De bello Peloponnesiaco, or The History of the Peloponnesian War, his contemporary account of events, is one of the earliest works of historical writing. The Italian humanist, Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), was commissioned by Pope Nicholas V to make this translation from Greek. It was the first Latin edition of Thucydides and the only one produced during the fifteenth century.

In 430 B.C., just at the beginning of the war, Athens suffered an outbreak of plague which severely demoralized its citizens and killed the city's leader, Pericles. Thucydides himself was afflicted but survived and left a vivid description of the effects of the plague. ]]> De bello Peloponnesiaco (Treviso, 1483?) by Thucydides, describing the plauge in Athens that killed Pericles]]> Thucydides ]]> "Take it that way; that does not show the old man’s wrinkles, does it?" ]]> The title-page of this copy of An Inquiry bears a presentation inscription by Edward Jenner to the Reverend John Clinch.

]]> An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae]]> 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 to vaccinate the boy James Phipps in 1796.]]> An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolae Vaccinae]]> "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 herbal, or materia medica by Samuel Stearns, showing the beginning of the list of herbs beginning with "A"]]> Ben cao yuan shi, with illustrations of bambo and other plants]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> Boston Sunday Post, March 6, 1915.]]> Boston Sunday Post]]> The Oliver Criminological Collection includes a substantial array of pamphlets, trial accounts, and popular ephemera from the sensational Tichborne Claimant case of the 1870s.

Orton, a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne, who had been presumed lost at sea in 1854. Although Lady Tichborne, some other family members, and associates—over one hundred individuals—accepted him and initially supported his claim, Orton lost an 1871 trial over the Tichborne inheritance. He was then arrested on a charge of perjury, and, after a second trial, was convicted in 1874 and served ten years in prison. He died, impoverished, in 1898.

]]> The Tichborne case in a nutshell : or, is it possible?]]>
Christina J. Hodge and Michele E. Morgan will outline the osteological, archaeological, and archival approaches to studying the collection of anatomized skeletal material found under Harvard’s Holden Chapel to illuminate the social and institutional contexts of early nineteenth-century anatomization. Naomi Slipp will look at anatomy from an artistic perspective, examining the materials produced by Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow and artist Oscar Wallis as an example of the collaboration of 19th-century American art and medicine. And Sabine Hildebrandt, an internationally recognized expert on the ethics and history of anatomy in National Socialist Germany, will discuss the ethics of Eduard Pernkopf’s anatomy studies.

“Teachings of the Dead: The Archaeology of Anatomized Remains from Holden Chapel, Harvard University”
Christina J. Hodge, Academic Curator and Collections Manager of the Stanford University Archaeology Collections, and Museum Associate at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Michele E. Morgan, Museum Curator of Osteology and Paleoanthropology & Senior Osteologist at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

“A Collaborative Endeavor: Oscar Wallis & Henry Jacob Bigelow’s Anatomical Teaching Illustrations”
Naomi Slipp, 2014-15 Barra Foundation Fellow in American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Boston University

“Ethical transgressions in anatomy during the Third Reich: The Pernkopf story”
Sabine Hildebrandt, Assistant Professor in the Department of General Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School]]>
0:38:18 - “A Collaborative Endeavor: Oscar Wallis & Henry Jacob Bigelow’s Anatomical Teaching Illustrations” by Naomi Slipp

1:07:33 - “Ethical transgressions in anatomy during the Third Reich: The Pernkopf story” by Sabine Hildebrandt]]> View a portion of the collection online.

]]> View the online catalog record.

]]> Warren's handbook belonged to Green and contains some of his emendations.]]> Warren's handbook of anatomy : from original dissections by John Warren. , with text by Robert M. Green and drawings by H. F. Aitken]]> Warren's handbook. The text accompanying this illustration states, "The side of the skull has been cut away; the brain has been removed leaving the falx cerebri; the tunica mucosa oris is held up by hooks showing the glandula sublingualis; most of the clavicula is removed. The first rib, the trachea, glandula thyreoidea, and the cervical transverse processes, together with cut ends of the cervical nerves, are shown."]]> Warren's Handbook]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> View the online catalog record.

]]> An online guide to the collection is available.

]]> Picture Postcards: "The Morning Rounds", "Wounded Awaiting their Turn for Dressing", and "Fresh Air Cure on the Verandas."
]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> American Medical Directory of the same year.]]> Directory of homeopathic physicians]]> "the beginning of a medical university, surpassing in equipment and beauty any in the world. It remains for the future to show what this is to mean to the cause of medical education."]]> A Guide-Book fo Boston for Physicians]]> Scientific Exhibit in the New Buildings of the Harvard Medical School]]> ]]> ]]> The Journal of the American Medical Association, this map for attendees of the meeting graphically demonstrates the distance of the new Medical School campus from the center of Boston.]]> An online guide to the collection is available.

]]> The American Roentgen Ray Society was established in 1900 to advance knowledge of practical work with the recently discovered X-ray. It is the first and the oldest society devoted to radiology in the country.

A stenographer present during the scientific sessions of the Society's annual meeting in 1917 produced this accurate transcription of the proceedings and discussions which followed the presentations. Many of the papers and comments concern X-ray work in the field hospitals of World War I.

The acquisition of the historical records of the American Roentgen Ray Society, complement the archives of the New England Roentgen Ray Society, and the books, journals, instrument catalogs, photographs and radiographs, and manuscripts of the Historical Collection in Radiology, further enhancing the Countway's position as one of the leading repositories for the study of this subject.

Many of the papers and comments concern X-ray work in the field hospitals of World War I.

]]> Mishnahin this exhibit was one of the last Hebrew books printed in Naples in 1492. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in that same year led to massive emigration into Italy. A plague among the Jewish refugees in Naples, along with other unfortunate events, caused the eventual dissolution of the Jewish community in that city. It is unclear what became of Joshua Solomon Soncino, but it is known that his brother Gerson had taken refuge in northern Italy, where religious tolerance was more prevalent than in the south. Gerson Soncino eventually settled in Rimini, where he adopted the tower motif and verse from Proverbs as his printer’s mark – the first for a printer of Hebrew in Italy. The Soncino family was responsible for the printing of approximately 135 Hebrew books between 1483 and 1547.

Today its namesake, the New York-based Soncino Press, continues the tradition of publishing Judaica.

]]> The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> Medical Repository, volume 2, number 2, 1798]]> ]]> here to go to full transcript.]]]> Opera]]> Aristotelous : Physikēs akroaseōs, biblia Th., Peri ouranou D, Peri geneseōs kai phthoras B, Meteōrologikōn D, Peri kosmou A, Peri psychēs G, Peri aisthēseōs kai aisthētōn bibl. A, Peri mnēmēs kai anamnēseōs A, Peri ypnou kaiegrēgorseōs A, Peri enypniōn A, Peri tēs kath ypnon mantikēs A, Peri neotētos kai gērōs, kai zōēs kai thanatou A, Peri anapnoēs A, Peri makrobiotētos kai brachybiotētos]]> After World War II, Harvard researcher Edwin Joseph Cohn (1892-1953) devised a small centrifuge in which a donor's blood could be quickly separated into its components and stored more efficiently. The centrifugal force employed divides the heavier red blood cells from the lighter plasma.

Beginning in October 1948, weekly meetings of the Formed Elements Group of Cohn's laboratory staff and associates were held to discuss research and developments in plasma fractionation and blood preservation and storage. These meetings resulted in the establishment of the Blood Characterization and Preservation Laboratory in January, 1951.

While the first bowls for the Cohn centrifuge were made of glass, the examples here show later refinements, the one made of stainless steel, the other a single use, disposable bowl, developed by Allen D. Latham, Jr.

]]> Latham Bowl, Plastic, Single-Use, 1972-2007. Two clear and white plastic components. The largest is a bulbous plastic bell-shaped body. The body appears to have two main pieces: an exterior clear plastic shell and a white plastic interior bulb. The second piece of the unit is a clear plastic drum with a long metal cylinder threaded through its center.

Cohn Centrifuge, stainless steel, 1952-1972. Two metal components. The majority of the piece is composed of a bulbous metal body that tampers to a circular flat end. The widest point of the body has a thick metal band around its diameter. The body's hallow interior has several distinct chambers. The second piece of the cell separator inserts into the larger body. It is composed of a circular metal drum from which extends a thin cylinder with a plastic tip. When inserted into the body only the base of the drum is visible.

]]> The seaman's medical advocate : or, an attempt to shew that five thousand seamen are, annually, during war, lost to the British nation, in the West India merchants' service, and on board ships of war on the West India station, through the yellow fever]]> De puerorum morbis, et symptomatis tum dignoscendis, tum curandis liber, ex Graecorum, Latinorum & Arabum placitis excerptus à Sebastiano Austrio ... Adiecti sunt Hippoc. aph. aliquot de noviter natorum adfectibus, alii item aphoristici sensus ex variis authoribus, de eorundem bona valetudine tuenda]]> ]]> ]]> Intern was developed by two physicians based on their experiences on the house staffs at Duke University and Johns Hopkins. The object of this unusual board game is for the intern to be the first to admit, diagnose, and treat all of his or her patients in the shortest amount of time.]]> Intern, by Avalon Hill Game Co.]]> Art as Medicine/Medicine as Art. 3' by 6' prints of the Lifecycle of HIV entering a lymphocyte were papered over the walls of a small installation in the gallery where Zimberg Clinic staff members provided HIV information to the public. AIDS and HIV research, along with research on other emerging diseases, are subjects of growing interest to historians of medicine and an area of future collecting for the Library.]]> here.]]> Segal, Sydney]]> Public Services.]]> ]]> Taeusch, H. William]]> Public Services.]]> An online guide to the collection is available.

]]> Public Services.]]> Public Services.]]> Public Services.]]> Public Services.]]> An online guide to the collection is available.

]]> An online guide to the collection is available. Click here.

]]> The Mary Ellen Avery papers, 1929-2002, consist of personal and professional correspondence, teaching materials, professional activities records, grant records, articles and drafts, lectures and speeches, diaries, photographs, and other records from Avery’s life and career as a pediatrician in: Boston, Massachusetts; Montreal, Quebec; and Baltimore, Maryland and as a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Correspondence includes letters of recommendation, reports from meetings, and committee and travel correspondence. Professional records consist of correspondence, reports, patient records, notes, newspaper clippings, committee materials, and other records chronicling Avery’s involvement and interactions with professional organizations, committees, publications, and institutions, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Joint Program in Neonatology, the American Pediatric Society, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. Professional records also contain correspondence and reports from the Joint Program in Neonatology, Children’s Hospital, Boston, Montreal Children’s Hospital, and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. Grants records consist of applications, renewal forms, correspondence, budgets, reports, and other materials related to grants from the National Institutes of Health and Specialized Centers of Research that Avery was involved with, as well as correspondence with the National Tuberculosis Association. Lectures and teaching records contain speech drafts, correspondence, syllabi, and notes from Avery’s travels around the world as a guest lecturer and as a professor at Harvard Medical School. Writings and subject files consist of drafts and reprints of writings by Avery on such topics as respiratory distress syndrome, hyaline membrane disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and oral rehydration. Personal records include diaries, calendars, photographs, and certificates and awards.

]]> This item serves to unite all digital objects in the Mary Ellen Avery papers currently available in Omeka. To view the full finding aid, click here.

]]> Canon, written by Mordechai bar Elia in a rabbinical hand, was formerly in the library of Prince Dietrichstein of Nikolsburg.]]> Canon]]> This edition of Avicenna’s Canon is its first appearance in print as well as the first printing of a medical treatise in Hebrew—and the only one produced during the fifteenth century. Hebrew printing in the 15th century was restricted to Italy and the Iberian peninsula; after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, printers in Italy and Portugal produced a very small number of works. The Gunzenhauser family founded the first Hebrew press in Naples in 1486; this edition of the Canonwas one of the last Hebrew books printed in that city.]]> Canon medicinae (Naples, 9 November 1491) written in Hebrew]]> Cantica de medicina by Avicenna]]> Kabbalah, astrology and fortunetelling with elaborate diagrams of the zodiac. Ibn Ezra was an earnest apologist for astrology and translated many astrological treatises from Arabic into Hebrew. Maimonides, using Biblical law as a guide, was an early and important critic of this “science”, although predictions of the coming of the Messiah depended heavily on it.]]> Sefer Goralot [Book of Lots], attributed to Avraham ben Me'ir Ibn 'Ezra]]> View the online catalog record.

]]> Public Services.]]>