Making Endemic Goiter an American Disease, 1800-1820.

In 1800, American physician and naturalist Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) published A Memoir Concerning the Disease of Goitre as it Prevails in Different Parts of North-America. The text documented the nature of the disease in the United States and highlighted how it differed from the ailment's presentation in European patients. While medical topographies were common during this period, Barton's goiter research and the steady stream of American goiter research that followed are worth special attention.

Recommended for "frequent perusal" and "improving the science of medicine": Benjamin Rush's American editions and the circulation of medical knowledge in the early Republic.

Between 1809 and 1813 leading American physician Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) devoted a significant portion of his time to the production of "American Editions" of four British and colonial medical texts by Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), Sir John Pringle (1707-1782), William Hillary (1697-1763), and George Cleghorn (1716-1789). This occurred during a period where Rush might have written a textbook detailing his preferred medical system for students outright. Instead, he opted for a different form of knowledge production and proliferation that focused on creating fictive conversations and encouraging critical reading rather than rote memorization.