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- Collection: Boston Medical Library
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Frozen sections of a child
Thomas Dwight, Instructor in Topographical Anatomy and Histology, made these sections of a three-year-old child for use in his lectures at the Medical School in 1880-1881 and were some of the first frozen sections in use in this country. The plates…
Anatomy : descriptive and surgical
With dissections by Henry Gray, lecturer on anatomy, and H. V. Carter, demonstrator of anatomy at Saint George's Hospital, London, Gray's Anatomy quickly became a standard text for medical students. It first appeared in the U.S. in 1859 and became…
Practical dissections
Richard M. Hodges held the position of Demonstrator of Anatomy under Oliver Wendell Holmes from 1853 to 1861. He published this manual on human dissection for the student in 1858, then revised it thoroughly and reprinted it, as here, in 1867.
This…
A most excellent and learned woorke of chirurgerie, called Chirurgia parua Lanfranci
The 16th century English surgeon, John Hall, translated the medieval Chiurgia parva of Lanfranc and added to it his lament for the poor training of surgeons in his own time. His poetical defense of surgery was intended to show "the behavour that is…
L'anatomie de l’homme, suivant la circulation du sang, et les nouvelles decouvertes...
While Harvard Medical School received the Warren Library as a bequest of Dr. John Warren (1874-1928), the Boston Medical Library received an endowment of $5000 by his will to establish a fund to acquire rare medical books, particularly works of…
Perspectivas bioeticas en las americas
The Jackson fund allows for the acquisition of both historical and contemporary works in Latin American medicine, and the Countway now holds a complete run of this bioethical journal from 1996 until the present.
Contraceptive methods and appliances
This product catalog from a London-based firm of chemists advertises an array of mail-order birth control methods and devices, including sponges, pessaries, condoms, and diaphragms, as well as printed literature on contraception and marriage.
Medical history of contraception
Sociologist Norman Edwin Himes (Ph.D. Harvard, 1932) researched problems of population, birth control, and marriage and family relations. His Medical history of contraception tracks the development of birth control from antiquity to the 1930s; the…
Photographs of the Harvard Unit assembled by Geraldine K. Martin
In the summer of 1915, Geraldine Kemmis Martin (b. 1887) traveled to Paris as an operating nurse with the Harvard Unit of the American Ambulance Hospital and assembled an album of photographs of her colleagues and experiences in World War I. The…
La singolare dottrina
The 16th century treatise, La singolare dottrina of Domenico Romoli of Florence, describes food and herbs, recipes, and diet for the use of the "scalco" or Renaissance house steward in Italy. This copy includes two plates of cooking apparatus which…
Chirurgie francoise
Principally a translation of the De chirurgia of Paul of Aegina, the Chirurgie françoise of Jacques Dalechamps incorporates information from other Classical writers as well as from Ambroise Paré, the foremost contemporary authority on…
Traite ou reflexions tirees de la pratique sur les playes d'armes a feu
Although the Countway's collections have long held copies of the second (1740) and also the 1748 and 1759 editions of Le Dran's famous treatise on gunshot wounds and military surgery, as well as the first English translation from 1743, this fine copy…
Biddenden Maids Broadside
Thought to be one of the earliest cases of surviving conjoined twins, the Chulkhurst sisters, known as the Biddenden maids, reputedly lived until 1134, although there is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy or even reality of their story. As…
The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy
The Soncino family was originally from Speyer, one of the German towns in which printing had an early impact. After a decree of expulsion in 1435, the family moved to the Italian town that lent the family its name. Soncino printed the first Hebrew…
An act more effectually to protect the sepulchres of the dead, and to legalize the study of anatomy in certain cases.
Bound copy of the 1831 "An act more effectually to protect the sepulchres of the dead, and to legalize the study of anatomy in certain cases."
The General State of Medical and Chirurgical Practice, Ancient and Modern, Exhibited
More of an extended advertisement than a history of medicine, James Graham's The General State of Medical and Chirurgical Practice details his quack regimens of "diet, aetherial and medico-electrical baths, and simple medicines" and includes numerous…
Medical Works, Preparing for Publication by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
This trade catalog from an English publishing house and a prospectus for Charles Bell's Surgical Observations are inserted at the flyleaf of the Boston Medical Library's copy of Samuel Young's Minutes of Cases of Cancer and Cancerous Tendency (London…
The Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels of the Human Body
William Cruickshank's study of the lymphatic system was presented to the Boston Medical Library by its first librarian, Dr. John Fleet (1766-1813)
Twenty-first Annual Report of the Boston Medical Library
Edwin H. Brigham (1840-1926), the assistant librarian of the second Boston Medical Library, here announces the initial deposit of the medical books of the Athenaeum. Additions deposits, large and small, were made over the next twenty years, with…
The Medical Repository of Original Essays and Intelligence Relative to Physic, Surgery, Chemistry and Natural History
The early 19th century saw the rise of the medical journal as an outlet to disseminate news of discoveries, book reviews, and matters of interest to physicians. It also heralded the beginning of the proliferation of medical publishing. As part of its…
Records of the Massachusetts Medical Library
The Massachusetts Medical Society formed its own library in 1782. Although the Boston Medical Library surpassed it in size, this record of the library's circulation from the mid-1820s indicates several of the Boston Medical Library…
Miscellaneous Works of the Late Robert Willan
Robert Willan's observations on the history of smallpox as well as his detailed records of the diseases he saw and treated in London from 1796 to 1800 would have been of considerable interest to the physicians of Boston. Here, Willan discusses the…
Lectures in the Practice of Physic
While the trustees of the Boston Medical Library concentrated on acquiring current medical literature, some anomalies crept in. This volume of student notes in a scribe's hand from the lectures of English physician George Fordyce appears to be the…
An Introductory Discourse, to a Course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic
This pamphlet is a presentation copy to the Boston Medical Library from its author, David Hosack, a celebrated New York physician who was in attendance at the duel of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. Four of the five items bound together…
Lectures on the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician
Based on the lectures of Dr. John Gregory at the University of Edinburgh, this manual on the conduct of a physician was published several times, both in England and America. A revised edition was produced by Gregory's son, James, who was also a…
The History of Physick from the Time of Galen to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century
Physician John Freind planned this extensive early work on medical history—the first in the English language—while imprisoned for treason in the Tower of London. The volume appears to have been presented to the first Boston Medical…
Medicina of Jean Fernel
Although the bulk of the Boston Medical Library's holdings were current books and periodicals, the collection did include a handful of older works and classics, and the Trustees advocated the formation of a historical collection. This text by French…
Traite d'Accouchemens de Maladies des Femmes
A fine specimen of the Boston Medical Library's bookplate is affixed to the cover of this set of C. M. Gardien's text on gynecology and pediatrics. The four volumes were never rebound, and the spine bears a label with the number 385—one of the only…
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Athenaeum
Just after it absorbed the Boston Medical Library, the Athenaeum issued a published catalogue of its holdings. In this copy, owned by Dr. John Orne Green in 1835, faint pencil notations can be discerned next to most of the entries for the Boston…
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Medical Library and the Rules and Regulations concerning the Same (1823)
The last printed version of a Boston Medical Library catalogue appeared in 1823 and described nearly 800 titles. The rules and regulations on circulation and fines differ considerably from the previous edition and probably reflect changes consequent…
Catalogue of Boston Medical Library Arranged in Numerical Order
One of the few surviving records of the Boston Medical Library, this manuscript catalogue, unlike the printed versions, divides the collection by size—into folios, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos—with each title receiving a shelf mark…
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Medical Library; and the Rules and Regulations concerning the Same (1816)
In 1819, the Boston Medical Library and the Library of the Massachusetts Medical College were unified and the collection made available to Harvard's medical students. This copy of the 1816 Catalogue belonged to a medical student, probably John Orne…
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Medical Library and the Rules and Regulations concerning the Same (1810)
After the printing of the 1810 edition of the Library's Catalogue, this interleaved copy was used to record subsequent acquisitions. The growth of the collection was so rapid, with over 350 new acquisitions, that another edition of the catalogue was…
Report from the Trustees on the state of the Library
The 1808 Catalogue includes a report from the Trustees on the state of the Library, providing the clearest statement of their intentions for the collection and its usefulness. As a result of the collection's rapid increase and acquisition of current…
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Medical Library (1807)
With nearly 150 titles, this second catalogue of the Library from 1807 attests to its rapid growth and includes a list of over fifty titles on order. The holdings include works on phrenology, botanic medicine, and a number of titles concerning…
An Abstract of the Rules of the Boston Medical Library
These stern regulations for the ordering of the Library were in place soon after its formation. The complete catalogue indicates that of the 29 titles, nearly one-third were current periodicals, attesting to the Trustees' intention to make the…
Proprietor's Share Certificate for John Collins Warren
Only one example of the certificate of a Boston Medical Library Proprietor exists. The term "social library" indicates that members (the "socii") paid for a share allowing access and privileges.
The Massachusetts Register and United States Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1807
This edition of a directory of local institutions, societies, and charitable organizations contains the earliest entry for the Boston Medical Library and a list of its officers and Trustees.
Vaccinae Vindicia
Robert John Thornton published this detailed account of smallpox vaccination cases as an attack on Dr. Benjamin Moseley (1742-1819) and other opponents of Edward Jenner's work. In 1800, Moseley, a member of the Royal College of Physicians, suggested…
A Dissertation on Artificial Teeth
Nicolas Dubois de Chémant began to issue this text—part scientific tract, part advertisement—in France in 1788, advocating dentures which were more durable and produced no offensive odors. His work passed through five subsequent…
Coloquios dos Simples, e Drogas he Cousas Medicinais da India
Once physician to the King of Portugal, Garcia de Orta travelled to India in order to escape the Inquisition, and remained there the rest of his life. He taught in the faculty of medicine at Lisbon in the early 1530's; in 1534, he settled in Goa,…
Ueber Schwarzwasserfieber
The Hyams Collection includes the Hand-apparat, an extensive working pamphlet collection of August von Wassermann (1866-1925), a German bacteriologist who worked with Robert Koch and discovered the Wassermann test for syphilis. The collection focuses…
Opera of Aristotle
Volume one of the first printed edition of Aristotle’s works in Greek.
Cantica de medicina
This lesser-known medical work of Avicenna is bound in a manuscript musical sheet with an unusual skull-and-crossbones illuminated initial.
Description of an Egyptian Mummy
Renowned for his expertise in pathological analysis, Dr. John Collins Warren was approached by the Massachusetts General Hospital to report on the authenticity of an Egyptian mummy which had been donated to the hospital in 1823. The examination
Surgical Notes of John Collins Warren (1778-1856)
This record of the practice of Dr. John Collins Warren documents the treatment of some of his surgical patients and more unusual cases. The casebook records a number of operations for cataract, lithotomies, and cranial injuries, as well as…
Clinical Surgery
Shortly before his death, Dr. J. Mason Warren began to assemble the manuscript case reports and correspondence of his father, intending to publish this material as a record of Dr. John Collins Warren's years of experience in clinical surgery. That…
A Guide-Book of Boston for Physicians
The 1906 annual meeting of the American Medical Association was held in early June and provided an occasion for the first public opening of the Quad buildings. Dr. Walter L. Burrage, of the Sub-Committee on Printing and Programmes, edited this guide…
Tumors among the Chinese
Many of the patients treated at the Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton by Peter Parker in the 1830s were immortalized in large color portraits produced by the artist Lam Qua (1801-1860). This album contains rare watercolor studies for a number of the Lam…
Moxibustion illustration from Amoentitatum exoticarum
Some of the best descriptions and illustrations of acupuncture and moxibustion appear in the work of Englebert Kaempfer who traveled in Japan in the early 1690s.
Acupuncture illustration from Amoentitatum exoticarum
Some of the best descriptions and illustrations of acupuncture and moxibustion appear in the work of Englebert Kaempfer who traveled in Japan in the early 1690s.
Histoire de la chirurgie depuis son origine jusqu'a nos jours
A member of the l'Académie royale de Chirurgie, Franҫois Dujardin reviewed Chinese and Japanese medicine in his survey of the history of surgery. He reproduced several of the plates from Willem ten Rhijne's treatise on acupuncture and, in…
An account of the foxglove
Although the use of extracts from the foxglove in cases of dropsy had been common, William Withering was the first to analyze preparations of the plant scientifically and so isolated digitalis. Withering's An account of the foxglove describes over…
Vegetable materia medica of the United States
William P. C. Barton's Vegetable materia medica of the United States, along with Jacob Bigelow's contemporary American medical botany, are the first two American botanical publications with colored illustrations. Barton's contains hand-colored…
Ben cao yuan shi
The本草原始 [Ben cao yuan shi] ("Origins of the materia medica") describes medicinal plants and herbal substances with their uses and manner of preparation. Like many Chinese medical texts, this early 17th century work was reprinted in Japan during the…
An account of a monster
In 1821, Philadelphia physician John Kearsley Mitchell met and examined Aké, a Chinese youth with a partially-formed parasitic twin protruding from his stomach, and sent back this first-hand report from Canton.
Memoir on acupuncturation
This first American publication on acupuncture was translated from the French by Franklin Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, "believing … that a short treatise on Acupuncturation, from the growing importance of the remedy, and the…
A treatise on acupuncturation
Churchill's Treatise is the first English monograph devoted to the subject of acupuncture; it describes four cases for which the therapy provided relief of pain. In 1828, James Morss Churchill published a companion work, describing the efficacy of…
The history of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire
A later translation into English of the work of Englebert Kaempfer, who traveled in Japan in the early 1690's, as part of an historical survey of Japan
Dissertatio de arthritide
Published by a physician and botanist of the Dutch East India Company in Japan, this text contains the first Western description of acupuncture.
Specimen medicinae Sinicae
These are some of the earliest translations into Latin of Chinese medical texts on the pulse written by Wang Shuhe of the third century. The translations, though here edited by Andreas Cleyer and published anonymously, were made by Michel Boym…
The complete herbalist, or the people their own physicians by the use of nature's remedies
In addition to publishing this popular botanic medical text, O. Phelps Brown made and marketed proprietary medicines, such as the "Magic Assimilant" (boneset, chamomile blossoms, smartweed, vervain, and whiskey) for fits and indigestion. He also…
The American practice of medicine
In reaction to the harsh practices of regular physicians and also the sweating and purging regimens of Thomsonianism, Wooster Beach developed his own botanical medical system which evolved into medical eclecticism, one of the most popular sectarian…
The herball, or generall historie of plantes
Herbals are the original foundation for botanical medicine. The somewhat erratic English botanist John Gerard here provides descriptions of over 1,500 plants, accompanied by detailed engravings, and then outlines the "vertues" or medicinal uses of…
Thomson's patent for Elijah Trescott
Many copies of the New guide to health and the Thomsonian materia medica contain, as does this one, certificates attesting to the holder's right to use Thomsonian preparations as a member of the Friendly Botanic Society. By 1840, Samuel Thomson had…
New guide to health
First published in 1822, Thomson's New guide to health (later known as The Thomsonian materia medica) was the cornerstone of the Thomsonian botanical medical movement and went through thirteen editions by 1841. Many editions were prefaced, as here,…
The American herbal, or materia medica
"Promulgated for the purpose of spreading medical light and information in America," Samuel Stearns' herbal is the first to be printed in the United States and incorporates information from the traditions of American Indians.
The Thomsonian Manual
The Thomsonian botanical movement, like homeopathic medicine, developed its own culture of authorized druggists and agents and published books and a number of short-lived periodicals, including this one from Boston.
Herbolarium de virtutibus herbarum
The Herbolarium describes the medicinal uses of common herbs and plants with woodcut illustrations of each. The work was once attributed to the medieval physician Arnaldus de Villanova (d. 1311) because of this imaginative frontispiece depicting a…
Pestblatt
This broadside sheet was printed during an epidemic of plague in the German city of Augsburg in the early 1470s. The woodcut depicts Saints Sebastian and Roch (accompanied by an angel), comforting those struck down by the plague. Prayers to the two…
Lines of the hand and their associated zodiac symbols
Chiromancy or palmistry is the study of the lines and shapes of the human hand to determine an individual's characteristics and analyze past, present, and future events. Books on the subject were among the most popular incunables produced. This brief…
Ein hubscher Tractat von dem Ursprung des Bösen Franzos
This small pamphlet on syphilis [A Fine Treatise on the Origin of the French Evil] was enormously popular, appearing in four different editions in Latin and German in the last years of the fifteenth century. The pamphlet was printed during the course…
Das Buch der Cirurgia
Brunschwig's Book of Surgery was intended to be a manual of general practice for the independent surgeon and is the first printed German text on this subject. The Cirurgia contains information on the treatment of wounds, dislocations, fractures, and…
Das Buch der Croniken und Geschichten
The first German edition of Hartmann Schedel's famous Nuremberg Chronicle traces the history of the world through six ages, from the Creation to 1493, concluding with the Apocalypse. Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff designed maps, city…
Hortus sanitatis
The Hortus sanitatis [Garden of Health] was a popular compendium of plant and herb lore during the Middle Ages. This is the first Latin edition, and twenty others were printed in Latin before 1547 attesting to its popularity. In addition to botanical…
Fasciculus medicinae
Although notable as one of the first incunables acquired by the Boston Medical Library, this first edition of the Fasciculus medicinae is also a cornerstone in the history of medicine, as it contains the first detailed anatomical illustrations ever…
De revelatione facta ab angelo Beato Methodio in carcere dete[n]to
This book of prophecies attributed to the fourth-century martyr, Methodius, was probably composed by a fifteenth century monk, Wolfgang Aytinger, to arouse animosity between Christians and Muslims. Although not specifically medical, the De…
Almanach ad annum 1494
Almanacs were used to record the most propitious days and times for purging, bloodletting, and pharmaceutical manufacture according to astrological and astronomical events. This specimen for the city of Erfurt in 1494 includes woodcuts depicting…
Engraving of Skeleton
This unusual copper engraving is one of the earliest printed representations of the human skeleton, predating Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabricaby nearly half a century. Only two other specimens are known.
The engraving appears to be only…
Canon medicinae
The Canon medicinae, a compendium of medical knowledge and a guide to clinical teaching, was derived from Galenic and Hippocratic writings and infused by Avicenna with Arabic medical lore. The Canon includes detailed disquisitions on pathology,…
Regimen sanitatis
Probably the most popular medical work of the fifteenth century, the Latin Regimen sanitatis [Rule of Health] was translated into almost every European language following its first appearance in print in 1480. Nearly forty different editions were…
De medicina
One of the first medical books ever printed, the De medicina is a compilation of knowledge of diet, pharmacy, and surgery from the time of Imperial Rome, circa 30 A.D. In the Renaissance, Celsus' elegant style earned him the title of Cicero…
De sermonum proprietate, sive, Opus de universo
This encyclopedia of a ninth-century archbishop is the oldest incunable in the Boston Medical Library collection. The De sermonum proprietate contains chapters on subjects as diverse as the earth, animals, precious stones and metals, heretics,…
Malleus maleficarum
This is a first edition of the Malleus maleficarum [The Witches' Hammer], the foremost legal and theological handbook on witchcraft and demonology. It describes the operations of witches, remedies against spells, and the judicial proceedings of…