Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1713

HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH (1808-1892) The young stethoscopist; or, The student's aid to auscultation. Samuel S. & William Wood 1848 2nd ed. x [9]-303 [1] pp., illus. 18.9 cm.

Several generations of the Bowditch family were physicians, all associated with Harvard University and well known both as clinicians and physiologists. However, the father, Nathaniel, was a prominent mathematician and author of the important and widely used Practical navigator. Henry was a respected physician and teacher who made notable strides in the fields of respiratory diseases and public health. He was chairman of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, the first such board to be organized in the United States, whose pioneering work paved the way for the formation of other state boards of health. After receiving his medical degree at Harvard in 1832, Bowditch spent two years studying in Europe where he was greatly influenced by Louis (see No. 1438 ff.). With Louis, he studied the teachings of Laennec (see No. 1364 ff.) and became interested in diseases of the chest. Bowditch published the first edition of the present work at New York and Boston in 1846 and it played an important role in the acceptance of physical diagnosis in the United States. He prepared the book especially for students and commented that "I have prepared it as a pocket companion merely; a kind of summary of the essentials of auscultation, the details of which you will find more fully displayed in other and larger works" (p. vi). Bowditch carefully describes and illustrates how the patient should be positioned for examination and explains how the patient's trunk should be measured and physically examined. He discusses auscultation, percussion, and the common pathological conditions of the respiratory organs. Other sections of the book include those on obstetric auscultation, auscultation of the head and fractures, and a lengthy section on veterinary auscultation. In this second edition, Bowditch corrected some inaccuracies and added new material to reflect advances in the knowledge and application of auscultation and percussion.

See Related Record(s): 1438 1364

Cited references: Cushing B539; Waller 1383