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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Before the formation of the Boston Medical Library, Harvard's Boylston Medical Library was the principal local collection not in private hands. The collection remained with the University in Cambridge after the Medical School removed to Boston in…
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…
Harvard Medical School established a library of its own in 1816. This pamphlet of rules was printed and distributed to students following the collection's unification with the Boston Medical Library in 1819.
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…
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…
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…
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…
The copy of the 1808 Catalogue belonged to Dr. John Collins Warren, who held the office of Librarian at this time. The emendations probably represent an inventory of the collection, along with printing corrections for a subsequent edition in 1810.
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…
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…
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.
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.
After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1813, Dr. Enoch Hale held positions as a district physician to the Boston Dispensary and a visiting physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Enoch Hale was a Trustee of the Boston Medical Library…
Dr. Jacob Bigelow held the professorship of materia medica at Harvard and was instrumental in publication of the first edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States in 1820. He was also the founder of the Mount Auburn Cemetery in…
Dr. Walter Channing, Harvard's first professor of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence, was also Dean of the Medical School for over a quarter of a century. He promoted the use of ether anaesthesia in childbirth and was one of the founders and…
Dr. John Ware followed James Jackson in the Harvard professorship of the theory and practice of physic. He was an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the first editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and one of…
Dr. George Hayward was Harvard's first professor of the principles of surgery and clinical surgery. In 1846, he performed the second public surgical operation utilizing ether anesthesia, and then the first major amputation.
In addition to being a…
Dr. Gorham was a son-in-law of John Warren and succeeded Aaron Dexter to the Erving professorship of chemistry and materia medica at Harvard in 1816. He was also an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
John Gorham held the…
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…
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…