1850-1877: Science and Medicine: Publications

Louis Agassiz, Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, 4 volumes (Boston: Little, Brown I London: Thurber, 1857-1862)—Agassiz originally planned to publish ten volumes of this work but only completed four. Volume one includes “Essay on Classification,” which summarizes Agassiz’s views on the creation of species;

John Bachman, Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race Examined on the Principles of Science (Charleston, S.C.: Canning, 1850)—claims that despite significant differences among races, all humans constitute a single species;

Elizabeth Blackwell, The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls (New York: Putnam, 1852)—collection of lectures emphasizing the need for proper hygiene;

Henry C. Carey, Principles of Social Science, 3 volumes (Philadelphia: Lippincott I London: Trubner, 1858-1859)—examination of social issues, patterns, and policies in the United States;

James Dana, Manual of Geology: Treating of the Principles of the Science, with Special Reference to the American Geological History, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and Schools of Science (New York: Ivison, Blakeman & Taylor, 1862)—geological survey of America that became a standard textbook;

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859; New York: Appleton, 1860)—presentation of the theory of evolution through natural selection, which generated vociferous debate in Europe and America;

James D. B. DeBow, Statistical View of the United States. . . Being a Compendium of the Seventh Census (Washington, D.C.: Tucker, 1854)—shortened version of the 1850 United States Census report, a vastly more sophisticated undertaking than any of its predecessors; DeBow served as superintendent of the Census Bureau;

Thomas Roderick Dew, Digest of the Laws, Customs, Manners, and Institutions of the Ancient and Modern Nations (New York: Appleton, 1853)—traces the correlation between ancient and modern history in an effort to explain current events in light of the past;

Daniel Drake, A Systematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological and Practical, on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America, as They Appear in the Caucasian, African, Indian, and Eskimoux Varieties of its Population, 2 volumes (Cincinnati: Winthrop ?. Smith I Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1850, 1854)—detailed account of the topography, climate, and cultures of the interior regions of North America;

George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South; or, the Failure of Free Society (Richmond, Va.: Morris, 1854)—argues that Southern slavery was much more humane to the worker than the Northern free-market system;

Josiah Willard Gibbs, “On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances,” Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 3 (1876): 108-248; 5 (1878): 343-524—work on thermodynamics that led to the establishment of the field of physical chemistry;

George R. Gliddon and Josiah Nott, Types of Mankind; or, Ethnological Researches, Based upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, and upon their Natural, Geographical, Philosophical, and Biblical History (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1854)—ethnological study arguing that different human races were created at different times and in different locations;

Asa Gray, Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States; Including Virginia, Kentucky, and All East of the Mississippi (Boston: Munne, 1848)—description of the plant life of part of North America;

William A. Hammond, Treatise on Diseases of the Nervous System, second revised and corrected edition (New York: Appleton, 1872)—one of the first general texts on neurological diseases published in the United States;

Joseph Leidy, “The Ancient Fauna of Nebraska, a Description of Extinct Mammalia and Chelonia from the Mauvaises Terres of Nebraska,” Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 6 (1854): 113-164—description of fossil findings in Nebraska that helped set offa wave of interest in paleontology in the United States;

Othniel Charles Marsh, “Fossil Horses in America,” American Naturalist, 8 (1874): 288-294—paleonto-logical account of the discovery that prehistoric horses lived in what became the western United States;

Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society; or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress (Chicago: Kerr, 1877)—anthropological study of Indian groups, arguing that all races of human beings share a common origin and pass through similar stages of development from savagery to barbarism to civilization;

Benjamin Peirce, “Linear Associative Algebra,” American Journal of Mathematics, 4, no. 2 (1870): 97-229—attracted little notice when first published but later helped establish the field of modern abstract algebra.