Henry R. Viets (1890–1969) was both a noted neurologist and medical historian. While at Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1916, he attracted the attention of Harvey Cushing who directed Viets into these disciplines. Cushing arranged for Viets to take a fellowship in Oxford in the year after his graduation. With Cushing's recommendation, he lived with Sir William and Lady Osler and did research with the famous neurologist Sir Charles Sherrington. Viets was in London in 1935 when he heard about the remarkable success of Mary Walker in treating myasthenia gravis, first with physostigmine and then with neostigmine (Prostigmin). Securing an ampoule of this drug, he took it to the Massachusetts General Hospital where he was an attending neurologist and in March 1935 injected it into a myasthenic patient with great success. He established the first Myasthenia Gravis Clinic in the world and was a pioneer in the treatment of this once obscure disease: he evaluated hundreds of patients and published many articles on myasthenia. He continued this association for over 30 years. Under the tutelage of Cushing and Osler, Viets became a medical historian and bibliophile, publishing hundreds of articles and several books on many different subjects in the history of medicine. He was the President of the American Association for the History of Medicine and curator of the Boston Medical Library that eventually joined with the Harvard Medical School Library. Viets served on the Editorial Board of the New England Journal of Medicine for 40 years.
This chapter presents an English translation of selected passages from John Warren’s Lectures on Anatomy, delivered between 1783 and 1812. Most of the lectures deal with technical aspects of anatomy, ranging from the structure and parts of the body through characteristics of bones and ligaments to making anatomical preparations. Here Warren offers valuable insights into American medical history and progress. The present selection focuses on the history and theory of anatomy that Warren taught as part of his course over the first three decades in the history of Harvard Medical School (HMS). Warren was one of the founders of HMS on September 19, 1782, with Aaron Dexter and Benjamin Waterhouse. He served as the school’s first Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.