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.
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
McLeod's
Surgical Notes,
Virchow's
Pathology
Jones'
Diseases of the Eye
Bedford's
Mid-wifery
Toynbee's
Diseases of the Ear
Wilson's
Diseases of the
Skin
Guthrie's
Commentaries
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