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The Cambridge Library Collection reissues milestone publications in the history of Western medicine as well as studies of other medical traditions. Its coverage ranges from Galen's work on anatomy to Florence Nightingale's advice to nurses, with a special focus on nineteenth-century developments. It is sobering to realise that as recently as the Victorian period, learned opinion was that diseases such as typhus and cholera were spread by a 'miasma' and suggestions that doctors should wash their hands before examining patients were greeted with mockery by the profession. The series includes colonial reports on tropical diseases, treatises on the effects of climate and diet, documents on public health and military medicine, early research into mental health and genetics and publications on spa culture and medicinal plants.

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69 results in Cambridge Library Collection - History of Medicine

Page 3 of 4

A Practical Treatise on the Bath Waters, Tending to Illustrate their Beneficial Effects in Chronic Diseases
  • Containing, Likewise, a Brief Account of the City of Bath, and of the Hot Springs
  • Joseph Hume Spry
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • Bath physician Joseph Hume Spry (c.1779–1859) was concerned that the popular practice of 'taking the waters' had fallen out of favour. In 1822 he produced this treatise extolling the healing properties of Bath's waters, supported by his own case notes and the writings of other physicians. He claimed that manifold afflictions, ranging from gout to indigestion, could be eased by drinking or bathing in these mineral-rich waters. In addition to offering careful instructions for treating each ailment, Spry's book includes a chapter on Bath's history, detailed descriptions and a sketch of the Roman baths, and a summary of the authors who had previously described the baths, from Solinus in the third century to Spry's contemporaries. Opening the work with a supplicating dedication to one of Bath's wealthy patrons, Charles Herbert Pierrepont, second Earl Manvers, Spry also used the book to appeal for the much-needed restoration of the Roman baths.

A Treatise on the Yellow Fever, as It Appeared in the Island of Dominica, in the Years 1793–4–5–6
  • To Which Are Added, Observations on the Bilious Remittent Fever, on Intermittents, Dysentery, and Some Other West India Diseases
  • James Clark
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • In 1793, the Caribbean island of Dominica fell victim to the deadly yellow fever virus. The British physician James Clark (c.1737–1819), who practised on the island for many years, witnessed the outbreak at first hand. He published this descriptive account in 1797, using the work to discuss his methods of attempting to treat the disease, which was considered among the most lethal tropical ailments of the time. Long before the link between mosquitoes and disease transmission was made, Clark explains his hypothesis about the origins of the outbreak and discusses the symptoms of its sufferers as well as possible methods of prevention. He also includes chapters addressing other ailments, including typhus, dysentery, cholera and tetanus. This remains an enlightening resource in the history of the understanding and treatment of disease in tropical climates.

The Works, Literary, Moral, and Medical, of Thomas Percival, M.D.
  • To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of his Life and Writings, and a Selection from his Literary Correspondence
  • Volume 1
  • Thomas Percival
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • A physician and medical reformer enthused by the scientific and cultural progress of the Enlightenment as it took hold in Britain, Thomas Percival (1740–1804) wrote on many topics, including public health and demography. His influential publication on medical ethics is considered the first modern formulation. In 1807, his son Edward published this four-volume collection of his father's diverse work. Some of the items here had never been published before, including a selection of Percival's private correspondence and a biographical account written by Edward. Volume 1 contains this biography and the full text of Percival's popular self-improvement book, A Father's Instructions, originally intended for his own children and then published in three parts between 1775 and 1800. His Medical Ethics (1803) and Essays Medical and Experimental (revised edition, 1772–3) have been reissued separately in this series.

Great Artists and Great Anatomists
  • A Biographical and Philosophical Study
  • Robert Knox
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • A gifted yet controversial anatomical teacher, Robert Knox (1791–1862) published this remarkable study in 1852. It explores the influence of anatomy on evolutionary theories and fine art respectively. The first part of the work discusses the lives and scientific insights of the eminent French naturalists Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844). Rejecting the explanations offered by natural theology, Knox maintains that descriptive anatomy can give answers to questions surrounding the origin and development of life in the natural world. The latter part of the book is concerned with the relation that anatomy bears to fine art, specifically the painting and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. Entering the debate about the importance of anatomical knowledge in art, Knox focuses on 'the immortal trio' of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Henry Lonsdale's sympathetic biography of Knox has also been reissued in this series.

The Works, Literary, Moral, and Medical, of Thomas Percival, M.D.
  • To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of his Life and Writings, and a Selection from his Literary Correspondence
  • Volume 4
  • Thomas Percival
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • A physician and medical reformer enthused by the scientific and cultural progress of the Enlightenment as it took hold in Britain, Thomas Percival (1740–1804) wrote on many topics, including public health and demography. His influential Medical Ethics (also reissued in this series) is considered the first modern formulation. In 1807, his son Edward published this four-volume collection of his father's diverse work. Some of the items here had never been published before, including a selection of Percival's private correspondence and a biographical account written by Edward. Volume 4 contains the third and fourth parts of Percival's Essays Medical and Experimental, which were completed following the revised edition that is reissued separately in one volume in the Cambridge Library Collection. The essays reflect Percival's wide range of interests, such as the regulation of hospitals and prisons, and the medical abnormalities he sometimes observed in his patients.

Domestic Medicine
  • Or, The Family Physician
  • William Buchan
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • Taking the view that medicine is as much the art of avoiding ill health as it is the cure of disease, physician William Buchan (1729–1805) published this home health guide in 1769. The first part is devoted to preventing ailments through proper diet and exercise, while the second part helps families diagnose and treat maladies ranging from coughs and hiccups to jaundice and gout. Buchan showed particular concern for the health of women and children, whom he believed were often misunderstood and neglected. He condemned corsets and restrictive infant swaddling, discouraged 'high living' and indolence, and blamed the high child-mortality rate on upper-class ignorance of child-rearing wisdom. His book became the most popular health guide prior to the twentieth century, with over a hundred editions by 1871. This reissue is of the first edition. Its diagnoses of physical (and cultural) ailments will illuminate eighteenth-century concerns for modern readers.

Notes on Hospitals
  • Being Two Papers Read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at Liverpool, in October 1858
  • Florence Nightingale
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    04 July 2013
    First published in:
    1859
  • Returning from the Crimea, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) used her experience of army medicine to ameliorate civilian nursing care. She was appalled by the conditions she found, affirming that the first requirement of a hospital was that 'it should do the sick no harm'. Problems such as overcrowding and damp, in addition to lack of ventilation and proper sanitation, contributed to high mortality rates. Nightingale's belief that such suffering was preventable was seen as revolutionary. In 1859 she published her two most influential works, Notes on Nursing (also reissued in this series) and Notes on Hospitals. This collection contains the two papers she presented to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science in 1858. Also included, from 1857, is her evidence to the royal commission on the British army's sanitary conditions. Three illustrated articles on hospital design, published in The Builder in 1858, form an appendix to the work.

Historical Sketch of the Progress of Pharmacy in Great Britain
  • Jacob Bell, Theophilus Redwood
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • The pharmacist Jacob Bell (1810–59) spent much of his career working to raise the standards and reputation of his profession. A founder in 1841 of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, he sought to improve scientific education for practitioners as well as protect the profession through legislation. Although he served briefly in Parliament, Bell exerted his greatest influence through editing the Pharmaceutical Journal. An extended piece that he produced for the journal in 1842 forms the first part of the present work. He traces the development of pharmaceutical practice and legislation from the sixteenth century to the birth of the Pharmaceutical Society. At the behest of the society's council, Theophilus Redwood (1806–92) continued the narrative after Bell's death, concluding with the 1868 Pharmacy Act. Published in 1880, the book provides a thorough account of the gradual establishment of British pharmacy as a separate and respected profession.

The Life of Edward Jenner M.D., F.R.S.
  • Naturalist, and Discoverer of Vaccination
  • F. Dawtry Drewitt
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    04 July 2013
  • Active in fields spanning medicine, ornithology, zoology and even watercolour painting, Frederick Dawtrey Drewitt (1848–1942) was a prominent fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and was involved in governing the National Trust. His particular interest in birds led him to study the work of the physician and naturalist Edward Jenner (1749–1823), who contributed to the field of ornithology through his observations of the cuckoo's behaviour. Jenner is better known, however, as the 'father of immunology' for pioneering the smallpox vaccination - the word 'vaccine' comes from the Latin vacca (cow) as Jenner used the cowpox virus to inoculate against smallpox infection in humans. Drewitt had general readers in mind when he wrote about Jenner's extraordinary life and growing worldwide recognition. The first edition of this biography was published in 1931, and this enlarged second edition appeared in 1933.

A Chemical and Medical Report of the Properties of the Mineral Waters
  • Of Buxton, Matlock, Tunbridge Wells, Harrogate, Bath, Cheltenham, Leamington, Malvern, and the Isle of Wight
  • Charles Scudamore
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
    First published in:
    1820
  • In medical terms, 'mineral water' was, in the early nineteenth century, any water that appeared to have an effect on human health. British physicians often prescribed mineral waters from particular locations - most commonly those at Bath - for a variety of illnesses. However, there was little available information on the chemical composition of these waters, and extant manuals were often inaccurate. This report by the physician Charles Scudamore (1779–1849) appeared in 1820, the first of its kind for decades. Having visited several well-known spas and wells, including Bath, Buxton and Cheltenham, Scudamore conducted a series of experiments on water samples: he reports using litmus, turmeric and violet papers to judge alkalinity levels; documents testing for various minerals using anything from soap to silver; and explains in detail the difference between hard and soft water. His report remains insightful reading in the history of medicine.

A Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption
  • Comprehending an Inquiry into the Causes, Nature, Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculous and Scrofulous Diseases in General
  • James Clark
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • Having trained in Edinburgh as a surgeon and served aboard Royal Navy vessels, Sir James Clark (1788–1870) developed a particular interest in the spread of the tuberculosis pandemic in Europe. A licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians from 1826, and elected to the Royal Society in 1832, he became a trusted physician and friend to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This influential work of 1835 focuses on the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis. Written for a general as well as medical readership, it was lauded by The Lancet and ran to several English editions along with translations into other languages. Also reissued in this series are Clark's Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland (1820), The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases (1829) and his Memoir of John Conolly (1869).

Dissertations on Malaria, Contagion and Cholera
  • Explaining the Principles Which Regulate Endemic, Epidemic, and Contagious Diseases, with a View to their Prevention
  • William Aiton
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
    First published in:
    1832
  • When this book was first published in 1832, England was caught in a cholera pandemic that had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across Europe. It was commonly held that 'bad air' spread the disease, but theories and remedies varied: one doctor advised the Nottinghamshire public to carry silk cushions filled with myrrh and camphor to strengthen resistance to contagion, while in New York officials suspected that raw vegetables and cold water were the root of the problem. In this fiercely logical treatise, ship's doctor William Aiton cuts through even the most prevalent myths to investigate the pandemic's real causes. Throwing out the theory of bad air, he observes that cholera spreads most quickly in cities with a stagnant water supply and overseas trade. Also addressing the spread of other infectious diseases, his work provides an invaluable insight into the conflicting information available to the general public during pandemics.

An Account of the Nature and Medicinal Virtues of the Principal Mineral Waters of Great Britain and Ireland
  • And Those Most in Repute on the Continent
  • John Elliot
  • Published online:
    18 December 2013
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
    First published in:
    1789
  • Although he was tried for attempted murder and died in Newgate Prison, the natural philosopher and apothecary John Elliot (1747–87) published a number of significant scientific works in the first part of the 1780s, especially with regard to sensory perception. This 1789 second edition of a 1781 work is essentially an alphabetically arranged catalogue of the principal British mineral waters, their properties and uses, along with those 'most celebrated ones which the English valetudinarian may have occasion to visit on the continent'. In his introduction, Elliot classes the waters according to their respective mineral properties and supplies details of the four classes of substances found united with water, and three methods for analysis. An extract of Joseph Priestley's 1772 pamphlet Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air, with Dr John Nooth's alternative method as an appendix, forms an entertaining preface, informative as to the history of producing carbonated water.

Introductory Notes on Lying-In Institutions
  • Together with a Proposal for Organising an Institution for Training Midwives and Midwifery Nurses
  • Florence Nightingale
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    28 June 2012
    First published in:
    1871
  • The greatest postnatal killer of the nineteenth century was puerperal fever. A vicious and usually fatal form of septicaemia, puerperal or childbed fever was known to occur in maternity hospitals far more frequently than at home births, and to spread faster in crowded wards than in those with fewer patients. Its cause was unknown. In this precise statistical analysis of the facts, gathered from several sources across the major cities of Europe, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) explores the mystery of puerperal fever and its possible causes. She stresses the necessity of good ventilation in hospitals, condemning those with overcrowded wards, and cites instances where the layout of wards has a noticeable correlation with the number of deaths. Published in 1871, just before Pasteur's work on germ theory proved that the problem could be all but eradicated if doctors washed their hands more rigorously, this work remains clear, scholarly and engaging.

Lectures on General Nursing
  • Delivered to the Probationers of the London Hospital Training School for Nurses
  • Eva C. E. Lückes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    02 August 2012
    First published in:
    1884
  • Eva Charlotte Ellis Lückes (1854–1919) was a pioneer of nursing training and friend of Florence Nightingale. In 1880, aged only twenty-six, she became matron of the London Hospital, the largest hospital in England, a post she held until her death. During her time there she improved working conditions for the nurses and trained her own staff, recognising the importance of a knowledge of anatomy and physiology, but never losing sight of the primary duty of a nurse to care for a patient's needs. First published in book form in 1884, these lectures were part of the training for probationers at the London Hospital. Emphasising the importance of attention to detail, the lectures address the practicalities of nursing, covering such topics as the management of infection, caring for sick children, bandaging techniques, and drug administration. Also reissued in this series is Lückes's popular 1886 textbook Hospital Sisters and their Duties.

Hospital Sisters and their Duties
  • Eva C. E. Lückes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    02 August 2012
    First published in:
    1886
  • Eva Charlotte Ellis Lückes (1854–1919) was a pioneer of nursing training and friend of Florence Nightingale. In 1880, aged only twenty-six, she became Matron of the London Hospital, the largest hospital in England, a post she held until her death. During her time there she improved working conditions for the nurses and trained her own staff, recognising the importance of a knowledge of anatomy and physiology, but never losing sight of the primary duty of a nurse to care for a patient's needs. She opposed proposals for the registration of nurses as she believed it would endorse lower standards of training than those she espoused. Her popular textbook for ward sisters was first published in 1896 and provides practical advice on ward and staff management and training of probationers, emphasising the importance of the sister as role model and mentor to her staff. This is the 1893 third edition.

On Some of the More Important Diseases of the Army
  • With Contributions to Pathology
  • John Davy
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1862
  • Born in Cornwall, John Davy (1790–1868) physiologist and anatomist, and the younger brother of the distinguished chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829), was one of the most prolific medical experts of his day. After taking a medical degree from Edinburgh in 1814 he became an army surgeon. He later became a hospital inspector and spent time living in overseas territories including India, Sri Lanka, and Barbados. First published in 1862, Davy's book discusses the prominence of fever, dysentery, cholera, liver disease, pneumonia, and other diseases common to the army, estimating that 45% of deaths in the British army serving abroad were caused by disease rather than by conflict. Davy also records his observations on putrefaction of bodies, particularly the vital organs, emphasising the need to determine the normal condition of human organs so that abnormal, diseased organs can be easily identified.

Arabian Medicine
  • The FitzPatrick Lectures Delivered at the College of Physicians in November 1919 and November 1920
  • E. G. Browne
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 May 2011
    First published in:
    1921
  • E. G. Browne (1862–1926), who combined outstanding skills in medicine and Arabic and Persian studies, has left an indelible mark in his fields of expertise. He first learned Turkish in his teens, and went on to study all the languages of the Islamic tradition, while also qualifying as a physician. This collection of four FitzPatrick Lectures, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians in 1919–20, and first published in 1921, covers subjects such as Arabic as a scientific language, the transmission of Greek learning, and important Islamic medieval writers. Brown describes the role of Islamic physicians in transmitting Greek and Roman medical science through the Dark Ages, both preserving and building upon texts which were lost or misunderstood in the West. He further argues that the scientific elements of Islamic literature should be seen as complementing and supporting the imaginative and aesthetic works of literature, history and poetry.

Dr Southwood Smith
  • A Retrospect
  • Gertrude Hill Lewes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1898
  • Thomas Southwood Smith (1788–1861) was a minister, physician and social reformer, who considerably improved the health of the poor by linking sanitation with epidemics. A utilitarian, and friend of Jeremy Bentham, his arguments in The Use of the Dead to the Living (1827) helped lead to the Anatomy Act of 1832 which allowed corpses from workhouses to be sold to medical schools, and so ended the market for grave-robbers while improving medical education. Although the fame of his granddaughter, Octavia Hill, has eclipsed his own reputation, Southwood Smith was an important figure in his day, whose work initiated many public health reforms. He served on the royal commission on children's employment, and was medical representative on the General Board of Health to deal with the cholera epidemic of 1848. This biography, written by his granddaughter Gertrude, who was G. H. Lewes' daughter-in-law, was published in 1898.

Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux
  • Faites a la Salpêtrière
  • Volume 2
  • Jean-Martin Charcot
  • Edited by D. M. Bourneville
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1875
  • Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–93) was a professor of anatomical pathology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, and one of the founders of modern neurology. Numerous disorders are named after him, and he was one of the best known doctors in nineteenth-century France. He was the first to describe and name multiple sclerosis, and undertook crucial research into what became known as Parkinson's Disease. He also worked on hysteria, and was one of Freud's teachers. These two volumes of lectures on neurological illnesses, first published in Paris in 1872–3 and 1877, were based on extensive clinical studies at the Salpêtrière, and edited by Désiré Magloire Bourneville. Detailed analysis of symptoms, sometimes using photography, combined with post-mortem analyses, allowed Charcot to produce classic descriptions of different neurological disorders. Volume 2 includes methods of clinical observation, and notes on spinal compression, infantile paralysis, Ménière's Disease, and epilepsy caused by syphilis.

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