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First Medical Publication in America? SMALLPOX!

On January 21st, 1677, the first medical publication in America was circulating around Boston. Its message? How to manage smallpox. The pamphlet was a broadside, 12 inches by 17 inches, and written by Reverend Thomas Thacher. John Foster of Boston printed and sold it under the title: "A Brief Rule to guide the Common People of New England How to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pocks, or Measles." A second version appeared in 1702. Pamphlets on smallpox continued to circulate (almost as much as the disease) well into the next century--but outbreaks continued even into the early...

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Understanding The Motion of the Heart: From Knowledge to Practice

Guest Post by Catherine Osborn, BA/BS Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University Matters of the heart are often confusing. Early scientists wondered if “the motion of the heart was only to be comprehended by God” . The heart and blood were the subjects of much medical debate in the 17th century when an English physician questioned classic anatomical texts. Although previous anatomists like Vesalius had questioned traditional views, William Harvey was the first to accurately describe the circulation of blood throughout the body. Once scientists understood the regular functions of the cardiovascular system, medical pioneers explored how to...

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Under Your Skin: the Anatomy Artwork of H.V. Carter

The history of Gray’s Anatomy is well known, but it's brilliant illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter, is frequently it's "unsung hero." Though working tirelessly on the book that would go on to be the single most important textbook for anatomy and medical students, his contribution was "torpedoed" by Henry Gray, and he sunk into obscurity. What remains are the images, displayed here, from the Dittrick Museum's 1859 edition. There were two authors, of Gray's Anatomy, not one. However, as Druin Burch explains, Henry Vandyke Carter "regarded himself, sometimes with a little help from Gray, as belonging to a lower 'genus'...

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What do Medical Museums *Really* have to Offer?

Sometimes it is important not to let objects speak for themselves. The Dittrick Medical History Center has the most extensive collection of 19th and early 20th century surgical instruments in the United States, the largest collection of historic contraceptives in the world, and the most comprehensive gallery of diagnostic instruments (like the earliest stethoscopes!) in North America. We also boast fascinating material on the history of birth, the history of anesthesia, the history of hospital care, WWI medicine, forensics, and much more. But objects and artifacts, as amazing as they are, don't tell the whole story. Museums--and medical museums in...

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