Items

Title

An Abstract of the Patent Granted by His Majesty King George…

Description

Patent medicines originated in England in the mid 17th century and were marketed with extravagant claims, offering cures for a host of maladies. Recommendations for dosage were vague, and ingredients (often including opium) were usually not specified. In 1726 Benjamin Okell was granted the royal patent for Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, a tincture of gambir (an astringent extract from an Asian plant) and opium. Advertisements published in the London Mercury as early as 1721 directed prospective customers to the warehouse and printing shop at Bow's Churchyard, where they could purchase the drops for one shilling. Our copy of the 1731 reprint by Peter Zenger is likely the first piece of medical printing in New York. Zenger, who would later become famous for printing seditious texts, was instrumental in establishing freedom of the press in America. The Academy has the only known copy. Bound with our copy of the abstract is a copy of A Short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, also issued by Okell and his printing house partners. Here, Batemans efficacy as a treatment for numerous ailments are described in sections dedicated to each. The last section of the treatise offers testimonials from satisfied customers.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Advertising—Medicine, Early works to 1800, Fever, Medicine, Patent medicines, Rheumatism

Title: Morse's Yellow Dock the Great Blood Purifier and Kidney Remedy
Description: Trade card advertising Morse's Yellow Dock featuring a kitten's head turned to the right. The kitten is brown and white. The back has a dataset for countries around the world.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Cats
ID: WH310
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills featuring a bouquet of red-blue-and-white and purple flowers with greenery. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Flowers, Nature
ID: WH324
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Morse's Yellow Dock the Great Blood Purifier and Kidney Remedy
Description: Trade card advertising Morse's Yellow Dock featuring a kitten's head turned to the right. Around its neck is a blue bow with some red in it. The back has a dataset for countries around the world.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Bows, Cats
ID: WH309
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Here biginneth the inventorie or the collectorye in cirurgicale parte of medicene compiled and complete in the yere of oure Lord

Description

An illuminated and illustrated manuscript of the Chirurgia magna, or great surgery, by Guy de Chauliac. Attempting in the Chirurgia to collect the best medical ideas of his time, he compiled sources from Arabic and Greek writers, including Rhazes, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Aristotle and others. Guy wrote the first text of the Chirurgia in Latin at Montpellier, in approximately 1363. This text was published in many editions and remained the authoritative text on surgery through the seventeenth century. It consists of 181 pages of English black letter in double columns and lines lightly ruled in red. It is ornately illuminated in gold and silver with finely decorated floral borders and large floriated initials, heightened with gold leaf. The manuscript includes 24 drawings of surgical instruments. The calf binding dates to Henry VIII’s reign or to the Elizabethan era. The original brass and leather clasps are engraved with stars and lion heads. There has been dispute about the manuscript’s date, with authorities dating it between the late 14th and second half of the 15th century. The manuscript was sold with the Streeter collection to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1928.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Manuscripts, Medical illustration, Medicine, Medicine—History, Medicine, Medieval, Surgery—History, Surgical instruments and apparatus

Title: Mother Swan's Worm Syrup
Description: Trade card advertising Mother Swan's Worm Syrup, Wells' Complete Cure, Wells' May Apple Pills, Wells' Health Renewer, and Buchu-Paiba featuring various illustrations related to the different items advertised. There is a picture of a swan with its children, a picture of a dead rat, and a picture of a man leaning his head back and opening his mouth. The back is a blank template for a postcard.
Conditions Cured (LC): Agitation (Psychology), Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Fever, Helminths, Impotence, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Rats, Swans, Water
ID: WH376
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills featuring a bouquet of orange, red, and white flowers with greenery. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Flowers, Nature, Roses
ID: WH322
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Miniature representation of Hood's No. 3 Placque
Description: Trade card advertising Hood's Sarsaparilla featuring a circular image of a buck with large antlers. He is standing in a field with grass and wildflowers. There is a snow-capped mountain in the back. The back quotes testimony from satisfied customers.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Deer, Mountains, Nature
ID: WH149
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Parker's Ginger Tonic: the Best Health and Strength Restorer
Description: Trade card advertising Parker's Ginger Tonic, Parker's Hair Balsam, and Floreston Cologne featuring a text-based panel flanked by two images of men. The one on the left features a man bending over in what seems to be a coughing fit. The one on the right features a man at peace who seems to have just taken the Tonic being advertised. The back lists the benefits of each item advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cough, Dandruff, Indigestion, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Men, Men's Clothing, Men's Hats
ID: WH180
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Hanson's Magic Corn Salve
Description: Trade card advertising Hanson's Magic Corn Salve featuring a man in a three-piece suit holding a bouquet of flowers. His mustache is pointed at the ends, and he is framed by flowers that resemble Morning Glories. The back warns customers against counterfeit products.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bunion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Clothes And Dress, Costume, Eyeglasses, Flowers, Mustaches
ID: WH271
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills, Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Sanative Wash featuring a square image of a sailboat in profile with a shadowed fleet behind it. The foregrounded boat has a red flag at the tip of its mast. The square image is framed by overlaid leaves and red, white, blue, and purple flowers. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Boats And Boating, Flowers, Nature, Ocean, Sailboats, Water
ID: WH327
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Our Boy: Compliments of Scott & Bowne Manufacturers of Scott's Emulsion
Description: Trade card advertising Scott's Emulsion featuring a portrait of a young boy in a nautical outfit. He has brown, curly hair, blue eyes, and flushed cheeks. The back lists the ailments the Emulsion can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Anemia, Cold (Disease), Cough, Scrofula, Tuberculosis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Boys, Children, Children's Clothing, Clothing And Dress, Portraits
ID: WH349
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Our Boy: Compliments of Scott & Bowne Manufacturers of Scott's Emulsion
Description: Trade card advertising Scott's Emulsion featuring a portrait of a young boy in a nautical outfit. He has brown, curly hair, blue eyes, and flushed cheeks. The back lists the ailments the Emulsion can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Anemia, Cold (Disease), Cough, Scrofula, Tuberculosis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Boys, Children, Children's Clothing, Clothing And Dress, Portraits
ID: WH350
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Specimen Medicinae Sinicae

Description

The Specimen Medicinae Sinicae is the first illustrated book published on Chinese medicine in the West. It contains an overview of Chinese medical practices including acupuncture and meridian theories, semiology of the tongue, descriptions of Chinese pharmaceuticals and their uses, and an important translation of a Ming treatise on pulse diagnosis. The Specimen includes thirty engraved plates and woodcut illustrations in the text, depicting the Chinese doctrine of the pulse and the semiology of the tongue, along with eight tables showing the variations of the pulses. Explaining Chinese pulse theory to a European audience proved difficult. Insufficient description of the plates, which pictured figures with doubled lines running through the bodies, confused western audiences, who interpreted these representations as indication that the Chinese didn't know their anatomy. The publication of the Specimen Medicinae Sinicae did little to change the commonly-held belief that the Chinese were crackerjack diagnosticians, with a misguided idea of the body's interior. The tenets of Chinese medicine and diagnostics were also somewhat muddled in the minds of westerners. Nevertheless, the translation did much to introduce pulse lore, acupuncture, and new materia medica to a Western audience of medical practitioners eager to experiment.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Acupuncture—China, Anatomy, Chinese—History, Early works to 1800, Materia medica—China, Medicine, Medicine, Chinese, Medical illustration, Pulse—Measurement

Geographic Subject

China

Title

Feldtbuch der Wundartzney

Description

This manual for military surgeons first published in Strassburg in 1517 was only the second handbook on surgery to be published in Germany in the vernacular. It was reissued at least twelve times, with translations in Latin and Dutch. The Feldtbuch was written and compiled by Hans Gersdorff, an Alsatian army surgeon who had served in the Burgundian war. The book enumerates treatments for the injuries most common to soldiers, including gunshot wounds, loss of limbs, and leprosy. The woodcut illustrations, many by Johann Ulrich Wechtlin, are among the earliest European depictions of surgery. The gaze in these illustrations and throughout the text belongs to the surgeon. Little attention in the text or image is paid to the recovery or long-term rehabilitation of the patient; the focus is on the squarely on the surgical procedure itself. The last section of the book is devoted to three Latin-German glossaries on anatomy, pathology and the medicinal uses of herbs.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Early works to 1800, Herbs—Therapeutic use, Medicine, Medicine—History, Medical illustration, Medicine, Military—Study and teaching, Pathology, Surgery, Surgery—History, Surgery, Surgical instruments and apparatus, Wood-engraving, Wounds and Injuries—Surgery

Title: Fasciculus medicine in quo continentur : videlicet. [1495]
Description: This is the fourth edition of the Fasciculus and the third printed in Venice (after 1491 and 1493 editions both also by the Brothers Gregorii). It was printed in Latin and reset in Gothic type. In this edition, the page is shorter by four lines, resulting in plates that are too large and in many cases, clipped by the binder. This is the earliest edition with a real title page. Our copy lacks the urinoscopic consultation plate and the plate showing the circle of urine glasses.
Subjects (LC): Medicine-Early works to 1800, Medicine, Medieval, Human anatomy-Early works to 1800, Human anatomy-Charts, diagrams, etc, Plague-Early works to 1800, Phlebotomy-Early works to 1800

Title

Apicius [De re culinaria Libri I-IX]

Description

This manuscript contains 500 Greek and Roman recipes from the fourth and fifth century, both culinary and medical, reflecting the polyglot culture of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes referred to as the oldest extant cookbook in the West, the manuscript is divided into ten books. It is likely that the Apicius began as a Greek collection, mainly written in Latin, and adapted for a Roman palate. The collection is likely compiled from many sources, as no evidence exists that Apicius (a Roman gourmet in 1st century AD), authored a book of cookery. Our manuscript was penned in several hands in a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian scripts at the monastery at Fulda (Germany) around 830 AD. It is one of two manuscripts (the other at the Vatican) presumed to have been copied from a now lost common source. The Apicius manuscript is the gem of the Academy’s Margaret Barclay Wilson Collection of cookery, acquired in 1929.

READ MORE→

Subjects (LC)

Cookbooks, Cooking, Latin peoples, Cooking, Mediterranean, Cooking, Roman, Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medicine

Title: Nearly 50 Years the Favorite: Piso's Cure a Medicine for Coughs, Colds Etc.
Description: Trade card advertising Piso's Cure featuring a woman pulling a red-headed boy over a wooden fence by the back neck of his shirt. His hat is falling off, and he is barefooted. She is blond and is wearing a small, brown hat. There are fruit trees on the woman's side of the fence. The back is a blank template for a postcard.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease), Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Fruit Trees, Hats, Nature, Trees, Wooden Fences
ID: WH330
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Nearly 50 Years the Favorite: Piso's Cure a Medicine for Coughs Colds Etc.
Description: Trade card advertising Piso's Cure featuring a scene of two men constructing or deconstructing a wooden dock on the Allegheny River. A red-wheeled wheelbarrow on the bank holds wooden planks. There is an island in river that has a red-and-white house. There are forested hills on the farther shorelines. The back is a blank template for a postcard.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease), Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Carpenters, Carts And Carriages, Hats, Housing, Islands, Marshes, Nature, Trees, Water, Woodworkers
ID: WH329
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Parker's Ginger Tonic
Description: Trade card advertising Parker's Hair Balsam and Parker's Ginger Tonic featuring a formally-dressed man sitting in an armchair defending himself against devilish creatures with an oversized box of Parker's Ginger Tonic. On the creatures' wings are written various ailments the Tonic cures. There is a broken crutch by the man's feet. The back describes the ailments the Balsam and the Tonic cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Body Fluids, Cold (Disease), Cough, Dandruff, Diarrhea, Heartburn, Indigestion, Itching, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Tuberculosis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Costume, Crutches, Demonology, Devil, Domestic Space, Folklore, Men, Mythology
ID: WH318
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITS

Warning message

Pages

Pages