Medical books and journals in postal stamps

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Every budding doctor needs to read many books. These medical books are not only an integral part of training, but also a companion for life. Today, in this world of information explosion, books compete with journals. Journals are a collection of periodic updates, newer thoughts, and renewed experiences. With innumerable medical books and about 30000 medical journals, it is hard to keep pace. Slowly, print is on a decline, and digital is on the rise. Crispy sound of paper is giving way to clicks. Now, more information is available through aggregators, indexes, databases, and ready-reckoners. While medical books and journals have often featured philately, there are only a few postal stamps on them.

Early writings

History of documenting symptoms, treatments, and consequences in health-care is old. For instance, even ancient Egyptians wrote extensively. Today, we have six surviving papyri from the period between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C. While it is believed that these writings had an influence on practice of medicine, these were lost to the world for centuries. Archeologists rediscovered these texts only after 1850s.

Ancient Indian, Chinese, Greek, and Roman healers all documented their work. This work passed from one generation to another as oral knowledge, and sometimes as a written text. There are about 60 surviving treatises or works that are attributed to Hippocrates. These texts were first written around 400 BC. These were compiled, much later, possibly by an Alexandrian librarian, and published under the title Corpus Hippocraticum. Later medical texts from about 60-100 AD are attributed to Galen. His concepts about healing remained unquestioned for over a millennium.

First textbook of Medicine – Avicenna

First established book of medicine appeared in about 1000 AD. There are a couple of postage stamps on Avicenna (as he is known in Europe) or Ibn-Sina (as he is known in Middle-East). In these stamps, he holds a book – Inarguably the first textbook of medicine. This is Avicenna’s Cannon of Medicine.

Cannon of Medicine is the most famous medical textbook ever. It is a compilation of all previous works from Greek, Roman, and Persian medicine. This book spans five volumes about concepts, substances, surgical procedures, diagnosis and treatments. This work from about 1000AD was first written in Persian, and later translated into Latin and Arabic. This was a powerful text for next 600 or more years. Undoubtedly, a singular medical reference, with a largest span. Latin was the language of the learned, and more common languages of today such as nglish, French or German were mere vernaculars.

Compendiums of Drugs, plants and Human Anatomy

Pharmacopeia is a compendium of drugs and substances used in healing. First such encyclopaedia was “De materia medica” from 1st century BC. By 16th century, many European empires had their own pharmacopeias. This must have been aided by advent of printing-press, an innovation from a century ago. Many scientific works were getting published. These regularly challenged the established.

De Humani Corporis fabrica is a landmark textbook of Anatomy. For the first time, it was based on actual human dissection. This seven volume book challenged and refuted many previous concepts given by Galen and Avicenna. About 700 copies of this book survive. The meticulous drawings were etched in wood for publication. This opened up the quest for better understanding of human body.

From culture of Books to Journals

Books carry a stamp of authority. They synthesise knowledge from the past and often leave only a little room for disagreements. Many such authoritative texts have been published since. Only a couple of these have featured in postage stamps. In 1723, Pierre Fouchard completed a 600-page manuscript for “Le Chirurgien Dentiste” – First textbook of dentistry. Many books and many centuries later, in 1946 Robert Debre wrote an early texbook of Pediatrics Traité de Pathologie Infantile. I have listed only these two as I have a postage stamp each on them.

However, medical science was changing. While many older concepts were on their way out, newer ones were coming up. The process to introduce a new concept had to evolve. First such platform were Royal Societies, which were a common meeting ground for all scientists, as well as philosophers. Another development was journalism, and regular publication of periodicals and newspapers. In 1631, Thropraste Renaudot, a French Physician started a weekly magazine – La Gazette. This was a first, regular, current affairs publication.

A few years later, the trend caught on to scientific journalism. Two scientific journals began their journey in 1665 – Journal des Scavans, and Philosophical Transactions. In this time, Latin was official language of learned. French and English were vernaculars. Hence, first medical journal, that was in French (Nouvelles Découvertes sur Toutes les Parties de la Mddécine) was rejected by the intelligencia. Its proponent Nicolas de Blegny died in disgrace.

First medical Journals

Medicina Curosia was first English language medical journal. It was first published in 1684, but it lasted only two issues. By 1800s, about 400 medical journals, all with a short life span saw the light of the day. Many of these were in Latin, German and a few in vernacular English or French. The leading English Journals of today, came up in 1800s. New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM) was started in 1812, The Lancet in 1823 and British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 1857. Next was JAMA that began its journey in 1883. A postage stamp on either one of them is yet to see its birth.

However, these were probably not a first choice for Robert Koch. For instance, in 1882 Robert Koch published his landmark work in Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift – a new scientific journal in German Language.

Two other medical journals are more lucky have a postage stamp on them. Probably their countries are more aware and proud of them. Croatian Medical Association started its journal Liječnički Vjesnik in 1877. Croatia’s postal department honoured this journal with a post-card in 2022.

In 1930, College of medicine of Honduras, started its medical journal – Revista Medica Hondurena. Postal department of this small central American country, issued a sheet with four stamps on its 75th anniversary in 2005.

The value of medical texts

Today, every speciality of medicine has its core textbook. While, there is a considerable breadth of knowledge between its covers, depth comes from medical journals. In today’s world of medical specialisation, most doctors prefer to swim in their limited seas. A few academics would love to repeatedly dive and try to synthesise new knowledge.

In this digital age, where brevity is a virtue and expanse wasteful, medical textbooks are like living dinosaurs. We have come a long way from Avicenna’s five volume all encompassing cannon, to quick searchable information. As print is dying, and so are postage stamps I just hope these two creatures, towards the end of their lives at least acknowledge each other. Hope there will be a postage stamp on another leading medical book or a journal, soon !!!