All About Cholera
In an 1870 publishers' catalog, Billings noted several titles that interested him. In one instance he observed that they had one edition, but not another.
July, 1870 catalogue from the French publisher F. Savy.
Billings notes that "an ed. of '57 in library with title Traite Pratique, etc."
Eugene Hippolyte Triquet's Traite Pratique, 1857 edition, a book which Billings noted in the catalogue that the Library already possessed.
Eugene Hippolyte Triquet's Lecons Cliniques sur les Maladies de l'Oreille, 1865 edition, was finally acquired at some point in 1873.
As sole purchaser for the Library but not the only selector, Billings filled the requests of other staff members. In this 1870 catalogue, he has noted that Lt. Col. Woodward "would like all of the works on cholera not already in the collection."
1870 catalogue from Swiss bookseller Schweitzer.
Catalogue section devoted to cholera and Billings' note.
Among the titles of this page, Joseph Finger's Die Cholera epidemica nach Beobachtungen was purchased from Library employee F. L. Apel for 35 cents and accessioned January 25, 1871.
Beginning about 1867 Billings began acquiring old sales catalogues from book dealers and publishers. A list of titles offered for sale decades earlier, while not a current source for purchasing, gave Billings and his colleagues further suggestions for titles. If something was of interest in the old catalogues they could then search current booksellers' inventories.
Catalogue for Edward Barrington and George D. Haswell, publisher and bookdealer of Philadelphia, 1846.
Catalogue from Philadelphia bookdealer John Penington, 1849.
Joseph J. Woodward (1833 - 1884). When he joined the Surgeon General's office, Woodward was unimpressed by the Library. He later commented that in 1862 "nothing deserving the name of a medical library existed in Washington."
Catalogue from A. Asher and Co., bookdealer with locations in Berlin and London, 1852.
Catalogue for William Wood, publisher and bookdealer in New York City, 1857.
