1750–1759

1750 CE

#10122

Anthropotomie, ou L'Art de disséquer les muscles, les ligamens, les nerfs, & les vaisseaux sanguins du corps humain; auquel on a joint une histoire succincte de ces vaisseaux; avec la manière de faire les injections; de préparer, de blanchir les os & de dresser les squelettes. De préparer toutes les différentes parties & de les conserver préparées, soit dans une liqueur propre à cet effet, soit en les faisant sécher; celle d'ouvrir & d'embaumer les cadavres. On y donne aussi la description des matières propres à chacune de ces préparations, & la figure des instrumens. 2 vols.

An exceptionally thorough manual on dissection, dressing skeletons, and creating "anatomical preparations," and embalming. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

1750 CE

#5418

A discourse on the preparation of the body for the small-pox; and the manner of receiving the infection.

Thomson, a physician in Philadelphia, was the originator of the American method of inoculation against smallpox. Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Digital facsimile from dla.library.upenn.edu at this link.

1750 CE

#6950

Adversaria anatomica, de omnibus corporis humani partium, tum descriptionibus, cum picturis, Adversaria anatomica Prima, De omnibus cerebri, nervorum & organorum functionibus animalibus inserventium, descriptionibus & iconismis.

The first pictorial history of neuroanatomy, which contains some of the very first color engravings of the brain. The three colored copperplates were by “a certain Robert", a pupil of Le Blon, the inventor of th…

1750 CE

#2201

An essay on fevers.

Huxham’s best work. He was well known in the west of England and wrote important monographs on diphtheria and on Devonshire colic. Huxham seemed to appreciate that a difference existed between typhus and typhoid…

1750 CE

#1692

New observations, natural, moral, civil, political, and medical, on city, town, and country bills of mortality.

Original and suggestive work on vital statistics, showing vividly the changing conditions of life as he saw it (Greenwood).

1750 CE

#5374

Observations on the nature and cure of hospital and jayl-fevers.

Pringle was a strong advocate of better ventilation in prisons and hospitals as a means of preventing typhus, which he showed to be identical with “hospital fever”.

1750 CE–1753 CE

#10156

Éléments d'hippiatrique, ou nouveau principes sur la connoissance et sur la médecine des chevaux. 3 vols.

Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

1751 CE

#1381

An essay on the vital and other involuntary motions of animals.

Whytt, famous Edinburgh neurophysiologist, was the first to prove that the response of the pupils to light is a reflex action (“Whytt’s reflex”). He described this reflex at length and mentioned that…

1751 CE

#6268

An essay towards a complete new system of midwifery, theoretical and practical.

Burton was the first to suggest that puerperal fever is contagious, and the first to give a detailed discussion of Caesarean section. Laurence Steme satirized him as “Dr. Slop” in The life and opinions of …

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…

1751 CE

#6830

Methodus studii medici emaculata & accessionibus locupletata ab Alberto ab Haller. 2 vols.

A greatly expanded version of Boerhaave's Methodus discendi medicinam (1726), resulting in a text perhaps triple or quadruple its original length. While Boerhaave frequently cited classic authors in his lectures, Hall…

1751 CE

#1674

Observations on the epidemical diseases in Minorca. From the year 1744 to 1749.

Cleghorn left a good account of several diseases and conditions not previously observed, among them epidemic jaundice. He included accounts of many post-mortems. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1751 CE

#7677

Observations on the inhabitants, climate, soil, rivers, productions, animals, and other matter worthy of notice. Made by Mr. John Bartram, in his travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, in Canada. To which is annex'd, a curious account of the cataracts at Niagara, by Mr. Peter Kalm....

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1751 CE

#11972

Philosophia botanica in qua explicantur fundamenta botanica cum definitionibus partium, exemplis terminorum, observationibus rariorum, adjectis figuris aeneis.

This work was "the first textbook of descriptive systematic botany and botanical Latin".[1] It also contains Linnaeus's first published description of his binomial nomenclature. "Philosophia Botanica represents a matu…

1751 CE

#7490

Traité des maladies des os. 2 vols.

Contains a description of the eponymous "Duverney fracture" and the first full description of osteoporosis. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1751 CE–1752 CE

#12873

Journal du voyage fait par ordre du Roi, a l'équateur, servant d'introduction historique a la mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien. Supplément au Journal historique du voyage a l'Équateur: et au livre de la Mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien, servant de réponse à quelques objections. 2 vols.

La Condamine's journal of his ten year long voyage to South America, the scientific results of which included proof that the earth is a spheroid flattened at the poles. Other scientific observations including botanica…

1752 CE

#6154

A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery.

Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. In his Treatise he described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of…

1752 CE

#3424.1

De tumore scirrhoso trium cum quadrante librarum glandulae parotidis extirpato.

First description of parotid tumor.

1752 CE

#6357.51

Der Arzney Doctor, Helvetisch-Vernünftige Wehe-Mutter, oder Gründlicher Unterricht, wie mit den Schwangern, Gebährenden, Kindbetterinnen und neugebohrnen Kindern umzugehen, selbige gebührend zu verpflegen, und in allerhand ihnen zustossenden Kranckheiten zu begegnen seye: Samt einer ausführlichen Beschreibung von Fortpflanzung des menschlichen Geschlechts, und aller weiblichen Leibes-Theilen, auch der Empfängniß, Formir- und Bildung der Frucht im Mutterleibe. Nebst des Verfassers curiösen Anmerckungen, selbst-bewährten Handgriffen, Curen und dazu dienlichen Arzney-Mitteln. Dem löblichen Frauenzimmer, geschwohrnen Weibern, und andern ehrbaren Frauen zu Nutz, mit besonderm Fleisse in fünf Abschnitte eingetheilt. Mit vielen Kupfern und dreyen Registern.

Fatio was probably the first surgeon to study and treat surgical conditions of children in a systematic fashion. His book, first published over 60 years after his death, is divided into five parts: 1) the anatomy of w…

1752 CE

#11504

Lettres sur la certitude des signes de la mort où l'on rassure les citoyens de la crainte d'être enterrés vivans ; avec des observations et des expériences sur les noyés.

In this work in the pathophysiology of drowning, resuscitation and the legal diagnosis of death Louis sought to reassure the public that the risk of being buried alive was very low. He rejected a proposal for late bur…

1752 CE

#2150

Observations on the diseases of the army, in camp and garrison.

Pringle, founder of modern military medicine, was Physician-General of the British Army from 1744 to 1752. His books lay down the principles of military sanitation and the ventilation of barracks, gaols, hospital ship…

1752 CE

#11719

Sendschreiben von den Wirkungen des Kafeetranks.

Discussing the consumption and reception of coffee from Britain to Turkey, Knoll dismissed criticisms of coffee, including that it reduced beauty and virility, or that it was contrary to Islam, instead promoting the m…

1752 CE

#6018

Tabulae anatomicae quatuor uteri duplicis.

Atlas of bipartite and double uterus.

1752 CE–1770 CE

#1675

Observationes de aëre et morbis epidemicis. 3 vols.

Huxham made daily records of the weather and prevailing diseases; his aim was to establish a relationship between atmospheric conditions and disease. The work was first published in 1728; vol. 1 and 2 of the edition g…

1753 CE

#3713

A treatise of the scurvy.

Lind, founder of naval hygiene in England, wrote a classic treatise on scurvy, in which he described many important experiments he made on the disease. These experiments have been called “the first deliberately …

1753 CE

#1483

De ligamentis ciliaribus.

1753 CE

#587

De partibus corporis humani sensibilibus et irritabilibus.

Glisson in 1677 had introduced the concept of “irritability” as a specific property of all tissues. Haller, in the above work, recorded his experimental proof of this, and distinguished between nerve impul…

1753 CE

#7800

Dictionaire anatomique suivi d'une bibliothèque anatomique et physiologique.

An anatomical dictionary with most of the entries cross referenced to related structures, followed by a very extensive bibliography of anatomical and physiological works. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1753 CE

#6153

L’art des accouchemens.

Besides introducing a curved forceps (see No. 6152) Levret invented several other obstetric instruments and made fundamental observations on pelvic anomalies. His book covered the whole field of obstetrics and remaine…

1753 CE

#99.1

Species plantarum. Exhibentes plantas rite cognitas ad genera relatas. Cum diferentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas. 2 vols.

In this work Linnaeus introduced his full binomial naming system for plants (binomial nomenclature). Describing about 8,000 plant species from all over the world, the book demonstrated the value of a binomial system o…

1753 CE

#5829

Sur une nouvelle méthode de guérir la cataracte par l’extraction du cristalin.

Daviel originated the modern method of treating cataract by extraction of the lens. By the time he made this official scientific report to the Academy of Surgery, Daviel had already tested his method on 206 cases, wit…

1753 CE–1761 CE

#9923

En Resa til Norra America. 2 vols.

Between 1748 and 1749, Kalm, a Swedish naturalist and student of Linnaeus, traveled throughout northeast America, specifically in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Canada, surveying the countryside, an…

1754 CE

#6154.1

A sett [sic] of anatomical tables, with explanations, and an abridgment, of the practice of midwifery…

The celebrated atlas for No. 6154, which is a complete work in itself. The 39 superb engravings include 26 after drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgo…

1754 CE

#4014

An account of an extraordinary disease of the skin and its cure. Extracted from the Italian of Carlo Crusio, with a letter of the Abbé Nollet to Mr. William Watson by Robert Watson.

The early history of scleroderma is confused with that of leprosy, ichthyosis, and keloid. Crusio appears to be the first to differentiate it. Gintrac in 1847 coined the term “scleroderma”. It is now inclu…

1754 CE

#7492

Anatomie generale des visceres, et de la nevrologie, angeologie et osteologie du corps humain, en figures, de couleurs et grandeurs naturelles dediée et présentée.

Includes 18 full-page color-printed mezzotints, 12 of the plates designed to fit together in threes to make four life-size human figures. Gautier credited Mertrud, the King's Surgeon with some of the anatomical work i…

1754 CE

#7127

Bibliotheca Meadiana, sive catalogus librorum Richardi Mead, M.D. qui prostabunt venales sub hasta, apud Samuelem Baker ... Londini, die lunae, 18vo. Novembris, M.DCC.LIV., iterumque die lunae, 7mo. Aprilis, M.DCC.LV.

Mead's library consisted of upwards of 10,000 printed volumes, and many rare and valuable manuscripts. The collection was especially rich in medical works, and in early editions of the classics; it realized over &poun…

1754 CE

#13065

Briefe welch einige Erfahrungen der electrischen Wirkungen in Krankheiten enthalten.

1754 CE

#919

Dissertatio medica inauguralis de humore acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba.

Isolation of carbon dioxide. English translation, Minneapolis, 1973.

1754 CE

#12175

Graecorum chirurgici libri Sorani unus de fracturarum signis. Oribasii duo de fractis et de luxatis e collectione Nicetae ab antiquissimo et optimo codice Florentino descripti conversi atque edited ab Antonio Cocchio.

A scholarly edition of the Nicetas Codex containing various texts on fractures and luxations. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1754 CE

#12979

Museum ichthyologicum sistens piscium indigenorum et quorundam exoticorum, qui in museo Laurentii Theodori Gronovii adservantur: Descriptiones ordine systematico; accedunt nonnullorum exoticorum piscium icones aeri incisae.

Gronovius described over 200 species of fish. He is also credited with developing a technique for preservation of fish skins. Today, a number of his fish skins are preserved in the Natural History Museum, London. Digi…

1754 CE

#12848

Nouveaux élémens d’odontologie, contenant l’anatomie de la bouche ou la description de toutes les parties qui la composent et de leur usage; et la pratique abrégée du dentiste.

Lecluse treated in a succinct but correct manner the anatomy of the mouth; invented some and perfected other instruments, the most important of which is the elevator that still bears his name, and . . . he frequently …

1754 CE

#13783

Poissons, écrevisses et crabes, de diverse couleurs et figures extraordinaires, que l'on trouve autour des Isles Moluques, et sur les côtes des Terres Australes....

"This extraordinary work purports to show marine life from the seas around Indonesia at a time when the natural wildlife of that area was virtually unknown in Europe. Renard, both a publisher and a spy for the British…

1754 CE

#13099

Recherches sur l’usage des feuilles dans les plantes, et sur quelques autres sujets relatifs à l’histoire de la végétation.

In his study of plant physiology Bonnet contributed significant research on phototropism. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Craig W. Whippo, Roger P. Hangarter, Phototropism: Bending t…

1754 CE

#7429

Some account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, from its first rise, to the beginning of the fifth month, called May 1754.

Franklin was a prime mover in establishing the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first permanent hospital built in the future United States. This publication included the text of most of the founding documents of the hospita…

1754 CE

#7678

The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects, and plants, particulary the forest trees, shrubs, and other plants, not hitherto described, or very incorrectly figured by authors. Together with their descriptions in English and French. To which are added, observations on the air, soil, and waters with remarks upon agriculture, grain, pulse, roots, &c. To the whole is prefixed a new and correct map of the countries treated of / by the late Mark Catesby; revised by Mr. [George] Edwards. 2 vols.

Second edition, edited by ornithologist George Edwards. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1754 CE

#4968

Traité des sensations. 2 vols.

Condillac considered that we perceive only what our senses supply in the form of sensations: the “real being” of things is beyond us. English translation, London, 1930.

1754 CE–1759 CE

#1809.1

Opera botanica per duo saecula desiderata vitam auctoris et operis historiam cordi librum quintum cum adnotationibus Gesneri in totum opus ut et Wolphii fragmentum historiae plantarum Gesnerianae adiunctis indicibus iconum tam olim editarum... ex bibliotheca C.J. Trew. Nunc primum in lucem edidit et praefatus est Casimirus Christophorus Schmiedel. 2 vols.

Stricken with the plague at the age of 49, Gesner was unable to complete his Historia plantarum (See No. 1807.) His collection of botanical watercolors changed hands several times until they were acquired by the physi…

1754 CE–1764 CE

#9558

Hans Maj:ts Adolf Frideriks vår allernådigste konungs naturalie samling innehållande sällsynte och främmande djur, som bevaras på kongl. lust-slottet Ulriksdahl beskrefne och afrit. Museum Adolfi Friderici ... in quo animalia rariora imprimis, et exotica: Quadrupedia, aves, amphibia, pisces, insecta, vermis. Vol. 2: Museum S:ae R:ae M:tis Adolphi Friderici Regis Svecorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque &c. &c. &c. in quo Animalia rariora imprimis & exotica: Aves, Amphibia, Piscis describuntur. Tomi secundi Prodromus.

Linnaeus's study of the royal natural history collections was important because to a considerable extent they formed the basis for his knowledge of animals. The collections contain many type specimens for animals desc…

1755 CE

#12706

An essay towards the natural history of the corallines, and other marine productions of the like kind, commonly found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. To which is added the description of a large marine polype taken near the North Pole, by the whale-fishers, in the summer 1753.

The first work to state the animal nature of corals, which had previously been regarded as marine plants. It has been asserted that although unsigned, some of the plates are after drawings by Ehret. Digital facsimile …

1755 CE

#10510

An historical account of the several plagues that have appeared in the world since the year 1346. With an enquiry Into the present prevailing opinion, that the plague is a contagious distemper, capable of being transported in merchandize, from one country to another. In which the absurdity of such notions is exposed, and the arguments that have been made use of to support them, refuted. To which are added a particular account of the yellow fever, shewing its periodical appearance to be similar to the plague. Also observations on Dr Mackenzie's letters; read before the Royal Society on this subject. And an abstract of Capt. Isaac Clemens's voyage in the Sloop Fawey, from their arrival in the Mould of Algiers, to the sinking of her, on a supposition that the plague was on board her. Taken from his log-book

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.