1780–1789

1783 CE–1788 CE

#5579

A system of surgery. 6 vols.

Bell studied under the Monros at Edinburgh. He was surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, for 29 years. He improved the methods of amputation, introducing the “triple incision of Bell”. Above is his be…

1783 CE–1795 CE

#6748

Medicinische Bibliothek. 3 vols.

Includes detailed abstracts of periodical literature.

1784 CE

#5645.91

A method of preventing or diminishing pain in several operations of surgery.

Moore revived the ancient concept of nerve compression, developing a special clamp for its use. John Hunter used Moore’s clamp in a leg amputation in 1784 in which analgesia was successfully obtained.

1784 CE

#2734.4

A treatise on the diseases of children.

Underwood laid the foundation of modern pediatrics. His work was superior to anything that had previously appeared and remained the most important book on the subject for sixty years, passing through many editions. Th…

1784 CE

#13467

A treatise on the glandular disease of Barbadoes: Proving it to be seated in the lymphatic system.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1784 CE

#14051

Abrégé historique des hopitaux, contenant leur origine, les différentes especes d’hopitaux, d’hospitaliers et hospitalieres, et les suppressions et changemens faits dans les hôpitaux, en France, par les édits et réglemens de nos rois .…

A history of hospitals in France from the earliest times, through charitable care for the poor by monks and nuns, to their evolution through legislation of the 16th and 17yh centuries. Includes a list of charitable in…

1784 CE

#6271

An inquiry into the nature and cause of that swelling, in one or both of the lower extremeties, which sometimes happens to lying-in-women.

First clinical description of phlegmasia alba dolens. White ascribed it to destruction of the lymphatics due to pressure of the foetal head.

1784 CE

#6706

Degli archiatri pontifici. 2 vols.

Biographies of papal physicians. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1784 CE

#13363

Des maladies des créoles en Europe avec la maniere de les traiter et des observations sur celles des gens de mer et sur quelques autres plus fréquemment observées dans les climats chauds.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1784 CE

#10484

Dictamen del mismo doctor Don Joseph Masdevall dado de órden del rey sobre Si las fábricas de algodon y lana son perniciosas ó no á la salud pública de las ciudades donde están establecidas. IN: Relacion de las epidemias de calenturas putridas y malignas....

Digital facsimile of Masdevall's work on occupational medicine from helvia.uco.es at this link. Digital facsimile of the complete epidemiological work from Google Books at this link.

1784 CE

#14210

Die Deutsche [sic] Giftpflanzen, zur Verhütung der tragischen Vorfälle in den Haushaltungen, nach ihren botanischen Kennzeichen, nebst den Heilungsmitteln.

On poisonous plants in Germany, for prevention of tragic household accidents, and remedies for the poisons. Illustrated with 16 plates. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1784 CE

#7194

Entwurf einer auserlesenen medicinischpraktischen Bibliothek für angehende Aerzte.

An annotated bibliography of recommended books for the aspiring physician, arranged by subject, and chronologically by date of publication within each subject, with an author index at the end. Digital facsimile of the…

1784 CE

#925

Experiments on air.

Cavendish isolated hydrogen in 1766, and later demonstrated the composition of air.

1784 CE

#4920.1

First lines on the practice of physic. 4th ed. Vol. 3.

Cullen introduced the term “neuroses” (pp. 121-23).

1784 CE

#3359

La véritable manière d’instruire les sourds et muets.

The Abbé de L’Épée met two deaf girls, decided to educate them, and soon had a class of 60 devoted pupils, whom he supported and amongst whom he lived. He based his methods on those of Bonet…

1784 CE

#592

Mémoire sur la chaleur.

These workers invented an ice calorimeter, with it measured the respiratory quotient of a pig, and demonstrated the analogy between respiration and combustion.

1784 CE

#923

Mémoire sur la formation de l’acide, nommé air fixe ou acide crayeux, et que je désignerai désormais sous le nom d’acid du charbon.

1784 CE

#4286

Observationes circa mutationes quas subeunt calculi in vesica.

1784 CE

#1732

On the uncertainty of the signs of murder, in the case of bastard children.

This essay on the signs of murder in illegitimate children is, in Garrison’s view, the most important early contribution to forensic medicine by a British writer.

1784 CE

#4992.2

Rapport des commissaires chargés par le roi, de l’examen du magnétisme animal. Edited by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier.

Responding to Mesmer’s growing notoriety, the Medical Faculty of Paris became alarmed, and urged the King to appoint a blue-ribbon committee of inquiry. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Laurent …

1784 CE

#2137.1

Tentamen medicum de aerostatum usu medicinae applicando…

The first work on aviation medicine, a pamphlet of 18pp. issued as a thesis for the medical degree, published one year after the first balloon ascent by Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier in 1783. Leulier Duché…

1784 CE

#2734.3

Three cases of mal-conformation of the heart.

Three cases of congenital heart disease recorded. Two plates are opposite pp. 417-18 of the journal.

1784 CE–1787 CE

#11618

Arctic zoology. 3 vols.

Pennant had "intended to write a "Zoology of North America" but as he explained in the "Advertisement", since he felt mortified by the loss of British control over America, this was changed to Arctic Zoology.[22] The …

1784 CE–1790 CE

#77

Sämmtliche kleinere Schriften. 3 vols.

Camper, an artist of skill, made his mark as an anthropologist and craniologist. He discovered the processus vaginalis of the peritoneum and the fibrous structure of the eye, and made several other important contribut…

1784 CE–1791 CE

#215.3

Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit. 4 vols.

Herder’s history has long been regarded as a very strong statement of Darwinian evolution before Darwin: many single passages come close to the evolution theory. Among the passages most often regarded as anticip…

1784 CE–1812 CE

#11742

[Vols I and II:] Figures of non-descript shells collected in the different voyages to the South Seas since the year 1764 ... [Vols III and IV:] The universal conchologist, exhibiting the figure of every known shell, accurately drawn and painted after nature: With a new systematic arrangement by the author.... 4 vols.

"The first two volumes, devoted to shells of the South Seas, were originally published as a separate work in 1784. Martyn then extended the work to four volumes with an additional 80 plates. ‘From the introducti…

1785 CE

#1836

An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses.

Before publication of Withering's book digitalis was a widely used folk remedy, occasionally mentioned in the literature. Withering established the correct dosages, and the action of digitalis in edema and on the hear…

1785 CE

#1836.1

Arbustrum Americanum: the American grove, or, an alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs…

Like his cousin, John Bartram (No. 1832), Marshall maintained a private botanical garden. According to W. Darlington the above work is “the first truly indigenous botanical essay published in the Western Hemisph…

1785 CE

#14118

Catalogue raisonné des ouvrages qui ont été publiés sur les eaux minérales en général et sur celles de la France en particulier, avec un notice doutes des eaux minérales de ce royaume, et un tableau des différens degrés de température de celles qui son thermales.

The earliest bibliography of mineral springs. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. (Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

1785 CE

#8943

Entomologia Parisiensis; sive, catalogus insectorum quae in agro Parisiensi reperiuntur; secondum methodum Geoffraeanam in sections, genera & species distributus; Cui addit sun nomina trivalia & sere recentae novae species.

In this work co-written with Geoffroy, Fourcroy presented a major contribution to the systemization of entomology. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1785 CE

#924

Mémoire sur l’affinité du principe oxygine avec les différentes substances auxquelles il est susceptible de s’unir.

1785 CE

#11450

Notes on the State of Virginia; written in the year 1781, somewhat corrected and enlarged in the winter of 1782, for the use of a foreigner of distinction, in answer to certain queries proposed by him.

Jefferson wrote Notes on the State of Virginia in response to a series of questions sent in 1781 to various members of the Continental Congress by François Barbé-Marbois, then secretary to the French leg…

1785 CE

#13086

Observations générales sur les maladies des climats chauds, leurs causes, leur traitement, et les moyens de les prévenir.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1785 CE

#2158

Observations on the diseases incident to seamen.

William Hunter recommended Blane as private physician to Admiral Rodney; Blane sailed with him to the W. Indies and became physician to the British Fleet. He was held in great esteem in the navy and was instrumental i…

1785 CE

#7639

Toxicologia seu doctrina de venenis et antidotis.

Plenck provided the first classification of poisons based on origin: 1. Animal poisons. 2. Vegetable poisons. 3. Mineral poisons. 4. Poisonous vapors, gases, and dust. Plenck also issued this work in German from the s…

1785 CE

#2279

Von den Krankheiten des Bauchfells und dem Schlagfluss.

Text in Latin and German. Includes an accurate description of peritonitis.

1786 CE

#2137.2

A narrative of the two aerial voyages of Dr. Jeffries with Mons. Blanchard; with meteorological observations and remarks.

The first flight by a physician, the first crossing of the English channel by balloon, and the first international flight. Jeffries, an American, made a series of carefully planned scientific observations, emphasizing…

1786 CE

#2377

A treatise on the venereal disease.

In Hunter's day venereal diseases were thought to be due to a single poison. To test this theory Hunter experimented with matter taken from a gonorrhoeal patient who, unknown to Hunter, also had syphilis. Hunter maint…

1786 CE

#13176

Académie Royale des Sciences. Extrait des registres . . . du 22 novembre 1786. Rapport des commissaires charges par l'Académie, de l'examen du project d'un nouvel Hotel-Dieu.

Lavoisier was a member of the committee appointed by the French Academy of Sciences to report on the state of Parisian hospitals and on the plan to construct a new hospital on the Isle des Cygnes. The committee's repo…

1786 CE

#4016

Aetiologie der Krätze.

Wichmann definitely established the parasitic aetiology of scabies.

1786 CE

#2925

An account of Mr. Hunter’s method of performing the operation for the popliteal aneurism.

First description of John Hunter’s method of treating popliteal aneurysm. This consisted in a single ligature of the artery at a distance high in the healthy tissues. Recorded by his brother-in law. See also Tra…

1786 CE

#2466

Animalcula infusoria fluviatilia et marina, quae detexit, systematice descripsit et ad vivum delineari.

Müller was the first to attempt a systematic classification of infusoria. He published several papers on the subject, the best being the above posthumous work. Muller described 8 species of the genus Vibrio (incl…

1786 CE

#11711

Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis febribus.

Stoll was one of the few physicians of the Viennese school who supported Auenbrugger's views on percussion. In this treatise on fevers Stoll referred favorably to the practice, and it is thought that Corvisart became …

1786 CE

#11099

Des moyens de conserver la santé des blancs et des négres, aux Antilles ou climats chauds et humides de l'Amerique. Contenant un exposé des causes des malades propres....

Bertin practiced medicine in the West Indies, and wrote about the physical effects of the voyage there, the causes of diseases and their cures, and the effects of the Caribbean climate and humidity on health. The impr…

1786 CE

#5833

Essai sur l’éducation des aveugles, ou exposé des différens moyens, vérifiés par l'expérience, pour les mettre en état de lire, à l'aide du tact, d'imprimer des livres dans lesquels ils puissent prendre des connoissances, de langues, d'histoire, de géographie, de musique, &c., d'exécuter différens travaux relatifs aux métiers, &c.

Haüy founded the first school for the blind. To him belongs the honor of being the first to emboss paper as a means of creating raised type that could be read by the blind. His Essai originated modern methods of …

1786 CE

#10266

Idées sur les secours à donner aux pauvres malades dans une grande ville.

Dupont proposed replacing large city hospitals with smaller institutions similar to those then being tried in England. Du Pont studied medicine before devoting himself to political economy. Digital facsimile from BnF …

1786 CE

#6749

Introductio in historiam medicinae litterarium.

An annotated subject bibliography of the history of medicine, arranged chronologically from antiquity to Blumenbach’s time.

1786 CE

#14119

Manuel pour le service des malades, ou précis des connoissances nécessaires aux personnes chargées du soin des malades, femmes en couche, enfans nouveaux-nés, &c.

The first French book on nursing. Digital facsimile of the 1787 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. (Thanks to Webb Dordick for this reference.)

1786 CE

#309

Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy.

Includes John Hunter’s observations on the secondary sexual characteristics in birds, on the descent of the testis, on the air sac in birds, on the structure of the placenta, etc., together with the original des…

1786 CE

#3716

Observations on the scurvy.