Tufts Libraries: Medical Tools and Dental Poems
At the Hirsh Health Sciences Library in Boston, librarians did a deep dive into the collection to fill us in—plus, we learn about the Glickman Library in the Department of Periodontology.
Focus of collection. The Hirsh Health Sciences Library aims to support the health sciences curriculum of students on the Boston campus. The library still has books and journals in medicine and dentistry from the days of the founding of the School of Medicine (125 years ago) and of the School of Dental Medicine (150 years ago), but now relies mostly on its electronic resources.
Oldest item in the collection. Actuarii, operum. This pair of small tomes, collecting the writings of Byzantine physician Joannis Zacharias Actuarius, dates to 1556. If you’re up on your Latin, you can read the author’s take on “the functions and disturbances of the soul-spirit.” The soul, he believed, originated in the liver. Zacharias also studied and wrote about uroscopy, the diagnosis of disease by inspecting urine. His work On the Urines was an influential book in the Middle Ages. He also wrote about pin worms, colic, and lead poisoning.
Most requested/checked out item in collection. Atlas of Human Anatomy by Frank H. Netter was checked out 234 in fiscal year 2018. Netter, born in 1906, studied art before going to medical school and becoming a physician. He eventually gave up his practice to devote himself to medical illustration, creating more than 20,000 paintings. With this reference, anyone can differentiate between the gluteus maximus and the lateral epicondyle. Anatomy continues to be the library’s most popular subject, and the library now has databases that allow our students to navigate through the layers of the human body in 3D.