Civil War Surgeon General's library and publications ordered by the U.S. Army Medical Department
SURGEON GENERAL JOSEPH K. BARNES
Dr. Barnes, who had been in the Army since 1840, was appointed Surgeon General on August 22, 1864. He retained, with few exceptions, the same standard medical books chosen by his predecessor for distribution to the medical staff, but early on during the War, the Surgeon General directed the following list of books purchased and sent out to the hospitals and medical staff. This list, published in the article by W. Miles on the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, does NOT represent ALL text books purchased by the Surgeon General's office for distribution on the behalf of the Medical Department. Many other books are seen with Medical and Hospital Department imprinting on the outside of the book indicating the Medical or Hospital Department ordered the book from the publisher.
View and read the actual Surgeon General's Office library printed catalogues
1840 A hand-written catalogue of the books in the library of the Surgeon General's Office.
1862 Circular No. 2 establishes the AMM on May 21,1862
1864 The first printed catalogue is issued
1865 The second printed catalogue is issued
1865 Surgeon General Barnes places John Shaw Billings in charge of the library, a position he would hold for thirty years.
The importance of the Surgeon General's Library listings is these were the books they placed in the library and recommended to the surgeon's in the field. The books were those they felt worthy and reflected the current knowledge of the period. There were many publications and text-books which were not placed in the Medical Department's printed listing and for good reason. Some books were now deemed fit to be used for education or continuing education of the military surgeons.
The numbers on the left are the number copies of these text books ordered and manuals which were purchased during the early part of the War, but these are not the only books ordered...MANY MORE MEDICAL TEXTBOOKS WERE ORDERED BY THE U.S. ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE WAR AND ARE NOT SHOWN ON THIS EARLIER LIST, AND MAY OR MAY NOT BE MARKED FOR THE HOSPITAL OR MEDICAL DEPARTMENTS. Copies in this collection are linked to each example.
7,317 Bumstead on Venereal Diseases,
5,370 Erichsen's Surgery,
4,850 Wood & Bache, The Dispensatory of the United States,
3,895 Power's Surgical Anatomy,
3,442 Gray's Anatomy,
3,254 Watson's Practice of Medicine,
3,251 Stephen Smith's Principles of Surgery,
3,239 Woodward's Hospital Steward's Manual,
3,100 Parkes' Hygiene,
2,671 Sargent's Minor Surgery,
1,905 Dunglison's Medical Dictionary,
1,640 Fowne's Chemistry,
1,542 Bennett s Practice of Medicine,
1,412 Dalton's Physiology,
1,333 Parrish's Pharmacy.
1,237 Hartshorn's Principles of Medicine,
1,178 Longmore's Gunshot Wounds,
1,062 Beck's Jurisprudence,
1,024 Stille's Therapeutics,
And lesser quantities:
Webster's English Dictionary
