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

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69 results in Cambridge Library Collection - History of Medicine

Page 4 of 4

Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux
  • Faites à la Salpêtrière
  • Volume 1
  • Jean-Martin Charcot
  • Edited by D. M. Bourneville
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    20 October 2011
    First published in:
    1875
  • Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–93) was a professor of anatomical pathology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, and one of the founders of modern neurology. Numerous disorders are named after him, and he was one of the best known doctors in nineteenth-century France. He was the first to describe and name multiple sclerosis, and undertook crucial research into what became known as Parkinson's Disease. He also worked on hysteria, and was one of Freud's teachers. These two volumes of lectures on neurological illnesses, first published in Paris in 1872–3 and 1877, were based on extensive clinical studies at the Salpêtrière, and edited by Désiré Magloire Bourneville. (The second edition of Volume 1, reissued here, was published in 1875.) Analysis of symptoms, sometimes using photography, combined with post-mortem analyses, allowed Charcot to produce classic descriptions of different neurological disorders. Volume 1 deals with spinal lesions, disseminated sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and hysteria.

A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate
  • From the Earliest Times Until the Year A.D. 1932
  • Cyril Elgood
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1951
  • Published in 1951, this book presents a continuous history of the art and practice of medicine in Persia (Iran), from the earliest times to the twentieth century. Elgood's prefatory chapter defines the scope of the History, and informs the reader of his extensive resources - due to his knowledge of Persian and Arabic, he was able to study original manuscripts of medical historians in the Middle East. He also draws upon his own experiences, having lived and practised in Iran for many years. Packed with medical curiosities and little-known facts, the book describes the impact of Western medicine on Persia from the seventeenth century, and includes discussion of the status and lifestyle of women, and the high status and great influence of Persian doctors. Placing the story of medicine against the background of general Persian history, Elgood demonstrates the important part played by Persia in the world's history of medicine.

A Treatise on Plague
  • Dealing with the Historical, Epidemiological, Clinical, Therapeutic and Preventive Aspects of the Disease
  • W. J. Simpson
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1905
  • The bubonic plague, in various forms, has been devastating human populations and affecting the very course of history for over 3000 years. This 1905 study by a renowned expert in the field represents the extent of early twentieth-century knowledge of a disease which was still killing millions at the time of first publication. Charting the history of the plague and its spread across the world, Simpson examines the causes of the disease, including the role of living conditions and poverty, as well as strategies for quarantine, prevention and treatment. Featuring autopsy reports, statistical data, photographs illustrating the symptoms and accounts of medical investigation of all aspects of the plague, this is a comprehensive and arresting overview of the disease. The book also features the full text of the 1903 International Sanitary Convention of Paris which was a response to the 1896 outbreak in India and China.

Observations on Fevers and Other Diseases
  • Which Occur on Voyages to Africa and the West Indies
  • Robert Robertson
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1792
  • Robert Robertson (1742–1829) was a Scottish doctor and surgeon. After completing his medical apprenticeship, Robertson joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate in 1760. In 1768 he was appointed surgeon to the sloop Diligence, and served as surgeon on various ships in the West Indies, North America and west Africa until 1783. He was appointed surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Greenwich in 1793. This volume, first published in 1792, contains Robertson's detailed observations of malarial and yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases which he encountered while serving as surgeon in the West Indies. Robertson describes in detail the symptoms and progression of these diseases, his treatments and the outcomes, as recorded in his monthly reviews of the ships' sick lists and many detailed case histories of his patients. This volume provides valuable information concerning the treatment of common diseases and conditions on board late eighteenth-century naval ships.

A Letter to the Right Honourable, the Secretary at War, on Sickness and Mortality in the West Indies
  • Being a Review of Captain Tulloch’s Statistical Report
  • Sir Andrew Halliday
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    09 December 2010
    First published in:
    1839
  • Sir Andrew Halliday (1782–1839) served as a surgeon in the Peninsular War, and then as a royal physician. In 1832 he was appointed Inspector of Hospitals in the West Indies until ill-health forced his return to Scotland. This 1839 pamphlet contains his recommendations to the Secretary of War, concerning the major losses suffered by the army in the West Indies due to illness. It was written in response to the Tulloch report presented to Parliament on the subject the previous year. This showed that the average death rate for soldiers there was almost six times higher than those in Britain, and in some islands considerably higher, due to dysentery, yellow fever and malaria. Halliday believed that many of these deaths were preventable, if medical advice was consulted on the siting of barracks, the daily regimes within them, and sanitation, and if doctors had the authority to implement changes.

Notes on Nursing
  • What It Is, and What It Is Not
  • Florence Nightingale
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    19 August 2010
    First published in:
    1860
  • Most people are familiar with the name of Florence Nightingale and the image of 'the lady with the lamp'. Initially celebrated for her efforts during the Crimean War, Nightingale is best known as a reformer of army medical services and of nursing more generally. She wrote Notes on Nursing - first published in 1859, but reprinted here in its revised and enlarged 1860 edition - in order to share her knowledge with women who were nursing their families at home. It was also required reading at the nursing school she opened at St Thomas' Hospital, the first of its kind, and at other such establishments. Still hailed today as important introductory reading for aspiring nurses, the text explains the centrality of ventilation, observation, hygiene, and diet during sickness, as well as care during convalescence. It also contains timeless instructions on how to nurture both the mind and body of the sick.

Zoonomia
  • Or, the Laws of Organic Life
  • Volume 1
  • Erasmus Darwin
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1794
  • Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) is remembered not only as the grandfather of Charles but as a pioneering scientist in his own right. A friend and correspondent of Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and Matthew Boulton, he practised medicine in Lichfield, but also wrote prolifically on scientific subjects. He organised the translation of Linnaeus from Latin into English prose, coining many plant names in the process, and also wrote a version in verse, The Loves of Plants. The aim of his Zoonomia, published in two volumes (1794–6), is to 'reduce the facts belonging to animal life into classes, orders, genera, and species; and by comparing them with each other, to unravel the theory of diseases'. The first volume describes human physiology, especially importance of motion, both voluntary and involuntary; the second is a detailed description of the symptoms of, and the cures for, diseases, categorised according to his physiological classes.

Zoonomia
  • Or, the Laws of Organic Life
  • Volume 2
  • Erasmus Darwin
  • Published online:
    06 December 2010
    Print publication:
    28 January 2010
    First published in:
    1794
  • Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) is remembered not only as the grandfather of Charles but as a pioneering scientist in his own right. A friend and correspondent of Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and Matthew Boulton, he practised medicine in Lichfield, but also wrote prolifically on scientific subjects. He organised the translation of Linnaeus from Latin into English prose, coining many plant names in the process, and also wrote a version in verse, The Loves of Plants. The aim of his Zoonomia, published in two volumes (1794–6), is to 'reduce the facts belonging to animal life into classes, orders, genera, and species; and by comparing them with each other, to unravel the theory of diseases'. The first volume describes human physiology, especially importance of motion, both voluntary and involuntary; the second is a detailed description of the symptoms of, and the cures for, diseases, categorised according to his physiological classes.

Principles of Mental Physiology
  • With their Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind, and the Study of its Morbid Conditions
  • William Benjamin Carpenter
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1874
  • William Carpenter (1813–85) was trained as a doctor; he was apprenticed to an eye surgeon, and later attended University College London and the University of Edinburgh, obtaining his M. D. in 1839. Rather than practising medicine, he became a teacher, specialising in neurology, and it was his work as a zoologist on marine invertebrates that brought him wide scientific recognition. His Principles of Mental Physiology, published in 1874, developed the ideas he had first expounded in the 1850s, and expounds the arguments for and against the two models of psychology then current – automatism, which assumed that the mind operates under the control of the physiology of the body for all human activity, and free will, 'an independent power, controlling and directing that activity.' Drawing on animal as well as human examples, his arguments, especially on the acquisition of mental traits in the individual, are much influenced by Darwin.

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