Uncovering History

A Reading List of Old and Valuable Books

We often assume that history is a settled matter, given the countless scholars who have examined these events over time. However, the victors frequently write history and shape the narrative to reflect their biases, egos, and personal and financial self-interests. As George Orwell famously said, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”

This holds true for medicine in general and vaccination as a subset of that category. The darker chapters—failures, disasters, insane notions, and deaths—are often quietly swept under the rug. Meanwhile, successes are amplified, revered, and even turned into a cultish frenzy, distorting reality beyond recognition. Like science, history is not a destination but an endless journey of discovery and developing new understandings.

So, how does one begin to unravel a hidden history? It’s not complicated, but it does take time and effort, something that seems desperately in short supply in our modern era of quippy tweets, puerile one-liners, and simplistic memes. It takes the discipline to read, understand, and ponder. When researching Dissolving Illusions, I compiled a list of books I believe are worthy of a reexamination. This list of books is only part of the numerous other journals, articles, etc., that we examined, but these books will no doubt open for you a new way of looking at something that most have determined to be cast in concrete.

More of us must explore a history that has long been overlooked and shift a narrative captured by a small group of people on this planet. If we don’t, they will continue to impose their beliefs onto humanity and continue to take them on a reckless and destructive path. As George Santayana said in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana.”

Here is a time-ordered book list for you to consider in your exploration of history.

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John Pechy, MD, The Whole Works of that Excellent Practical Physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham, MD, 1696

Isaac Massey, Apothecary to Christ’s Hospital, A Short and Plain Account of Inoculation, 1722

Francis Howgrave, Apothecary, Reasons Against the Inoculation of the Small-Pox, 1724

Isaac Massey, Remarks on Dr. Jurin’s Last Yearly Account of the Success of Inoculation, 1727

William Langton MD, An address to the public on the present method of inoculation: proving that the matter inoculated is not the small-pox. To which is added an inquiry into the nature of the confluent pox, and its cure, 1767

Benjamin Rush MD, Professor of Chemistry University of Pennsylvania, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Second Edition, 1789

Robert Walker MD, An Inquiry into the Small-Pox, Medical and Political, 1790

William Rowley, MD, Cow-pox inoculation NO SECURITY against Small-pox infection, 1805

W. R. Rogers, Surgeon, An examination of the Part of the Evidence Relative to Cow-Pox, 1805

John Brich, Esq, Surgeon to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, &c. A letter Occasioned by the Many Failures of Cow-Pox, 1805

Charles Maclean, MD, On the State of Vaccination in 1810

Gilbert Blane, FRS, Elements of Medical Logick, 1821

Xavier Bichat, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Paris, France, General Anatomy, Applied to Physiology and Medicine, vol. 1, 1822

Samuel Thomson, Botanist, A Narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson, 1825

John Gideon Millingen MD, Curiosities of Medical Experience, vol. 2, 1837

Thomas Brown of Musselburgh, Surgeon, An Investigation of the present Un-satisfactory and Defective State of Vaccination, 1842

R. G. Latham, MD, The Works of Thomas Sydenham, MD, vol. I, 1848

Wooster Beach MD, The American Practice Condensed: Or, The Family Physician, 1850

Samuel Dickson, MD, Glasgow, The “Destructive Art of Healing;” or, Facts for families, Second Edition, 1855

C. C. Schieferdecker, MD, Dr. C. G. G. Nittinger’s Evils of Vaccination, 1856

Russell Thacher Trall, MD, Water-cure for the Million, 1860

Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing—What it Is, and what it is Not, 1860

Samuel Dickson, MD, The Principles of the Chrono-Thermal System of Medicine, 1861

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Currents and Counter-currents in Medical Science With Other Addresses and Essays, 1861

John Mason Good, MD, The Study of medicine: Empyesis Variola Smallpox, vol 1, 1864

Charles Julius Hempel MD, A New and comprehensive system of materia medica and therapeutics, 1865

Dr. Eliphalet Kimball, Thoughts on Natural Principles, 1867

William Job Collins, MD, Have You Been Vaccinated, and what Protection is it Against the Small Pox? 1869

Dr. Schieferdecker, MD, Horrors of Vaccination, 1870

R. T. Trall MD, The True Healing Art or Hygienic vs. Drug Medication, 1872

Edmund Procter, Important facts on vaccination urgently demanding public attention, 1873

Dr. John Pickering, Anti-vaccination—The Statistics of the Medical Officers to the Leeds Small-Pox Hospital Exposed and Refuted, 1876

Henry Strickland Constable, Our Medicine Men: A Few Hints, 1876

Thomas R. Hazard, Civil and Religious Persecution in the State of New York, 1876

C. Spinzig MD, Variola, its Causes, Nature and Prophylaxis and the Dangers of Vaccination, 1878

Charles T. Pearce MD, Vital Statistics. Small-Pox & Vaccination in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1882

William White, The Story of a Great Delusion, 1885

George William Winterburn, PhD, MD, The Value of Vaccination: A Non-partisan Review of Its History and Results, 1886

Charles Creighton, The Natural History of Cow-pox and Vaccinal Syphilis, 1887

Charles Creighton, Jenner and Vaccination. A Strange Chapter of Medical History, 1889

Edgar March Crookshank, History and Pathology of Vaccination Volume I: A Critical Inquiry, 1889

Emmet Densmore MD, How nature cures, comprising a new system of hygiene, 1892

Vaccination Tracts. Letters and Opinions of Medical Men, 1892

Terrible Results of Vaccination: TESTIMONIES concerning Vaccination and its Enforcement: by Scientists, Statisticians, Philosophers, Publicists, and Vaccine Physicians, 1892

William Tebb, The Recrudescence of Leprosy and its Causation, 1893

Charles Creighton, MA, MD, A History of Epidemics in Britain, vol. II, 1894

Duncan Turner, Member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, Is Consumption Contagious? 1894

C. Wardell Amerige, MD, Vaccination a Curse, 1895

William Scott Tebb, MD, A Century of Vaccination and What It Teaches, 1898

Alfred Russell Wallace, LL. D, The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Its Failures, 1899

Matthew Joseph Rodermund, MD, Fads in the Practice of Medicine, and the Cause and Prevention of Disease, 1901

John W. Hodge, MD, The Vaccination Superstition: Prophylaxis to be Realized Through the Attainment of Health, not by the Propagation of Disease, 1902

Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, MD, PhD, Vaccination Brought Home to You, 1904

J.T. Biggs, Leicester: Sanitation Versus Vaccination, 1912

J. M. Peebles, MD, MA, PhD, Vaccination a Curse and a Menace to Personal Liberty, Tenth Edition, 1913

Tenison Deane, MD, The Crime of Vaccination or Bacteria, X. Y. Z., 1913

Robert Emmette McNamara, B. Sc., F. T. S., Professor of Physiology, Chemistry, Histology, Universal Chiropractic College, Chiropractic, Other Drugless Healing Methods With Criticism of the Practice of Medicine, 1913

C. Killick Millard, The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience: An Appeal for Reconsideration, 1914

Elbert Hubbard, The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard, 1916

Charles M. Higgins, Horrors of Vaccination Exposed and Illustrated, 1920

Henry Lindlahr, MD, Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics, 1921

Simon Louis Katzoff, PhD, MD, Timely Truths on Human Health, 1921

Joe Shelby Riley, MD, MS, PhD, Conquering Units: Or The Mastery of Disease, 1921

Emmons Rutledge Booth, History of Osteopathy, and Twentieth-Century Medical Practice, 1924

Eleanor McBean, The Poisoned Needle: Suppressed Facts About Vaccination, 1957