MEDICAL JOURNALISM. One of the earliest newspapers on record, the Gazette de France, was issued by a physician, Renaudat (Paris 1631). He had been appointed Com missioner-General of the Poor of France when poverty was rife, just after the religious wars, and created a Bureau of Addresses where those out of work might learn of chances for employment. He established the Gazette to give publicity to his scheme for bringing em ployers and employees together. The Gazette was a quarto sheet, printed in four columns on one side. Medical matters were not treated in the Gazette, but its purpose was the prevention of disease and suffering by lessening poverty. With the origin of scientific societies in Italy at the time of the Renaissance, these published journals which sometimes contained articles of medical interest. The first journal paying considerable attention to medicine was Le Journal des Scavans. This was published every Monday for three months at Paris, at the beginning of 1665, the next year it continued longer, and then every two weeks rather regu larly. It lasted some 10 years, and altogether some 700 pages were printed. Early issues, contained reviews of Willis' Anatome,' and Steno's 'De Musculis et Glandulis,' and other medical reviews of current interest. The German Society of Naturalist Physicians (Gesellschaf t Naturforschender Aerzte), founded in 1652, began to publish in 1670, after coming under Imperial protection, its 'Transac tions' monthly under the name Ephemerides. A more purely medical periodical was the Acta Medica Hafieusia, edited by Thomas Bartholin at Copenhagen in 1671. The Royal Society chartered by Charles II began to publish its well-known philosophical 'Transactions' in 1665. Included among its publications were the works of Malpighi and Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century and those of Galvani in the 18th.
All these were in Latin. The first medical periodical in the vernacular was the Nouvelles Dicouvertes sur toutes les Parties de la Mae cine, issued monthly (Paris 1679-81). It was
published by Nicholas de Blagny, a somewhat irregular medical practitioner of the time who realized the value of publicity. He met with decided opposition from the medical profession, who deprecated not only his methods but above all the publication of medical matters in the lan guage of the people. He waked the French medical profession, however, to the value of a medical publication and not long after, a Jour nal de Midecine was published by the Abbe de In Roque and continued by Claude Brunet, who established a monthly, Progris de la Midecine (1695-1709). French medical journalism then went to sleep, to use the expressive phrase of Siidhoff, for some 50 years. Formal •German medical journalism began with the Acta Medi corum Berolinensium, founded in 1717. This appeared twice a year at first, and then annually until 1730. In 1717, there began at Leipzig a quarterly publication called the Collection of Natural History and Medical Information. This continued for many years. The second half of the 18th century saw a thorough waking up to the advantage of medical journalism. At Ham burg in 1759 the weekly, Der Arts, began. In various German cities, a series of medical Bibliotheks, that is, regularly issued reviews of medical books, made their appearance. In 1767, the German medical journal, Neue Arzneien (New Remedies) was founded. Most of these journals lasted only a few years until their founder became occupied with other things or his enthusiasm evaporated.
Eighteenth century medical journalism or its equivalent, at the time, consisted to a great extent of the transactions of various medical societies. A number of very important con tributions to medicine were published originally in these and they have a distinct bibliographic value. Siidhoff suggests that the material for the cultural history of medicine in this century lies buried in the files of its forgotten medical periodicals. These were very numerous and Garrison has given a check list in chronological order of some hundred of them.