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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…
Galileo and Bruegel from Anatomie et Physiologie du Système Nerveux
Anatomie et Physiologie du Système Nerveux is the seminal work in which Gall discusses the location of the original twenty-seven cerebral faculties and the functions of each. The first two volumes, concerning the anatomical structure of the…
Great Central Sanitary Fair at Philadelphia
Recto: "We gave our wealth for those who gave their health for us."
Verso: "In commemoration of the great central fair for the U.S. Sanitary Commission held at Philadelphia, June 1864."
Verso: "In commemoration of the great central fair for the U.S. Sanitary Commission held at Philadelphia, June 1864."
Great fair for the Sanitary Commission held at New York.
Verso: "Blessed is the Giver. Great fair for the Sanitary Commission, New York, May, 1864."
Hahnemann Society membership certificate
The Hahnemann Society was an honorary students' society at Boston University, organized in 1880. Dr. James Krauss (1866-1939) received his medical degree magna cum laude in 1889 and practiced in Boston, specializing in genito-urinary medicine and…
Hand of Sarah Nelmes
This colored plate appears in the first edition of Edward Jenner's An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolæ Vaccinæ and depicts the cowpox pustules on the hand of dairymaid Sarah Nelmes. Cowpox matter from these pustules was used…
Harvard Medical School in 1883
During the 1880s, Holmes was involved with the fund-raising appeals for the Medical School’s Boylston Street building. As part of the centennial celebration and dedication of the new building in 1883, he delivered this oration, tracing the…
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…
Hereditary genius : an inquiry into its laws and consequences
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was…
Heredity : its relation to human development
In 1880, Bostonian Loring Moody, familiar with Galton’s work, issued a circular to form an Institute of Heredity, part school, part library, to promote lectures and interest in addressing social ills through eugenic principles. The circular…
Heredity and human progress
In this radical work, Washington physician, William Duncan McKim, proposed moving beyond sterilization of the “very weak and the very vicious” to liquidation by the state through the use of carbonic acid gas. In his chapter “A…
Heredity in relation to eugenics
Harvard graduate, Charles Benedict Davenport, was one of the leaders of the American eugenics movement. In 1904, he became the director of the Carnegie Institution’s Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor, on Long Island, and…
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…
Homeopathic Educational Services Flyer
This mail order supply house in California markets homeopathic books, tapes and DVDs, software, and home medicine kits. The firm's motto is "Homeopathic medicines: natural drugs that work," and it promotes homeopathy as "a 21st century science since…
Homeopathic physician's catalogue
1880 physician's catalogue and price current of homœopathic medicines and books, surgical instruments, and other articles pertaining to a physician's outfit for sale by Boericke & Tafel
Homœopathy : with particular reference to a lecture by O. W. Holmes, M.D.
Pamphlet printed in reaction to the Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) lecture on homeopathy.
Homœopathy simplified; or, domestic practice made easy
This popular manual of domestic homeopathic practice—dedicated to Samuel Gregg—went through five editions. Its author, John A. Tarbell, also published the Pocket homœopathist and edited the Quarterly homœopathic review and…
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…
Illustration of the parts of the body as a house
Polish physician Tobias ben Moses Cohn knew nine languages and was court physician to five sultans in Adrianople. In 1724, he moved to Jerusalem. The Ma’aseh Tobiyyah [“Works of Tobias”] is an encyclopedia of theology, botany,…
Israel Tisdale Talbot
This unusual album of carte-de-visitephotographs was assembled by Dr. Samuel Gregg, the first homeopathic practitioner in Massachusetts. In addition to photographs of Gregg, the album contains portraits of many of the homeopaths of New England,…
Iusiurandum
At the end of Nicolaus Perottus' De generibus metrorum appears one of the most famous documents in the history of medicine, ethics, and education: the first printing of the Iusiurandum, the Hippocratic Oath. While certainly not composed by…
J. M. Da Costa
Jacob M. Da Costa was a Philadelphia physician who identified a cardiac phenomenon in soldiers which he termed "irritable heart."
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…
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…
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…
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…
Life History Album
Intended to chart the medical history of an individual from birth until the age of 75, the Life history album, edited by Francis Galton, allows for notes on the genealogy, life, development, marriage, children, height and weight observations,…
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…
Lorenzo Niles Fowler
This short guide to phrenology by Lorenzo Niles Fowler and his daughter, defines the various faculties and concludes with an essay describing the procedure for finding certain organs on the surface of the skull. "Let us take, then, for our starting…
Lucius Manlius Sargent
Lucius M. Sargent, an 1857 graduate of Harvard Medical School, was an accomplished draughtsman and was appointed the first artist of the Massachusetts General Hospital. At the beginning of the war, he became a surgeon with the 2nd Massachusetts…
Luther Clark
This unusual album of carte-de-visitephotographs was assembled by Dr. Samuel Gregg, the first homeopathic practitioner in Massachusetts. In addition to photographs of Gregg, the album contains portraits of many of the homeopaths of New England,…
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…
Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society fellowship certificate
Dr. James Krauss (1866-1939) received his medical degree magna cum laude in 1889 and practiced in Boston, specializing in genito-urinary medicine and surgery
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…
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…
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…
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…
Memories of My Life
At the conclusion of this autobiographical account, Galton considers the goal of his work on eugenics and its contrast to Darwinian natural selection: “Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many…
Men of Science
Francis Galton, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, came to believe that, following research into the biographies and genealogies of 400 famous individuals—judges, statesmen, poets, painters, scientists and athletes—genius was…
Milton Fuller
This unusual album of carte-de-visitephotographs was assembled by Dr. Samuel Gregg, the first homeopathic practitioner in Massachusetts. In addition to photographs of Gregg, the album contains portraits of many of the homeopaths of New England,…
Minute book
During the summer of 1842, the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, a scientific organization of which Holmes and many of his friends from his European sojourn were members, began to consider the question of puerperal fever. Following reports of…
Minute Book of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Fraternity
Formed by Samuel Gregg and a handful of other pioneer practitioners, the Massachusetts Homeopathic Fraternity met monthly at the homes of its members to discuss cases and exchange information. It came to have over eighty members and eventually…
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…
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.
My hunt after 'The Captain'
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., abandoned his studies at Harvard College to join the Massachusetts Volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was wounded on October 21, 1861, at the battle of Ball’s Bluff, in Virginia, and attended by a…
Nasology, or, Hints towards a Classification of Noses
This extended joke at the expense of phrenology passed through several editions in the mid-19th century and was published under the pseudonym of Eden Warwick. George Jabet maintains that the nose, besides being an ornament to the face, or a…
Nautilus bookplate
On January 23, 1889, Oliver Wendell Holmes presented his book collection of over 900 volumes to the Boston Medical Library, with holdings ranging over four centuries, from the most current publications back to the beginnings of printing. A copy of…
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,…
Oliver Wendell Holmes, circa 1872
The original of this photograph is preserved in an album of the members of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, compiled in 1872. Holmes was elected to membership in the society in 1836, just after his graduation from Harvard Medical School.
On the Difficulty of Preserving the Vaccine Virus on Thread or Glass
in Very Hot Weather
Some of the problems associated with the early smallpox vaccination work are highlighted in this manuscript of Benjamin Waterhouse. Without an adequate way to preserve the active virus at high temperatures, Waterhouse often found its efficacy…
Opera of Aristotle
Volume one of the first printed edition of Aristotle’s works in Greek.
Organon der rationellen Heilkunde
The Organon is Samuel Hahnemann's statement of the theory behind homeopathy and a fundamental text of the new movement. It went through five different editions during Hahnemann's lifetime and was widely translated; new editions and translations…
Organon of the art of healing
The fifth edition of Hahnemann's Organon was translated into English by Conrad Wesselhoeft of Boston. It is clear from his introduction, however, that while still critical of allopathic practice, Wesselhoeft was not a homeopathic fundamentalist:…
Otis Clapp
This unusual album of carte-de-visitephotographs was assembled by Dr. Samuel Gregg, the first homeopathic practitioner in Massachusetts. In addition to photographs of Gregg, the album contains portraits of many of the homeopaths of New England,…
Outlines of Phrenology
Published while Spurzheim was touring in America, the Outlines of Phrenology was phenomenally popular, passing through four separate editions by 1834. The Outlines gives a brief overview of the theory behind phrenology, discusses the basic…
Over the teacups
The poem "To the eleven ladies who presented me with a loving cup" was reprinted in Over the teacups (1891), Holmes’ late collection of essays and poems following in the vein of The autocrat of the breakfast-table. This copy of the first…
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.
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…
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…
Phrenological Reading of G. H. Clark
Lorenzo Niles Fowler compiled this notebook of phrenological readings of individuals encountered during his travels through upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky in 1834 and 1835. There are a number of examinations of…
Phrenology: the Science of the Mind, the Student's Enchyridion
Designed for students and a testament to the enduring interest in phrenology, this manual attempts to reconcile phrenology with anatomy and "to demonstrate the possibility of the accurate localisation of the phrenological organs in the brain, upon…
Poem at the centennial anniversary dinner
of the Massachusetts Medical Society
Holmes recited this poem at the anniversary celebration of the Society, held on June 8, 1881, and it was subsequently printed in the Boston medical and surgical journal. The poem contrasts the fortunes of priests, lawyers, and physicians but “I…
Poems
In addition to The collegian, some of Oliver Wendell Holmes's (1809-1894) poems then appeared in Illustrations of the Athenæum gallery of paintings (1830) and The harbinger : a may-gift (1833). Holmes’ Poems (1836) represents the first…
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…
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.
Puerperal fever, as a private pestilence
There was a great deal of initial resistance and hostility to Holmes’ ideas, particularly from two noted Philadelphia obstetricians, Charles D. Meigs and Hugh Lenox Hodge. In 1855, a reprint of the article appeared as Puerperal fever, as a…
Receipts to cure various disorders for my worthy friend, Mr. Winthrop
English physician Edward Stafford compiled this book of basic recipes for medical disorders such as madness, vertigo, and the king’s evil for John Winthrop (1588-1649), the governor of Massachusetts.
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…
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…
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…
Report of the Case of John W. Webster
During the trial of John White Webster, Nathan Cooley Keep was called to identify the dental remains which were found in the basement of Harvard Medical School. Here Keep outlines the distinctive peculiarities of the teeth and lower jaw and…
Samuel Gregg
This unusual album of carte-de-visite photographs was assembled by Dr. Samuel Gregg, the first homeopathic practitioner in Massachusetts. In addition to photographs of Gregg, the album contains portraits of many of the homeopaths of New England,…
Sarah H. Furber
In 1848, after millworker Sarah H. Furber died following an abortion, physician John McNab (1783-1878) brought her body to Boston and offered to sell it to Holmes as a subject for dissection at the Medical School. The offer was refused, but Holmes…
Signatures of the new members of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society
Following the reorganization of the Medical Fraternity as the Medical Society, the members used this volume to record changes in the by-laws. New members added their signatures upon admission to the society through 1881.
Sir Francis Galton
Photograph of Sir Francis Galton from his book Memories of my life. Found on the plate facing page 244.
Soldiers' Fair at Springfield, Massachusetts
Recto: "Abraham Lincoln born Feb. 12, 1809."
Verso: "Soldiers' fair, Dec' 1864. Springfield, Mass."
Verso: "Soldiers' fair, Dec' 1864. Springfield, Mass."
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…
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…
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 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 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)
The army hymn
This patriotic musical poem was first printed in the June issue of The Atlantic monthly and also as part of a program for a prize-giving ceremony at the Boston Latin School on May 25, 1861, just a few weeks after Confederate forces began firing on…
The autocrat of the breakfast-table
Beyond the sphere of poetry, the literary reputation of Oliver Wendell Holmes rests largely on the loosely connected series of essays, poems, and aphorisms which forms The autocrat of the breakfast-table. The essays were originally printed in issues…
The collegian, no. I
The first published poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes were printed in the six issues of a monthly Harvard undergraduate student magazine, The collegian, from February through July, 1830. Some of his poems then appeared in Illustrations of the…
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 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…
The guardian angel
First edition of Holmes' novel, The Guardian Angel. After Holmes’ death, his friend and fellow novelist William Dean Howells (1837-1920) said of Holmes' work, “His novels all belonged to an order of romance which was as distinctly his own…
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…
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
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…
The Influence of the Brain on the Form of the Head
This English translation of Franz Joseph Gall’s Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau was one of the Boston Phrenological Society’s first publication projects. In this passage, Gall describes how he isolated the faculties of attachment and…