Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - History of Medicine

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The physician and author John Ayrton Paris (1785-1856) and his co-author J. S. M. Fonblanque (1787-1865) published this three-volume work in 1823. Volume 1 considers the role of medical evidence in matrimonial cases, and those involving pollution and the adulteration of food. It also opens the complex topic of unnatural death.

Written by his friend, the physician John Baron (1786-1851), this laudatory two-volume biography of Edward Jenner (1749-1823) appeared between 1827 and 1838. It illuminates Jenner's professional and personal life by drawing heavily on his correspondence, providing also a thorough explanation of the facts of vaccination.

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-93) was one of the founders of modern neurology. Detailed analysis of symptoms combined with post-mortem analyses enabled him to produce classic descriptions of different neurological disorders. These lectures, based on Charcot's work at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, were first published in Paris in 1872-3 and 1877.

This five-volume collection of the writings of the distinguished surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-93), edited by James Palmer, with a biography by Drewry Ottley, was published between 1835 and 1837. Volume 3 discusses blood and the vascular system, wounds (especially those suffered in war), and infection.

In this 1857 work, Robert Gardiner Hill describes his and Edward Charlesworth's reforms at the Lincoln Asylum, and attempts to refute the claim of the more famous John Conolly to primacy in abolishing restraints. Hill also reprints examples from the pamphlet war that arose out of this controversial topic.

Smallpox was once a common disease ruining the lives of many people across Britain. In this 1806 pamphlet, English surgeon William Blair (1766-1822) challenges the opponents of the first effective vaccine against smallpox. His publication, aimed at a broad audience, also includes a report from the Royal Jennerian Society.

When Jenner announced his experiments with vaccination against smallpox, William Woodville pursued similar trials, and in 1799 published the results: 200 cases where patients were vaccinated with matter obtained from cows or other cowpox sufferers. This demonstration of the safety and efficacy of vaccination led to its much wider adoption.

Henry Maudsley (1835-1918) practised psychiatry in London. He developed ideas of heredity derived from Darwin, aiming to 'bring man, both in his physical and mental relations, as much as possible within the scope of scientific enquiry'. Body and Mind contains his 1870 Gulstonian lectures and two earlier articles.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917), physician, feminist and champion of women's medical education, played a key role in advancing the position of women in British professional life. This 1939 biography by her daughter Louisa, herself a distinguished physician, is presented largely through Elizabeth's own letters.

Reissued in the enlarged four-volume fourth edition of 1849-51, this work remains a landmark publication. The French pharmacist Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Gaston Guibourt (1790-1867) had revised and augmented the work since 1820. Illustrated throughout, it describes the pharmaceutical properties of mineral, plant and animal substances.

Reissued in the enlarged four-volume fourth edition of 1849-51, this work remains a landmark publication. The French pharmacist Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Gaston Guibourt (1790-1867) had revised and augmented the work since 1820. Illustrated throughout, it describes the pharmaceutical properties of mineral, plant and animal substances.

Reissued in the enlarged four-volume fourth edition of 1849-51, this work remains a landmark publication. The French pharmacist Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Gaston Guibourt (1790-1867) had revised and augmented the work since 1820. Illustrated throughout, it describes the pharmaceutical properties of mineral, plant and animal substances.

Reissued in the enlarged four-volume fourth edition of 1849-51, this work remains a landmark publication. The French pharmacist Nicolas Jean-Baptiste Gaston Guibourt (1790-1867) had revised and augmented the work since 1820. Illustrated throughout, it describes the pharmaceutical properties of mineral, plant and animal substances.

The physician and author John Ayrton Paris (1785-1856) published this work on the significance of diet to health in 1826. After describing the physiology of the alimentary system and discussing the benefits and disadvantages of various foods and drinks, Paris suggests cures, including changes of lifestyle, for digestive illnesses.

The surgeon John Hall, born 1529/30, published this work in 1565 as an appendix to his translation of a thirteenth-century surgical work. Hall was vociferously opposed to fraudulent medicine, and this work, edited by surgeon and antiquarian Thomas Pettigrew (1791-1865) and published in 1844, describes his struggles against quacks.

First published in 1753, this important treatise seeks to provide a thorough account of the nature, causes and treatment of scurvy. James Lind (1716-94) provided the groundwork for later investigations, and his research lent support to the later practice of including the juice of citrus fruit in a sailor's diet.

This joint reissue comprises two texts on military healthcare, providing instruction on the treatment of wounds and injuries common to soldiers, and advising on topics from malaria to drunkeness. Charles Gordon's 1873 manual precedes A Guide to Health for the Use of Soldiers by R. C. Eaton, first published in 1890.

Jonathan Pereira (1804-53) died before completing a further revision of his rigorous encyclopaedia of medicinal substances. A pioneering text in pharmacology, interspersed with instructive woodcuts, it is reissued here in the updated and expanded fourth edition completed by expert colleagues and published in three parts between 1854 and 1857.

Jonathan Pereira (1804-53) died before completing a further revision of his rigorous encyclopaedia of medicinal substances. A pioneering text in pharmacology, interspersed with instructive woodcuts, it is reissued here in the updated and expanded fourth edition completed by expert colleagues and published in three parts between 1854 and 1857.

A physician and medical reformer, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the formulation of medical ethics. This four-volume collection, published in 1807, gathers together his diverse works. A selection of his correspondence and a short biography are also included.

A physician and medical reformer, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the formulation of medical ethics. This four-volume collection, published in 1807, gathers together his diverse works. A selection of his correspondence and a short biography are also included.

A physician and medical reformer, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the formulation of medical ethics. This four-volume collection, published in 1807, gathers together his diverse works. A selection of his correspondence and a short biography are also included.

A physician and medical reformer, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the formulation of medical ethics. This four-volume collection, published in 1807, gathers together his diverse works. A selection of his correspondence and a short biography are also included.

James Clark (c.1737-1819) was a British physician who practised medicine on the Caribbean island of Dominica for many years. In 1793 there was a deadly and widespread outbreak of yellow fever. Clark published this account in 1797, discussing the disease's possible causes and treatments.

This five-volume collection of the writings of the distinguished surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-93), edited by James Palmer, with a biography by Drewry Ottley, was published between 1835 and 1837. Volume 5 contains the plates which accompany the works in the other volumes, with notes.