Medicine/Behavioral Science

This site is an online catalogue for one of the most famous science museums in Europe, located in Florence. Its collections are mostly from the early modern period (roughly 1500-1800), with a particular emphasis on Galileo, his inventions and related materials from his lifetime. A room-by-room map of the museum allows visitors to view dozens of drawings, paintings and photographs of early astronomical, medical, mathematical, chemical and engineering instruments. There is also a virtual video tour of the Galileo room and accompanying photographs of his telescopes and other memorabilia. The site is written in non-technical bilingual form (English and Italian). Short biographies of important early modern Italian scientists and a multitude of links to other history of science and technology sites in many languages are included.

This site, produced by the Massachusetts General Hospital, examines the history of the first anesthesia, ether. Discovered as an aid to sedate patients in the middle of the nineteenth century, its use was heralded as a breakthrough which would lead to a new, better age of surgery. The 7 short essays on this site, written for a general audience, discuss the discovery of ether, the doctors involved, its use at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the subsequent history and future of anesthesiology. A few photographs and drawings of related materials are included.

An online version of Vannever Bush's article "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945. The article, all text with a few links added, discusses the recent past and future of science and technology at the end of World War II. It is written for a general audience. Aghast at the horror of what science wrought in the war, Bush looks to a more peaceful and productive day when advanced technologies will offer a better life for all human beings. He envisions a machine akin to the modern fax machine as well as other beneficial consumer and industrial technologies.

John Baptist Porta (1535-1615), also known as Giambattista della Porta, was an early modern natural philosopher from Naples. This site by an amateur historian brings together short biographies (generally culled from other sites and works like the Encyclopedia Britannica) as well as primary source material on Porta available in other locations on the Web. Porta was best known for his 1558 book entitled "Natural Magic" (Magia Naturalis), which used an experimental method to describe magnetism and other elements of the physical and chemical sciences. He was also interested in the "occult" sciences and alchemy. This site is best for those with no knowledge of Porta looking for a basic overview and excerpts of his work. Several paintings and drawings of Porta enhance the site.

The Iconographic Archives are a project of the University of Bologna's International Centre for the History of Universities and Science (CIS). The Archives are an online repository for images of people, artifacts, and places with corresponding descriptions and location information. The University, founded in 1088, has a long history as a center for scientific scholarship, and these images reflect this relationship. Though the CIS site is available in English, the archival information is in Italian, requiring some knowledge of the language to utilize the search functions. Searches can be made by year to circumvent this. Unfortunately, there also is no way to browse the images without using the search tool.

This site, produced by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, displays a timeline of events relating to the development and use of cardiac replacement therapy (CRT), beginning in the 1960s with the early efforts of the Artificial Heart Program by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and concluding with the latest artificial heart implants. The site is especially interested in gathering the recollections of the mechanical engineers, surgeons and others who have been involved in CRT research and applications. Forms are available to add comments and stories to the existing timeline of events.

The website for the University of Michigan's Center for the History of Medicine contains several areas of potential interest to researchers. An exhibit on polio contains a narrative about the disease and Dr. Thomas Francis' work against it, as well as many photographs and a bibliography. A listing of the university's historical medical films is available. There is also an interactive timeline regarding the history of the UM Medical School, and several links to related sites.

The Institute Archives serves as Caltech's collective memory, preserving the papers, documents, artifacts and pictorial materials that tell the school's history, from 1891 to the present. Holdings include manuscript, photographic, print and audio-visual materials, oral histories, fine art and historic artifacts. Many of the photographs are available in digital format (thumbnail and full size) through the photo archive. The site also includes information about using the physical archive, online versions of archive exhibits and facts about the Cal Tech archive.

The Dittrick Medical History Center is dedicated to the study of the medical past through a distinguished collection of rare books, museum artifacts, archives, and images. This web site includes images of exhibits and scientific instruments in the Dittrick Museum, images and annotations of samples from the 60,000 volume rare book collection, information about the archival collections and image collections. In addition, the site also hosts two virtual exhibits, "Haunting Images: Photography, Dissection and Medical Students," and "Smallpox: A City on the Edge of Disaster." Finally the site includes a section about research aids including on-line catalogues and bibliographical information.

Partial listing of the archival holdings of the University of California San Francisco. Some material available online, particularly of note: the AIDS history Project, the Biotechnology Archives, and the Tobacco Control Archive. Also contains links to other UC archives and sites related to the history of the health sciences.