Hidden Treasure: the National Library of Medicine
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“My fantasy holiday is a week spent locked in the archives of the National Library of Medicine, so you can imagine how excited I am about this book. It’s an incomparable treasure trove. I hugged it to my chest like a four-year-old with a new pair of shoes.” — Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Packing for Mars The NatioNAl Library of M edicine “Opening this volume is like lifting up the lid of a treasure chest. The images and artifacts HIDDEN from the NLM’s historical coffers are intriguing, sometimes startling, unfailingly fascinating, and made all the more evocative by the authoritative, playful short reflections, many written TREASURE by leading scholars in the history of medicine. Brilliantly conceived and beautifully produced, this is an amazing exploration of the visual and material cultures of health, medicine, and the body in their widest and most imaginative reaches.” —John Harley Warner, Chair of History of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine Medicine / History ISBN: 978-0-922233-42-7 U.S. $50 Can. $54.95 Hidden Treasure The NaTioNal library of Medici Ne Hidden Treasure The NaTioNal library of Medici Ne edited by michaeL Sappol desigNed by Laura lindgReN PhotogRaphy by Arne Svenson NationaL library Of Medicine BetheSda, MarylaNd BLast BOOks NeW york CONTeNTS China Illustrated, Athanasius Kircher Biomicroscopy of the Eye, Milton Lionel Berliner Civil War Surgical Card Collection Timothy Billings • 64 Hannah Landecker • 132 Shauna devine • 182 Charles Darwin Collection Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman, Mary Swift Lamson Florence Nightingale Collection Foreword Jonathan Smith • 68 elisabeth gitter • 134 Charles Rosenberg • 184 donald a. B. Lindberg, Md 7 Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos, Balthazar Solvyns Mayerle’s Lithographed International Test Chart, George Mayerle First Aid on the Battlefield, Johann Friedrich August von Esmarch Introduction Sita Reddy • 72 Stephen p. Rice • 136 Mark Harrison • 186 Michael J. North, Jeffrey S. Reznick, and Michael Sappol 8 Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, Mungo Park Experimental Surgery Drawings, William P. Didusch Plastic Reconstruction of the Face Charles W. J. Withers • 74 Mark kessell • 138 Zoe Beloff • 188 hiddeN TreaSure Su¯tra of Great Liberation Atlas of Colored Plates, Elias Smith Mess Kit and Silver Chev’ Olaf Czaja • Mary Cappello • Jeffrey S. Reznick • Commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima, Lambertus de Monte 76 140 190 Walton O. Schalick • 14 Marvels of Things Created, Al-Qazwini Mesmerism Scrapbooks, Theodosius Purland Russo-Japanese War Photo Album Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom • Marianne Noble • alexander Bay • Epitome, Andreas Vesalius 78 142 192 andrea Carlino • 18 Complete Notes on the Dissection of Cadavers, Shinnin Kawaguchi Dental Cartoons, Otto Elkan Hitler as Seen by His Doctors, Military Intelligence Service Center Mami Hirose • alyssa picard • Barron H. Lerner • Isagoge, Iohannitius 80 146 194 Luke demaitre • 22 New Book on Anatomy, Johann Adam Kulmus and others Dental Hand Silhouette Gift Album, W. H. Whitslar Medical Report of Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima, Imperial Army Shigehisa kuriyama • Mark dery • Medical College and First Tokyo Military Hospital Artificial Teledioptric Eye, Johann Zahn 84 148 paul Theerman • 196 paula findlen • 26 Anatomical Essay on the Movement of Blood, William Harvey Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers Jonathan Sawday • paul Theerman • Anti–Germ Warfare Campaign Posters, Second People’s Langenburg Manuscript, Walter von Nitzschwitz and others 86 152 Cultural Institute pia f. Cuneo • 30 Drawings of Arteries, Charles Bell Mechanics of the Human Walking Apparatus, Wilhelm Eduard Weber Liping Bu • 198 Ludmilla Jordanova • and Eduard Weber Rare Plants of the Amsterdam Medical Garden, 88 allison Muri • Selected Dictation of Curious Records, Ken Matsuzawa Jan Commelin and Caspar Commelin, with Atlas of Topographic Anatomy, Eugène-Louis Doyen 154 Hiroo Yamagata • 200 Frans Kiggelaer and Frederick Ruysch Lisa O’Sullivan • 90 Man and Sunlight, Hans Surén • Maren Möhring • Catalogue of Educational Material, American Society for the Harold J. Cook 34 Palmistry Entertainment of Praetorius, Johann Praetorius with works 156 Control of Cancer Anatomy of the Human Body, Mans.u� r ibn Muh. ammad ibn Ah.mad ibn by Robert Fludd, Nicolaus Pompeius, and Caspar Schott Rodney, Lucifer Guarnier david Cantor • 202 Yu� suf ibn Ilya� s Lauren kassell • 94 kathy High and Michael Sappol • 158 • Materia Medica Animalia, Peter P. Good emilie Savage-Smith 36 On Human Conception and Generation, Jakob Rueff Wonder in Us, Hanns Günther Harriet Ritvo • 204 Examples of Chinese Medicine, Andreas Cleyer Jennifer Spinks • 96 Michael Sappol • 160 • Book of Receipts of All Sorts, Elizabeth Strachey Bridie andrews 38 Monstra, G. W. Klinkenberg Health and Hygiene Puzzle Blocks, Number 10 Shanghai Toy Factory Mary e. fissell • 206 Anatomical Charts for the New Acupuncture, Tang Xuezheng Rosamond purcell • 98 Marta Hanson • 162 • Medical Trade Card Collection Bridie andrews 40 On the United Siamese Twins Huber the Tuber and Corky the Killer, Harry A. Wilmer William H. Helfand • 208 First: Science—Anatomy, “Clorion” James Taylor • 104 Steven Heller • 164 • Scope Magazine, Will Burtin and Lester Beall Michael Sappol and eva Åhrén 42 Facts Connected with James Carey, James Akin Chinese Anti-TB F lyers, National Anti-Tuberculosis Association R. Roger Remington 210 Complete Study of Human Anatomy, Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery elizabeth Reis • 108 of China • Liping Bu • Studies in the Nervous System, Axel Key and Gustaf Retzius Melissa Lo 44 Symptoms in Schizophrenia, James D. Page 166 eva Åhrén • 214 Obstetric Tables, George Spratt Mark S. Micale • 110 Chinese Public Health Slides • Marta Hanson • “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids,” James D. Watson and Marcia d. Nichols 50 Clinical Collection on Dermatology and Syphilology, 168 Francis H. C. Crick Nurse Postcards Collection Nikolai Porfir’evich Mansurov Elementary Hygiene for the Tropics, Azel Ames Nathaniel Comfort • 218 anne Marie Rafferty • 52 Nikolai krementsov • 112 elizabeth fee • 170 The X Ray, William J. Morton International Nurse Uniform Photograph Collection, Helene Fuld One Hundred Case Histories of Falcadina Disease, Giuseppe Vallenzasca Malaria Pinup Calendars, Frank Mack Tal golan • 220 Health Foundation antony Shugaar • 116 Sport Murphy • 172 • The Doctors: A Satire in Four Seizures, Elbert Hubbard anne Marie Rafferty 54 Inquiry into Causes and Effects of Variolæ Vaccinæ, Edward Jenner Commandments for Health, Hugh Harman Productions Sander L. gilman • 224 Midwife Dolls Ron Broglio • 120 Michael Rhode • 174 • Dance of Death, Jacques-Antony Chovin Sheena M. Morrison 56 Atlas of Skin Diseases, Ferdinand Hebra St. Elizabeths Magic Lantern Slide Collection Claudia Stein • 226 White’s Physiological Manikin, James T. White & Co. Mechthild fend • 122 Benjamin Reiss • 176 • Acknowledgments 228 Michael Sappol 58 Stereoscopic Skin Clinic, Selden Irwin Rainforth Disease Warning Sign Collection Contributors 229 Sinhala Palm-Leaf Medical Manuscripts Susan e. Lederer • 128 Charles Rosenberg • 178 Index 236 Charles Hallisey • 60 Stereoscopic Pictures for Cross-Eyed Children, Carl Hubert Sattler Easy to Get, Army Pictorial Service Hannah Landecker • 130 Mikita Brottman • 180 foreword: The National Library of Medicine at 175 The National Library of Medicine is now 175 years old. In 1836 it was a small collection of medical books on a single shelf in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army. Today it is the world’s largest biomedical library, with over 17 million items in more than 150 languages. For the past fifty years — since NLM created the Medline computer-based system for online retrieval of medical writings — we have increasingly become known for our automated Internet services to millions of users worldwide. In addition to writings, the Library now holds and distributes toxicologic, chemical, and genomic facts and teachings, and now even clinical trials records! We are proud of all this. In contrast, this volume takes us closer to the beginnings of librarianship. Here in the History of Medicine Division of NLM, books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and prints of all sorts reside happily but somewhat anonymously within quiet, dark underground shelves. My friend and colleague the computer scientist Ed Feigenbaum once playfully described the Old Times as the period “when the books in the library could not talk to each other.” In spite of all our efforts in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics, the books still need the help of a scholarly curator if they are to speak together — or to us. I am delighted that Dr. Michael Sappol has undertaken this effort and has recruited so talented a group of scholars for this task. Lastly I take pleasure in echoing the enthusiasm for true, original, real books within our grasp, as Robert Darnton has said so well in The Case for Books. Here he notes that examination of multiple copies of the Shakespeare Folios is necessary because no two are alike. In science, too, speedy computer access to information is truly wonderful. Yet there are times — especially when we ask why or how a discovery or a belief arose — when we need to see and hold original intellectual works. Dear Reader, please enjoy seeing and thinking about the Library’s hidden treasures! Donald A. B. Lindberg, MD Director, National Library of Medicine The army Medical Library (soon to be renamed the National Library of Medicine) as the tree of medical knowledge, with branches representing the major fields collected by the Library, ca. 1945. a t the time, the Library was housed in a redbrick building on the National Mall, between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. 7 of the history of medicine and the health professions from antiquity to the present. Billings and his colleagues and successors built the library (later renamed the Army Medical Library, the Armed Forces Medical Library, and then the National Library of Medicine) into a great collection — and expected that in doing so it would play a vital role in the treatment of patients introducTioN: The National Library of Medicine as Hidden Treasure and the understanding and cure of disease.