History of Medicine

May 13 2019

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

Posted on May 13, 2019May 13, 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

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.

Jan 11 2019

Moveable Medicine | John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library | Annual Open House | Thursday, March 28, 4-7pm

Posted on January 11, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

Moveable Medicine : A look at flap books from the John Martin Rare Book Room collection

Thursday, March 28th
4-7 pm

John Martin Rare Book Room
4th floor of the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences

Join us to learn the history and importance of flap books throughout medical history. Discover the doctors, authors, and artists that created and shared these beautiful and delicate works.

Leaf through, lift the flaps, and look inside these pieces from the collection to feel like a surgeon as you dissect, explore, and discover the beauty of anatomy.

This exhibit features intricate books, fugitive sheets, and manikins from the collection that have been used to teach both medical students and the public about the composition of the human body for centuries!

Exhibit curated by Donna Hirst and Lora Wegener.

Books featured in this exhibit include:

Interiorum corporis humani partium viva delineatio [Legend above male]. Perutilis anatomes interiorum mulieris partium cognitio. . . . [Legend above female].[Paris: Veneunt apud Joannem Ruellem, commorantem in vico Jacobaeo, sub signo Caudae Vulpinae, 1539]. I58 1539

ANDREAS VESALIUS (1514-1564). De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome.Basel: [Ex officina Joannis Oporini, 1543]. fQM21. V425 1543

GEORGE BARTISCH (1535-ca. 1607). Ophthalmodouleia; das ist, Augendienst.[Dresden: Matthes Stöckel], 1583. fRE41. B3 1583

JOHANN REMMELIN (1583-1632). Catoptrum microcosmicum. Augsburg: Typis Davidis Francki, 1619. fQM21 .R45 1619

JOHANN REMMELIN (1583-1632). Catoptrum microcosmicum. Facsimile. Augsburg: Typis Davidis Francki, 1619. Facsimile of the three flap illustrations created by Alice Phillips, University of Iowa. fQM21 .R45 1619 suppl

JOHANN REMMELIN (1583-1632). Anathomie du corps humain. Paris: Chez Gerard Jollain, [ca. 1650]. fQM21 .R44

JOHANN REMMELIN (1583-1632) AND Lucas Kilian (engraver) (1579-1637). Kleiner welt spiegel, das ist, abbildung göttlicher schöpffung an dess menschen leib : mit beygesetzer schrifftlicher Erklärung : so wo zu Gottes Weissheit : als dess menschen selbst erkandtnuss dienend [Ulm]: 1661. fQM21 .R45 1661

CHRISTOPH VON HELLWIG (1663-1721) AND Johann Heinrich Werner( . Nosce te ipsum, vel, Anatomicum vivum, oder: Kurtz gefastes doch richtig gestelltes anatomisches Werck:, 1716. fQM21 .H45 1716

EDWARD WILLIAM TUSON (1802-1865). Myology. 2nd ed. London: Callow and Wilson, 1828. fQM151 .T88 1828

EDWARD WILLIAM TUSON (1802-1865). A supplement to Myology : containing the arteries, veins, nerves, and lymphatics of the human body, the abdominal & thoracic viscera, the ear and eye, the brain, and the gravid uterus, with the fœtal circulation. 2nd Edition London: Callow & Wilson, 1828. fQM151 .T89 1828

FREDERICK HOLLICK (1818-1900). Outlines of anatomy & physiology: illustrated by a new dissected plate of the human organization. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, 1846. fQM31 .H6

(GEORGE) SPRATT (ca. 1784-1840). Obstetric tables : comprising graphic illustrations, with descriptions and practical remarks : exhibiting on dissected plates many important subjects in midwifery. Philadelphia: James A. Bill, 1850 and 1948 edition. fRG520 .S76 1850

ROBERT KNOX (1791-1862). Man, his structure and physiology : popularly explained and demonstrated. 2nd ed. London ; New York: H. Bailliere, 1858. QM23 .K56 1858

GUSTAF JOSEPH (G.J.) WITKOWSKI (1844-1923). A movable atlas showing the structure and functions of the brain, the cerebellum and medulla oblongata.fQM455 .W5713 1874

W. (DAVID WILSON) GRAHAM (1845-1925). Physicians’ anatomical aid: a manikin of superimposed diagramatic plates : designed to assist in surgery diagnoses and general practice. 1888. fQM33 .P49 1888

HENRY MUNSON LYMAN (1835-1904). The practical home doctor. Rev. & enl. ed. Chicago, IL: America Publishing Co., 1907. RC81 .P73 1907

HUBERT ELWYN JONES BISS (1872-1909). The anatomy and physiology of the female body. 3rd ed. London, 1928. fQM25.B57 1928

PETER C. KRONFELD (1899-1980). The human eye in anatomical transparencies. Explanatory text: Peter C. Kronfeld … 1944. K87

STEPHEN LUCIAN POLYAK (1889-1955). The human ear in anatomical transparencies. 1946. fQM507 .P6

Jan 08 2019

Robert Knox | Man, his structure and physiology | March 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on January 8, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

ROBERT KNOX (1791-1862). Man, his structure and physiology : popularly explained and demonstrated. 2nd ed. London ; New York: H. Bailliere, 1858.

lithograph of Robert Knox lecturing with books on stand — Robert Knox lithograph from Wellcome Trust

This popular introduction to anatomy and physiology was written by the noted – if somewhat infamous – Edinburgh anatomist Robert Knox. Knox believed that a knowledge of human structure and physiology was vital, forming the basis for a better understanding of the structure and nature of all living bodies.

He hoped that this elementary yet detailed introduction would encourage the reader to pursue further study in not only human anatomy, but also in the field of zoology. One of the best and most enthusiastic teachers of anatomy during the 19th century, Knox’s emphasis upon practical dissection led to his indiscreet and notorious association with the Edinburgh ‘resurrectionists’, Burke and Hare. When their crimes came to light, he was implicated, savagely attacked in the literature of the day, and his effigy was burnt by the populace.

Although exonerated by Burke, an influential committee of his peers accused him of acting incautiously and failing to ensure that his assistants properly vetted their cadaver suppliers. The episode haunted him and tarnished the rest of his career. He then turned his attention to ethnology and anthropology, and found some success in these fields.

View a digitized copy of the original edition of this work at the Internet Archive

image of white man with beard and mustache in robe

Jan 03 2019

Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De Medicina | January 2019 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

Posted on January 3, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

AULUS CORNELIUS CELSUS (25 B.C.-50 A.D.). De medicina. Venice: Philippus Pincius, for Benedictus Fontana, 1497.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus was a Roman encyclopaedist, known for his extant medical work, De Medicina, which is believed to be the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia. The De Medicina is the oldest medical document after the Hippocratic writings. It was written about 30 A.D. De Medicina was one of the first medical books printed after printing was invented.

Celsus has left the best account of Roman medicine; he was the first important medical historian. The manuscript of the De Medicina was lost during the Middle Ages and rediscovered in Milan in 1443. Celsus was probably not a professional physician–his work seems to be a compilation of the work of others–echoing the Greeks and especially Hippocrates. Nevertheless, it is an extremely able and interesting history of medicine and surgery, including descriptions of symptoms and treatment of disease as well as descriptions of plastic surgery, goiter operations, tonsillectomies, treatment of fractures, and dental procedures.

This Celsus volume is one of few volumes in the John Martin collection which has been completely digitized. View the book online: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/jmrbr/id/6326/rec/1.

The John Martin Rare Book Room copy is in Latin and bound in Eighteenth-century half calf and floral boards.

Jan 01 2019

Artificial Hearts | Shelley McKellar | 2019 R. Palmer Howard History of Medicine Society Dinner | Friday, April 5, 2019

Posted on January 1, 2019April 19, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

Medical historian Shelley McKellar will speak on Artificial Hearts: A Controversial Medical Technology and its Sensational Patient Cases at the 2019 R. Palmer Howard Dinner.

Shelley McKellar
Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, Western University Canada

Location: Radisson Hotel, Coralville, Iowa
Date: Friday, April 5, 2019
Reception 6pm with cash bar, Dinner at 7pm, Presentation at 8pm

Registration and prepayment (check or credit card) required by March 29, 2019. Printable registration form

Today, artificial hearts are a clinical reality after decades of contentious development. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney stated that the technology “saved his life” in 2010, but not all patients enjoyed such successful outcomes. Dr. McKellar examines the clinical use of artificial hearts since the 1960’s, situating the triumphant narrative of this technology and it’s “resurrectionist capacity” along side technical device challenges and difficult patient experiences. The appeal was the promissory nature of artificial hearts as a life-sustaining treatment, but it was (and is) and imperfect and controversial technology.

Shelley McKellar, PhD bio

Nov 08 2018

Arthur Hill Hassall | Food and its Adulterations | November 2018 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room

Posted on November 8, 2018February 8, 2019 by Sarah Andrews

ARTHUR HILL HASSALL (1817-1894). Food and its adulterations. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855.

Hassall studied medicine as his uncle’s apprentice in Dublin and later
returned to England where he received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1839 and an M.D. from the University of London in 1851.

An individual of many scientific interests, he earlier published the first English textbook on microscopic anatomy–Microscopic anatomy of the human body. The John Martin Rare Book holds both an 1849 and 1851 version of this title. Hassall then began to work in the field of public health, publishing a pamphlet title A microscopial examination of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London and the surburban districts, which helped implement water reform.

Poor health forced him to abandon his general practice and he turned to analytical chemistry. His communication to the Botanical Society concerning the adulteration of coffee soon brought him to the attention of the Analytical Sanitary Commission of Lancet and later the post of chief analyst of the commission. The work of this commission, established by Lancet, eventually resulted in legislation to curb the rampant adulteration of foodstuffs then prevalent in England.

Representing an immense amount of analytical work, he reported on nearly 2500 samples of foods, beverages, and tobacco products, providing detailed analyses and illustrations of his findings as well as identification of the sample’s vendor or manufacturer. Hassall’s work was so accurate that only one legal action was threatened but that was later dropped.

Digital copy of Food and its adulterations

The University of Iowa Libraries

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