Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 783

JAMES DOUGLAS (1675-1742) Myographiae comparatae specimen, or, A comparative description of all the muscles in a man and in a quadruped. Printed by W. B. for G. Strachan 1707 xxxvi, 216, 16 pp. 16 cm.

Douglas, a native of Scotland, received his medical degree at Rheims and settled in London early in the 1700s. An anatomist and obstetrician, he was also physician to Queen Caroline during his career. His brother John was a noted lithotomist. Douglas is known for his Bibliographiae anatomicae specimen (London, 1715) which was the first attempt to write a systematic medical bibliography. Douglas also made a detailed study of the peritoneum and is eponymically remembered by "Douglas' pouch" and "fold." The present work is Douglas' first published book and became quite popular, going through several English editions and also being translated into Dutch.

Cited references: Russell 266; Waller 2541; Wellcome II, p. 482

Gift of R. Palmer Howard, M.D