Skip to main content

1840–1849

472 entries with publication dates in this decade.

← Back to decades

1842 CE

#2471

History of a case in which a fluid periodically ejected from the stomach contained vegetable organisms of an undescribed form.

First description of Sarcina ventriculi, discovered by Goodsir.

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.

1842 CE

#13708

Les bains de Brousse, en Bithynie (Turquie d'Asie), avec une vue des bains et un plan des environs de Brousse.

The introduction of Western hydrotherapy to the Ottoman world. Focusing upon the hot springs of Bursa, Bernard promoted the healing effects of warm waters to the general Ottoman population. Digital facsimile from Goog…

1842 CE

#10381

Muséum d'anatomique pathologique de la Faculté de Médecine de Paris, ou Musée Dupuytren. Publié au nom de la Faculté. 2 vols. and atlas.

Plates lithographed after drawings by Émile Beau. Digital facsimile from BnFGallica at this link.

1842 CE

#9083

Natural history of the insects of China, containing upwards of two hundred and twenty figures and descriptions by E. Donovan. A new edition, brought down to the present state of the science, with systematic characters of each species, synonyms, indexes, and other additional matter by J. O. Westwood.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Archive at this link.

1842 CE

#13843

Notes and observations on the Ionian Islands and Malta: With some remarks on Constantinople and Turkey, and on the system of quarantine as at present conducted. 2 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1842 CE

#3116

Notes on anhaemia, principally in its connections with the puerperal state, and with functional disease of the uterus: with cases.

First description of pernicious anemia of pregnancy. Digital facsimile from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.

1842 CE

#2752

Observations on the diseases of the orifice and valves of the aorta.

First clear account of chronic constrictive pericarditis.

1842 CE

#4033

Om den spedalske sygdom. Elephantiasis graecorum.

Boeck, eminent Norwegian dermatologist and syphilologist, was the first to describe Norwegian itch, scabies crustosa (“Boeck’s scabies”).

1842 CE

#202

Om formen af nordboernes cranier.

Retzius introduced the method of classifying races according to the cranial or cephalic index. A German translation of his paper is available in the Arch. Anat. Physiol. wiss. Med., 1845, 84-129.

1842 CE

#217

Om Fortplantning og Udvikling gjennem vexlende Generations-raekker.

Steenstrup is responsible for the theory of the “alternation of generations”. He showed that certain animals produce offspring which never resemble them but which, on the other hand, bring forth progeny wh…

1842 CE

#3445

On acute ulceration of the duodenum, in cases of burn.

“Curling’s ulcer”. Although not first to report duodenal ulcers as a complication of burns, Curling correlated the work of previous writers on the subject and directed attention to it.

1842 CE

#13121

On the different forms of insanity in relation to jurisprudence, designed for the use of persons concerned in legal questions regarding unsoundness of mind.

In this book Prichard presented his arguments for introducing the concept of diminished responsibility and irresistable impulse into the legal precedents. Hunter & McAlpine, 836-42. Digital facsimile from the Wellcome…

1842 CE

#12423

On the parasitic fungi found growing in living animals.

Bennett confirmed and extended the observations and experiments of Gruby concerning the mycodermatous vegetations found in the crusts of the disease called Tinea favosa, or Zorigo lupinosa of Bateman; he announced the…

1842 CE

#1231

On the structure and use of the Malpighian bodies of the kidney with observations on the circulation through that gland.

“Bowman’s capsule”. Bowman provided convincing evidence that the glomerular corpuscle is continuous with the renal tubule and gave the first adequate description of the vascular supply of the nephron…

1842 CE

#4691

Practice of medicine: A treatise on special pathology and therapeutics. 2 vols.

A case of chronic hereditary chorea in adults (“Huntington’s chorea”, see No. 4699) is described on pp. 312-13 of vol. 2. This is in the form of a letter from one of Dunglison's recently graduated st…

1842 CE

#5519

Recherches anatomiques sur une plante cryptogame qui constitue le vrai muguet des enfants.

Independently of Berg, Gruby found Candida albicans in thrush. He demonstrated its fungal nature.

1842 CE

#1397

Recherches physiologiques et cliniques sur le liquide céphalo-rachidien ou cérébro-spinal. 1 vol. and atlas.

“Foramen of Magendie” described.

1842 CE

#1608

Report…from the Poor Law Commissioners on an inquiry into the sanitary conditions of the labouring population of Great Britain.

Chadwick devoted his life to social reform. He was secretary to the Poor Law Commission when he made the above report to Parliament. In it he included a careful analysis of causes of death in 1838 and 1839 and gave a …

1842 CE

#4992.3

Satanic agency and mesmerism reviewed. In a Letter to the Rev. H. Mc. Neile A.M. of Liverpool: In reply to a sermon preached by him in St. Jude's Church, Liverpool, on Sunday, April 10th, 1842.

Braid’s scientific investigations of mesmerism convinced him that its effects did not depend on an outside force, but were natural phenomena arising from the subject’s heightened suggestibility. This 10-pa…

1842 CE

#4034

Sur une espèce de mentagre contagieuse résultant du développement d’un nouveau cryptogame dans la racine des poils de la barbe de l’homme.

First accurate description of Trichophyton mentagrophytes, the fungus responsible for sycosis barbae. English translation of this and Gruby’s other five papers read to l’Académie des Sciences in Zak…

1842 CE

#7001

The anatomy of sleep; or, the art of procuring sound and refreshing slumber at will.

This semi-popular work was one of the first scientific studies of sleep. It was also the first book typeset by a mechanical typesetting machine, rather than hand-set type. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this l…

1842 CE

#11764

The botany of Captain Beechey's voyage; comprising an account of the plants collected by Messrs Lay and Collie, and other officers of the expedition during the voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait, performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey...in the years 1825, 26, 27, and 28

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1842 CE

#10064

The history, diagnosis, and treatment of typhoid and of typhus fever: With an essay on the diagnosis of bilious remittent and of yellow fever.

Bartlett's book contains the first complete description of typhoid fever in English. In 1908 Osler wrote, "The chief interest of the work today lies in the remarkably accurate picture which is given of typhoid fever--…

1842 CE

#8916

The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Being the first part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. Fitzroy, R. N. During the years 1832 to 1836.

With slight modification, Darwin's work remains the accepted explanation for these phenomena. "Even if he had done nothing else, the theory of the coral islands alone would have placed Darwin in the very front of inve…

1842 CE

#11109

Theophili Protospatharii De corporis humani fabrica libri v. Edidit Gulielmus Alexander Greenhill.

Extensively annotated Greek & Latin edition of this Byzantine treatise on anatomy and physiology, edited by William Alexander Greenhill. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1842 CE

#11693

Travels in Europe and the East, embracing observations made during a tour through Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, Lombardy, Tuscany, the Papal States, the Neapolitan Dominions, Malta, the Islands of the Archipelago, Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, Turkey, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Hungary in the years 1834, '35, '36, '37, '38, '39, '40, and '41.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

1842 CE

#5856

Ueber das Schielen und die Heilung desselben durch eine Operation.

The first successful attempt at treating strabismus by myotomy. The operation was later abandoned owing to the frequently disastrous final effects. A preliminary paper appeared in Med. Ztg., 1839, 8, 227.

1842 CE

#4416

Ueber spontane und congenitale Luxationen.

1842 CE

#678

Umwandlung der Benzoësäure in Hippursäure im lebenden Organismus.

Discovery that benzoic acid taken in with food is excreted in the urine as hippuric acid. (But see the footnote to p. 474 of Garrison’s History of medicine, 1929.)

1842 CE–1843 CE

#4323.1

Excision of a portion of the scapula.

First description of operation for partial excision of scapula.

1842 CE–1843 CE

#2959

Gun-shot wound of the face and neck; ligature of the carotid artery.

First successful ligature of the carotid artery (for secondary haemorrhage) Oct. 18, 1807, eight months before Sir Astley Cooper (No. 2929). Published 35 years after the event, this paper may set some kind of record f…

1842 CE–1843 CE

#6033

Invention du spéculum plein et brisé.

Description of the speculum invented by Récamier.

1842 CE–1843 CE

#13402

Le Jardin des plantes. Description complete, historique et pittoresque du Muséum d'histoire naturelle, de la ménagerie, des serres, des galeries de minéralogie et d'anatomie, et de la vallée suisse. Moeurs et instincts des animaux, botanique, anatomie comparée : minéralogie, géologie, zoologie. 2 vols. Title of vol. 2: Le jardin des plantes. Description complète, historique et pittoresque du Muséum d'histoire naturelle (oiseaux, reptiles, poissons, insectes et crustacés), par M. le docteur Emm. Lemaout.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1842 CE–1843 CE

#5745

Operations for fissure of the hard and soft palate (palatoplastie).

Warren devised the first operation for closure of complete clefts of the palate.

1842 CE–1843 CE

#6274

The contagiousness of puerperal fever.

Oliver Wendell Holmes was the first to establish the contagious nature of puerperal fever. His essay on the subject took a strong line against the opinions then prevailing, stirring up violent opposition among the obs…

1842 CE–1844 CE

#3682

Systematisches Handbuch der Zahnheilkunde. Bd. 2: Anatomie des Mundes.

Original description (p. 107) of “Carabelli’s cusp”, tuberculus anomalus, sometimes found on the lingual surface of the upper permanent molars. It was first illustrated on Tab. XI, Fig. 4e, and Tab. …

1842 CE–1846 CE

#2293

Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie. 3 vols.

Rokitansky ranks with Morgagni as among the greatest of all writers on gross pathology. He is said to have performed over 30,000 autopsies himself. His Handbuch was for many years pre-eminent among its contemporaries.…

1842 CE–1852 CE

#6576.1

Historia bibliográfica de la medicina española. 7 vols.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

1842 CE–1853 CE

#607

Handwörterbuch der Physiologie … hrsg. von R. Wagner.

Wagner was professor at Göttingen. His literary output was enormous. In the above work he contributed the sections on sympathetic nerves, nerve-ganglia, and nerve-endings. This work contained 63 extensive review …

1842 CE–1871 CE

#12683

Ibn Khallikan's biographical dictionary. Translated from the Arabic by Bn. Mac Guckin de Slane. 4 vols.

Begun in 1256, this eight-volume biographical dictionary of Islamic scholarship and literature entitled Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān (وفيات الأعيان وأنباء أبناء الزمان) ('Deaths of Eminent Men and the Sons…

1842 CE–1894 CE

#12480

[New York Natural History and Geological Survey.] Natural history of New York. 30 vols.

The New York Natural History and Geological Survey was established by the state legislature in 1836 under the direction of James Ellsworth DeKay. By far the most ambitious scientific project undertaken in the United S…

1843 CE

#10512

A flora of the state of New-York, comprising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hitherto discovered in the state; with remarks on their economical and medicinal properties. 2 vols.

For a long time this was the most comprehensive botany of any U.S. state. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

1843 CE

#3259

A nasal operation for the removal of a large tumour filling up the entire nostril and extending to the pharynx.

Removal of a fibrous growth from the nostril by division of the nasal and maxillary bones, July 8, 1841. Preliminary note in the same journal, 1842, 3, 257.

1843 CE

#2218

A system of clinical medicine.

Graves was one of the founders of the Irish school of medicine and one of the most important figures in Irish medicine at the middle of the 19th century. Second edition of the book (as Clinical lectures on the practic…

1843 CE

#12451

A treatise on food and diet: With observations on the dietetical regimen suited for disordered states of the digestive organs; and an account of the dietaries of some of the principal metropolitan and other establishments for paupers, lunatics, criminals, children, the sick, &c.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1843 CE

#2753

Account of observations… on patients whose urine was albuminous.

An early description of a case of subacute bacterial endocarditis is reported on pp. 227-32 (Case 8).

1843 CE

#4459

Amputation at the ankle-joint.

“Syme’s amputation” at the ankle joint, an operation first successfully performed by him on 8 Sept, 1842.

1843 CE

#3446

An experimental and critical inquiry into the nature and treatment of wounds of the intestines.

Reports of a series of experiments upon dogs to determine the best way to treat intestinal wounds. First published in West. J. Med. Surg., 1843. 7, 1-50, [81]-141, [161]-224.

1843 CE

#1232

Beiträge zur Lehre vom Mechanismus der Harnsecretion.

Ludwig wrote a classic monograph on renal secretion. He theorized that urine formation could be explained purely in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry, and that under the hydrostatic pressure of the blood in t…