Preface.

The study of the history of medicine has gained extraordinarily, especially in recent years, through tasteful and more precise treatment. Learned physicians have enriched and perfected it through excellent writings to such an extent that little remains to be desired in this regard, and all future works of this kind should only be viewed as gleanings of the bountiful harvests of an Ackermann, Hensler, Sprengel, and others. Only a work which would provide physicians with a very convenient and rapid chronological overview of all events important for the history of medical literature and dogma seemed, in the opinion of the author, to be lacking, despite the meritorious attempts of this kind by Delius, Schmiedlein, Hecker, Knebel, and others. At the very least, their arrangement did not correspond to his ideal. Therefore, since his own lectures on the history of medicine made the recommendation of some kind of guidebook necessary, he undertook this chronological overview, in which one will at least not fail to recognize the endeavor to satisfy the reasonable demands of learned physicians through accuracy and completeness. One finds here the events of every year that are important for the history of medicine, and opposite them the writings whose authors flourished in the mentioned years or which concern the cited events. That the author made use of every source for this work in which he found good and thorough preliminary work cannot surely be held against him.