1780–1789

1733 CE

#4438

An account of a new method of treating diseases of the joints of the knee and elbow.

This was originally a letter to Pott. Park became famous for his operation of excision and arthrodesis as a treatment for destructive joint disease. The title page is misprinted “MDCCXXXIII”; the letter is…

1780 CE

#5421

Account of a woman who had the smallpox during pregnancy, and who seemed to have communicated the same disease to the foetus.

1780 CE

#6705

Biographical memoirs of medicine in Great Britain from the revival of literature to the time of Harvey.

The first collection of British medical biographies.

1780 CE

#11874

Della morte apparente degli annegati.

The first Italian work on resusciation. Testa’s work is also one of the earliest on the subject published after the foundation in 1767 of Amsterdam’s pioneering Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelingen, t…

1780 CE

#5162

Description et traitement du charbon dans les animaux.

First important clinical description of anthrax. For some time after the appearance of Chabert’s short book, the condition was known as “Chabert’s disease”. Chabert was Directeur & Inspecteur g…

1780 CE

#981

Dissertazioni di fisica animale e vegetable. 2 vols.

In the first patrt of this work, Della digestione dissertazione prima Spallanzani confirmed earlier doctrines of the solvent property of the gastric juice and discovered the action of the saliva in digestion. He state…

1780 CE

#8589

Experiments establishing a criterion between mucaginous and purulent matter. An an account of the retrograde motions of the absorbent vessels of animal bodies in some diseases.

Includes the first description of the value of digitalis in the treatment of patients with heart failure, with discussion of several successful cases. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Darwin and Withe…

1780 CE

#1987.4

Gymnastique médicinale et chirurgicale, ou essai sur l’utilité du mouvement, ou des différens exercices du corps, et du repos dans la cure des maladies.

The first book on therapeutic exercise as the term is understood today. English translation with facsimiles in reduced format of 18th century translations into German, Italian and Swedish, New Haven, [1964].

1780 CE

#5469

Korte aantekening wegens eene algemeene ziekte, doorgaans genaamd knokkel-koorts.

Bylon described an epidemic of dengue which appeared in the Dutch East Indies in 1779, the first definite description of the disease. O. H. P. Pepper published a photographic reproduction of the article in Ann. med. H…

1780 CE

#2205

Observations on fevers, especially those of the continued type, and on the scarlet fever attended with ulcerated sore-throat, as it appeared at Newcastle upon Tyne in the year 1778: Together with a comparative view of that epidemic with the scarlet fever as described by authors, and the angina maligna.

Digital facsimile from the Intenet Archive at this link.

1780 CE

#9466

Observations on the diseases which appeared in the army on St. Lucia....To which are prefixed remarks calculated to assist in ascertaining the causes, and in explaining the treatment of those diseases.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. Revised and expanded edition, 1781; digital facsimile of the 1781 edition from Google Books at this link.

1780 CE

#9547

Osteografia e miografia della testa, mani, e piedi del corpo umano in misura naturale con il catalogo de' nomi propri.

Very distinctive engravings with the captions included within the engraved surfaces. Printed and sold by the artist.

1780 CE

#5488

Tableau historique et raisonné des épidémies catharrales vulgairement dites la grippe; depuis 1510 jusques et y compris celle de 1780.

1780 CE

#11798

Testacea musei Caesarei Vindobonensis, que jussu Mariae Theresiae Ausgustae.

Born was commissioned in 1776, by Maria-Therese, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, to inventory and arrange the imperal collection that formed the foundation of the imperial museum, now the Naturhistorische Museum in …

1780 CE–1784 CE

#1386

Adnotationum academicarum. Fasciculus tertius. III. De functionibus systematis nervosi. 3 pts.

Prochaska introduced the idea of a “sensorium commune” in the central nervous system, a consistent and comprehensive theory of reflex action. English translation, London, Sydenham Society, 1851.

1781 CE

#13421

A catalogue of the entire and valuable library of John Fothergill...Containing a fine collection of books in physick, natural history and classics; aslo some good prints, and an elegant collection of drawings in natural history, by some of the most approved masters.

Digital facsimile from wellcomelibrary.org at this link.

1781 CE

#11601

A complete collection of the medical and philosophical works of John Fothergill. With an account of his life; and occasional notes, by John Elliot.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1781 CE

#12495

A view of society and manners in Italy, with anecdotes related to some eminent characters. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

1781 CE

#5000

Bibliotheca chirurgica. 2 vols.

Fulton (No. 6785) points out that this work contains the “most complete bibliographical study of the literature of head injury that had been brought together up to that time”. Digital facsimile from Google…

1781 CE

#4305.1

Dissertation sur la meilleure forme des souliers.

Classic discussion of childhood shoe-induced deformities. There was also an edition in Dutch published the same year. Digital facsimile of the edition in French from the Internet Archive at this link. English translat…

1781 CE

#13004

Herbier ou collection des plantes médicinales de la Chine: D'après un manuscrit peint et unique qui se trouve dans la Bibliothèque de l'Empereur de la Chine, pour servir suitte [sic] à la collection des fleurs qui se cultivent dans les Jardins de la Chine et de l'Europe.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1781 CE

#10715

Instrumentarium chirurgicum Viennense oder, Wiennerische chirurgische Instrumenten-Sammlung.

Brambilla was a personal physician to Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II and the first director of the Vienna hospital and the Josefinum school for military surgeons (now a medical museum). Brambilla provided a history of s…

1781 CE

#9586

L’art de soigner les pieds, contenant: Un traité sur les cors, verrues, durillons, oignons, engelures, les accidens de ongles & leur difformité.

Laforest was the first to describe and illustrate the condition of hallux valgus. The second edition of this work (1782), "Augmentée d’un chapitre sur la manière de soigner les pieds des soldats en…

1781 CE

#6255

L’art des accouchemens. 2 vols.

Baudelocque invented a pelvimeter and advanced the knowledge of pelvimetry and of the mechanism of labor. The external conjugate diameter is known as “Baudelocque’s diameter”. English translation, Lo…

1781 CE

#10230

Some account of the termites, which are found in Africa and other hot climates. In a letter from Mr. Henry Smeathman...to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.

Pioneering study of tropical termites, their mounds, and their behavior, well illustrated with engravings. Digital facsimile from the Royal Society at this link.

1781 CE

#13253

Tentamen resolvendi problema ab Academia Scientiarum Imperial Petropoitana ad annum 1780 public propositum. 1) Qualis fit natura et character sonorum litterarum vocalium a, e, i, o, u tam insigniter inter se diversorum. 2) Annon construi qutans instrumenta ordini tuiborum organicorum, sub termino vocis humane noto, similia, quae literarum vaclium a, e, i, o, u sonos exprimant.

In the first part of this work Kratzenstein described how the vowels could be produced in the vocal tract. In the second part he described the construction of a new kind of organ with pipes for each of the vowels. Eac…

1781 CE

#5422

The new method in inoculating for the small pox.

1781 CE

#104

Ueber den Bildungstrieb und das Zeugungsgeschäft.

Blumenbach, Professor of Medicine at Göttingen, was the founder of modern anthropology. In the above work he rejected the “preformation” theory and advanced the theory of epigenesis as the true explan…

1782 CE

#7663

A descriptive catalogue (giving a full explanation) of Rackstrow's Museum : consisting of a large and very valuable collection of most curious anatomical figures, and real preparations; also figures resembling life; with a great variety of natural and artificial curiosities to be seen at No. 197, Fleet-Street ... London.

Digital facsimile of the 1792 printing from the Internet Archive at this link.

1782 CE

#1384

De peculiari structura cerebri, nonnulisque ejus morbis.

Gennari was the first to demonstrate the laminar structure of the cerebral cortex when he discovered the line of Gennari, a macroscopically white band in the cerebral cortex of the occipital lobe. This he observed on …

1782 CE

#11095

Deliciae Cobresianae. J. P. Cobres Büchersammlung zur Naturgeschichte. 2 vols.

Privately printed catalogue of Cobres’ natural history library, comprising descriptions, with collations and notes, of about 2500 books on botany, zoology, geology, etc. The catalogue is divided into subject sec…

1782 CE

#5152

Mémoire sur la morve.

Chabert, the most celebrated veterinarian of his time, left a fine account of glanders.

1782 CE

#7376

Natuurkundige verhandelingen van Petrus Camper over den orang outang; en eenige andere aap-soorten. Over den rhinoceros met den dubbelen horen; en over het rendier.

Having dissected five orang-outang cadavers, Camper showed that the Bornean orang-outang was a previously undescribed species, and showed that the structure of its vocal organs did not permit speech. Digital facsimile…

1782 CE

#7581

Nummorum veterum populorum et urbium, qui in museo Gulielmi Hunter asservantur, descriptio figuris illustrata. Opera et studio Caroli Combe . . .

The only published installment of the catalogue of William Hunter's magnificent collection of coins, a collection regarded as one of the finest in the world. Hunter began collecting coins around 1770, and by the time …

1782 CE

#1835

Observations on the medical uses of the oleum jecoris aselli, or cod liver oil, in the chronic rheumatism, and other painful disorders.

First record of the clinical use of cod liver oil in England.

1782 CE

#8040

Traité des maladies vermineuses dans les animaux.

Includes two plates printed in color by Edouard Dagoty. These were not included in later editions. Digital facsimile of th 1782 edition from the Internet Archive at this link; of the 1787 edition at this link.

1782 CE

#14120

Unterricht für Krankenwärter zum Gebrauch öffentlicher Vorlesungen.

The first German book on nursing--a manual of instructions for male nurses. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. (Thanks for Webb Dordick for this reference.)

1782 CE

#5104.1

Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine, fait par ordre du Roi depuis 1774 jusqu’en 1781. 2 vols.

Vol. 1, pp. 113-16, “No author before the time of Sonnerat gives us so distinct an account of the epidemic prevalence of cholera, so full a description of its varieties or has attributed it so positively to the …

1782 CE–1786 CE

#4920

Observation on the nature, kinds, causes and prevention of insanity, lunacy, or madness. 2 vols.

Best historical account to the time. 2nd ed., 1806.

1783 CE

#8923

A system of vegetables, according to their classes, orders, genera, species with their characters and differences.... Translated from the thirteenth edition (As published by Dr. Murray) of the Systema vegetabilium of the late professor Linneus; and from the Supplementum plantarum of the present professor Linneus

English translation of Linneus's Species plantarum (No. 99.1), edited by Charles Darwin's grandfather. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

1783 CE

#13867

A voyage from England to India, in the year MDCCLIV, and an historical narrative of the operations of the squadron and army in India, under the command of Vice-Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, in the years 1755, 1756, 1757; including a correspondence between the Admiral and the Nabob Serajah Dowlah. Interspersed with some interesting passages relating to the manners, customs, &c. of several nations in Indostan. Also, a journey from Persia to England, by an unusual route. With an appendix, containing an account of the diseases prevalent in Admiral Watson's squadron, a description of most of the trees, shrubs, and plants of India, with their real, or supposed, medicinal virtues. Also a copy of a letter written by a late ingenious physician, on the disorders incidental to Europeans at Gombroon in the Gulf of Persia. Illustrated with a chart, maps, and other copper-plates.

Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

1783 CE

#12164

Aphorisms in the application and use of the forceps and vectis, on preternatural labours, on labours attended with hemorrhage and with convulsions.

Denman "was the first physician whose authority made the practice general in England of inducing premature labour in cases of narrow pelvis and other conditions, in which the mother's life is imperilled by the attempt…

1783 CE

#13423

Bibliotheca Gaubiana, sive catalogus librorum, viri celeberrimi, Hieronymi Davidis Gaubii, dum in vivis esset medicinae doctoris, hujusque & chemiae professoris in academia Lugduno-Batava, serenissimi principis arausionensis & Nassaviae archiatri, variarum academiarum & societatum membri &c. &c. Quorum auctio siet per S. et J. Luchtmans.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1783 CE

#5992

Bibliothecae ophthalmicae specimen primum eruditorum examini subjicit.

The earliest bibliography and history of ophthalmology.

1783 CE

#12037

Lettera dell' Abate Spallanzani al Sig. Marchese Lucchesini.

Records on pp. 80-104 Spallanzani's work on the torpedo. In the 1780's Spallanzani turned to marine biology, making several trips to the Mediterranean region. On his visit to Portovenere in 1783 "he instituted the fir…

1783 CE

#12689

Memoirs of Albert de Haller, M.D. Member of the Sovereign Council of Berne; President of the University, and of the Royal Society of Gottingen; Fellow of the Royal Society of London, &c. Compiled, chiefly, from the elogium spoken before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and from the tributes paid to his memory by other foreign societies

This is illustrated with a small cameo portrati of Haller drawn and engraved by William Blake. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1783 CE

#1385

Observations on the structure and functions of the nervous system.

Monro discovered the communication between the lateral ventricles of the human brain with each other and with the third ventricle, the “foramen of Monro”. Alexander secundus was the greatest of the three M…

1783 CE

#1774

Observations on the weather and diseases of London. In his Works, 1, 145-240

1783 CE

#3676.2

Practical observations on the human teeth.

Woofendale was the first professional dentist to travel to the American colonies (1766) and to set up practice there. During his two years of practice in America he may have made the first set of artificial teeth cont…

1783 CE

#3360

Vox oculis. A dissertation on the … art of imparting speech to the naturally deaf; with a particular account of the academy of Messrs. Braidwood …

Thomas Braidwood (1715-1806) founded the first British school for the deaf and dumb, in Edinburgh. His method consisted of a combination of lip-reading and signs.