Search Constraints
Start Over You searched for: Subjects Medicine--United States--History--19th century. ✖ Remove constraint Subjects: Medicine--United States--History--19th century. Formats Notes. ✖ Remove constraint Formats: Notes.Search Results
2 volumes
Albert Whiteley of Columbia County, Maryland, compiled these two notebooks while a student at Jefferson Medical College between 1837 and 1839. He recorded detailed lecture notes from numerous physicians on topics such as surgery, anatomy, obstetrics, general medicine, and chemistry.
The first volume (6"x3.5", approximately 115 pages) contains notes on lectures that Dr. George McClellan, one of the founders of Jefferson Medical College, delivered between January 1838 and June 1839, concerning surgical methods. The second volume (7.75"x6", approximately 275 pages) contains notes on lectures by numerous instructors, including Samuel Colhoun, Samuel McClellan, John Revere, Granville Sharp Pattison, Jacob Green, Robley Dunglison, and George McClellan.
Each notebook covers a variety of medical topics, with discussions on specific diseases, ailments, and treatments, as well as general information about medicine and related topics. Treatments are frequently described in detail, and the notebooks record instructions for bloodletting, amputation, and other contemporary medical procedures. Medicinal treatments are occasionally mentioned, though the material concentrates primarily on physicians' practices. The second volume also contains lengthy discussions of human anatomy and physiology, a section on obstetrics, and information about general chemistry.
1 linear foot
The George and José Bill papers contain essays, lectures, notes, prescriptions, and correspondence related to the medical practices of George Bill and his son José Penteado Bill, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Correspondence and Documents series holds material related to George E. Bill's medical practice, including several letters written to his son during the 1920s. In one letter, he encouraged his son to avoid surgery for his granddaughter Audrey, and instead offered a dietary cure (February 1, 1922); in other letters, he discussed a "rhythometer" and the use of electricity as a medical cure.
The Essays, Lectures, Notes, and Speeches series is divided into several subseries. An unknown author compiled the Miss Doubleday gynecology notes while attending a lecture by Miss Doubleday; the notes include diagrams.
The Lectures on metaphysics consist of 13 lectures delivered by George Bill between November 2 and December 16, 1912, predicated upon a Law of Correspondence, "a General Law underlying the behavior of all Matter and the Spirit of Matter" (November 7, 1912). He mentioned magnetism, toxins thought to affect thoughts, and the polarity between elements of life (light, heat, and electricity) and death (darkness, cold, and magnetism), between which existence resides (November 6, 1912).
A series of Astrology charts and notes contains several charts copied from the work of Karl Anderson, as well as manuscript essays and projections.
Additional Essays, Lectures, Notes and Speeches concentrate primarily on medical topics, and most often concern pseudo-scientific conjectures and treatments outside the realm of conventional medicine. The series contains published articles as well as typed and manuscript drafts; some topics are hypnotism, the medical uses of electrical current, the human subconscious and its role in medicine, infrared therapy, and mental toxins and antitoxins.
A large number of Retained copies of prescriptions showcase a variety of medical treatments ordered by the Bills throughout the late-19th and early-20th century, including both conventional and homeopathic treatments.
The José Penteado Bill papers contain an assortment of material, including, but not limited to, scientific and medical notes, as well as a printed roster of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (July 1947). Other items are a traveling journal compiled in 1917 and a document giving Bill's grades from his second year of study at Harvard Medical School (1912). The Diaries subseries includes a partially-filled diary of José P. Bill from 1910, as well as a 1924 diary chronicling medical appointments; the latter was obtained in France and contains supplemental information in French. The Notes and notebooks subseries contains notes on José Penteado's engagements, patients, and prescriptions. Also included is a prescription notebook and pad.
The Printed Items series holds seven items. These are Keeley's Secrets, a publication on theosophy written by Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, with manuscript annotations (July 10, 1888); two medical journals; a scientific article; a pamphlet entitled "The Policy and Purpose of the Harrisburg Republican Club" (1902); a portion of an examination given to doctors at Clark University about "Diseases and Cures in Childhood" (December 1896); and a card on medicines, poisons, and antidotes. George Bill wrote the article, "The Relation of Hypnotism to the Subconscious Mind" (New York Medical Journal, May 1, 1897), an article entitled "Some Considerations Relative to the Therapeutic Application of the Electrical Current" (New York Medical Journal, November 13, 1897), and "The Conductivity of Human Radio-Activity" (Journal of the Allied Medical Associations of America, August 1919).
The Poems and Blank Stationery series contains pieces of blank stationery from Dr. George E. Bill's office in Harrisburg, PA, as well as two poems.
0.75 linear feet
The earliest letters in the Correspondence series date to Ahlenfeld's time in Germany, though the series spans most of his time in the United States. Material in this series is written primarily in German, but also includes items in Hebrew and in English. The correspondence series contains incoming correspondence relating to Ahlenfeld's 1832 journey to America and contains many letters of recommendation from various acquaintances, as well as a letter certifying his graduation from the University of Maryland (April 6, 1835). Later items in the series include several personal letters and a certificate of Ahlenfeld's citizenship (June 13, 1845). Items in the series postdating Ahlenfeld's death are addressed to his wife Esther.
The Documents and Receipts series consists of documents related to Ahlenfeld's education in Germany, as well as several receipts related to his life before emigrating to the United States.
The Manuscript prescriptions series contains 8 undated items.
The Medical notes series includes items in English, German, and Hebrew (much of the German and Hebrew writing is written with Yiddish script). The English language notes consist of 34 pages discussing "...Salubrity, Longevity, Mortality and prevalence of diseases in the principal Countries and cities of the civilized world" (undated).
The Notes, fragments, and miscellaneous series includes material written in both German and Hebrew (again, the German and Hebrew texts are written largely with Yiddish script).
- Rules for official medical examinations in Berlin (December 1825)
- French pamphlet regarding cholera (1831)
- Two reprinted letters of recommendation for Marcus Ahlenfeld ([1835])
- Rules for "die Königliche Bibliothek" in Berlin (undated)
- Pages from a German instructional book, possibly in history (undated)
- Pages from a German medical text (undated)
The German medical textbooks series has 5 items: two books on human anatomy, a medical dictionary, a chemistry encyclopedia, and a Latin dictionary and grammar.
1 volume
M. B. Hartzell, a physician working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, maintained this memoranda and account book between 1878 and 1880. He kept notes on poisons and their antidotes, recorded patients' names, addresses, and number of physician visits, and documented charges and payments. He occasionally wrote notes about medical literature to read and what appears to be case notes and medicines prescribed. He tended wounds, abscesses, and burns, treated venereal diseases, performed gynecological and obstetrical services, and gave vaccinations, among other services.
At least two entries appear to be related to African American patients (October 9-10, 1878, and August 26-27, 1879). A blank prescription slip is laid into the volume, and notes at the end of the volume list out obstetrical cases, document children to be vaccinated, and provide recipes for prescriptions. A circular diagram is drawn on the rear paste down, with notations of calendar dates and a record of numbers for each month, possibly related to tallying medical cases for the year but further research is needed.
2 volumes
The Thomas O. Nock notebooks pertain to Nock's studies at Jefferson Medical College in the mid-1880s and to his finances while practicing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1880s. Nock kept detailed notes of lectures by professors Jacob Mendes Da Costa and Samuel W. Gross.
The collection is made up of 2 volumes: Volume 1 has notes on Da Costa's lectures about the "Practice of Medicine" (173 pages), as well as financial records (approximately 125 pages), and Volume 2 has notes on Gross's lectures about surgery (209 pages). Nock's lecture notes contain detailed information about various ailments, their symptoms, and methods of treatment. Da Costa discussed afflictions such as smallpox and chicken pox, rheumatism, gout, diphtheria, rheumatoid arthritis, tonsillitis, ulcers, stomach cancer, blood diseases, liver diseases, cholera, and numerous types of fevers and febrile diseases. Nock created a chart of ways to diagnose "hepatic diseases" (Volume 1, pages 166-167). The financial records run from June 1886-January 1890 and provide accounts for each patient in Nock's private practice, recording their addresses and the dates and costs of visits, medicines, and treatments. Nock often compiled monthly financial reports, and created a yearly report for 1886.
Gross lectured on inflammation, abscesses, fevers, ulcers, grafting, gangrene, hemorrhage, tetanus, venereal diseases, bladder diseases, and various types of wounds. He also provided information on grafts, amputations, and antiseptic treatments, and the notes include recipes for formulas such as Gross's "fever mixture" (Volume 2, page 47). Nock recorded Gross's evolving beliefs on germ theory (Volume 2, pages 17 and 43). Items laid into the volumes are prescriptions, stationery from Nock's private practice, advertisements for George B. Williams's "Emulsia of Morrhuae cum Calcis Hypophosph," and miscellaneous notes.
1.5 linear feet
This collection contains correspondence, financial records, legal documents, essays, and newspaper clippings pertaining to T. Larkin Turner, a druggist from Boston, Massachusetts, and his wife, Elizabeth D. Whiton. The material primarily concerns the couple's courtship and two of Turner's pharmaceutical products.
The first three subseries in the Correspondence series are grouped by correspondents: Elizabeth Whiton letters to T. Larkin Turner (122 items), Letters to Elizabeth Whiton (121 items), and T. Larkin Turner letters to Elizabeth Whiton (12 items). These subseries are comprised of personal letters written in the mid-19th century, primarily concerning the writers' social lives in Hingham, Charlestown, and Boston, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Whiton's correspondents included her siblings and female friends.
The Letters from H. subseries contains 43 letters that a man named Henry and his wife Marie wrote to his parents while traveling in Italy, France, England, and Germany in 1884 and 1885. Henry wrote the majority of the letters, commented on his life in Venice, Paris, and London, and mentioned a recent cholera epidemic. The subseries also includes a ticket and printed advertisement in French.
The Chronological Correspondence subseries comprises the bulk of the collection. The first 2 items are letters from Reverend Sherman Johnson of Southborough, Massachusetts, to a female acquaintance. Most items from 1833-1880 are personal letters to T. Larkin Turner and Elizabeth D. Whiton (later Elizabeth Turner), including their letters to one another during their courtship (ca. 1837-1843) and later letters from a branch of the Turner family in Lexington, Massachusetts. The courtship-era letters primarily concern Turner and Whiton's daily lives in Boston and Hingham, Massachusetts, respectively. Elizabeth Whiton also received letters from male and female friends in New England and New York, particularly in Charlestown and Boston, Massachusetts.
T. Larkin Turner received letters from several correspondents, including George R. Turner, who wrote a series of letters to Turner about his work for a Massachusetts railroad in 1847 and 1848. He commented on his in-state travels, his co-workers, and the railroad's progress. George W. Prescott of the United States Navy Yard in Pensacola, Florida, wrote personal letters to Turner from 1877-1883. Undated items include additional correspondence between Turner and Whiton and genealogical notes about the Turner family.
Advertisements include printed booklets, fliers, and other advertisements for T. Larkin Turner's medical cures, particularly the "Tic-Douloureux, or Universal Neuralgia Pill" and "Lorraine's Vegetable Cathartic Pills." Manuscript drafts of advertisements are also present. Other clippings are articles on medical conditions such as neuralgia, on Turner's pills, and on other medical topics.
A group of papers related to Turner's Nostrums contains manuscript drafted advertisements and notes about T. Larkin Turner's "Tic-Douloureux, or Universal Neuralgia Pill" and other products. Two lengthy manuscript drafts concern the neuralgia pill and a cure for menstrual discomfort. Notes concern various medical conditions and the importance of sleep, among other topics.
The Receipts and Documents series primarily contains receipts to Captain Larkin Turner and T. Larkin Turner, largely for everyday personal expenses. T. Larkin Turner also purchased a newspaper subscription and hired a horse and buggy on at least one occasion. Indentures and similar legal documents primarily pertain to land in Massachusetts.
The Muster Roll/Town Roster series contains two items: a booklet with names of Boston residents and other annotations, and a booklet containing copied information from a 1757 muster roll.
The Genealogy series has notes and fragments about the Whiton, Turner, and Whitney families, as well as poetry, essays, correspondence, and receipts of payment for copied documents.
T. Larkin Turner composed a 94-page Memorative of Larkin Turner, his father, on the backs of assorted documents, scraps, and ephemera items. The bound volume, the first in a series, covers Larkin's life until about 1812.
Additional Newspaper Clippings pertain to deaths, marriages, and the Fusilier Veteran Association.
The Miscellaneous series contains ephemera, sketches, a lock of Turner's hair, a Tufts library card for "Russell H. Whiting," and other items.