Several large history of medicine libraries in the U.S. have begun a collaborative digital project called The Medical Heritage Library, as described in their blog:
http://www.medicalheritage.org.
The Medical Heritage Library promotes open access to historical resources in medicine, with 8,500 volumes currently available and more being added on an almost daily basis.
Medical Heritage Library partners are currently scanning history of medicine printed materials using a grant from the Sloan Foundation and Open Knowledge Commons. Files are currently being deposited in the Internet Archive, accessed here: http://www.archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary.
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Digitized books in the history of medicine that are available in high resolution from the OU Online Galleries include the following:
- Aldrovandi, Monstrorum historia (Bononiae, 1570); contains examples of birth defects.
- Bartisch, Ophthalmodouleia (Dresden, 1583); earliest printed work devoted to diseases of the eye.
- Fuchs, De historia stirpium (Basel, 1542); early printed herbal. Hand-colored.
- Gerard, The Herball: or Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597); early printed herbal. Hand-colored.
- Harvey, The Anatomical exercises of Dr. William Harvey (London, 1653); first English edition.
- Jenner, An Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae (London, 1798)
- Mondino Dei Luzzi, Anothomia (Venice, 1507); medieval manual for human dissection.
- Tyson, Edward, The Anatomy of a Pygmy (London, 1751); comparative anatomy of human and chimpanzee.
- Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543); early modern anatomy.