Historical Texts on Infectious Disease and Critique of Vaccination

This list was prepared by Roman Bystrianyk an author who is coauthor with Suzanne Humphries, MD on the book Dissolving Illusions.

If you want to understand the present, you have to understand the past.

The following reading list contains many books that served as foundational references for creating the upcoming Dissolving Illusions 10th Anniversary and the Dissolving Illusions Companion and Reference. The following books, organized chronologically, offer an extensive starting point for gaining deeper insights into the intricate tapestry of disease history, the progress and stagnation of medical practices, and the complex discourse surrounding inoculation and vaccination. Exploring these texts will undoubtedly invite a more nuanced perspective that challenges prevailing narratives.

Delving into this meticulously selected reading list, you will embark on a challenging journey through the annals of time. This comprehensive collection will be an indispensable resource for those seeking to broaden their perspectives and engage in constructive dialogues that transcend conventional viewpoints.

Please share this list and enjoy!

John Pechy, MD, The Whole Works of that Excellent Practical Physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham, MD, 1696
Isaac Massey, Apothecary to Christ’s Hospital, A Short and Plain Account of Inoculation, 1722
Francis Howgrave, Apothecary, Reasons Against the Inoculation of the Small-Pox, 1724
Isaac Massey, Remarks on Dr. Jurin’s Last Yearly Account of the Success of Inoculation, 1727
William Langton MD, An address to the public on the present method of inoculation: proving that the matter inoculated is not the small-pox. To which is added an inquiry into the nature of the confluent pox, and its cure, 1767
Benjamin Rush MD, Professor of Chemistry University of Pennsylvania, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Second Edition, 1789
Robert Walker MD, An Inquiry into the Small-Pox, Medical and Political, 1790
William Rowley, MD, Cow-pox inoculation NO SECURITY against Small-pox infection, 1805
W. R. Rogers, Surgeon, An examination of the Part of the Evidence Relative to Cow-Pox, 1805
John Brich, Esq, Surgeon to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, &c. A letter Occasioned by the Many Failures of Cow-Pox, 1805
Charles Maclean, MD, On the State of Vaccination in 1810
Gilbert Blane, FRS, Elements of Medical Logick, 1821
Xavier Bichat, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Paris, France, General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, vol. 1, 1822
Samuel Thomson, Botanist, A Narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson, 1825
John Gideon Millingen MD, Curiosities of Medical Experience, vol. 2, 1837
Thomas Brown of Musselburgh, Surgeon, An Investigation of the present Un-satisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination, 1842
R. G. Latham, MD, The Works of Thomas Sydenham, MD, vol. I, 1848
Wooster Beach MD, The American Practice Condensed: Or, The Family Physician, 1850
Samuel Dickson, MD, Glasgow, The “Destructive Art of Healing;” or, Facts for families, Second Edition, 1855
C. C. Schieferdecker, MD, Dr. C. G. G. Nittinger’s Evils of Vaccination, 1856
Russell Thacher Trall, MD, Water-cure for the Million, 1860
Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing – What it Is, and what it is Not, 1860
Samuel Dickson, MD, The Principles of the Chrono-Thermal System of Medicine, 1861
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Currents and Counter-currents in Medical Science With Other Addresses and Essays, 1861
John Mason Good, MD, The Study of medicine: Empyesis Variola Smallpox, vol 1, 1864
Charles Julius Hempel MD, A New and comprehensive system of materia medica and therapeutics, 1865
Dr. Eliphalet Kimball, Thoughts on Natural Principles, 1867
William Job Collins, MD, Have You Been Vaccinated, and what Protection is it Against the Small Pox? 1869
R. T. Trall MD, The True Healing Art or Hygienic vs. Drug Medication, 1872
Edmund Procter, Important facts on vaccination urgently demanding public attention, 1873
Dr. John Pickering, Anti-vaccination – The Statistics of the Medical Officiers to the Leeds Small-pox Hospital Exposed and Refuted, 1876
Henry Strickland Constable, Our Medicine Men: A Few Hints, 1876
Thomas R. Hazard, Civil and Religious Persecution in the State of New York, 1876
C. Spinzig MD, Variola, its Causes, Nature and Prophylaxis and the Dangers of Vaccination, 1878
Charles T. Pearce MD, Vital Statistics. Small-Pox & Vaccination in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1882
William White, The Story of a Great Delusion, 1885
George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, 1886
Charles Creighton, The Natural History of Cow-pox and Vaccinal Syphilis, 1887
Charles Creighton, Jenner and Vaccination. A Strange Chapter of Medical History, 1889
Edgar March Crookshank, History and Pathology of Vaccination Volume I: A Critical Inquiry, 1889
Emmet Densmore MD, How nature cures, comprising a new system of hygiene, 1892
Vaccination Tracts. Letters and Opinions of Medical Men, 1892
Terrible Results of Vaccination: TESTIMONIES concerning Vaccination and its Enforcement: by Scientists, Statisticians, Philosophers, Publicists, and Vaccine Physicians, 1892
William Tebb, The Recrudescence of Leprosy and its Causation, 1893
Charles Creighton, MA, MD, A History of Epidemics in Britain, vol. II, 1894
Duncan Turner, Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, Is Consumption Contagious? 1894
C. Wardell Amerige, MD, Vaccination a Curse, 1895
William Scott Tebb, MD, A Century of Vaccination and What It Teaches, 1898
Alfred Russell Wallace, LL. D, The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Its Failures, 1899
Matthew Joseph Rodermund, MD, Fads in the Practice of Medicine, and the Cause and Prevention of Disease, 1901
John W. Hodge, MD, The Vaccination Superstition: Prophylaxis to be Realized Through the Attainment of Health, not by the Propagation of Disease, 1902
Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, MD, PhD, Vaccination Brought Home to You, 1904
J.T. Biggs, Leicester: SanitatiIf you want to understand the present, you have to understand the past.