History of Medicine

Dec 27 2019

Lower Pioneer of Experimental Physiology | December 2019 Notes from The John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on December 27, 2019December 30, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

RICHARD LOWER (1631-1691). Tractatus de corde. Amsterdam: Apud Danielem Elzevirium, 1669. [16] 232 pp

Richard Lower was one of the foremost English physiologists of the seventeenth century. Soon after receiving his M.D. degree in 1665, Lower relocated to London. He quickly acquired a large practice, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and later a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Lower was an ardent supporter of Harvey, and this treatise is the first important work on cardiac physiology to appear after the work of Harvey.

In this book, Lower first described many finer structures of the heart, including the scroll-like nature of the musculature. He discussed the physiology and mechanism of the heart and of respiration, described his experiments on transfusion, and gave an accurate description of tricuspid valve endocarditis. His chief contributions included his concept of the heart’s musculature, his explanation of the muscular nature of the heart beat, and his proof that the dark venous blood becomes bright red on passing through the lungs by virtue of being brought into contact with air in the lungs.

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/7d/a2/9faa72e8bc76def50f7d76be6111.jpg
Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0019687.html
Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-01): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pm7gnnfw CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, Link

Nov 05 2019

Da Vinci Catalogue of Drawings | November 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on November 5, 2019December 27, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

drawing of Da Vinci — presumed self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519). A catalogue of the drawings . . . in the collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan and Cambridge, England: 1935.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest artists and scientists of the Italian Renaissance. His contributions to science include significant accomplishments in mechanics, physics, hydraulics, astronomy,
anatomy, architecture, and civil engineering. He is considered to be the founder of physiological anatomy. After his death, his writings and drawings were forgotten for over two centuries and became
scattered among private collectors, libraries, and archives throughout Europe.

The greater part of his extant writings and drawings on anatomy were found at the Royal Library of Windsor Castle in the early 1700s; however, no drawings from the collection were published until 1796. The first effort to make the collection available to the public in facsimile was not made until 1898 when the first volume of this set, containing a transcription of Leonardo’s text together with a French translation, was issued. The
second volume was published in 1901; unfortunately both volumes contained numerous mistakes due to misunderstandings, ignorance of the subject, and the difficulty of interpreting Leonardo’s
handwriting.

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

Views of a Foetus in the Womb.jpg — Da Vinci drawing of fetus in womb

Additional images and information about Da Vinci Life in Drawing exhibits

Oct 15 2019

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek | Microscope Builder | October 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on October 15, 2019December 27, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

ANTHONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK (1632-1723). Continuation arcanorum naturae detectorum. Delft: Apud Henricum a Kroonevelt, 1697.

Antonio van Leeuwenhoek, of Delft, was the first to use the microscope systematically and brought the construction of the simple microscope to a high degree of perfection.

Self-taught and never having attended a university, ignorant of Latin and Greek and the classical texts, he became one of the greatest and most expert microscopists, thanks to the sagacity of his observations and the perfection of his technique.

Leeuwenhoek was a master lens-grinder and constructed several hundred microscopes, grinding a new lens for each new investigation which he undertook. These volumes contain eighty letters from several hundred in which Leeuwenhoek communicated the results of his investigations to the Royal Society in London and which were published in its Philosophical Transactions. In 1683, van Leeuwenhoek’s drawing of bacteria was the first published representation.

Though not a trained scientist, he opened up avenues of anatomy previously unseen, leading to accurate physiology and accurate therapeutics. Malpighi used one of his microscopes to define the ultimate structure of the capillaries. Leeuwenhoek first described the individual plant cell, the individual striped muscle cell, spermatozoa, red corpuscles, and the crystalline lens of the eye.

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

Biography of van Leeuwenhoek

replice microscope from 1700s — Replica of van Leeuwenhoek microscope

image of hooded man on horse with bottle of potion

Aug 23 2019

A Model for Chaucer’s Doctor | August 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on August 23, 2019December 27, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

JOHN OF GADDESDEN (1280?-1361). Rosa Anglica practica medicine a capite ad pedes. Pavia: Joannesantonius Birreta, 1492.

John studied at Merton College, Oxford, then practiced first at Oxford and later in London, where he was highly esteemed among his contemporaries. He was the first Englishman to be appointed court physician to an English king, Edward II, and is said to have been Chaucer’s model for the “Doctour of Physik” in the Canterbury tales.

Rosa Anglica was written around 1314 and was the first printed medical book written by an Englishman. It is not noted for its scientific approach to medicine and is not much more than a medical advisor for the layman. However, John covered his subject thoroughly and the book is typical of other medical works of the period. John called his book Rosa Anglica because a rose has five petals and his book had five parts which covered fevers, injuries, general hygiene, diet, and therapeutics. Being impressed with his ability and perhaps conceited, John made it clear to his readers that his book was superior to all other medical treatises, just as the rose is superior to other flowers.

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

colored lithograph of old fashioned 5 petaled rose — Five petal Rosa corymbulosa, from lithograph in Curstis’s Botanical Magazine, v.140

Jul 07 2019

Leslie Schwalm, PhD | Black Bodies, Medical Science & the Age of Emancipation | History of Medicine Lecture Thursday, October 24

Posted on July 7, 2019November 1, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

The University of Iowa History of Medicine Society and Hardin Library for the Health Sciences present Professor Leslie Schwalm speaking on Black Bodies, Medical Science, and the Age of Emancipation, Thursday, October 24, 2019 in 1287 Carver Biomedical Research Building.

Why did the Civil War, which ultimately ended slavery, also see northern whites deeply invested in sustaining racial hierarchies? How and why do white medical practitioners in the Union army and in northern civilian relief efforts engage in efforts to advance the notion of race as a biological and hierarchical construct?

White medical practitioners and military officers attempted to document what they believed to be the immutable, hierarchical characteristics of race. That contradiction–a war for emancipation generating greater belief in medical and scientific racism–challenges our ideas about the consequences of the war and the development of wartime medical science.

Professor Schwalm is a historian of gender and race in the nineteenth-century U.S., and her research focuses on slavery, the Civil War, and emancipation. She is Chair, Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and with Professor, History. Profile

Driving? Park at Newton Road Ramp, Newton Road.
Bus? Take Cambus Pentacrest to the Nursing Building or PBDB stop.

May 13 2019

Benzi’s Observations on Galen | May 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on May 13, 2019December 27, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

UGO BENZI (1376-1439). Expositio super libros Tegni Galeni. Venice: Bonetus Locatellus, for Octavianus Scotus, 1498

Benzi, also know as Hugo of Siena, initially studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Siena. He completed his doctorate at Pavia in 1396 where he remained on the faculty until 1399.

During his subsequent academic career, he held major teaching positions at Bologna, Padua, Florence, Perugia, and Ferrara. Benzi enjoyed a great reputation as a physician and teacher of anatomy, medicine, and philosophy. One of the best interpreters of the ancient medical writers, he wrote commentaries on Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and others.

In Expositio super libros Tegni Galeni, he presents his observations on Galen’s Tegni or Ars medica, a leading medical text of the Renaissance. Benzi’s work indicates that although illnesses were classified in relation to major body parts or organs, there were no concepts of localization or specificity as assumed since the early nineteenth century. Illness was described primarily in terms of the “complexion of the humors” rather than of any specific disease. Hence there was no diagnosis in the modern sense. Nor were the elaborate drugs prescribed of any value other than palliative, although the suggested regiment of the “non-naturals” (personal hygiene) was often sensible. (Richard Harrison Shryock, The American Historical Review, Volume 58, Issue 1, October 1952, Pages 92–94, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/58.1.92)

Complete Latin text available online from Iowa Digital Library

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

Apr 15 2019

History of Medicine Society Presentations and Events | September 2019-April 2020

Posted on April 15, 2019April 16, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

University of Iowa History of Medicine Society Presentations and Events 2019-2020
All events open to the public.

Thursday, September 26, 5:30-6:30pm, 2117 MERF
Harold Adams, Professor, Neurology, University of Iowa
Stroke and the American Presidency

Thursday, October 24, 5:30-6:30pm, Kelch Conference Room, CBRB
Leslie Schwalm, Profssor, History; Chair, Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, University of Iowa
Black Bodies, Medical Sciences and the Age of Emancipation

Thursday, November 21, 5:30-6:30pm, 2117 MERF
Dinesh Gyawali, Assistant Professor, Physiology, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, IA
Ayurvedic Medicine

Thursday, January 23, 5:30-6:30pm, 2117 MERF
Marygrace Elson, Clinical Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Iowa
History of the Induction of Labor

Thursday, February 27, 5:30-6:30pm, 2117 MERF
James Bass, Freelance Editor/Writer
History of the University of Iowa Psychiatry Department

Thursday, March 26, 4:00-7:00pm, 401 HLHS
Open House in the John Martin Rare Book Room

Friday, April 24, 6:00-9:00pm, History of Medicine Society Banquet
Marie Jenkins Schwartz, Emeritus Professor, History, University of Rhode Island
Enslaved Women, Slaveholders, and Doctors: A Peculiar Medical Entanglement

Dr Laveran; man with spectacles and high color

Apr 05 2019

Malaria Discovered by Laveran | April 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on April 5, 2019May 1, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

CHARLES LOUIS ALPHONSE LAVERAN (1845-1922). Traité du paludisme. Paris: Masson, 1898.

After graduating from the University of Strasbourg in 1867, Laveran became an army physician like his well-known father. While stationed at Constantine in Algeria, he discovered the malaria parasite which he named Oscillatia malariae. One of the great discoveries of modern medicine, it was announced in 1880.

Laveran later served as professor of military hygiene at Val de Grâce and, resigning from the army, went to the Pasteur Institute where he devoted the remainder of his life to research and experimentation in tropical medicine and parasitology. He received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1907.

Traité du paludisme is the last of four separate treatises on malaria published by Laveran.

He summarizes the long history of the study of malaria;
Describes his own discovery of the malaria parasite as well as its mosquito carrier, and
Places considerable emphasis on the importance and necessity of draining marshes and stagnant bodies of water.
He also covers the clinical, pathological, and therapeutic aspects of malaria and concludes with material on related parasitic diseases and problems yet to be solved.

You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Make a gift to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences by donating online or setting up a recurring gift with The University of Iowa Foundation.

Scanned University of California copy

Feb 20 2019

Judicial Astrology | Al-Qabisi | February 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on February 20, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

ABD AL-ʻAZĪZ IBN ʻUTHMĀN (fl. 950 – d. 967) AND Danck, Joannes fl. 1331. Libellus ysagogicus Abdilazi, id est servi gloriosi Dei... 1485

Abu al-Saqr Abd al-Aziz Ibn Uthman Ibn Ali al-Qabisi l-Mawsili al-Hashimi, generally known as Al-Qabisi, (Latinised as Alchabitius or Alcabitius), and sometimes known as Alchabiz, Abdelazys, Abdilaziz ‘Abd al-Azîz, عبدالعزيز القبيصي) was an Arab astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician.

Al-Qabisi is best known for his treatise on judicial astrology, Introduction to the Art of Judgments of the Stars. This work survives in at least twenty-five Arabic manuscripts, and over two hundred manuscripts of its Latin translation, with twelve printed editions of the Latin work between 1473 and 1521. The Arabic text has received at least three Latin translations, which attracted several commentaries and were, in turn, translated into other European languages.

The 1473 copy, and others up until 1521, features writing about Al-Qabisi by John of Saxony. The rare 3rd edition (1473) of this classic scientific work recognized the authority of Ptolmy’s Almagest. The present work is edited by Bartholomaeus Alten. These early printed editions of Alchabitius’ “principle surviving treatise, a tenth century Arabic introduction to Astrology” are almost unprocurable. The book includes attractive large and smaller, ornamental initials, white on black.

copy of Al-Qabisi’s work in the John Martin Rare Book Room

View a digital copy of 1512 version owned by Qatar National Library

Jan 25 2019

William Osler: His Life and Human | History of Medicine Lecture by Robert Rakel, MD | Thursday, February 28, 5:30pm

Posted on January 25, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

image of Dr. Robert Rakel, white man, glasses, suit and tie — Robert Rakel, MD
Professor Emeritus, Family & Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine

On the 100th anniversary year of William Osler’s death, the University of Iowa History of Medicine Society invites you to hear Robert Rakel, MD speak.

William Osler: His Life and Sense of Humor
Thursday, February 28, 2019
5:30-6:30PM
2117 Medical Education and Research Facility

Osler was the most famous physician in the world at the time of his death. This presentation will review his major accomplishments and his sense of humor–appropriate for his day, but would not be considered funny today.

Osler Pamphlet Collection at the John Martin Rare Book Room

The Principles and Practice of Medicine by Osler (standard text for 40 years)

More information / donate to the History of Medicine Society

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program please call Janna Lawrence at 319-335-9871.

The University of Iowa Libraries

Need to Know

Category: History of Medicine

Lower Pioneer of Experimental Physiology | December 2019 Notes from The John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/7d/a2/9faa72e8bc76def50f7d76be6111.jpg
Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0019687.html
Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-01): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pm7gnnfw CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, Link

Da Vinci Catalogue of Drawings | November 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek | Microscope Builder | October 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

A Model for Chaucer’s Doctor | August 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Leslie Schwalm, PhD | Black Bodies, Medical Science & the Age of Emancipation | History of Medicine Lecture Thursday, October 24

Benzi’s Observations on Galen | May 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

History of Medicine Society Presentations and Events | September 2019-April 2020

Malaria Discovered by Laveran | April 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Judicial Astrology | Al-Qabisi | February 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

William Osler: His Life and Human | History of Medicine Lecture by Robert Rakel, MD | Thursday, February 28, 5:30pm

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/7d/a2/9faa72e8bc76def50f7d76be6111.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0019687.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-01): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pm7gnnfw CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, Link

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/7d/a2/9faa72e8bc76def50f7d76be6111.jpg
Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0019687.html
Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-01): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pm7gnnfw CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, Link