1760–1769

1765 CE

#4841

Observations on the nature, causes, and cure of those disorders which have been commonly called nervous hypochondriac, or hysteric, to which are prefixed some remarks on the sympathy of the nerves.

“First important English work on neurology after Willis” (Garrison).

1765 CE

#1251

Pars quinti nervorum encephali disquisitio anatomica.

The “Gasserian ganglion”, already described by Santorini and others, was named after Johann Ludwig Gasser (fl. 1757-65), Professor of Anatomy at Vienna, by his pupil Hirsch. Also published in Ludwig, C. F.…

1765 CE

#3424.2

Remarks on the disease commonly called a fistula in ano.

Probably the greatest English classic of colon-rectal surgery. Pott recommended the practice of simple division rather than the newer, more complicated methods proposed by Cheselden and Le Dran, and audaciously pointe…

1765 CE

#1485

Ricerche de motu del iride.

An investigation of how and why the iris contracts. See P.K. Knoefel, Felice Fontana: life and works, Trento, [1984], See also No.2103.

1765 CE

#100

Saggio di osservazioni microscopiche concernenti il sistema della generazione dei Signori de Needham e Buffon. IN: Dissertazione due… pp. [2]-87.

Spallanzani, a believer in preformation theory, found that he could prevent contamination by microorganisms in strongly heated infusions protected from aerial contamination, but he observed that as soon as air was all…

1766 CE

#2527.99

De variolis et morbillis commentarius.

The first medical description of smallpox was written by Rhazes, about the year 910… The above work is the first edition of the Arabic text with a parallel Latin translation by the English pharmacist and schola…

1766 CE

#7808

Descrizione degl'instrumenti, delle macchine, e delle suppellettili raccolte ad uso chirurgico e medico dal P. Don Ippolito Rondinelli...

Catalogue of the private museum of surgical and medical instruments established by Father Ippolito Rondinelli in Ravenna, which Soldo described as “the first museum of medicine and surgery.” Extensively il…

1766 CE

#4302.2

Sur un enfant auquel il manquoit les deux clavicules, le sternum et les cartilages, qui dans l’état naturel l’attachent aux côtes.

First description of cleido-cranial dysostosis.

1766 CE

#308.1

The anatomy of the horse.

The first original work on equine anatomy after Ruini (No. 285). Stubbs, the great painter of animals, prepared his own dissections of horse carcasses, and personally engraved the 24 double folio plates for this work,…

1766 CE

#10570

The Aurelian or natural history of English insects; namely, moths and butterflies.

Harris drew and engraved his own illustrations. The second edition (1778) was considerably expanded, and with four more plates than the first, for a total of 45. Some of the hand-colored copies were hand-colored by th…

1766 CE

#12496

Travels through France and Italy. Containing observations on character, customs, religion, government, police commerce, arts, and antiquities. With a particular description of the town, territory, and climate of Nice: To which is added a register of the weather, kept during a residence of eighteen months in that city. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. "After suffering the loss of his only child, 15-year-old Elizabeth, in April 1763, Smollett left England in June of that year. Together with his wife, he traveled acro…

1766 CE–1767 CE

#7365

Travels through France and Italy. Containing observations on character, customs, religion, government, police, commerce, arts, and antiquities. With a particularly description of the town, territory, and climate of Nice: to which is added a register of the weather, kept during a residence of eighteen months in that city. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1767 CE

#13557

A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England, and several countries abroad, according to the different soils, situations, business of life, use of the non-naturals, &c. faithfully collected from, and attested by, above three hundred vouchers, and many of them for a long course of years, in two different Periods. To which is added a syllabus of the general States of health, air, seasons, and food for the last three hundred years; and also a meteorological discourse.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1767 CE

#12397

An account of the manner of inoculating for the small pox in the East Indies: With some observations on the practice and mode of treating that disease in those parts.

Holwell's account of smallpox variolation in India prior to Jenner has been disputed by historians. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1767 CE

#2096

An essay concerning the cause of the endemial colic of Devonshire.

Baker demonstrated that the cider of Devonshire contained lead, while that made in other parts of England did not. He further showed that it was common practice in Devon to line cider presses with lead, and proved tha…

1767 CE

#6324

An essay on the diseases most fatal to infants.

One of the best pediatric works of the period. Armstrong is noteworthy as the founder of the first children’s dispensary in Europe, the Dispensary for Sick Children, London, in 1769.

1767 CE

#12880

Catalogue systématique et raisonné des curiosités de la nature et de l’art, qui composent le cabinet de M. Davila, avec figures en taille-douce. 3 vols.

Describes 8,096 mineral specimens from a wide range places, including a suite of specimens from Potosí, Bolivia, as well as many items from Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay. The catalog also lists 5,253 shells, 600…

1767 CE

#5196

De gonorrhoea virulenta.

Balfour is said to have been the first to re-affirm the duality of gonorrhoea and syphilis.

1767 CE

#7679

Hortus Europae americanus, or, A collection of 85 curious trees and shrubs: the produce of North America, adapted to the climates and soils of Great-Britain, Ireland, and most parts of Europe, &c together with their blossoms, fruits and seeds, observations on their culture, growth, constitution and virtues, with directions how to collect, pack up and secure them in their passage.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. First published as Hortus Britanno-Americanus (1763).

1767 CE

#6156

Practical directions, shewing a method of preserving the perinaeum in birth, and delivering the placenta without violence.

Harvie, Smellie’s successor, advocated external expression of the placenta instead of traction on the cord, anticipating Credé in this connection by almost a century (see No. 6183). Reprinted in H. Thoms:…

1767 CE

#3249

Recherches sur les différens moyens de traiter les maladies des sinus maxillaires, et sur les avantages qu’il y a, dans certains cas, d’injecter des sinus par le nez.

Jourdain reported a method of washing out the antrum of Highmore through the natural opening.

1767 CE

#2103

Ricerche fisiche sopra il veleno della vipera.

The starting point of modern investigations of serpent venoms and their antidotes. This work also includes Fontana’s description of the ciliary canal in the eye of an ox. This structure does not appear in the hu…

1767 CE

#13081

The law of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries: Containing all the statutes, cases at large, arguments, resolutions, and judgments concerning them. Compiled, by desire of a great personage, for the use of such gentlemen of the faculty as are enemies to quackery, in order to point out the defects in the law, as it now Stands, relative to those professions, and To propose such expedients for remedying them as they shall think necessary, before the next session of parliament, when it is intended to apply for an act for regulating the practice of physick, and suppressing empirical nostrums.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1767 CE

#5420

The present method of inoculating for the small-pox.

Dimsdale is notable as having inoculated Catherine of Russia and her son. For this he received a fee of £10,000 and a life pension. His reputation and the exalted rank of his patient helped in popularizing the m…

1767 CE

#10386

Traité sur les maladies des gens de mer.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1767 CE

#5090

Von der Ruhr unter dem Volke im Jahr 1765.

The first important monograph on bacillary dysentery. Translated into English by C. R. Hopson as A treatise on the dysentery, with a description of the epidemic dysentery that happened in Switzerland in the year 1765 …

1768 CE

#3674

A treatise on the disorders and deformities of the teeth and gums.

Earliest English dental textbook. Berdmore was the first to mention the use of the microscope for the study of the minute structure of teeth.

1768 CE

#2264

An essay on diseases incidental in Europeans in hot climates.

Lind came near to discovering the connection between malaria and mosquitoes. He is best remembered for his work on scurvy (No. 3713), but the above book is one of the more important early works on tropical medicine.

1768 CE

#2154

Chirurgie d’armée.

One of the most important works on military surgery during the 18th century. Ravaton, a skilful army surgeon, was the first to employ a tin boot, suspended on four rings, for the “hanging” position of brok…

1768 CE

#471

De formatione intestinorum praecipue.

One of the acknowledged classics of embryology. Wolff’s description of the formation of the chick’s intestine by the rolling inwards of a leaf-like layer of the blastoderm was important as proving his theo…

1768 CE

#11710

Dell' azione del cuore ne' vasi sanguigni nuove osservasioni.

In this response to Haller's Deux mémoires sur le mouvement du sang (1756) (No. 11607) Spallanzani outlined his own findings on the action of the heart upon the blood vessels. "Haller's microscopic observations…

1768 CE

#2028.51

Historie en Gedenkschriften van de Maatschappy, tot Redding von Drenkelingen, Opgerecht Binnen Amsterdam 1768.

AMSTERDAM SOCIETY

The first of many volumes of reports by the first society to save people drowned in the waterways of Amsterdam, established in 1767. Before 1767 anyone taken from the water was presumed dead and no attempts were made …

1768 CE

#10475

La santé des gens de lettres.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English by James Kirkpatrick as An essay on the disorders of people of fashion, and a treatise on the diseases incident to literary and sedentary person…

1768 CE

#2886

Lettre de M. Rougnon à M. Lorry, touchant les causes de la mort de feu Monsieur Charles, ancien capitaine de cavalerie, arrivé à Besançon le 23 février 1768.

Osler, Allbutt, and several other authorities believe this to be the description of an authentic case of angina, thus preceding Heberden’s classic account. Other eminent authorities consider the patient to have …

1768 CE

#4015.1

Observations on cancers.

First recorded description of multiple neurofibromatosis. Akenside was better known as a poet; he was caricatured as the republican doctor of Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

1768 CE

#4634

Observations on the dropsy in the brain.

The first account of the clinical course of tuberculous meningitis in children. This work is notable for its fullness of detail and its accuracy. Whytt divided the disease into three stages, according to the character…

1768 CE

#5831

Of the night-blindness or nyctalopia.

A classic description of nyctalopia. Report of a single case.

1768 CE

#5438

On the chickenpox.

In a paper read before the (Royal) College of Physicians on 11 August 1767, Heberden first definitely differentiated chickenpox from smallpox.

1768 CE

#534.54

Operum anatomici argumenti minorum tomus tertius, De Monstris.

Reprints and updates Haller’s earlier essays on various malformations. This work marks the beginning of scientific teratology, placing it on a foundation of sound anatomical description.

1768 CE

#4851

Opuscules de chirurgie. Pt. 1.

Records, p. 161, a successful operation for temporo-sphenoidal abscess, 1752. The patient, a monk, had otorrhoea followed by a mastoid abscess, which Morand opened.

1768 CE

#101

Prodromo di un opera da imprimersi sopra le riproduzione animali.

In this preliminary to a larger work on regeneration which was never published, Spallanzani described regenerative capacities of remarkable complexity and repetitiveness in the land snail, salamander and toad and frog…

1768 CE

#4408

Some few general remarks on fractures and dislocations.

The methods outlined by Pott in his classic work on fractures and dislocations were eventually adopted all over the world. He described (pp. 57-64) “Pott’s fracture” in this book, and he stressed the…

1768 CE

#9517

Specimen medicum: Exhibens synopsin reptilium emendatam cum experimentis circa venena et antidota reptilium austriacorum.

"Laurenti is considered the auctor of the class Reptilia (reptiles) through his authorship of Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena (1768) on the poisonous function of r…

1768 CE

#11733

The works of Robert Whytt, M.D. Late physician to his Majesty.... Published by his son.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1769 CE

#1763

A discourse upon the duties of a physician, with some sentiments, on the usefulness and necessity of a public hospital: Delivered before the president and governors of King's College, at the commencement, held on the 16th of May, 1769. As advice to those gentlemen who then received the first medical degrees conferred by that university.

The first American treatise on medical ethics, and the first treatise on medical ethics published in the English language. Samuel Bard was one of the founders of King’s College, New York. Digital facsimile from …

1769 CE

#6380

A medical discourse, or an historical inquiry into the ancient and present state of medicine: The substance of which was delivered at opening the medical school, in the city of New York. Printed by Desire.

The first American publication on medical history. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1769 CE

#3807

An account and method of cure of the bronchocele or Derby neck.

Prosser gave the prescription of a powder containing calcined sponge, to be taken for the cure of goitre. This is probably the first recorded use of an iodine preparation in England.

1769 CE

#13542

Consideraciones politico-medicas sobre la salud de los navegantes, en que se exponen las causas de sus mas frecuentes enfermedades, modo de precaverlas, y curarlas. Con las conducentes instrucciones para el mejor régimen de los cirujanos de navíos, que hacen viage à la América, especialmente para los de la Real Compañia Guipuzcoana de Caracas, à fin de que con mayor acierto se conduzcan, asi en el méthodo curativo de los enfermos, como en el manejo de los botiquines de su cargo.

A treatise specifically concerning the health of sailors of the Real Compañia Guipuzcoana de Caracas (Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas)-- Basque traders who had a monopoly on the Venezuelan trade. Digital fa…

1769 CE

#9148

Domestic medicine or, the family physician: Being an attempt to render the medical art more generally useful, by shewing people what Is in their own power both with respect to the prevention and cure of diseases: Chiefly calculated to recommend a proper attention to regimen and simple medicines.

This pioneering medical self-help book was an instant success, selling 80,000 copies in Buchan's lifetime— a huge number for that time, and was translated into all the major European languages. Digital facsimile…

1769 CE

#5304

Essay on the natural history of Guiana, in South America. Containing a description of many curious productions in the animal and vegetable systems of that country. Together with an account of the religion, manners, and customs of several tribes of its Indian inhabitants. Interspersed with a variety of literary and medical observations. In several letters....

Bancroft was an English physician who lived for many years in South America. He noted the transmission of yaws by flies (p. 385 of his book). Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.