A Selected
Chronological Bibliography of Biology and Medicine
Part 1B
Compiled by
James Southworth Steen, Ph.D.
Delta State
University
Dedicated to
my loving family
This document celebrates those secondary authors and laboratory technicians
without whom most of this great labor of discovery would have proved
impossible.
Please
forward any editorial comments to: James S. Steen, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus,
jsteen08@bellsouth.net
1637
René Descartes
(FR) within his Discourse on Method,
Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology explained his principles of
investigation: "The first of these was to accept nothing as true which I
did not clearly recognize to be so: that is to say, carefully to avoid
precipitation and prejudice in judgments and to accept in them nothing more
than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly that I could have
no occasion to doubt it. The second was to divide up each of the difficulties
which I examined into as many parts as possible, and as seemed requisite in
order that it might be resolved in the best manner possible. The third was to
carry on my reflections into order, commencing with objects that were the more
simple and easy to understand, in order to rise little by little, or by
degrees, to knowledge of the most complex assuming order, even it be a
fictitious one, among those which do not follow a natural sequence relatively
to one another. The last was in all cases to make enumerations so complete and
reviews so general that I should be certain of having omitted nothing."
Included within one of the Essays
is La Dioptrique, the first
publication of the “Law of Refraction”, in which he demonstrates the
rectilinear transmission of light and compares the human eye to a camera. Rene Descartes (454; 456;
458).
Thomas Morton (GB) wrote New English Canaan (1637) with
treatments of 26 species of mammals, 32 birds, 20 fishes and 8 marine
invertebrates (1098).
Plague epidemic in Spain (875)
1638
Galileo Galilei (IT) worked out the isochronism of the pendulum in
the Cathedral of Pisa using his pulse (591; 592).
The Countess of Chinchon (ES), wife of the Viceroy of Peru, was
cured of a fever (malaria; the ague)
by powdered quinquina (cinchona) bark, a native remedy. She returned to Spain
in 1641 with a supply of quinquina bark, which became known in Europe as the Countess’s powder. Later it was
imported in large quantities by the Jesuits and became known as Jesuit’s bark. The tree was described in
1738 and given the genus name Chinchona
in honor of the Countess.
Juan del Vego (ES), physician to the countess, in 1641, was the
first European to employ the tincture of the cinchona bark, containing
quinidine, for treating malaria (the
ague). The aborigines of Peru and Ecuador had been using it for treating fevers
since before recorded time (120; 937).
Hermann van der Heyden (BE) authored Discours et Advis sur les Flus de Ventre Doloureux. It contains the
first European medical reference to cinchona bark (Peruvian bark) for treating malaria (the ague) (1625). This
remedy was also known as quina bark (contains quinine) and later as the
Countesse’s powder and Jesuit’s bark.
Nicolas de Blégny (FR) and John Talbor (GB) popularized a
treatment for malaria, (the ague) in
England and France. Tabor became wealthy and famous yet refused to divulge his
formula for financial and religious/political reasons. At that time anything
associated with the Catholic Church was out of favor in England. Talbor’s
treatment was nothing more than the hated Jesuit’s
Powder (ground cinchona bark containing quinine) which the catholic church
had been shipping from South America and Cardinal John de Lugo had tried in
vain to persuade Europe to accept (397; 1571).
Richard Morton (GB), in 1696, presented the first detailed
description of the clinical picture of malaria
(the ague) and its treatment with cinchona (1097).
Francisci Torti (IT), in 1732, established the specific nature of
cinchona bark (contains quinine). His demonstration of its effectiveness in
treating periodic over continuous fevers finally overthrew the doctrine of the
common origin of all fevers. He is also credited with the introduction of the
term malaria (bad air) (1591).
Hipólito Ruiz (ES), in 1792, described seven species of cinchona
and praised the medicinal qualities of a quina extract that he had developed
(contains quinine) (1347).
Bernardino Antonio Gomes (PT) reported that the bark of grey
quinquina (Cinchona condaminea) from
Loxa (Loja, Ecuador) contained a crystalline principle that he named cinchonine
but did not notice its main property, alkalinity (630).
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (FR) and Joseph-Bienaimé Caventou (FR)
isolated the alkaloid quinine (1192; 1193).
Peter Muehlens (DE) synthesized plasmochin (plasmoquine), the first
drug to be synthesized with a marked
activity against human malaria (ague)
parasites (1100).
Ernest Francois Auguste Fourneau (FR), Jacques Gustave Marie
Tréfouel (FR), G. Stefanopuolo (FR), Yvonne de Lestrange (FR), K.L. Melville
(FR), Thérèse Tréfouel (FR), Daniel Bovet (FR), Melle Germaine Benoit (FR),
Onisim Yul'yevich Magidson (RU), and I.Th. Strukow (RU) produced plasmocid (Fourneau 710) and
8-aminoquinoline, active antimalarial drugs (571; 572; 988).
Hans Mauss (DE) and Fritz Mietzch (DE), in 1931, synthesized the
antimalarial drug mepacrine hydrochloride
(quinacrine hydrochloride, Atabrine quinacrine, mepacrine, atebrin, chinacrin, erion, acriquine, acrichine, palacrin, metoquin, halchin) (1026). It was
marketed in 1932.
Hans Andersag (DE), in 1934, synthesized resochin (chloroquine) (37).
Frank Henry Swinton Curd (GB), D. Garnet Davey (GB), and Francis
Leslie Rose (GB) synthesized proguanil
(paludrine) in 1944. This drug has
low toxicity and high activity against falciparum
malaria. They
first tested proguanil against avian malaria in 1945 (352; 1338).
M.B. Braude (RU) and V.I. Stavrovskaya (RU) synthesized quinocide
in 1945 (206).
Neil Hamilton Fairley (AU) proved that
one tablet of Atabrine (100 mg.) a
day would prevent overt attacks of malaria (the ague),
curing those cases due to Plasmodium
falciparum and postponing clinical manifestations of P. vivax infections until the drug was withheld (521).
1640
Guillaume de Baillou; William of Ballion; Wilhelm Ballonius (FR)
wrote, Epidemiorum et Ephemeridum Libri
Duo, the first modern book on epidemiology and the first since Hippocrates.
It contains the first detailed description of whooping cough
as a distinct entity (396).
1641
Nicolaas Tulp; Nicholas Tulpius; Nicolaes Tulp; Claes Pieters; Nicolaus
Petrejus; Nicholaus Petrus (NL) wrote, Observationes
Medicae, one of the best medical books of the period. It contained many
pathological findings and records of post-mortem examinations. It described and
pictured the ileocecal valve, still known as Tulp’s valve, and discussed kidney
stones, tapeworms, diphtheria (Boulogne
sore throat), bronchial casts, pulsation of the spleen, and beri-beri
(1602). Tulp
described the first of the great apes (a chimpanzee) brought alive to Europe in
1641. Rembrandt van Rijn (NL) immortalized him in his painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp.
Francois de Le Boë; Franciscus Sylvius (DE-NL) described a fissure
on the lateral surface of the brain (920). Caspar
Bartholin (DK) commemorated him by naming it the Sylvian fissure (82).
Moritz Hoffmann (DE), in 1641, claimed to have described the ductus pancreaticus (duct of Wirsüng,
Hoffmann’s duct), the main excretory duct of the
pancreas in the turkey. This work was not published.
Johann Georg Wirsüng (DE) discovered the pancreatic duct in man
yet incorrectly thought it was a chyliferous vessel originating in the
intestine and entering the pancreas (1823).
1643
Charles Bouvard (FR), the king's physician, had probably
prescribed 47 bloodlettings during the last 10 years of Louis XIII of France who
died of Crohn’s disease at the age of 42 years (282).
Typhus (camp fever) epidemic in Oxford and Reading, England (875)
1644
René Descartes (FR) proposed the idea for the Nebular Hypothesis.
It stated that the solar system formed because "God sent adrift a number
of 'vortices' of swirling gas, and these eventually made the stars, which later
changed themselves into comets, which in turn still later formed themselves
into planets" (457).
Evangelista Torricelli (IT) sent a letter to Michelangelo Ricci in
Rome describing his invention, the barometer (1590).
Jean Claude de la Courvée (FR), in 1644, performed the first
symphysiotomy (division of the fibrocartilage of the symphysis pubis, to facilitate delivery). The operation was
performed to save the life of the child after the death of the mother.
Jean-Réne Sigault; Joseph Aignan Sigaud de Lafond (FR) and
Alphonse Louis Vincent Leroy (FR) performed the first division of the symphysis pubis to enlarge the pelvic outlet and thus facilitate
childbirth by a women deformed by rachitis; the mother and child survived (1467; 1468).
James Vaughan (GB) wrote a paper on symphysiotomy (1684).
Typhus (camp fever) epidemic in Tiverton, England (875)
1644-1648
Plague epidemic in Scotland (875)
1645
Marco Aurelio Severino (IT) published his Zootomia Democritaea, the culmination of forty years of
anatomical research, in which he discusses his research on the similarities
that unify the living beings. It is widely considered the first work of
comparative anatomy (1460).
1646
Athanasius Kircher (DE-IT), following his early work with the
microscope, speculated that disease and decay might be brought about by the
activities of tiny living creatures. He says that with the aid of two convex
lenses, held together in a tube, he observed ‘minute ”worms” in all decaying
substances’ —in milk, in the blood of persons stricken with fever, and in the
spittle ‘of an old man who had lived soberly’ (862; 863). He
observed microorganisms in the blood of patients
(864).
Wilhelm Fabry; Wilhelm Fabricius Hildanus (DE) was the first
well-educated barber-surgeon in Germany. He pioneered amputation above the
diseased part in gangrene, invented many surgical instruments, was the first to
recognize congenital pyloric stenosis, and the first Western European to use
the magnet for removal of iron splinters in the eye (519).
1646-1652
Plague epidemic in Spain (875)
1647-1648
Yellow
fever
is epidemic in the West Indies.
1647
Yellow
fever
killed more than 5,000 people in Barbados, and spread from there to Mexico,
Cuba, and elsewhere. A second outbreak in 1691 killed many of the British
settlers in Barbados, who had arrived since the earlier outbreak, whereas older
natives were by this time immune (875).
1648
Jan Baptiste van Helmont; Joannes Baptiste van Helmont; Joan
Baptiste van Helmont; Johannes Baptiste van Helmont (NL) determined
that the gas given off by burning charcoal is the same as that given off by
fermenting grape juice. He called it spiritus silvestre
(“wild spirit”). Today we recognize this as the discovery of carbon
dioxide. He speculated that the process of digestion supplies heat to the body (1628).
Joseph Black (GB) rediscovered carbon dioxide, which he called fixed air, by showing that it is
released when magnesium carbonate or calcium carbonate are heated. He
identified the carbon dioxide thus prepared with that formed in combustion and
fermentation by showing that when the gas was passed into limewater the
carbonate of lime was generated. He was the first to breath into limewater and
observe the formation of a precipitate of calcium carbonate. This experiment
was to influence Antoine Laurent Lavoisier’s (FR) conclusion that respiration
involves combustion within the body. Black is also credited with discovery of
the specific heats of substances (147-150).
Georgius Marcgravus (DE), Willem Piso (NL), Johannes de Laet (BE-NL),
and Franciscus Hackius (NL) described among other animals 100 species of fish
indigenous to the Brazilian coastline (1221).
Another smallpox (red
plague) outbreak spread to many towns in the Massachusetts colony. By this time
there had been many children born in the colony who were susceptible. A
simultaneous epidemic of whooping cough
added to the severity of the epidemic, and to the overall death toll (875).
1648-1649
In response to epidemics of yellow fever in Barbados, Cuba, and
the Yucatan, a strict quarantine was established in Boston, Massachusetts, for
all ships arriving from the West Indies because of “ye plague or like
in[fectious] disease.” (1050)
1649
René Descartes (FR), in 1649, postulated that impulses originating
in the sensory receptors of the body were carried to the central nervous system
where they activated muscles by what he called reflection (455).
Jean Astruc (FR) compared the transformation of an impression or
sensation into a motor discharge to a ray of light reflected on a surface; he
called it a reflex (58).
Gerard Blasius; Gerhard Bläes; Gerardus Leonardus Blasius (NL) was
the first to provide a demonstration of the origin of the anterior and posterior
spinal nerve roots and a differentiation between the gray and white matter of
the spinal cord. He was the first to illustrate clearly the H shape of gray
matter in a cross-section of the spinal cord (157; 158).
Domenico Mistichelli (IT) identified
the crossing of motor fibers at the ventral surface of the medulla oblongata (1072).
Francois
Pourfour du Petit (FR) gave a brief account of the internal structure of the
spinal cord, one of the first descriptions having significant merit, and
presented his theory of contralateral innervation (1239).
Francois
Pourfour du Petit (FR), in 1712, showed that the origin of the
sympathetic nerves is not the cranium. He later cut the cervical sympathetic
nerves in the dog and noted that this affected pupil size, the nictitating
membrane, and secretions from the eye. He
described the decussation of the pyramids more accurately and in greater detail
than his predecessors and was among the first to deduce that the right side of
the brain must control the left side of the body, whereas the left side of the
brain must control the right side of the body (1240).
Johann Jakob
Huber (CH) gave the first detailed and accurate descriptions of the spinal
cord, spinal roots, and denticulate ligaments (793).
Robert Whytt (GB) removed known regions of the central nervous
system and studied how animals reacted thereafter to various stimuli. He
established that the spinal cord is essential for reflex action, described the
pupillary response to light, Whytt’s reflex,
noting that destruction of the anterior corpora
quadrigemina abolished the reaction. He reasoned that the reception of
sensory input was distributed throughout the brain and spinal cord (1802).
Felix Vicq-d'Azyr (FR) established
the arrangement of the fiber bundles of the spinal cord into a posterior and
two lateral columns and a white anterior commissure (1692).
Karl Friedrich Burdach (DE) described the fasciculus cuneatus (253).
Marshall Hall (GB) introduced the concept that the spinal cord is
a chain of segments whose functional units are separate reflex arcs. He
demonstrated tonic closure of the sphincters by reflex action, cessation of
strychnine convulsions after destruction of the spinal cord, and that most
reflexes are more readily elicited by stimulating appropriate end-organs than
through their bared nerve trunks. He coined the use of the phrase reflex action to describe these
functions (675; 1756).
Benedict Stilling (DE) and Joseph Wallach (DE) devised a microtome
which enabled him to cut frozen or alcohol hardened, thin sections and
examine them, unstained, with the microscope. They were the first to study the
spinal cord in serial sections (1529).
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (FR) found that the posterior
columns of the spinal cord convey some sensory impressions. The most important
sensory pathways were found to cross in the cord and, if anything, damage will
cause hypersensitivity on the ipsilateral side of the spinal cord. Paralysis,
loss of muscle sense, hyperasthesia to touch and painful stimuli, and
conservation of sensation to cold and warmth, all appeared on the same side as
spinal cord lesions. On the opposite side voluntary movement and an intact
muscle sense were conserved, however there was a loss or diminution of pain,
warmth, cold, and touch (230-232; 236-239).
Ludwig Türck
(AT) described the ventral corticospinal
tract (1603),
and divided the cord into six pathways or tracts: two anterior, two lateral,
and two posterior (1604).
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (FR) is associated as a clinician
with the description of the syndrome following spinal cord hemi-section, the
so-called Brown-Séquard paralysis,
characterized by the loss of motor power and position sense on the side of the
lesion, with loss of pain and thermal sensibility on the side opposite the
lesion. His experiments showed that the principal conduction of sensation
in the cord is in the central grey matter and anterior columns, rather than in
the conventionally accepted posterior columns (233-235).
Jacob Augustus Lockhart Clarke (GB) described the dorsal nucleus
of the spinal cord. A column of large neurons located in the base of the posterior
grey column (columna dorsalis) of the
spinal cord, extending from the first thoracic through the second lumbar
segment. The neurites reach out into the side-chord to form tractus spinecerebellaris posterior (301). These are
called Clarke’s columns.
Friedrich
Goll (CH) described the fasciculus
gracilis (carries proprioception from the lower limbs
and lower trunk) within the spinal cord (column or tract of Goll) (628).
Paul Emil
Flechsig (DE) demonstrated the dorsal
spinocerebellar tract within the spinal cord
(538).
William
Richard Gowers (GB) delineated the ventral
spinocerebellar tract within the spinal cord
(633).
Heinrich
Lissauer (DE) demonstrated the tractus
dorsolateralis - the poorly myelinated fibers capping the apex of the
posterior horn in the spinal cord (950).
Henry Charlton Bastian (GB) provided the
basis for what became Bastian's law:
a transverse lesion of the spinal cord above the lumbar enlargement results in
abolition of the tendon reflexes of the lower extremities (94).
Constantin von Monakow (RU-CH) described the
rubrospinal tract within the spinal
cord (1739).
Joseph Jules Déjérine (CH-FR) described
radicular myotomes and dermatomes, the somatotopy and connections of the
pyramidal tracts, as well as the lateral
and ventral spinothalamic tracts. He demonstrated the lateral and anterior spinothalamic tracts (the faisceau en croissant de Dejerine) (448).
Bror Rexed (SE) divided the grey matter of the
spinal cord of the cat into 10 (I-X) laminae
based on groupings of neuronal size and distribution. Each contained
functionally distinct neurons and axonal projections (1312).
See, Herophilus, c. 300 B.C.E.;
Galen, c. 175; Fernel, 1526; Ridley, 1695; Descartes, 1649.
William Harvey (GB) became convinced that systole, rather than diastole,
is the active part of the cardiac cycle that begins first in the atria (696; 701).
A smallpox (red plague)
epidemic passes through London. ref
c.
1650
The specific expression, "Above all, do no harm" or
"First, do no harm" and its even more distinctive associated Latin
phrase, Primum est ut non nocere, has
been traced back to an attribution to Thomas Sydenham (GB), c. 1650 (835; 1473).
Hippocrates (GR), in 400 B.C.E. wrote,
"The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and
foretell the future. Must mediate these things, and have two special objects in
view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm" (758).
1650
Jean Bauhin (FR-CH), Johann Heinrich Cherler (CH) in their Historia Plantarum Universalis, dealt
with approximately 5,000 plants. They were among the first, after Aristotle, to
distinguish the species from the genus (98). Bauhin is
commemorated with the genus Bauhina.
Joannus Jonstonus; Jan Jonston (PL) replaced Mollia with the term
Mollusca (847).
Francis Glisson (GB) wrote the first authoritative monograph
published in England dealing with a single disease, rickets (Old English, wrikken, to bend or twist) (615; 617).
Henry R. Viets (GB) had earlier written a less authoritative
treatise on rickets (1797; 1798).
1650-1651
Plague is epidemic in Ireland (875)
1651
"Almost all animals, even those which bring forth their young
alive, and man himself, are produced from eggs.” Often quoted as “omne vivum ex ovo." William Harvey (698)
Note: The
mammalian ovum was discovered nearly two centuries later. See, von Baer, 1827.
"The blood is the first engendered part, whence the living
principle in the first instance gleams forth, and from which the first animated
particle of the embryo is formed; that it is the source and origin of all other
parts, both similar and dissimilar, which thence obtain their vital heat and become
subservient to it in its duties." William Harvey (697).
Nathaniel Highmore (GB) and William Harvey (GB) were among the
first people to carefully study the embryonic development of chickens,
concluding that all life comes from eggs. Harvey described in detail the
anatomical changes occurring in the uterus of the deer during pregnancy and
gave evidence that the ancient doctrine stating that the male semen functioned
to organize matter contained within the uterus was incorrect (697; 698; 700; 750). Note:
This work is viewed as original because it brought embryology out of the Dark
Ages. Highmore's account of the development of the chick is the first
embryological study based on microscopical examination predating Marcello
Malpighi by more than twenty years. It was published within weeks of William
Harvey's book. Harvey and Highmore had collaborated on embryological research
at Oxford since the 1640's.
William Harvey (GB) described the air sacs of birds in detail (698). See, Frederick II, c. 1240.
Jean Pecquet (FR) and Johannes van Horne (DK) discovered that in
dogs the cisterna chyli (receptaculum chyli) flow into the
thoracic duct (ductus thoracius)
which in turn opens into the veins at the union of the jugular and subclavian (1189; 1190; 1631). See, Bartolomeo Eustachi, 1552.
Olof Rudbeck the elder (SE) discovered that the lacteals of Aselli
drain into the receptaculum chyli,
thence into the thoracic duct and thence into the great veins of the neck, and
that on opening the duct’s milky chyle flows out in profusion if, before the
experiment, the animal has been well fed (1143; 1345; 1513).
Thomas Bartholin; Bartholinus (DK) and his assistant Michael Lyser
(DK) reached a very similar conclusion in man: that the lymphatics formed a
hitherto unrecognized physiological system which eventually collects into the
thoracic duct which enters the circulation at the left subclavian vein. They
were the first to find the thoracic duct in man and to realize that lymph is
carried away from the liver to the thoracic duct
(83; 84; 87; 88).
William Hunter (GB) rediscovered lymphatic vessels in man when he
reported, "that they are the same as the lacteals, and that these together
constitute one great general system dispersed through the whole body for
absorption; that this system only does absorb, and not the veins; that it
serves to take up and convey whatever is to make or to be mixed with the blood,
from the skin, from the intestinal canal, and from all the internal cavities or
surfaces whatever" (811). See, Hewson, 1771.
Alexander Monro, secundus
(GB) showed that the lymphatics are absorbents and distinct from the
circulatory system (1080).
Nathaniel Highmore (GB) discovered the maxillary sinus and the
mediastinal testis (749).
Leopoldina was founded in the Holy Roman Empire in what is now
Italy. It is the oldest continuously existing learned society in the world.
1652
Jan Baptiste van Helmont; Joannes Baptiste van Helmont; Joan
Baptiste van Helmont; Johannes Baptiste van Helmont (NL) wrote Ortis Medicinae in which he described
how he performed a famous experiment. He grew a willow tree in a weighed
quantity of soil and showed that after five years, during which time he only
added water; the tree had gained 164 pounds while the soil had lost only two
ounces. Although he incorrectly concluded that the tree converted the water
into its own tissues, this is possibly the first application of a quantitative
method to a biological problem.
He made gravimetric studies of urine and is credited with the
discovery of carbon dioxide and emphasizing the use of the balance in chemistry
and coining the word gas. He described gastric digestion in the terms of
fermentation and states that there is an acid ferment in the stomach but the
acid itself is not the ferment. The acid chyme of the stomach passes into the
duodenum where it becomes alkaline and a second ferment is supplied by the
bile. He is considered the founder of the iatro-chemical
school of medicine (1629; 1630).
John Hunter (GB) later said, "These appearances throw
considerable light on the principle of digestion, and show that it is neither a
mechanical power, nor contractions of the stomach, nor heat, but something
secreted in the coats of the stomach, and thrown into its cavity, which there
animalizes the food or assimilates it to the nature of the blood. The power of
this juice is confined or limited to certain substances, especially of the
vegetable and animal kingdoms; and although this menstruum is capable of acting
independently of the stomach, yet it is indebted to that viscus for its
continuance." (799)
Edward Stevens (GB) had a human subject swallow large silver
containers with perforations “capable of admitting a needle.” The containers
were recovered some thirty-six to forty-eight hours later, after they had
passed through the digestive tract. He tested beef, pork, cheese, pheasant,
vegetables of different sorts, and cereal grains. Usually the foods were found
to have been completely dissolved, but unbroken cereal grains appeared not to
have been altered. Ivory balls were dissolved and disappeared (1492; 1494; 1528).
Lazzaro Spallanzani (IT) swallowed linen bags containing various
foodstuffs to study the action of digestion upon the contents. He studied the
action of saliva on foodstuffs and was among the first to isolate human gastric
juice for study (1491; 1493).
Lazzaro Spallanzani (IT) obtained stomach juice from people with a
little sponge on a thread, which people swallowed, and which was removed. The
experiment showed that the stomach juice dissolves meat but does not dissolve a
flower. This work discovered that the gastric juice is acidic and contains
hydrochloric acid (1492).
Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli (IT) studied the gastric juice from
sheep, cats, fish, and birds. He determined that it is acidic in carnivores
while in herbivores it is alkaline and putrescent. He ascertained that the
gastric juice of carnivorous animals had great curative powers when applied to
foul ulcers or wounds, but that of herbivorous animals was destitute of this
property. He succeeded in determining the solvent powers of the gastric juice
from birds on metals, calcareous stones, rock crystal, and agate (241-243).
Bassiano Carminati (IT) found that gastric
juice is not acidic in carnivorous animals when fasting, but quite acidic in
those that had eaten. He discovered that gastric juice of carnivores could be used
successfully to treat foul ulcers or wounds (273).
"an unknown
affection occurred at Leipzig in 1652 and returned again in 1665. It attacked
puerperal women and was so deadly that but one in ten escaped". (256;
1167; 1442) Note: very
likely what was later called puerperal fever
The Academia Naturae Curiosorum was founded. It later became
Kaiserlich Leopoldinisch Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher
[Royal Leopold and Caroline German Academy of Natural Sciences].
1653
Pierre Borel; Petri Borelli () and Isaac Cattier;
Isaaci Cattieri () were the first to observe and describe a free-living
nematode, which was dubbed the "vinegar eel" (183).
William Harvey (GB) was the first to describe the communication of
the avian pulmonary air-passages with air sacs in the abdominal cavity (699).
John Hunter (GB), in 1758, demonstrated that the air sacs of some
birds extend into their bones. He proved that birds' bones are hollow and contain air sacs by
blocking the windpipes of chickens and hawks then cutting through their wings.
The birds could yet fill their lungs with air, though with great difficulty, by
taking in air through their severed wing bones (800; 804).
1654
Francis Glisson (GB) described the passage of blood from the
portal vein to the vena cava, and proved that lymph flows not to the liver, as
was then believed, but from it, passing to the recently discovered capsula communis. He is remembered for
his description of the fibrous sheath enveloping the portal vein, hepatic
artery and duct, still known as Glisson’s
capsule. He believed
that bile is excrement derived from the portal blood with blood purified by the
liver returning to circulation by way of the vena cava (616).
Francis Glisson (GB) carried out the most detailed investigation
of the liver anatomy up to this point in history
(616).
Francis
Glisson (GB) described the sphincteric fibers around the terminus of the common
bile duct (616).
Ruggero Oddi
(IT) later described these same fibers (1148).
They became known as Oddi’s sphincter.
1655
Thomas Willis (GB) wrote a book on the epidemic of “Camp Fever”
(typhus) in the winter of 1655 (1815).
John Huxham (GB) distinguished between slow nervous (typhoid) and putrid malignant (typhus) fevers (828).
James Lind (GB) studied typhus
(camp fever) then recommended delousing, viz., bathing, clean apparel, and
baking of lice-ridden clothing in ovens (941).
Francesco Enrico Acerbi (IT) postulated that typhus (camp fever) is caused by parasites capable of entering the
body and multiplying there to produce disease (10).
William Wood Gerhard (US) presented a differential diagnosis of
typhus (camp fever) and typhoid fevers (607).
Charles
Murchison (GB) stated that to prevent endemic
typhus (camp fever)one must protect the
individual from lice (1117).
Osip
Moczutkowski (RU) proved that the etiological agent of endemic typhus (camp fever) is present in the blood during the
febrile period by inoculating himself with
such blood (1073).
Charles Jules Henri Nicolle (FR), Charles Compte (FR) and Ernest
Conseil (FR) reported that the body louse, Pediculus
vestimenti, transmits typhus fever (camp fever) from person to person (1139; 1141).
Howard Taylor Ricketts (US) and Russell M. Wilder (US) described a
bacterium, later named Rickettsia prowazekii,
found in the gut of lice feeding on typhus (camp fever) patients (1313; 1314).
Harry Plotz (US), Peter K. Olitsky (US), and Geoege Baehr (US)
isolated and identified the etiological agent of typhus fever (camp fever)
as Rickettsia prowazekii (1225; 1226).
Harry Plotz (US), Peter K. Olitsky (US), and George Baehr (US)
developed a vaccine that proved effective against typhus fever (camp fever) (1227).
Henrique da Rocha-Lima (BR) showed that the bacterium which
Ricketts and Wilder found in the gut of lice feeding on typhus (camp fever) patients, is an intracellular parasite and very
likely the cause of typhus (camp fever). He named the organism Rickettsia prowazekii in honor of Howard
Taylor Ricketts (US), who had died in 1910 of typhus fever (camp fever) during an investigation of that disease,
and Stanislas Josef Matthias von Prowázek (CZ) who also died of typhus (camp fever) while studying it (365).
Edmund Weil (AT) and Arthur Felix (PL-GB) reported that the sera
of patients suffering from typhus (camp fever) agglutinate certain strains of
the bacterium Proteus, originally
isolated from the urine of a typhus fever 9camp fever) victim. The OX-2 and
OX-19 strains of Proteus are commonly
used. Serum from normal persons did not produce a similar result (1774-1776). Later
studies showed that Proteus spp. are
not the cause of typhus fever (camp
fever) and that antibodies against Proteus
spp. normally occur quite commonly in humans. Today this procedure is called the
Weil-Felix Test.
Mather H.
Neill (US) discovered that scrotal reactions of guinea pigs with Mexican typhus (later known as murine typhus) could be used as a
differential test with European, or
epidemic, typhus (camp fever).
It was first known as the Neill phenomenon; later called the Neill-Mooser
phenomenon after Neill and Herman Mooser, a Swiss pathologist working in Mexico (1085; 1129).
William Fletcher (MY) and J.E. Lesslar (MY) found that the Proteus OX-K strain appears specifically
to agglutinate with antibodies to Rickettsia
tsutsugamushi (539).
M. Ruiz Castañeda (MX) and Samuel J. Zia (MX) found
that there is a common antigenic factor in Rickettsia and Proteus X-19 which explains the
Well-Felix reaction (277).
Hans Zinsser (US) demonstrated that Brill's disease is identical to Old World typhus (camp fever) caused by Rickettsia
prowazeki da Rocha Lima (1228; 1851-1853). The
disease was renamed Brill-Zinsser’s
disease.
Isaac de La Peyrère (FR) wrote one of the first books to challenge
the biblical account of creation. Based on human artifacts he asserted that
Adam and Eve were the founding couple only of the Jews. The Gentiles were
older—pre-Adam. His book became very popular—translated into several
languages—and thus earned him the ire of both the Catholics and the Calvinists.
His book was burned in Paris, he was forced to recant his ideas, then forced to
live out his life in a convent (891).
Conrad Victor Schneider (DE) argued that the nasal mucosa, and not
the ventricles or the brain, is the source of nasal secretions (1423). He did not
know that the racemose glands produce the nasal secretion.
Yellow fever is epidemic in Jamaica (875)
During the invasion of Jamaica, Cromwell's troops suffered from dysentery
(bloody flux), with the loss of 1,000 men to both conflict and disease (303).
1656
Thomas Wharton (GB) discovered the duct of the submaxillary
salivary gland (Wharton’s duct) and a gelatinous intercellular substance that
is the primitive mucoid connective tissue of the umbilical cord (Wharton’s
jelly). He is responsible for naming the thyroid gland “thyreoidea”, meaning
oblong shield in Greek. He also deserves credit for being
the first to associate the adrenal glands with a function of the nervous
system. His description of the adrenals taking a substance from nerves and
transferring it to veins preceded the neuroendocrine concept of the adrenal
medulla that we have only appreciated in the 20th century (1796).
Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (CH) confirmed Wharton’s work on the
adrenal glands (1733).
Dominici de Marchettis; Domenico De Marchetti; Dominicus de
Marchettis (IT) shows anastomosis of arterioles and veins by injection (428).
Étienne Blankaard; Steven Blankaart; Stephano
Blancardo; Stephen Blancard; Blancardus (NL) demonstrated by injection, in
1675, the continuity of arterial and venous capillaries (156). See, Marello Malpighi (IT), 1661. Leonardo da Vinci (IT),
in his dissections (1489–1515), injected the blood vessels with wax for
preservation and thereby discovered and named the capillaries.
Felix Platter (CH) gave the first more detailed description of cretinism
in 1602: “it is usual that many infants suffer from innate folly. Besides, the
head is sometimes misshapen: the tongue is huge and swollen; they are dumb; the
throat is often goitrous. Thus they present an ugly sight; and sitting in the
streets and looking into the sun, and putting little sticks in between their
fingers, twisting their bodies in various ways, with their mouths agape they
provoke passersby to laughter and astonishment. Note: Cretinism
is congenital hypothyroidism deficiency syndrome. ref
Thomas Blizard Curling (GB) described two clinical cases of myxedema
(hypothyroidism) associated with cretinism (353).
William M. Ord (GB) published a paper in which he coined the term myxoedema
and published the first photography of a patient (1153; 1154).
1656-1657
Plague is epidemic in Italy (875)
1657-1669
A pandemic of malarial fever (the ague) takes place. ref
1657-1659
England experiences epidemic catarrhal fever (probably influenza).
ref
1657
Boston, MA experienced a measles (rubeola) epidemic (1050).
Christopher Wren (GB) is credited with the creation of the first
syringe for intravenous injections by fastening a dog’s bladder to a sharpened
goose quill (611). Wren was
preceded in 1652 in the use of this device by Francis Potter, a British rector,
whose choice of pullets as an experimental animal doomed his experiments to
failure (762; 858).
Johann Daniel Major (DE) and Johann S. Elsholtz (DE) wrote the
first books on intravenous infusions in humans (505; 993).
Dominique
Anel (FR), a surgeon to the seventeenth-century French army, is usually
credited with the invention, in 1714, of the kind of syringe used today. He
devised this instrument for the surgical treatment of fistula lacrymalis (1250).
Francis Rynd (IE) invented the hollow metal needle. He first used
it in 1844 to administer morphine by gravity through the needle into a patient
suffering from neuralgia (1365).
Charles-Gabriel
Pravaz (FR) and Alexander Wood (GB) are independently credited with the
invention of the hypodermic syringe in 1853. Pravaz, a veterinarian, made
intra-arterial injections into animals to treat
aneurysm (1243). Wood, a
physician, first made subcutaneous injections of opiates to relieve pain (1830). The
first recorded fatality from a hypodermic syringe induced overdose was Dr.
Wood's wife. The tragedy arose because she was injecting morphine to excess.
The Academia del Cimento
was founded at Florence, Italy. Its purpose was scientific investigation.
1658-1665
Thomas Willis (GB) tells of typhus (camp fever) and influenza
(grippe) being present in England. ref An outbreak of influenza in April
1658 led him to treat almost 1000 patients a week for a short period (1817).
1658
James Ussher (GB) calculated the date of creation, based on the
ages of biblical prophets. Using his calculations, future theologians
identified the date of creation as October 26, 4004 B.C.E. (1614).
Jan Swammerdam (NL) discovered the erythrocyte in the frog (1658)
then in man (1662), described lymphatic valves and the alteration in the shape
of muscles during contraction. In his study of the insects he produced outstanding
drawings, classified them, and described their transformations, i.e., he
started modern entomology. Swammerdam’s work was unpublished until Herman
Boerhaave (NL) published it at his own expense (1549; 1550). He is
commemorated by Atylus swammerdami
Milne-Edwards, 1830. Note: The 1737-1738 book is considered the finest
one-man collection of microscopic observations.
Francois de la Boë Sylvius; Franciscus Sylvius (DE-NL) promoted
the Iatro-chemical school of
medicine, whose followers used medicines and did not accept the humoral pathology. While professor of
medicine at Leyden he convinced the authorities to build a Laboratorium, probably the first chemical laboratory in a
university. Sylvius introduced bedside teaching and stressed the importance of
pathological studies. He pointed out that the formation of tubercles in the
lungs represents the essential pathological finding in phthsis (tuberculosis) (1561; 1562).
Johann Jakob Wepfer (CH) described the autopsy of a case with
subarachnoid hemorrhage and theorized that a broken blood vessel in the brain
may cause apoplexy (stroke) (1789).
1659
“In December 1659 the (until then unknown) Malady of Bladders in the
Windpipe, invaded and removed many Children; by Opening of one of them the
Malady and Remedy (too late for very many) were discovered.” (1024) Cotton Mather (US), minister in Boston, MA. Note:
most likely a reference to diphtheria (Boulogne sore throat).
Thomas Willis (GB) proposed the idea that fermentation is an
internal motion of particles. He pointed to the similarity between fermentation
and putrefaction. Early chemists were interested in putrefaction or rotting of
various infusions because it was known that industrially useful substances such
as lactic acid, butyric acid, or ethanol could be obtained from these infusions
as they putrefied (1810).
1660
The Royal Society of London took as its motto the phrase Nullius in verba [No man’s word shall be
final].
Robert Boyle (GB) was convinced of the particulate nature of air.
He explored not only the physical properties of air, but also its fundamental
role in combustion and respiration, through the use of physiological
experiments (192; 197).
Nicolas Le Febvre (FR), Thomas Jolly (FR), and Abbaye Saint-Denis
(FR) wrote Traicte de la Chymie in
which they held that the function of air in respiration was to purify the blood (921).
Konrad Victor Schneider (DE) demonstrated that nasal mucus is a
product of mucous glands lining the nasal cavity
(1424).
Smallpox (red Plague) is epidemic in Brazil (875)
1661
Robert Boyle (GB) is credited with being the first to produce pure
methyl alcohol (methanol, wood alcohol) despite the fact of its production in
antiquity (193).
Robert Boyle (GB), in his book The
Sceptical Chemist, is given credit for defining an element as it is
currently used in chemistry. He also emphasized the importance of the Baconian
method of experimental science as opposed to blind acceptance of previous authority (193).
Marcello Malpighi (IT), anatomist, general histologist, and
professor of medicine, discovered fine hair-like blood vessels in the lungs of
frogs connecting arterial and venous blood; they were later called capillaries. He offered proof that the
windpipe terminates in many small, dilated air vessels; they were later called alveoli. Malpighi thus presented the
correct anatomy for respiratory exchange. He described lymph nodes and
discussed the glands (glomeruli) of the kidney. He wrote the first treatise to
deal with an invertebrate—the silkworm. He was among the first to describe the
embryonic development of the chick, using the microscope. (See, Highmore 1651b) He described the respiratory vessels in
insects, spiral looking cells in plant stems, and openings on the underside of
leaves; later to be called stomata,
and gave the first account of the development of the seed (18; 995; 1000; 1001; 1004; 1007). He was
commemorated with the plant genus Malpighia
and the family, Malpighiaceae.
John Ray (GB) discovered hermaphroditism among pulmonate snails.
In his book, Catalogus Plantarum Circa
Cantabrigiam Nascentium he says, "Not even this lethal plant [the deadly
nightshade (Atropa belladonna)] escapes
the teeth of snails and slugs for its leaves are freely eaten in spring by
these creatures. In passing one may mention that they are hermaphrodite. That
they alternately function as male and female by impregnating and receiving at
the same time will be clear to anyone who separates them as they are having
intercourse in Spring, although neither Aristotle nor any other writer on
Natural History has recorded this fact" (517; 1277).
Jan Swammerdam (NL), in his 1669 book, Historia Insectorum Generalis mentioned "Snails discharge
their excrements by the neck, and are each of them, both Male and Female" (1546).
Johann Jacob Harder (CH)
discovered hermaphroditism among the pulmonate mollusks (687).
Thomas Willis (GB) suggested the nervous origins of convulsive
disorders such as epilepsy, asthma, apoplexy, narcolepsy, and convulsive
coughs. He gave an account of whooping cough, described the role of bronchial
innervation, and the late-stage effects of syphilis on the brain. He describes
a typhoid epidemic of 1661, in England (1811).
Thomas Willis (GB) in a section titled ‘Of the Phrensy’, offered
‘meningitis’ as the modern diagnosis of phrensy/phrenitis. Moreover, Willis
clearly described the pathology of compression of the brain as a consequence of
meningeal inflammation and also mentions an epidemic of meningitis, reigning An.
1661, which chiefly infested the brain and the genus nervosum (1816).
Scarlet fever appears in England. ref
1661-1665
Typhus (camp fever) is epidemic in London (875)
1662
The Royal Society of London
was formally incorporated in 1662. It had begun in 1645 when a group of doctors
and scientists in London formed a society they called The Invisible College. It briefly moved to Oxford then returned to
London. Charles II approved their organization in 1660 (1498).
Robert Boyle (GB) formulated what became known as Boyle’s law—at a
stated temperature, a given mass of gas varies in volume inversely as the
pressure (194).
Niels Stensen; Nicholas Stenonis; Nicholas Steno; Nicolaus Steno;
Niels Steensen; Nicolaus Steensen (DK) described the excretory duct of the parotid
gland (parotis or (Stensen’s duct) while dissecting the
head of a sheep. He also described the lacrymeal gland and ducts used to bath
the eye (1514; 1519; 1524).
Smallpox (red
plague) killed more than a thousand Iroquois in Central New York State (875).
1663
Jan Swammerdam (NL) performed laboratory experiments on the
contraction of frog muscle (1549; 1550).
Marcello Malpighi (IT) posthumously described tubular sense organs
he found in some fish in 1663. These became known as "ampullae of
Lorenzini" (1003). See, Stefano Lorenzini, 1678.
Lorenzo Bellini (IT) described renal tubules for the first time, Bellini’s ducts, and proposed how urine
might be formed (118).
Hendrick van Roonhuyse (NL) gave the first
deliberate and detailed account of the repair of a vesicovaginal fistula. His
book is regarded as the first work on operative gynecology in the modern sense.
He successfully performed caesarean section several times, and he used
retractors for the repair of vesico-vaginal fistulae (1677).
Girolamo Cardano; Jerome Cardan (IT) used raised letters to
communicate with the blind and described a formal method for teaching deaf
mutes to communicate with signs (269).
North American colonists established their first hospital. It was
on Long Island in what would become New York State (994).
1663-1668
The plague is epidemic
in England, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. (875)
1664
"They have considered the heart as the seat of vital heat,
the throne of the spirit or the soul itself. They have revered the organ as sun
or king, but if one looks at the heart with more care, only its muscular nature
can be found" Niels Stensen; Nicholas Stenonis; Nicholas Steno; Nicolaus
Steno; Niels Steensen; Nicolaus Steensen (1515)
Robert Boyle (GB), in 1664, was the first to distinguish between
acids, bases, and neutral substances, and in his 1664 Experiments he codified the analysis of solutions by use of colored
vegetable extracts serving as "indicators" of the presence of acids
or bases or neutral substances (196). He is
credited with the introduction of litmus paper.
William Croone; William Croune (GB) suggested that within muscle
cells the globules (sarcomeres), delineated by cross-striations, may serve as
units of contraction. He also assumed that contraction occurs without a change
in muscle volume and proposed that nerves play a role in conducting the
stimulus from the brain to the muscle fibers (343; 344). See, Stensen, 1664 and 1667.
Reijnier de Graaf (NL) performed the first cannulization. He
introduced a temporary cannula, made of the quill of a wild duck, into the
pancreatic duct of a living dog, and studied the properties of the liquid
obtained. He noted its color, what he thought was an acid reaction, and its
bitter taste (410; 414).
Gerard Blasius; Gerhard Bläes; Gerardus Leonardus Blasius (NL)
discovered and named the arachnoid
membrane, one of the three meninges covering the brain; presenting his
finding to the Anatomical Society of Amsterdam in 1664 (157; 531).
Humphrey Ridley (GB) described the arachnoid membrane and observed
that it invests various cerebral vessels and intracranial nerves. He disproved
the idea that some cerebral arteries terminated directly into the major venous
sinuses of the brain (1315).
Frederik Ruysch (NL) described the arachnoid membrane as a
complete layer surrounding the brain (515).
Thomas Willis (GB) gave one of the earliest descriptions of the
arterial supply of the brain, the Circle
of Willis, and a precise account of the cranial nerves, Nerves of Willis. He was certain about
the location of the thought process. He wrote, "in truth within the womb
of the brain all the conceptions, ideas, forces and powers whatsoever both of
the rational and sensitive soul are formed, and having there gotten a species
are transformed into acts." Regarding the function of the cerebral cortex
he said, "Then if the same fluctuation of the spirits is struck against
the cortex of the brain, as its utmost banks, it impresses on it the image or
character of the sensible object, which when it is afterwards reflected or bent
back, raises up the memory of the same thing…And sometimes a certain sensible
impression…striking against the cortex of the brain itself…and so induces
memory with phantasie." For him the cerebellum and the pons were
responsible for the involuntary motions of various organs, such as the heartbeat,
breathing and gastrointestinal peristalsis. He was the first to describe the
ganglions of the sympathetic nerves and recognized the vagus nerve, erroneously
assuming it had its origin in the cerebellum. Domenico de Marchetti (IT) coined
the name vagus for this cranial nerve.
Willis attempted to correlate the organization of the brain’s
convolutions with intelligence and stressed that the brain's workings are
mediated by the brain parenchyma and not, as previously held, by the
ventricles.
He stressed that the nerves do not contain cavities like arteries
and veins but are firm and compacted. Willis described the eleventh cranial
nerve. In the 1664 work he coined the word neurology
(neurologie) and named the pyramidal
system in the brain (believing it to be a reservoir for the animal
spirits). He anticipated what would later be called dementia praecox when in 1664 he wrote, "young persons who,
lively and spirited, and at times even brilliant in their childhood, passed
into obtuseness and hebetude during adolescence" (1814; 1818).
Emanuel Swedenborg (SE) deduced that the cerebrum of the brain is
the source of understanding, thinking, judging, and willing. He inferred the
intellectual functions of the frontal lobes. He described what is the first
known anticipation of the neuron (a nerve cell with its processes) (14; 1554).
Niels Stensen; Nicholas Stenonis; Nicholas Steno; Nicolaus Steno;
Niels Steensen; Nicolaus Steensen (DK) made a careful investigation of the ox
heart musculature. After a thorough examination he stated: "As to the
substance of the heart, I think I am able to prove that there exists nothing in
the heart that is not found also in a muscle, and that there is nothing missing
in the heart which one finds in a muscle." He also described the anatomy
and function of the respiratory muscles including the diaphragm (1515; 1518; 1523).
1665-1666
Smallpox (red plague) is epidemic in Brazil and Boston, Massachusetts
(875).
1665
Robert Hooke (GB) published a theory of combustion. He stated that
ordinary air contains a small amount of matter identical with a substance found
in nitre (potassium nitrate). This substance has the property of rapidly
dissolving combustibles, with combustion being the result of their rapid motion (779). In this
same publication Hooke described and illustrated a parasitic rose rust (Phragmidium
mucronatum) and a saprophytic Mucor.
Robert Hooke (GB) used a compound microscope to describe small
pores in sections of cork that he called cells.
" . . . I could exceedingly plainly perceive it to be all perforated and
porous. . . these pores, or cells, . . . were indeed the first microscopical
pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any
Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this." In his
book, Micrographia, he also described
and made beautiful drawings of insects, feathers, Foraminifera, and fish
scales, as well as, hair and wool both in their natural condition and after
dying. He may be the first to have stained objects for viewing. He specifically
mentions using logwood (hematoxylin) to stain fluids (779).
Robert Boyle (GB) presented his method of fixing and preserving soft-bodied animal specimens in wine spirits