Description
In 1923—prior to the school's opening—Professor of Anatomy George W. Corner (1889-1981) was appointed the medical library's first chairman. In this role, he worked with other faculty to select and acquire books and journals to support medical education and research. Corner, a medical historian, also had his sights on developing a historical collection: he believed it was important that the medical students have some grounding in the long tradition of which they would become a part.
In the ensuing years, Corner managed to recruit support for his project, with early and substantial monetary backing from local surgeon, Dr. Edward Wright Mulligan. In three annual gifts from 1926-1928, Mulligan provided the library with enough funds for Corner to purchase 1,200 early works in medicine over the next thirteen years.
Another advocate for the success of the medical library was University Trustee Edward G. Miner (1863-1955). The namesake of the medical library since 1952, Miner was a great supporter of all the University libraries. An avid collector in his own right, Miner assembled a collection of titles on yellow fever which he gifted to the medical library in 1927. Through subsequent donations and library acquisitions, the historic collections on yellow fever and cholera are now among the best on these subjects held anywhere.
In the nearly 100 years since the school's opening, the section has grown to hold over 50,000 titles. Moreover, specific collections have found their way to Miner Library, including: the R. Plato Schwartz Collection in Orthopedics, the Basil G. Bibby Collection in Dentistry & Oral Surgery, and the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine. The History of Medicine Section also houses over 2,000 linear feet of URSMD faculty archives, as well as manuscript materials on Rochester's medical history from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The collections are routinely used to instruct students of all ages and education levels, and we proudly support research needs from users around the globe. The new exhibit hall makes it possible for Miner to touch more lives: anyone who enters the library can encounter the wealth of resources housed in the History of Medicine Section. We are pleased to showcase within the new space a selection of the library's finest treasures, which include some of the most important works in the history of Western medicine.
Curators, Meredith Gozo and Christopher Hoolihan
Exhibit Items
Thomas Bartolin (1616-1680) and Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629)
Thomas Bartholin was the son of Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629), a noted anatomist and member of the medical faculty at Copenhagen. The younger Bartholin studied medicine at four of Europe's most prominent medical schools: Leiden, Montpellier, Padua and Basel. On returning to Copenhagen, Bartholin joined the medical faculty of its university, where he attained a pan-European reputation as an anatomist and physiologist.
In 1641 Bartholin edited and published a much-revised edition of his father's textbook entitled Institutiones anatomicae. The younger Bartholin appended to the text two letters written to him by Jan de Wale (or Walaeus). In one of these letters ("Epistola... de motu sanguinis") Walaeus explains Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, a theory that Walaeus had initially opposed until convinced of its veracity by the Dutch iatrochemist Sylvius. The publication of Walaeus' letter in this 1641 edition of the Institutiones anatomicae marks the first time that Harvey's theory was reviewed approvingly in an anatomical textbook. This and subsequent editions of Bartholin's anatomy had an enormous influence on propagating Harvey’s ideas on blood circulation throughout Europe.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Illustrations attributed to Jan van Kalkar (1499-1546)
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. Basel, 1543.
The two books on display in the central case are Miner Library's copies of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica in its first and second editions. The monumental nature of these books cannot be overstated: early printed works in medicine containing anatomical illustrations are often referred to as pre-Vesalius or post-Vesalius.
The printing press had been invented only a century prior, and its immediate utility in disseminating medical knowledge was recognized by many of Vesalius' contemporaries. In addition to text, print technology's capacity to reproduce illustrative matter revolutionized medical instruction. In the early half of the 16th century, ambitious physicians sought out printers and artists to engage with this new medium: it would allow them to circulate medical knowledge more rapidly, with visual aids, and on a larger scale than ever before.
The De Humani Corporis Fabrica, or On the Fabric of the Human Body, is Vesalius' contribution to these ventures. In it, he set forth new conclusions on human anatomy based directly on his own observations, and he corrected numerous errors in anatomical description that had been passed down from antiquity. Printed in the printing house of Johannes Oporinis and illustrated by a gifted artist from Titian's studio, the Fabrica is a masterpiece of early print production as well as a work of art.
The 1543 and 1555 editions were both published during Vesalius' lifetime. The 1555 edition contains Vesalius' emendations to the 1543 text and illustrations.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Illustrations attributed to Jan van Kalkar (1499-1546)
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septum. Basel, 1555.
The two books on display in the central case are Miner Library's copies of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica in its first and second editions. The monumental nature of these books cannot be overstated: early printed works in medicine containing anatomical illustrations are often referred to as pre-Vesalius or post-Vesalius.
The printing press had been invented only a century prior, and its immediate utility in disseminating medical knowledge was recognized by many of Vesalius' contemporaries. In addition to text, print technology's capacity to reproduce illustrative matter revolutionized medical instruction. In the early half of the 16th century, ambitious physicians sought out printers and artists to engage with this new medium: it would allow them to circulate medical knowledge more rapidly, with visual aids, and on a larger scale than ever before.
The De Humani Corporis Fabrica, or On the Fabric of the Human Body, is Vesalius' contribution to these ventures. In it, he set forth new conclusions on human anatomy based directly on his own observations, and he corrected numerous errors in anatomical description that had been passed down from antiquity. Printed in the printing house of Johannes Oporinis and illustrated by a gifted artist from Titian's studio, the Fabrica is a masterpiece of early print production as well as a work of art.
The 1543 and 1555 editions were both published during Vesalius' lifetime. The 1555 edition contains Vesalius' emendations to the 1543 text and illustrations.
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi (1460-1530)
Tractatus de fractura. Bologna, 1518.
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi earned a doctoral degree in medicine at Bologna in 1489. He became professor of anatomy at Bologna in 1504, where he was held in high regard by his students: Da Carpi developed skills in anatomy and surgery based on direct observation, which he encouraged in his pupils and advocated further in his writings. This work, a treatise on skull fractures, was written after da Carpi administered to Lorenzo Il de Medici, Duke of Urbino, who suffered a serious head injury in battle. It is the first work in print focused exclusively on head wounds and their respective treatments. Da Carpi also outlines various surgical tools of cranial surgery. Shown here is a hand drill which could be used with interchangeable bits to perform trephination.
Hippocrates
Octoginta volumina… [Rome, 1525].
Hippocrates, the famed physician of Classical Greece, was born on the island of Cos and is believed to have lived from approximately 460 B.C.E. to 370 B.C.E. He is best known for lending his name to the Hippocratic Oath, the ethical code of conduct physicians are encouraged to uphold to this day in modern practice. Little is known about Hippocrates other than that he was a physician, he taught medicine to others, and that his thinking and instruction in medicine were highly influential.
This work is a compilation of eighty texts attributed to Hippocrates (or more accurately, attributed to authors who followed the Hippocratic tradition). It has been translated from the original Greek into Latin by Marco Fabio Calvo.
Johannes Dryander (1500-1560)
The anatomist Johann Eichmann, who adopted the name Johannes Dryander, intended to publish a multi-volume illustrated anatomy of the human body, of which only this first part on the anatomy of the head and brain was printed - at Marburg in 1537. Most of the twenty woodblock illustrations printed in this volume present a systematic dissection of the head based on the author's own dissections. This copy is open to Dryander's conception of the three ventricles of the brain: the first ventricle, where sensory data is admitted; the second ventricle, where sense impressions are organized into concepts; and the third ventricle, where reasoning takes place.
Eucharius Roesslin (d.1526)
Roesslin's Der Swangern frawen und hebammen Rosegarten was one of the earliest and most successful obstetrical texts published in the early modern period. It appeared in at least forty editions between 1540 and 1730, including this English-language edition translated by the physician Thomas Raynald. Little is known of Roesslin. A physician, he practiced in Frankfurt am Main most of his career. This copy of Roesslin is from the library of Philip Dymock Turner, an English obstetrician and book collector whose extensive collection of early printed obstetrical texts was acquired by the Miner Library in the late 1920s.
Bartholomeo Eustachi (d. 1574)
Libellus de dentibus. Venice, 1563.
Eustachi was one of the great triad of Italian anatomists who flourished in the mid-16th century, the other two being Vesalius and Fallopio. In the present work, Eustachi describes the anatomy of the teeth, their nerves, the gums, first and second dentition, etc. at a level of detail and accuracy not previously accorded the teeth. The son of a physician, Eustachi studied medicine in Rome, was soon after appointed physician to the Duke of Urbino, and later joined the medical faculty at La Sapienza in Rome where he taught practical medicine and anatomy.
Ambroise Paré (1510-1590)
Dix livres de la chirurgie. Paris, 1564.
Ambroise Paré began his medical training as a barber-surgeon apprentice at the Hotel Dieu, Paris. Shortly after, Paré became a surgeon in the French army. His experiences treating battlefield injuries helped him develop a suite of methods for treating arrow and gunshot wounds, fractures, and performing amputations. Paré documented and continuously improved the treatment practices he learned in the field, many of which are printed in books he published during and after his military service. He is perhaps best known for advocating the use of ligature with amputation rather than cauterization with boiling oil.
The Dix Lives de la Chirurgie is an important early work on surgery that outlines many of the techniques for which Paré is famed. Depicted here are tools useful in extracting arrows, lances, etc.
John Banister (1533-1610)
Until about the 16th century, the English trailed behind most of continental Europe in their knowledge and practice of medicine. John Banister was part of English medicine's developmental phase: he was a barber-surgeon who received a practical education in surgery while serving on military expeditions outside the country. Afterward he became an anatomist, performing public dissections in London.
Banister was not an innovator but is significant in English medical history for sharing the advanced medical knowledge taught and practiced in Europe. Banister is known to have lectured from the De Re Anatomica by Realdo Colombo, a pupil of Vesalius known for providing an accurate description of pulmonary circulation. The illustrations in the Historie of Man are obvious copies of Vesalius' woodcuts from the De Humani Corporis Fabrica.
Vesalius' original woodcut from the De Humani Corporis Fabrica
Jakob Rüff (1500-1558)
De conceptu et generationis hominis. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1580.
Jakob Rüff served as city physician of Zurich and was responsible for overseeing instruction and licensure of female midwives from his region. Though he was a skilled physician and surgeon who published on other subjects, he is best remembered for this work because it was the first to include realistic illustrations of the female pelvis, the uterus, and the fetus in utero. The first edition was published in 1554 during Rüff's lifetime. This edition, published in 1580, includes woodcuts by the celebrated sixteenth century book illustrator, Jost Amman.
Gaspare Tagliacozzi (1545-1599)
De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo. Venice, 1597.
Tagliacozzi was a 1570 medical graduate of the University of Bologna, where he subsequently taught anatomy, medicine, and surgery. The present work is one of the earliest texts on reconstructive surgery (noses, lips, ears) and is especially notable for its description of rhinoplasty. The loss of a nose was not uncommon at the period due to illness (e.g., syphilis), combat, or as punishment for a criminal offence. Tagliacozzi refined a method for reconstructing missing noses by extending a strip of skin from the anterior surface of the arm and grafting the flap onto the face. During the grafting process (about 20 days), the arm was immobilized by a specially made doublet illustrated in this woodcut illustration.
Illustration of Tagliacozzi's grafting process
Gaspare Asellio (1581-1625)
De lactibus, sive lacteis venis, quarto vasorum mesaraicorum genere. Milan, 1627.
After completing his medical studies at the University of Pavia, Asellio moved to Milan where he practiced until returning to Pavia as professor of anatomy in 1624, In 1622 Asellio discovered the lacteal vessels during the dissection of a dog. His research on the lacteals were described in this posthumously published work, which is notable in the history of printing for being the first anatomical book illustrated with color plates, a process that required using four separate woodblocks - one for each color.
René Descartes (1596-1650)
René Descartes is best known for his contributions to philosophy, but he thought and wrote on a variety of subjects. A mathematician and a natural philosopher, Descartes wove together ideas from various disciplines to articulate his personal conception of the human body in De Homine, or his "Treatise on Man." It is often regarded as the first work on human physiology: in it, Descartes describes the body as a complex machine, generating a material view of the body's structure and its related functions as a study of matter in motion.
A contemporary of Galileo, Descartes did not publish the work during his lifetime: he feared it revealed his departure from the dominant, Aristotelian view of natural phenomena and that he might likewise be deemed a heretic. The copy shown here is the first published edition of the De Homine, from 1662, translated into Latin from the French.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Robert Hooke was a Fellow of London's Royal Society in the mid-17th century. He had wide-ranging intellectual interests and a passion for experimentation. He assisted Robert Boyle with his research on gas pressures (the work which would result in the discovery of Boyle's Law) and served as the Surveyor of London after the Great Fire of 1666, during which time he worked closely with architect and mathematician, Christopher Wren, on city planning and reconstruction.
When the Micrographia was published in 1665, Hooke's illustrations startled and awed those who saw them, and his accompanying texts lent additional insight into what he had observed. Hooke's written account of cork notes that the small, empty caverns he saw under magnification formed an assemblage of little rooms which reminded him of monks' living quarters: cells. Our use of the word "cell" as the basic unit of biological organisms originates with this work.
Hooke's illustrations
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Without university or medical training, Leeuwenhoek established himself as the foremost microscopist of his generation in all Europe. His unlikely career began at age sixteen as an apprentice to a linen-draper in Amsterdam, a career that he continued independently after returning to his native Delft six years later. Leeuwenhoek also held successive posts in the city government as sheriff's chamberlain, surveyor, and assessor of wines entering the city. While fulfilling these responsibilities and supporting a family, Leeuwenhoek trained himself in mathematics, anatomy, optics, and microscopy. He was the first to describe spermatozoa, the red blood corpuscles, the crystalline lens and many kinds of protozoa. He also introduced staining in histology. Leeuwenhoek's several books are actually collections of the letters he wrote to the Royal Society of London during the course of his many years of research.
François Mauriceau (1637-1709)
Les maladies des femmes grosses et accouchées. Paris, 1688.
Trained as a surgeon, Mauriceau specialized in obstetrics (then the sole province of surgeons and midwives), becoming accoucheur en chef at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. The present work is the first edition of a work that may be regarded as the most important obstetrical text of the late 17th and early 18th-centuries - one that established obstetrics as a scientific discipline. It appeared in numerous French editions and was translated into English (1672) and other European languages. The volume is open to a marvelous baroque allegorical title-page providing a portrait of author and a collection of obstetrical surgical instruments, excepting the forceps, which were just being introduced by the Chamberlen brothers in London at this time.
Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731)
Thesaurus anatomicus. Amsterdam, 1729.
Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch anatomist who became renowned for his innovative embalming techniques, which made it possible to draw new conclusions from well-preserved bodies and specimens post-mortem. He made many important contributions to the field of anatomical study (well-represented in our collections), and he served as professor of anatomy for over sixty years in the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons.
Despite this, today he is most remembered for his fantastical dioramas. Like many other figures of his age, Ruysch was a collector and had a Wunderkammer, or a "cabinet of curiosities." He drew from human and animal specimens in his collection to make allegorical tableaus, sometimes with assistance from his daughter, artist Rachel Ruysch. The Thesaurus, illustrated by Cornelis Huijberts and Joseph Mulder, contains 40 prints taken from these arrangements.
Sarah Stone (1680-?)
A complete practice of midwifery. London, 1737.
Not much is known about Sarah Stone, but she was born about 1680 in Bridgewater, England and apprenticed to her mother, Sarah Holmes, a midwife. This publication is highly unique: Sarah Stone was one of only a few women who managed to publish on female midwifery before the 20th century.
This work provides the female midwife's perspective on childbirth in England in the eighteenth century: it affords a glimpse into how Stone worked, who the women were that she worked with, and the challenges they faced in pregnancy and childbirth. It serves as a fascinating counterpart to the publications issued by man midwives, like William Smellie, from this same period.
Nicolas Andry de Bois-Regard (1658-1742)
A native of Lyon, Andry originally studied theology and was a professor of theology before beginning the study of medicine in his early 30s. He received his medical degree at age thirty-five and launched a career that extended into surgical practice. A prolific author on medical and surgical topics, Andry's most important work is L'Orthopédie, the first book on orthopedics—a term that Andry himself introduced. In this work Andry discusses a variety of procedures for correcting postural defects, spinal curvatures, etc., in children. The book was an immediate success and was translated into several European languages. The English translation was published at London in 1743.
William Smellie (1697-1763)
A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery. London, 1752.
First edition of perhaps the most important English-language obstetrical text of the 18th century. A native of Lanark, Scotland, Smellie served briefly as a naval surgeon before settling in his native village as a surgeon-apothecary. Smellie's surgical practice brought to his attention numerous obstetrical cases—especially difficult labors—that years later would become the focus of his Treatise. After fifteen years' practice in Lanark, Smellie travelled to London and to Paris where he continued his obstetrical studies. This first edition of the Treatise was followed by a second volume (1754) and a posthumous third volume (1764). This three-volume work and the obstetrical atlas he designed made Smellie one of the most influential figures in the practice of obstetrics and the management of difficult labors well into the following century.
James Lind (1716-1794)
James Lind was a Scotsman born into a family of merchants. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and then joined the navy as a surgeon. He was appalled by conditions seamen endured and outlined a variety of changes to diet and living quarters that improved their health and well-being. Often regarded as the first therapeutic trial in written record, Lind recorded the progress of twelve patients who were all administered different treatments for scurvy. The only patients that seemed to show improvement were those that were given lemon and lime. While it took some time for ships' crews to adopt the administration of citrus, by the end of the 18th century scurvy was all but eliminated among shipmen in the Royal British Navy.
Samuel Thomas Soemmerring (1755-1830)
De basi encephali et originibus nervorum cranio egredentium libri quinque. Gottingen, 1778.
A pupil of the great neurologist and anatomist Heinrich August Wrisberg at Göttingen, Soemmerring himself became one of the great neuroanatomists of his era. His Five books on the base of the brain and the origins of the cranial nerves is one of the most important neurological texts of the modern era in which Soemmerring authoritatively describes not only the cranial nerves, but the optic chiasms, the pineal gland, and the cerebral hemispheres.
He was professor of anatomy at Göttingen from 1784 until his transfer to Frankfurt in 1795. In 1804 Soemmerring joined the faculty of the Academy of Medicine in Munich. Soemmerring's other anatomical works are well represented in the Miner Library collection. His interests and expertise extended also to telescopy, electricity, paleontology, and anthropology. Remarkably, Soemmerring is responsible for the development of the first telegraphic system in Bavaria.
Jean-Louis Baudelocque (1746-1810)
L'art des Accouchemens. Paris, 1781.
Jean-Louis Baudelocque, physician and obstetrician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is remembered today in large part because of this book, L'art des Accouchemens, or The Art of Childbirth.
Baudelocque invented calipers which he used to measure external pelvic dimensions: the pelvimeter. Until the invention of radiology, this measuring process—pelvic mensuration of the external conjugate—was one of the most effective ways to determine whether there were abnormalities in the shape of a woman's pelvis, which might increase her likelihood of suffering complications during childbirth. Other important techniques he published included instruction on the use of obstetrical forceps (shown here), on internal version followed by breech extraction, and instruction on caesarian section, which was used only in the most extreme of circumstances.
William Withering (1741-1799)
The son of an English apothecary and nephew to two physicians, William Withering (1741-1799) was encouraged to pursue medicine from his earliest days. After attending the University of Edinburgh Medical School, he moved to Birmingham where he established a thriving practice and engaged in the activities of the Lunar Society, founded by fellow physician, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.
In this work, Withering describes the medicinal use of the foxglove flower and explains how he was able to isolate the positive effects of digitalis on the heart. The book is comprised of 163 case studies compiled over a period of ten years. It is a tremendous example of 18th century scientific method, and it is also regarded as an important early work in clinical pharmacology.
John Hunter (1728-1793)
A treatise on venereal disease. London, 1786.
John Hunter's A treatise on venereal disease serves as an unfortunate example of print's capability to spread misinformation. Like many other physicians of his time, Hunter believed that gonorrhea and syphilis were caused by a single pathogen, and that specific symptoms which presented themselves with syphilis—namely, open sores or chancres—were a later stage in the development of that single pathogen.
Regardless of Hunter's major misstep in venereology, this work provides otherwise useful instructions on urological surgery. Hunter was a giant in the world of 18th century British medicine, and he made other important contributions to medical knowledge as an educator, in print, and through the large collection of anatomical preparations he made and preserved during his lifetime. His specimens form the basis of the collections of the Hunterian Museum, housed at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in London.
William Woodville (1752-1805)
William Woodville was born into a Quaker family and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1775. Woodville settled in London and eventually became director of the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospitals, St. Pancras. A contemporary of Edward Jenner, he was involved in research into smallpox inoculation.
Woodville was also a keen botanist who managed a botanical garden in London. This work is a complete British materia medica listing a variety of medicinal plants used in the 18th century, accompanied by information on their therapeutic uses and beautifully illustrated by James Sowerby. Shown here is a male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), which has traditionally been used as a vermifuge, an arthritis treatment, and to stop heavy menstruation and nosebleeds.
Benjamin Bell (1749-1806)
A treatise on gonorrhoea virulenta, and lues venerea. Edinburgh, 1793.
Benjamin Bell trained in Edinburgh as a pupil of Alexander Monro Secundus. Bell is better known for his writings on surgery, but this work is important because Bell is the first to make a clinical distinction between gonorrhea and syphilis. The publication did not have much impact in its own day, likely due to the fact that John Hunter's belief in a single pathogen held greater sway. It was not until 1838 when Philippe Ricord published his own experiments on gonorrhea and syphilis that Bell's notion that the two diseases were separate was finally confirmed.
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)
A 1768 medical graduate of Edinburgh University, Benjamin Rush was one of the most influential figures in late 18th- and early 19th-century American medicine. The epidemic which visited Philadelphia in 1793 was one of the worst of yellow fever's many visitations to the city. 17,000 persons fled Philadelphia during the summer and autumn of 1793 and more than 4,000 died. Unlike many of his colleagues, Rush remained in the city to treat the afflicted. Despite his lack of understanding regarding the origins and mode of transmission of yellow fever, and despite a therapeutic that depended on copious bloodletting, Rush's description of the months-long epidemic remains a classic of this genre of medical literature.
Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
It had long been observed that dairymaids who contracted cowpox were invulnerable to smallpox. Edward Jenner thought of this when he moved out of London to practice in the countryside: his agricultural environs made it possible to test whether inoculation with cowpox matter would re-create smallpox immunity in others. Jenner's case studies made it clear that his vaccination process worked. It also proved to be a less uncertain process than variolation, which involved infecting a healthy person with smallpox matter at the risk of dramatic side effects or full-blown infection.
The impact of this publication on medical practice was nearly immediate: within a few years, Jenner's approach to immunization was widely implemented. The text is regarded as the first work in what is now the field of immunology.
Kakuryo Katakura (1751-1822)
Katakura's four-volume treatise was one of the most influential Japanese obstetrical texts in the first half of the 19th century. The treatise evidences the influence of Western medicine on Japanese medical practice during the course of the 18th century as well as the influence of western medical illustration. This is particularly apparent in the illustration of Katakura's work, which reproduces fifty-five of the engraved plates that illustrate the Dutch surgeon Hendrik van Deventer's (1651-1724) Operationes chirurgicae novum lumen exhibentes obstetricantibus and other texts.
Katakura's text and illustrations were printed on double leaves from wood blocks. Both the process and the copying of illustrations from European sources is illustrated in the two prints on the left-hand leaf, depicting the use of obstetrical forceps. Both were copied from engravings in William Smellie's An abridgement of the practice of midwifery.
Sylvius and the Circulation of the Blood
The latrochemical School of Medicine
The iatrochemical school of medicine that emerged in 17th-century Europe established a system based on the idea that the body is an accumulation of inter-related chemical processes. When these processes proceed normally, the body enjoys health; when the processes are vitiated, the chemical imbalance results in disease. Disorders are remedied by re-establishing normal balances. The iatrochemical school presented the first real challenge to Hippocratic and Galenic humoral theory that had dominated Western pathology since the 5th century B.C..
Franciscus De Le Boë, or Sylvius (1614-1672)
Perhaps the most prominent iatrochemist was Franciscus de Le Boë, whose name was Latinized as Sylvius. The offspring of Huguenot parents who moved to Frankfurt after revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Sylvius studied medicine at Leyden between 1633 and 1635, continued his studies in Wittenberg and Jena, and took a medical degree at the University of Basel in 1637. By
1638 Sylvius was back in Leyden, where he privately taught anatomy (common at the time in medical education) and lectured publicly in support of William Harvey's controversial ideas on blood circulation. In 1641 Sylvius moved to Amsterdam where he established a successful practice and became prominent in a medical community that included such figures as Nicolaas Tulp, Johannes van Horne, and Johann Rudolph Glauber. In 1658 Sylvius returned to Leyden as professor of medicine and chemistry at the university. His house in Leyden included three laboratories, a lecture room, and an extensive medical and scientific library.
The Influence of Sylvius
Sylvius was one of the principal proponents of iatrochemical physiology and pathology in 17th. century Europe. He was influential as an anatomist, as a laboratory scientist, and as an instructor at one of Europe's most prominent medical schools. Sylvius made important contributions to our understanding of the ductless glands; was the first to identify the lateral cerebral sulcus (the fissure of Sylvius); made the distinction between conglomerate and conglobate glands; described the role of saliva and pancreatic juice in the digestive process. He transformed medical education by insisting on instruction in organic and inorganic chemistry in the curriculum and was among the first to introduce bedside instruction in medical training.
Sylvius is equally important for making known and accepted among his contemporaries the ideas of William Harvey on the circulation of blood - a theory that met with much criticism after the publication of Harvey's De motu cordis in 1628.
Franciscus de Le Boë, or Sylvius (1614-1672)
The second posthumous edition of Sylvius' collected works, which includes his Disputationes medicae, the De method medendi, his Praxeos medicae idea nova, and several briefer treatises. Among the last mentioned are the Dictata ad Casparis Bartholini Institutiones anatomicas, a collection of anatomical observations that includes the chapter "De corde," a description of blood circulation based upon the ideas of William Harvey.
Thomas Bartolin (1616-1680) and Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629)
Thomas Bartholin was the son of Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629), a noted anatomist and member of the medical faculty at Copenhagen. The younger Bartholin studied medicine at four of Europe's most prominent medical schools: Leiden, Montpellier, Padua and Basel. On returning to Copenhagen, Bartholin joined the medical faculty of its university, where he attained a pan-European reputation as an anatomist and physiologist.
In 1641 Bartholin edited and published a much-revised edition of his father's textbook entitled Institutiones anatomicae. The younger Bartholin appended to the text two letters written to him by Jan de Wale (or Walaeus). In one of these letters ("Epistola... de motu sanguinis") Walaeus explains Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, a theory that Walaeus had initially opposed until convinced of its veracity by the Dutch iatrochemist Sylvius. The publication of Walaeus' letter in this 1641 edition of the Institutiones anatomicae marks the first time that Harvey's theory was reviewed approvingly in an anatomical textbook. This and subsequent editions of Bartholin's anatomy had an enormous influence on propagating Harvey’s ideas on blood circulation throughout Europe.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Illustrations attributed to Jan van Kalkar (1499-1546)
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. Basel, 1543.
The two books on display in the central case are Miner Library's copies of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica in its first and second editions. The monumental nature of these books cannot be overstated: early printed works in medicine containing anatomical illustrations are often referred to as pre-Vesalius or post-Vesalius.
The printing press had been invented only a century prior, and its immediate utility in disseminating medical knowledge was recognized by many of Vesalius' contemporaries. In addition to text, print technology's capacity to reproduce illustrative matter revolutionized medical instruction. In the early half of the 16th century, ambitious physicians sought out printers and artists to engage with this new medium: it would allow them to circulate medical knowledge more rapidly, with visual aids, and on a larger scale than ever before.
The De Humani Corporis Fabrica, or On the Fabric of the Human Body, is Vesalius' contribution to these ventures. In it, he set forth new conclusions on human anatomy based directly on his own observations, and he corrected numerous errors in anatomical description that had been passed down from antiquity. Printed in the printing house of Johannes Oporinis and illustrated by a gifted artist from Titian's studio, the Fabrica is a masterpiece of early print production as well as a work of art.
The 1543 and 1555 editions were both published during Vesalius' lifetime. The 1555 edition contains Vesalius' emendations to the 1543 text and illustrations.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Illustrations attributed to Jan van Kalkar (1499-1546)
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septum. Basel, 1555.
The two books on display in the central case are Miner Library's copies of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica in its first and second editions. The monumental nature of these books cannot be overstated: early printed works in medicine containing anatomical illustrations are often referred to as pre-Vesalius or post-Vesalius.
The printing press had been invented only a century prior, and its immediate utility in disseminating medical knowledge was recognized by many of Vesalius' contemporaries. In addition to text, print technology's capacity to reproduce illustrative matter revolutionized medical instruction. In the early half of the 16th century, ambitious physicians sought out printers and artists to engage with this new medium: it would allow them to circulate medical knowledge more rapidly, with visual aids, and on a larger scale than ever before.
The De Humani Corporis Fabrica, or On the Fabric of the Human Body, is Vesalius' contribution to these ventures. In it, he set forth new conclusions on human anatomy based directly on his own observations, and he corrected numerous errors in anatomical description that had been passed down from antiquity. Printed in the printing house of Johannes Oporinis and illustrated by a gifted artist from Titian's studio, the Fabrica is a masterpiece of early print production as well as a work of art.
The 1543 and 1555 editions were both published during Vesalius' lifetime. The 1555 edition contains Vesalius' emendations to the 1543 text and illustrations.
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi (1460-1530)
Tractatus de fractura. Bologna, 1518.
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi earned a doctoral degree in medicine at Bologna in 1489. He became professor of anatomy at Bologna in 1504, where he was held in high regard by his students: Da Carpi developed skills in anatomy and surgery based on direct observation, which he encouraged in his pupils and advocated further in his writings. This work, a treatise on skull fractures, was written after da Carpi administered to Lorenzo Il de Medici, Duke of Urbino, who suffered a serious head injury in battle. It is the first work in print focused exclusively on head wounds and their respective treatments. Da Carpi also outlines various surgical tools of cranial surgery. Shown here is a hand drill which could be used with interchangeable bits to perform trephination.
Hippocrates
Octoginta volumina… [Rome, 1525].
Hippocrates, the famed physician of Classical Greece, was born on the island of Cos and is believed to have lived from approximately 460 B.C.E. to 370 B.C.E. He is best known for lending his name to the Hippocratic Oath, the ethical code of conduct physicians are encouraged to uphold to this day in modern practice. Little is known about Hippocrates other than that he was a physician, he taught medicine to others, and that his thinking and instruction in medicine were highly influential.
This work is a compilation of eighty texts attributed to Hippocrates (or more accurately, attributed to authors who followed the Hippocratic tradition). It has been translated from the original Greek into Latin by Marco Fabio Calvo.
Johannes Dryander (1500-1560)
The anatomist Johann Eichmann, who adopted the name Johannes Dryander, intended to publish a multi-volume illustrated anatomy of the human body, of which only this first part on the anatomy of the head and brain was printed - at Marburg in 1537. Most of the twenty woodblock illustrations printed in this volume present a systematic dissection of the head based on the author's own dissections. This copy is open to Dryander's conception of the three ventricles of the brain: the first ventricle, where sensory data is admitted; the second ventricle, where sense impressions are organized into concepts; and the third ventricle, where reasoning takes place.
Eucharius Roesslin (d.1526)
Roesslin's Der Swangern frawen und hebammen Rosegarten was one of the earliest and most successful obstetrical texts published in the early modern period. It appeared in at least forty editions between 1540 and 1730, including this English-language edition translated by the physician Thomas Raynald. Little is known of Roesslin. A physician, he practiced in Frankfurt am Main most of his career. This copy of Roesslin is from the library of Philip Dymock Turner, an English obstetrician and book collector whose extensive collection of early printed obstetrical texts was acquired by the Miner Library in the late 1920s.
Bartholomeo Eustachi (d. 1574)
Libellus de dentibus. Venice, 1563.
Eustachi was one of the great triad of Italian anatomists who flourished in the mid-16th century, the other two being Vesalius and Fallopio. In the present work, Eustachi describes the anatomy of the teeth, their nerves, the gums, first and second dentition, etc. at a level of detail and accuracy not previously accorded the teeth. The son of a physician, Eustachi studied medicine in Rome, was soon after appointed physician to the Duke of Urbino, and later joined the medical faculty at La Sapienza in Rome where he taught practical medicine and anatomy.
Ambroise Paré (1510-1590)
Dix livres de la chirurgie. Paris, 1564.
Ambroise Paré began his medical training as a barber-surgeon apprentice at the Hotel Dieu, Paris. Shortly after, Paré became a surgeon in the French army. His experiences treating battlefield injuries helped him develop a suite of methods for treating arrow and gunshot wounds, fractures, and performing amputations. Paré documented and continuously improved the treatment practices he learned in the field, many of which are printed in books he published during and after his military service. He is perhaps best known for advocating the use of ligature with amputation rather than cauterization with boiling oil.
The Dix Lives de la Chirurgie is an important early work on surgery that outlines many of the techniques for which Paré is famed. Depicted here are tools useful in extracting arrows, lances, etc.
John Banister (1533-1610)
Until about the 16th century, the English trailed behind most of continental Europe in their knowledge and practice of medicine. John Banister was part of English medicine's developmental phase: he was a barber-surgeon who received a practical education in surgery while serving on military expeditions outside the country. Afterward he became an anatomist, performing public dissections in London.
Banister was not an innovator but is significant in English medical history for sharing the advanced medical knowledge taught and practiced in Europe. Banister is known to have lectured from the De Re Anatomica by Realdo Colombo, a pupil of Vesalius known for providing an accurate description of pulmonary circulation. The illustrations in the Historie of Man are obvious copies of Vesalius' woodcuts from the De Humani Corporis Fabrica.
Vesalius' original woodcut from the De Humani Corporis Fabrica
Jakob Rüff (1500-1558)
De conceptu et generationis hominis. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1580.
Jakob Rüff served as city physician of Zurich and was responsible for overseeing instruction and licensure of female midwives from his region. Though he was a skilled physician and surgeon who published on other subjects, he is best remembered for this work because it was the first to include realistic illustrations of the female pelvis, the uterus, and the fetus in utero. The first edition was published in 1554 during Rüff's lifetime. This edition, published in 1580, includes woodcuts by the celebrated sixteenth century book illustrator, Jost Amman.
Gaspare Tagliacozzi (1545-1599)
De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo. Venice, 1597.
Tagliacozzi was a 1570 medical graduate of the University of Bologna, where he subsequently taught anatomy, medicine, and surgery. The present work is one of the earliest texts on reconstructive surgery (noses, lips, ears) and is especially notable for its description of rhinoplasty. The loss of a nose was not uncommon at the period due to illness (e.g., syphilis), combat, or as punishment for a criminal offence. Tagliacozzi refined a method for reconstructing missing noses by extending a strip of skin from the anterior surface of the arm and grafting the flap onto the face. During the grafting process (about 20 days), the arm was immobilized by a specially made doublet illustrated in this woodcut illustration.
Illustration of Tagliacozzi's grafting process
Gaspare Asellio (1581-1625)
De lactibus, sive lacteis venis, quarto vasorum mesaraicorum genere. Milan, 1627.
After completing his medical studies at the University of Pavia, Asellio moved to Milan where he practiced until returning to Pavia as professor of anatomy in 1624, In 1622 Asellio discovered the lacteal vessels during the dissection of a dog. His research on the lacteals were described in this posthumously published work, which is notable in the history of printing for being the first anatomical book illustrated with color plates, a process that required using four separate woodblocks - one for each color.
René Descartes (1596-1650)
René Descartes is best known for his contributions to philosophy, but he thought and wrote on a variety of subjects. A mathematician and a natural philosopher, Descartes wove together ideas from various disciplines to articulate his personal conception of the human body in De Homine, or his "Treatise on Man." It is often regarded as the first work on human physiology: in it, Descartes describes the body as a complex machine, generating a material view of the body's structure and its related functions as a study of matter in motion.
A contemporary of Galileo, Descartes did not publish the work during his lifetime: he feared it revealed his departure from the dominant, Aristotelian view of natural phenomena and that he might likewise be deemed a heretic. The copy shown here is the first published edition of the De Homine, from 1662, translated into Latin from the French.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Robert Hooke was a Fellow of London's Royal Society in the mid-17th century. He had wide-ranging intellectual interests and a passion for experimentation. He assisted Robert Boyle with his research on gas pressures (the work which would result in the discovery of Boyle's Law) and served as the Surveyor of London after the Great Fire of 1666, during which time he worked closely with architect and mathematician, Christopher Wren, on city planning and reconstruction.
When the Micrographia was published in 1665, Hooke's illustrations startled and awed those who saw them, and his accompanying texts lent additional insight into what he had observed. Hooke's written account of cork notes that the small, empty caverns he saw under magnification formed an assemblage of little rooms which reminded him of monks' living quarters: cells. Our use of the word "cell" as the basic unit of biological organisms originates with this work.
Hooke's illustrations
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Without university or medical training, Leeuwenhoek established himself as the foremost microscopist of his generation in all Europe. His unlikely career began at age sixteen as an apprentice to a linen-draper in Amsterdam, a career that he continued independently after returning to his native Delft six years later. Leeuwenhoek also held successive posts in the city government as sheriff's chamberlain, surveyor, and assessor of wines entering the city. While fulfilling these responsibilities and supporting a family, Leeuwenhoek trained himself in mathematics, anatomy, optics, and microscopy. He was the first to describe spermatozoa, the red blood corpuscles, the crystalline lens and many kinds of protozoa. He also introduced staining in histology. Leeuwenhoek's several books are actually collections of the letters he wrote to the Royal Society of London during the course of his many years of research.
François Mauriceau (1637-1709)
Les maladies des femmes grosses et accouchées. Paris, 1688.
Trained as a surgeon, Mauriceau specialized in obstetrics (then the sole province of surgeons and midwives), becoming accoucheur en chef at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. The present work is the first edition of a work that may be regarded as the most important obstetrical text of the late 17th and early 18th-centuries - one that established obstetrics as a scientific discipline. It appeared in numerous French editions and was translated into English (1672) and other European languages. The volume is open to a marvelous baroque allegorical title-page providing a portrait of author and a collection of obstetrical surgical instruments, excepting the forceps, which were just being introduced by the Chamberlen brothers in London at this time.
Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731)
Thesaurus anatomicus. Amsterdam, 1729.
Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch anatomist who became renowned for his innovative embalming techniques, which made it possible to draw new conclusions from well-preserved bodies and specimens post-mortem. He made many important contributions to the field of anatomical study (well-represented in our collections), and he served as professor of anatomy for over sixty years in the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons.
Despite this, today he is most remembered for his fantastical dioramas. Like many other figures of his age, Ruysch was a collector and had a Wunderkammer, or a "cabinet of curiosities." He drew from human and animal specimens in his collection to make allegorical tableaus, sometimes with assistance from his daughter, artist Rachel Ruysch. The Thesaurus, illustrated by Cornelis Huijberts and Joseph Mulder, contains 40 prints taken from these arrangements.
Sarah Stone (1680-?)
A complete practice of midwifery. London, 1737.
Not much is known about Sarah Stone, but she was born about 1680 in Bridgewater, England and apprenticed to her mother, Sarah Holmes, a midwife. This publication is highly unique: Sarah Stone was one of only a few women who managed to publish on female midwifery before the 20th century.
This work provides the female midwife's perspective on childbirth in England in the eighteenth century: it affords a glimpse into how Stone worked, who the women were that she worked with, and the challenges they faced in pregnancy and childbirth. It serves as a fascinating counterpart to the publications issued by man midwives, like William Smellie, from this same period.
Nicolas Andry de Bois-Regard (1658-1742)
A native of Lyon, Andry originally studied theology and was a professor of theology before beginning the study of medicine in his early 30s. He received his medical degree at age thirty-five and launched a career that extended into surgical practice. A prolific author on medical and surgical topics, Andry's most important work is L'Orthopédie, the first book on orthopedics—a term that Andry himself introduced. In this work Andry discusses a variety of procedures for correcting postural defects, spinal curvatures, etc., in children. The book was an immediate success and was translated into several European languages. The English translation was published at London in 1743.
William Smellie (1697-1763)
A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery. London, 1752.
First edition of perhaps the most important English-language obstetrical text of the 18th century. A native of Lanark, Scotland, Smellie served briefly as a naval surgeon before settling in his native village as a surgeon-apothecary. Smellie's surgical practice brought to his attention numerous obstetrical cases—especially difficult labors—that years later would become the focus of his Treatise. After fifteen years' practice in Lanark, Smellie travelled to London and to Paris where he continued his obstetrical studies. This first edition of the Treatise was followed by a second volume (1754) and a posthumous third volume (1764). This three-volume work and the obstetrical atlas he designed made Smellie one of the most influential figures in the practice of obstetrics and the management of difficult labors well into the following century.
James Lind (1716-1794)
James Lind was a Scotsman born into a family of merchants. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and then joined the navy as a surgeon. He was appalled by conditions seamen endured and outlined a variety of changes to diet and living quarters that improved their health and well-being. Often regarded as the first therapeutic trial in written record, Lind recorded the progress of twelve patients who were all administered different treatments for scurvy. The only patients that seemed to show improvement were those that were given lemon and lime. While it took some time for ships' crews to adopt the administration of citrus, by the end of the 18th century scurvy was all but eliminated among shipmen in the Royal British Navy.
Samuel Thomas Soemmerring (1755-1830)
De basi encephali et originibus nervorum cranio egredentium libri quinque. Gottingen, 1778.
A pupil of the great neurologist and anatomist Heinrich August Wrisberg at Göttingen, Soemmerring himself became one of the great neuroanatomists of his era. His Five books on the base of the brain and the origins of the cranial nerves is one of the most important neurological texts of the modern era in which Soemmerring authoritatively describes not only the cranial nerves, but the optic chiasms, the pineal gland, and the cerebral hemispheres.
He was professor of anatomy at Göttingen from 1784 until his transfer to Frankfurt in 1795. In 1804 Soemmerring joined the faculty of the Academy of Medicine in Munich. Soemmerring's other anatomical works are well represented in the Miner Library collection. His interests and expertise extended also to telescopy, electricity, paleontology, and anthropology. Remarkably, Soemmerring is responsible for the development of the first telegraphic system in Bavaria.
Jean-Louis Baudelocque (1746-1810)
L'art des Accouchemens. Paris, 1781.
Jean-Louis Baudelocque, physician and obstetrician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is remembered today in large part because of this book, L'art des Accouchemens, or The Art of Childbirth.
Baudelocque invented calipers which he used to measure external pelvic dimensions: the pelvimeter. Until the invention of radiology, this measuring process—pelvic mensuration of the external conjugate—was one of the most effective ways to determine whether there were abnormalities in the shape of a woman's pelvis, which might increase her likelihood of suffering complications during childbirth. Other important techniques he published included instruction on the use of obstetrical forceps (shown here), on internal version followed by breech extraction, and instruction on caesarian section, which was used only in the most extreme of circumstances.
William Withering (1741-1799)
The son of an English apothecary and nephew to two physicians, William Withering (1741-1799) was encouraged to pursue medicine from his earliest days. After attending the University of Edinburgh Medical School, he moved to Birmingham where he established a thriving practice and engaged in the activities of the Lunar Society, founded by fellow physician, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.
In this work, Withering describes the medicinal use of the foxglove flower and explains how he was able to isolate the positive effects of digitalis on the heart. The book is comprised of 163 case studies compiled over a period of ten years. It is a tremendous example of 18th century scientific method, and it is also regarded as an important early work in clinical pharmacology.
John Hunter (1728-1793)
A treatise on venereal disease. London, 1786.
John Hunter's A treatise on venereal disease serves as an unfortunate example of print's capability to spread misinformation. Like many other physicians of his time, Hunter believed that gonorrhea and syphilis were caused by a single pathogen, and that specific symptoms which presented themselves with syphilis—namely, open sores or chancres—were a later stage in the development of that single pathogen.
Regardless of Hunter's major misstep in venereology, this work provides otherwise useful instructions on urological surgery. Hunter was a giant in the world of 18th century British medicine, and he made other important contributions to medical knowledge as an educator, in print, and through the large collection of anatomical preparations he made and preserved during his lifetime. His specimens form the basis of the collections of the Hunterian Museum, housed at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, in London.
William Woodville (1752-1805)
William Woodville was born into a Quaker family and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1775. Woodville settled in London and eventually became director of the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospitals, St. Pancras. A contemporary of Edward Jenner, he was involved in research into smallpox inoculation.
Woodville was also a keen botanist who managed a botanical garden in London. This work is a complete British materia medica listing a variety of medicinal plants used in the 18th century, accompanied by information on their therapeutic uses and beautifully illustrated by James Sowerby. Shown here is a male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), which has traditionally been used as a vermifuge, an arthritis treatment, and to stop heavy menstruation and nosebleeds.
Benjamin Bell (1749-1806)
A treatise on gonorrhoea virulenta, and lues venerea. Edinburgh, 1793.
Benjamin Bell trained in Edinburgh as a pupil of Alexander Monro Secundus. Bell is better known for his writings on surgery, but this work is important because Bell is the first to make a clinical distinction between gonorrhea and syphilis. The publication did not have much impact in its own day, likely due to the fact that John Hunter's belief in a single pathogen held greater sway. It was not until 1838 when Philippe Ricord published his own experiments on gonorrhea and syphilis that Bell's notion that the two diseases were separate was finally confirmed.
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)
A 1768 medical graduate of Edinburgh University, Benjamin Rush was one of the most influential figures in late 18th- and early 19th-century American medicine. The epidemic which visited Philadelphia in 1793 was one of the worst of yellow fever's many visitations to the city. 17,000 persons fled Philadelphia during the summer and autumn of 1793 and more than 4,000 died. Unlike many of his colleagues, Rush remained in the city to treat the afflicted. Despite his lack of understanding regarding the origins and mode of transmission of yellow fever, and despite a therapeutic that depended on copious bloodletting, Rush's description of the months-long epidemic remains a classic of this genre of medical literature.
Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
It had long been observed that dairymaids who contracted cowpox were invulnerable to smallpox. Edward Jenner thought of this when he moved out of London to practice in the countryside: his agricultural environs made it possible to test whether inoculation with cowpox matter would re-create smallpox immunity in others. Jenner's case studies made it clear that his vaccination process worked. It also proved to be a less uncertain process than variolation, which involved infecting a healthy person with smallpox matter at the risk of dramatic side effects or full-blown infection.
The impact of this publication on medical practice was nearly immediate: within a few years, Jenner's approach to immunization was widely implemented. The text is regarded as the first work in what is now the field of immunology.
Kakuryo Katakura (1751-1822)
Katakura's four-volume treatise was one of the most influential Japanese obstetrical texts in the first half of the 19th century. The treatise evidences the influence of Western medicine on Japanese medical practice during the course of the 18th century as well as the influence of western medical illustration. This is particularly apparent in the illustration of Katakura's work, which reproduces fifty-five of the engraved plates that illustrate the Dutch surgeon Hendrik van Deventer's (1651-1724) Operationes chirurgicae novum lumen exhibentes obstetricantibus and other texts.
Katakura's text and illustrations were printed on double leaves from wood blocks. Both the process and the copying of illustrations from European sources is illustrated in the two prints on the left-hand leaf, depicting the use of obstetrical forceps. Both were copied from engravings in William Smellie's An abridgement of the practice of midwifery.
Sylvius and the Circulation of the Blood
The latrochemical School of Medicine
The iatrochemical school of medicine that emerged in 17th-century Europe established a system based on the idea that the body is an accumulation of inter-related chemical processes. When these processes proceed normally, the body enjoys health; when the processes are vitiated, the chemical imbalance results in disease. Disorders are remedied by re-establishing normal balances. The iatrochemical school presented the first real challenge to Hippocratic and Galenic humoral theory that had dominated Western pathology since the 5th century B.C..
Franciscus De Le Boë, or Sylvius (1614-1672)
Perhaps the most prominent iatrochemist was Franciscus de Le Boë, whose name was Latinized as Sylvius. The offspring of Huguenot parents who moved to Frankfurt after revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Sylvius studied medicine at Leyden between 1633 and 1635, continued his studies in Wittenberg and Jena, and took a medical degree at the University of Basel in 1637. By
1638 Sylvius was back in Leyden, where he privately taught anatomy (common at the time in medical education) and lectured publicly in support of William Harvey's controversial ideas on blood circulation. In 1641 Sylvius moved to Amsterdam where he established a successful practice and became prominent in a medical community that included such figures as Nicolaas Tulp, Johannes van Horne, and Johann Rudolph Glauber. In 1658 Sylvius returned to Leyden as professor of medicine and chemistry at the university. His house in Leyden included three laboratories, a lecture room, and an extensive medical and scientific library.
The Influence of Sylvius
Sylvius was one of the principal proponents of iatrochemical physiology and pathology in 17th. century Europe. He was influential as an anatomist, as a laboratory scientist, and as an instructor at one of Europe's most prominent medical schools. Sylvius made important contributions to our understanding of the ductless glands; was the first to identify the lateral cerebral sulcus (the fissure of Sylvius); made the distinction between conglomerate and conglobate glands; described the role of saliva and pancreatic juice in the digestive process. He transformed medical education by insisting on instruction in organic and inorganic chemistry in the curriculum and was among the first to introduce bedside instruction in medical training.
Sylvius is equally important for making known and accepted among his contemporaries the ideas of William Harvey on the circulation of blood - a theory that met with much criticism after the publication of Harvey's De motu cordis in 1628.
Franciscus de Le Boë, or Sylvius (1614-1672)
The second posthumous edition of Sylvius' collected works, which includes his Disputationes medicae, the De method medendi, his Praxeos medicae idea nova, and several briefer treatises. Among the last mentioned are the Dictata ad Casparis Bartholini Institutiones anatomicas, a collection of anatomical observations that includes the chapter "De corde," a description of blood circulation based upon the ideas of William Harvey.
Thomas Bartolin (1616-1680) and Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629)
Thomas Bartholin was the son of Caspar Bartholin (1585-1629), a noted anatomist and member of the medical faculty at Copenhagen. The younger Bartholin studied medicine at four of Europe's most prominent medical schools: Leiden, Montpellier, Padua and Basel. On returning to Copenhagen, Bartholin joined the medical faculty of its university, where he attained a pan-European reputation as an anatomist and physiologist.
In 1641 Bartholin edited and published a much-revised edition of his father's textbook entitled Institutiones anatomicae. The younger Bartholin appended to the text two letters written to him by Jan de Wale (or Walaeus). In one of these letters ("Epistola... de motu sanguinis") Walaeus explains Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, a theory that Walaeus had initially opposed until convinced of its veracity by the Dutch iatrochemist Sylvius. The publication of Walaeus' letter in this 1641 edition of the Institutiones anatomicae marks the first time that Harvey's theory was reviewed approvingly in an anatomical textbook. This and subsequent editions of Bartholin's anatomy had an enormous influence on propagating Harvey’s ideas on blood circulation throughout Europe.