet the comprehension of the general reader…

1863 CE

#13754

Hospital transports: A memoir of the embarkation of the sick and wounded from the peninsula of Virginia in the summer of 1862.

During the U.S. Civil War Olmsted, a landscape architect, journalist, social critic and public administrator, was Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commision. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Med…

1872 CE

#13171

The detection of criminal abortion, and a study of foeticidal drugs.

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

1883 CE

#14145

A book of medical discourse in two parts. Part first: Creating of the cause, prevention, and cure of infantile bowel complains, from birth to the close of the teething period, or till after the fifth year. Part second: Containing miscellaneous information concerning the life and growth of beings; the beginning of womanhood; also, the cause, prevention, and cure of many of the most distressing compains of women and youth of both sexes.

Crumpler was the first Black woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive.

1900 CE

#13204

As nature shows them. Moths and butterflies of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. With over 400 photographic illustrations in the text and many transfers of species from life. 2 vols.

Includes 56 nature-printed and handcolored plates produced from impressions of the wings of the actual insects pressed onto the paper. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1902 CE

#12393

Life and correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch by his son, Vincent Y. Bowditch. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

1906 CE

#11559

Case teaching in medicine: A series of graduated exercises in the differential diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of actual cases of disease.

"The first comprehensive description of the 'Cabot case' style of medical teaching that evolved into the classic clinicopathological case (CPC) mode. Cabot had a special interest in heart disease and was a pioneer of …

1909 CE

#12455

An experimental study of sleep. (From the Physiological Laboratory of the Harvard Medical School and from Sidis' Laboratory).

Sidis emphasized his physiological approach in the wording of the title of this book. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1920 CE

#12558

Religion and health.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1944 CE

#10810

A catalogue of the medieval and renaissance manuscripts and incunabula in the Boston Medical Library.

1945 CE

#13801

The effect of smallpox on the destiny of the Amerindian.

1961 CE

#10992

Every man our neighbor: A brief history of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

1975 CE

#10808

The centennial history of the Boston Medical Library 1875-1975.

1976 CE

#12936

The oral manifestations of systemic disease.

1984 CE

#11658

Lipoplasty: The theory and practice of blunt suction lipectomy. Edited by G. P. Hetter.

The first comprehensive review in English of the development of liposuction, theory, and technique, including the techniques of Illouz and Fournier. Includes several chapters by Pierre Fournier, including "A history a…

1985 CE

#11509

William Withering and the Foxglove: A bicentennial selection of letters from the Osler bequest to the Royal Society of Medicine, together with a transcription of 'An Account of the Foxglove' and an introductory essay. Edited by Ronald D. Mann.

Details William Osler's acquisition of the letters and his donation of them to the Royal Society of Medicine.

1989 CE

#12607

Periodontology, from its origins up to 1980: A survey.

1994 CE

#12375

Heart surgery classics. Edited by Larry W. Stephenson and Renato Ruggiero.

Reprints of classics with commentaries by Henry Bahnson, Earl Bakken, Denton Cooley, James Cox, Michael DeBakey, Alden Harken, Dudley Johnson, Adrian Kantrowitz, Willem Kolff, C. Walton Lillehei, and Albert Starr. Sev…

1997 CE

#12360

Rheumatic fever and streptococcal infection: Unraveling the mysteries of a dread disease.

2009 CE

#11258

Oliver Wendell Holmes, physician and man of letters. Edited by Scott. H. Podolsky and Charles S. Bryan.

2017 CE

#13215

The price for their pound of flesh: The value of the enslaved, from womb to grave, in the building of a nation.

"Berry studies the economic history of slavery in the United States, examining how a price was assigned to the bodies of enslaved people in America from before they were born until after they died.[5] Berry proposes f…