Put up an entry for Wilhelm Zehender. Have about 25 more books to add to the bibliography and so will begin the work of listing them.
Put up an entry for a memorial Professor Griesinger written by two of his close colleagues, Karl Westphal and Moritz Lazarus.
Put up an entry for Clinique photographique de l'Hopital Saint-Louis by Hardy and Montmeja. The first edition of this important skin atlas can be found on the excellent BIUM website in France, complete with splendid images of all 49 plates. So as not to be redundant, I will put up the 11 extra plates which appeared in the second edition.
There are now 100 titles in the bibliography.
Put up a listing for another surgical case by Toland with its image.
Added the portrait albumen by the photographer William Notman to the Drown listing.
Listed the testimonial to Thomas M. Drown.
Added a brief description to the Porter listing.
Put up more images for the Porter listing. Cleaned up some code problems.
Put up the listing for Charles B. Porter. More images and a description to follow.
Finally put up the description for Juan Giné y Partagás.
Put up a listing for Charles Mercier. A description will follow but am trying to find text which links the emminent British psychiatrist with Capek's French character, Dr. Charles Mercier, distinguished newt scholar in his sci-fi novel, The War With The Newts.
Also put up a list of titles in the bibliography....approaching 100 titles.
Also returned to working on the dermatology volumes, specifically writing a description for the Gine y Partagas atlas.
Added Lewis Shapter's article on a case of functional athetosis which he published in the journal Brain in 1880. Curiously, he signs the piece with his office as chief physician at the Devon and Essex Hospital, the same office held by the Thomas Shapter who was important for an epidemological classic he wrote on cholera. Could Lewis be his son?
The work is illustrated by a gem, a woodburytype of a young boy afflicted with a hemiplegia.
Added Dalton's Topographical Anatomy of the Brain to the bibliography and included his recipe for sectioning the brain. Scarce atlas, I found a period review which stated that only 200 copies were issued!
Continued my work on a list of titles, am up to the E's.
Added William H. Geddings article on a fatal case of sarcoma in a very young girl. Also made corrections to the Parvin description. Also began work on an alphabetical list of the titles in the bibliography.
Added Henry Van Holsbeek's Biographie Du Docteur André Uytterhoeven.
Added George Hamilton's memoir of Meigs.
Put up a listing for Landouzy and Dejerine's work, De la Myopathie Atrophique Progressive with a jpeg of one of the 18 photogravure images that illustrate the book. Very early representation of photoengraving on metal plates.
Put up a listing for Parvin and its unsettling photographs representing a purported xenomenia in a fourteen year old girl. Identifying her only by her initials, A. P., Parvin gives only a glimpse into the sad mental disorder of his subject who was rejected by her family and who much suffered the drift of her young years as a child runaway.
Added a description to the Billings and Matthews work. Will get around to adding some images eventually, but because there are 25 of them, the task is a little daunting.
Put up the listing for Jankau's notice of Röntgen's discovery of X-rays. Only three paragraphs long and appearing in his journal, Internationale photographische monatsschrift für medizin und naturwissenschaften, Jankau included a mounted photograph of a woman's hand with a ring as a frontispiece to the journal. Truly an historic photo, perhaps the most important one to appear in print since the publication of Talbot's Pencil of Nature!
Put up the listing for Keating and Edwards. Rare book!
Put up the listing for Laherre. Could find no copies in American libraries. No indication of the photographer.
Put up the listing for Rieger.
Put up the listing for Hering.
Put up the listing for Grasset, Traité pratique des maladies du système nerveux, with its two great woodburytypes of a patient with hemiplagia, photographed by M. Martin.
A copy of the Susan Dimock recently came available on the internet book sites and in spite of the dear price I had to purchase it for the bibliography. The bookseller was selling it with an extremely rare tintype of this extraordinary physician who had just foundered the first school for nursing when her life ended so tragically at sea. There cannot be very many photographs of Dimock and the tintype I am presenting here closely matches the frontispiece to the book. The photo session most likely occurred in Züich Switzerland where she attended medical school, ca1870.
Put up a listing for Toland with its remarkable albumen illustrating the use of his instrument for conforming the nose after plastic surgery.
Put up a listing for Labarthe.
Put up a listing for Wecker.
Put up a listing for Meyer and Montmeja with four of the images.
Put up a listing for Fonseca.
Put up a listing for Loffler.
Put up a listing for Magnin.
Put up a listing for Gerlach.
Put up a listing for Sternberg.
Put up a listing for Hauser.
Put up a listing for Graves.
Put up a listing for Seguin.
Put up a listing for William Bevan Lewis.
Put up a listing for Browne and Behnke.
Put up a listing for Curwen.
Put up a listing for Hobbs with its three heliotypes.
September 9.
For the next week or so I am just going to get books logged into the bibliography without descriptions. My intention is to take advantage of the knowledge of a rare book dealer who is taken with a pity for my labors here and who has kindly offered me the annotations of his vast experience on the subject of early medical books with photographic illustrations. Thankyou Malcolm!
Added an image and description to the Becker atlas. Also fixed the grammar in the Dimock description.
Got an email from an historian at the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. He is looking to get an appraisal for a large collection of medical slides from the period 1960-1990. Unfortunately, this period is beyond the scope of my reading so I could not help him.
I am in correspondence with a rare book man out of the Boston area who specializes in the photographic stuff. He was kind enough to send his catalogue and I will be putting up the listings beginning with this rare memoir of Susan Dimock, first woman physician of North Carolina.
Again I am indebted to the generosity of the poet John Wood who sent along a xerox copy of the Damon dermatological atlas. I got a chance to view the gem-like images and although Damon's text is spare and encyclopedic the preface is interesting for its references to the English dermatologist Squire and the Boston photographer George Moore. I put the preface up in its entirety.
The Fere description took longer than I expected. Because he is coming out of Salpetriere where Charcot made what today's reworkers of history refer to as an industry based on an imaginative science of hysteria and an institutional subjection of women (cf. Foucault) there are a lot of riddles and puzzles to think about. Much of it is jargon and a waste of time, but then one comes across an image conceived by a photographer like Albert Londe or a physician artist like Paul Richer and the roof of the skull suddenly vanishes.
Put up the other 7 plates of the Fere. Began work on a description.
Another favorite book comes to my mind for introducing this month of work on the bibliography, namely Les épilepsies et les épileptiques by Charles Samson Féré of the circle Charcot. Because he was Charcot's "secrétaire et chef de laboratoire" during the writing of this volume, I feel confident in attributing the photographic images in the book to Albert Londe who was then supervising Charcot's photographic labs at the Salpêtrière. Both men can be seen in the famous painting of Charcot and his proteges by A. Brouillet. Charcot's patient, Blanche Wittmann, is depicted as well and interestingly she is the subject of Le Magnetisme Animal which Fere wrote with Alfred Binet and published in 1887.
Put up another very rare book by Lionel Beale.
Put up the beautiful images from the Roth volume.
Put up an image of the frontispiece by Dr. Richard Leach Maddox and expanded on the description. The chapter on photography begins with an historical synopsis of photomicrography and although it is biased toward the work of English contributors, Beale does acknowledge the work of John Dean. He also mentions a few other photographically illustrated works which I will have to search out for the bibliography including one he produced on the liver----photographs of drawings he made from microscopic images.
I will be too busy at my day job for the next week and so I do not anticipate any significant additions to the bibliography during this time.
Beale book arrived today and sweet thing! It has an entire chapter on photo-micrography. This will require a careful reading and possibly copying the entire chapter into the bibliography. In his preface Beale apologizes for the long delay between editions and then explains he had to take the time to get it right. This third edition of How To Work with a Microscope is the first to have the mounted albumen and the chapter on photography, so getting it right must be referring especially to these enhancements. The mounted albumen appearing as the frontispiece is a composite of several microscopic images made by Dr. Richard Leach Maddox, important in the history of photography for his invention of dry plate photography which replaced the wet collodion process. In fact, it is surprising to me that none of the on-line bookdealers are aware of this contribution by Maddox to Beale's book.
Added images to the Powers page. I put the images in a slide show format using the simplest java script I could find. They are a quite stunning chronicle of days showing the progression of the smallpox disease. Unfortunately, the slide show takes a while to preload.... browsers with slow speed connections may experience problems.
Put up a listing for Samuel A. Powers, the superintendent of the Boston Small-pox [sic] Hospital. However which smallpox hospital is a mystery to me. It might be the one which was located in Brookline on Southampton Street, but there are a couple of other possibilities.
The images are remarkable although the reproduction by heliotype is somewhat poor. The first 16 plates are sequential images of young man who contracted the illness. There is one image of a baby and the artifacts that appear in that negative are quite spooky. I will try to put up images in a day or two.
Put up a listing for Lionel Beale. I located a copy of the work being offered by a Washington DC book dealer and it is somewhat reasonable in price. If he accepts my offer then I will soon provide a jpeg of the good professor.
My internet connection is extremely slow due the Blaster Worm. Still, I managed to put up a listing for a scarce book by Theodor Billroth.
I know I should be sticking to the dermatological theme but I got a little bored and wanted to revisit Addinell Hewson's book, Earth as a topical application in surgery. Since everyone else is blaming the "Blackout", I will use the same excuse for my fickleness of intent.
Digressed from dermatology to put up a listing for Carl Seiler. An obscure journal of histology which I do not want to forget to include in the bibliography.
Put up a listing and description for Alexander Balmanno Squire who published the first dermatological text illustrasted with photographs.
August 11.
Began work on the Squire listings. I think I have leads on three of his books illustrated with photographs. Also made corrections to the Fox listings.
Put up a listing and partial description for two works by Howard Franklin Damon. I do not know too much about him but it sounds as if he was a Boston Brahmin. Looking forward to actually holding his books in my hand.
This past month I have been handling old dermatological texts and incurred a sympathetic case of urticaria or "hives"! I never suffered skin problems before except for an occasional outbreak from poison oak and the usual childhood episodes of a mild pox. At first I feared it was a bacterium and maybe even something I picked up from the old volumes I was handling. Fortunately the rash proved to be intermittent and I could dismiss the worse agency.
Put up a partial description for the first George Henry Fox atlas. Also got a nice email from a photographer who did work on the 2002 Mütter Museum calendar.
Listings made for the Fox Photographic Illustrations of Skin Diseases and his Photographic illustrations of cutaneous syphilis. with some thumbnails of the illustrations. Descriptions will follow.
These past four weeks I digressed from the bibliography so that I could transpose into html a splendid little book of poems by John Wood entitled "Diseases of the Skin". It was a lot of work but what it will bring to the cutaneous portion of the bibliography is a marvel of dimensionality. John Wood is the most knowledgeable writer I know on O. G. Mason the photographer who made the astounding images for George Henry Fox's photographic atlases of skin diseases. It is remarkable how little is known about Mason considering that he is every way the equal of Albert Londe, the chief photographer of the Salpetriere in Paris. I look forward to further discoveries from John Wood and hope that they will continue to find their way into this bibliography. This month I will put up the Fox pages to the bibliography ----Thanks John!!!
July 9.
Started work on George Henry Fox pages.
Everyone else is partying. I wrote a description for the Gamgee monograph and a listing for Houel.
Installed images for the Gamgee listing. Description to follow.
Thought I would begin this month with a favorite book; History of a Successful Case of Amputation at the Hip-Joint by J. Sampson Gamgee, with two large mounted albumens by Sarony and two oval albumens by Pierre-Petit. Dr. Gamgee was the inventor of a surgical dressing which is still in use today. Strangely, this book is not listed in the Gernsheim bibliography. Description and photos to follow.
For the introduction to the Edgeworth paper I added a few comments about the plates. Also maybe figured out how to present Duchenne's books. It was nice revisiting electrophysiology--- some photographer should do a reenactment of Aldini's galvanic experiments on the heads of criminals--- but I want to move on to something different.
June 28
I am in correspondence with a poet who has a wealth of knowledge regarding O.G.Mason, the nineteenth century photographer for Bellevue Hospital and illuminator of such major works as Fox's dermatology atlases and Sayre's orthopaedic volumes. I hope to provide his knowledge for the benefit of those wandering scholars who chance their way here.
Took some work, but the text to Dr. Edgeworth's review of Duchenne's Physionomie is installed. It requires a fuller introduction perhaps, but it will have to wait. I made one change to the text by separating all quotations into 'blockquotes' and rendering them in italic font.
There are only three plates accompanying the article but a fourth plate is cited by the author and was probably meant to be included but probably dropped by the publisher because of expense. I will try to procure the missing images.
"On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and, excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me."---Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1797-1851. Frankenstein.
Put up a page for Edgworth's discussion of Duchenne's Physionomie. Instead of composing a description I may simply scan the text for the web, there is considerable interest in the Physionomie and this is a scarce writing that is pretty much unknown by Duchenne scholars.
Put up a page for Engels, autopsy report of a man who died from an aneurism. Although the albumen photo is extremely faded, to my eye it appears to be a photo that was painted over by an artist and then the art was photographed for publication. Quite likely a photograph was made while the subject was alive, but for some reason it did not develop well and needed to be enhanced. The subject probably died suddenly before a better image could be made.
Put up a page for Thomas Murray Drysdale.
Put up a page for Fordyce Barker. This will conclude my work on the A-B folder for now although I have a few more names to add. Will now proceed to work on the C-E folder.
Added a description to the Bigelow page.
Put up a page for William Sturgis Bigelow's paper on a serious contamination of newborns at Boston Lying-In Hospital. Bigelow's father was a prolific contributor to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and I am happy to have found a photographic illustration to an article which, though it was written by his son, is nevertheless connected to this distinguished Boston family of surgeons. The heliograph is a reproduction of a drawing William Sturgis made for the article.
Linked all the thumbnail images on the Sayre page to enlargements.
Skipped to working on the Lewis Sayre page. Extraordinary photographic images of Pott's disease and Dr.Sayre's suspension apparatus for its treatment.
Completed a description of Brigham's report on Amputation of the Thigh for a Medullary Sarcoma of the Leg.
May 27:
Hope to finish the A-B Folder of authors this month. Within the scope of my present knowledge there are only about three more authors to add, however names keep popping up. Today brought the two more Brigham entries for the bibliography with descriptions to follow.
May 26:
Description for Dr. Bard's report is uploaded.
May 25:
Set up another page for Charles B. Brigham on his amputation at the thigh for a sarcoma. Description to follow.
May 24:
Plates 1 and 2 for Buckminster Brown's case of hip displasia are scanned and uploaded. Also put up a listing for Dr. Bard's report on a possible superfoetation, description to follow.
May 24:
Brief description for Dr. Andrei's operation for advanced ovarian tumor is uploaded.
May 21:
I am preparing the listing for Dr. Andrei's operation for advanced ovarian tumor published in the February issue of the W. Lancet. His comments on the state of medical science as it was being practised by his colleagues in San Francisco are a hoot. The editorials in the journal are also feverish, giving the impression there was a wild land grab for reputation going on at the time. Brueghel's Haywain comes to mind.
May 20:
A description for the Belton listing is now uploaded. The Western Lancet is proving to be a rare beast indeed...... it does not show up in an online search of the Library of Congress and I could find holdings at only two medical libraries. Quite possibly it had a circulation of less than two hundred simply because of the difficulty and expense of publishing albumens.
May 19:
A listing for Dr. Belton is added to the A-B Folder with a jpeg of the albumen photograph that illustrates the cheiloplasty case he writes about. Description to follow.
May 16:
Sniffed out a Western Lancet volume the first and paid dearly for it but it will yield several medical albumens, including a reproduction of a plate from the Montmeja, Traité des opérations qui se pratiquent sur l'oeil. Nowhere in the book does there appear credit for photography. For now an attribution to the photography firm, Bradley and Rulofson will suffice for the following reasons. This establishment was the largest and most successful in San Francisco at the time and would have been a reliable service for the publication of photos. They provided mounted photographic illustrations for other publications, sometimes without imprimatur (First Steamship Pioneers.1874; Pacific coast Pulpit containing Sermons by prominent Preachers of San Francisco and Vicinity. 1875). They employed many photographers including Muybridge and Isaiah Taber and the various photographs in the Lancet do seem to have stylistic differences.
May 14:
Syphilis of the Brain by Thomas Stretch Dowse has now been added to the bibliography with a brief description. The book is printed on a brittle pulp paper unfortunately and every copy I have seen has pages breaking off.
May 11:
Just got a nice e-mail from a photography dealer who lives in Brussels and she attached an image from her Duchenne. Thankyou!!! I set up the page for the second edition of Duchenne's Physionomie with the photo she sent. Eventually I will get around to writing a description although I do not know what I can add to the volumes that have already been written about this masterpiece in the photographic incunabula.
May 10:
Added the portraits that go with the Folsom description. I will be slowing work on the bibliography for the next week or so. I have one or two more Brigham articles to add, also I want to scan the images for Brown's article on hip displasia, but I may start work on the D-G folder instead.
May 8:
The Amory description is completed.
May 7:
I added two images to the Dagonet page. Began writing on the Amory listing.
May 6:
Still working on folder A-C. Added another Brigham entry on Hare-lip.