Comic illustrator Augustus Hoppin chronicles the travails of Mr. A. Wiper Weeps as he suffers from an attack of hay fever. In the plate on the right, both allopathy and homeopathy are seen as useless to him. Only a trip in a hot-air balloon for the…
Following Holmes’ resignation of his professorship at Harvard, the physicians of New York hosted a public dinner in his honor. The dinner was held at Delmonico’s on April 12; the symbol of the event, embossed on the cover of the menu and…
After receiving his medical degree from Harvard, Holmes was granted the Boylston Prize in 1836 for his essay responding to the question “How far are the external means of exploring the condition of internal organs to be considered useful and…
English physician Edward Stafford compiled a 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. At the request of Robert C. Winthrop, president…
Holmes delivered this critical address on homeopathy to the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge on February 16, 1842, and then published it with a companion lecture, "Medical delusions of the past," later that spring. Although Holmes…
Following his presentation on puerperal fever to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, Holmes first published his findings in this journal in April 1843. The article was also reprinted in pamphlet form. The passage displayed here contains…
During the early 1830s, Holmes was enrolled at Harvard Medical School, but also sought tuition privately with Dr. James Jackson. Of Holmes, Jackson said to his son, “He can tell you much that is interesting. Do not mind his apparent frivolity and you…
Little is known of Holmes’ private medical practice, but this volume of case notes derives from the period while he was on the Tremont School faculty and immediately following his research into the contagiousness of puerperal fever. The Judge…
After studying medicine with James Jackson, Holmes continued his medical education in Europe, beginning in the summer of 1833. He studied with some of France’s most famous physicians, including Marjolin, Roux, Velpeau, and Andral; this is…
At the opening of the term and the beginnings of debate over educational reform at the Medical School, Holmes gave this address to the students, partly in defense of the summer term of practical instruction over the formal lectures of the winter.…
In 1838, Holmes was offered the professorship of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth and held that position for two years before joining the faculty of Harvard. He was also asked by the New Hampshire Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Kappa to deliver a poem…
Following Holmes’ resignation of his professorship at Harvard, the physicians of New York hosted a public dinner in his honor. The dinner was held at Delmonico’s on April 12; the symbol of the event, embossed on the cover of the menu and…
The Reactionary Lifter was sold by the Health-Lift Company of New York as a muscle exercise and strength-building device, suitable for men and women. A testimonial letter by Holmes appears in this marketing brochure: “My three months’…
This illustration was printed in the edition of Ballou’s pictorial for June 20th and depicts the finish of a race of club boats on the Charles at Western Avenue a few days earlier. Holmes “who is very partial to this manly exercise”…
Physician Charles F. Dight (1856-1938) was the first president of the Minnesota Eugenics Society and promoted the state’s adoption of a law for the sterilization of the feeble-minded and insane in 1925. He bequeathed his fortune to the…
The official organ for the Eugenics Society in England, The eugenics review first appeared in 1909 and was published continuously until this, its final volume under that title. In 1969, the publication was reformulated as the Journal of biosocial…
One of the early periodical publications devoted to eugenics, the Eugenical news started in 1916 and was, at various times, the official organ of the Eugenics Research Association and then the American Eugenics Society. Appearing monthly, the…
As part of his research on deafness, Alexander Graham Bell made statistical analyses of the deaf-mutes and determined that deafness was hereditary and that the number of intermarriages between deaf-mutes was high and growing. He concluded that…
In the notes to the introduction of this work, which assembles and revises his writings since the publication of Hereditary genius, Galton coins the neologism which gave its name to a movement: “That is, with questions bearing on what is termed…
The Fowler brothers used The Illustrated Self-Instructor as both a popular handbook to phrenology and an advertising tool—the opening pages of each volume were used to record character assessments, such as this one for G. A. Hook, given by O.…
This ticket is inserted at the flyleaf of a copy of the third American edition of Spurzheim’s treatise, Phrenology, or the Doctrine of the Mental Phenomena (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1834) and was issued for his popular course of lectures…
Paper ticket granting medical privileges to the Marine Hospital at Charlestown by "The Physician of the Marine Hospital, Charlestown." Ticket adorned with rust-orange engraving that depicts the hospital and a vessel off-loading a wounded sailor. The…
Henry H. Meacham, a former carriage-maker in Massachusetts, joined the 32nd Massachusetts Volunteers; his arm was blown off by a shell near Petersburg in June, 1864. He printed and sold this pamphlet to make a living for himself and his ailing wife.…
The Armory Square Hospital (now the site of the National Air and Space Museum) was active from August, 1862, through September, 1865, and many of the worst casualties of the Civil War battlefields were treated there. The patients and a former nurse…
Charles B. Johnson, who served with the 130th and 77th Illinois regiments and became a physician after the war.
Late in life, he published a memoir of his experiences with particular attention to medical care and diseases of soldiers during the…
This drawing, from 1863, is part of a letter to Sargent's young son, George; he wrote, I shall try and get leave to come home one of these days. I hope you will be glad to see me when I come. If you are not glad, I shall be very sorry, I can tell…
A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1853, Zabdiel Boylston Adams enlisted in 1861, joining the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers as an assistant surgeon. He was later a captain with the 56th Massachusetts Volunteers. Adams was wounded at Orange…
There is no particular class of wounds, injuries, or diseases, for which pensions are granted. It depends not so much upon the wound, injury, or disease itself, as upon the disabled condition arising therefrom. A…