printed; List of Medical Journals Wanted . . 4 pp., of which 75 copies were printed; List of Medical Journals Wanted . . . 3 pp.; Supplemental List of American Medical Journals of some of which specimens are in the Library. . . Aug. 26, 1872, 4 pp., 75 copies printed; List of Medical Journals of which no copies are in the Library..., long, narrow broadside, 250 copies printed. Letter, Smart to Billings, Jan. 30, 1872: MS/C/81. 12 Letter, Smart to Billings, Jan. 30; also letter, Smart to Billings, Feb. 3, 1872: MS/C/81. 13 Letter, Smart to Billings, Feb. 15, 1872: MS/C/81. Purple gave his library to the New York Academy of Medicine, which he helped to create. 14 Letters, Webster to Billings, Jan. 31, Mar. 13, Apr. 16, 20, 1872: MS/C/81. 15 Letters, Smith to Billings, Jan. 26, Mar. 9, June 19, 1872: MS/C/81. 16 Letters, Randolph to Billings, Mar. 20, Jan. 26, 1872: MS/C/81. 17 Letters, Bentley to Billings, Oct. 19, 1872, Feb. 6, Mar. 31, 1873: MS/C/81. 18 Letters, Alden to Billings, Aug. 25, 30, Sept. 5, Oct. 8, 1872; Jan. 26, Mar. 13, 1873: MS/C/81. 19 Letters, Town to Billings, Apr. 8, May 20, Aug, 6, 1872: MS/C/81. 20 Letters, Bibber to Billings, June 19, July 20; Billings to Bibber, June 21; Billings to Boston Med. Surg. J. July 6, 1872: MS/C/81. 21 Letters, Beall to Billings, Jan. 26, Feb. 1, Mar. 18, 28, Sept. 23, Nov. 2, 1872; J. P. Chesney to Beall, Feb. 2, 1872; Billings to Beall, Feb. 3, 1872: MS/C/81. 22 Letters, Weeds to Billings, Feb. 1, Mar. 11, 18, 25, Apr. 17, June 9, Sept. 20, Oct. 18,' Nov. 3, 1872: MS/C/81. 23 Letters, James to Billings, Mar. 10, 14, 19, 23, 30, Apr. 18, June 25, Sept. 21, Nov. 2, 1872: MS/C/81. 26 Letters, Billings to Sloan, Jan. 23, 1872; Sloan to Billings, Jan. 26, May 21, 1872; Billings to Griffiths, May 13, 1872; Samuel L. S. Smith to Billings, July 1, Sept. 11, 1872: MS/C/81. 27 Brown's report was published as Senate Executive Doc. 9, parts 1 and 2, 42 Cong., 3 Sess., 1872, and as a book, Report on Quarantine on the Southern and Gulf Coasts of the United States (New York, 1873). 28 Letter, Brown to Billings, June 24, 1872: MS/C/81. 29 Letter, Brown to Billings, June 30, 1872: MS/C/81. 30 Letter, Brown to Billings, July 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 31 Letters, Brown to Billings, July 25, Aug. 26, 1872: MS/C/81. 32 Letter, Simpson to Billings, Jan. 13, Feb. 20, 1872: MS/C/81. 33 Letter, Knickerbocker to Billings, Jan. 27; Billings to Knickerbocker, Feb. 16, 1872: MS/ C/81. * Letter, Frantz to Billings, Mar. 28, 1872: MS/C/81. 35 Letter, Horton to Billings, Apr. 19, 1872: MS/C/81. 36 Letter, Hammond to Billings, May 27, 1872: MS/C/81. 37 Letters, Billings to Hammond, Oct. 30; Hammond to Billings, Nov. 14, 1874: MS/C/81. 38 Letter, Perrin to Billings, June 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 39 Letters, Sutherland to Billings, Nov. 21, 1872, May 10, 1873: MS/C/81. 40 Letter, Barker to Hassan, Mar. 13, 1872: MS/C/81. 41 Letters, Middleton to Billings, June 10; Reynolds to Billings, June 22, July 6; Murray to Billings, Sept. 28, Nov. 21; Taylor to Billings, Dec. 2, 1872: MS/C/81. 42 Letter, Porcher to (Billings?), Apr. 28, 1873: MS/C/81. 43 Letters, J. W. Freer, Chicago, to Billings, May 4, 1872, T. C. Duncan, Chicago, to Billings, Apr. 9, 1872, June 25, 1873; P. O. Tessier to Billings, May, 1872; G. Dowell to Edwards, Mar. 15, 1872: MS/C/81. * “The wife of a physn deceased some years ago tells me that she sent this spring barrels of old med journals to the paper mill"; letter, A. Jewett to Billings, June 3, 1872: MS/C/81. Other letters in Billings' correspondence mention paper mills as the fate of physicians' books and journals. 45 Letter, Billings to Flint, Jan. 13, 1872: MS/C/81. Billings, at this time, was far from being the expert on medical publications that he would become later. One of several indications of this is the above letter where he did not know that New York Monthly Review of Medical and Surgical Science was New York Monthly Review of Medical and Surgical Science, and Buffalo Medical Journal, actually volume 15 of Buffalo Medical Journal. 46 Letter, Smart to Billings, Jan. 29, 1872: MS/C/81. 47 Letter, Billings to Eve, Mar. 12, 1872: MS/C/81. Eve had been an editor and associate editor of Southern journal, 1845 to 1849; of Nashville journal, 1852 to 1857 and 1866 to 1867. 45 Letters, Eve to Billings, Mar. 22, Apr. 6, 1872: MS/C/81. 49 Letter, Billings to Dowler, May 22, 1872: MS/C/81. 50 Letters, Dowler to Surg. Randolph, July 15, 1872; to Surg. Gen. Barnes, Aug. 7, 1872: MS/C/81. 51 Letter, Wormley to Billings, May 14, 1872: MS/C/81. 52 Letters, Billings to Tessier, May 4; Tessier to Billings, May (no date) 1872: MS/C/81. The periodical was bilingual, also titled The Quebec Medical Journal. Billings sent circulars 3 and 4 as a good will gesture. 53 Paper covers, bound in volume 1, bear the name of Dr. Cook. The volumes were accessioned in 1890. 4 Letters, Fenwick to Billings, Dec. 12, 1871, Apr. 29, 1872: MS/C/81. Fenwick accepted publications of the Surgeon General's office in exchange for volumes he sent Billings. 55 Letter, Billings to Lea, Jan. 29, 1872: MS/ C/81. American Medical Intelligencer died with volume 4 in 1841. The publisher was A. Waldie. The firm of Lea & Blanchard (succeeded by Henry C. Lea in 1865) took over the stock of Waldie and started a new journal, Medical News and Library (later, Medical News) in 1843. Billings needed back issues. 56 Letters, White to Billings, Jan. 31; Billings to White, Feb. 1, 1872: MS/C/81. 57 Smart, poking around New York to find journals for Billings, learned of Collins' address, otherwise Billings may never have obtained Collins' rare journal. Letters, Smart to Billings, Jan. 30; Billings to Collins, Feb. 5; Collins to Billings, Feb. 20, 1872: MS/C/81. The volume in NLM bears the inscription in Collins' hand: "Presented by Dr. C. T. Collins to the library of the S.G.O. 1872.” 58 Letter, Butler to Billings, Mar. 14, 1872: MS/C/81. 59 Letter, Billings to Ziegler, Apr. 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 60 Letter, Billings to Clark and Garrison, Apr. 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 61 Letters, Billings to Tilden, Apr. 8, 26; Tilden to Billings, Apr. 22, 27, 1872: MS/C/81. 62 Letters, Billings to Fulton, printed in Canada Lancet 4: 442-443 (May 1872); Fulton to Billings, Mar. 11, 1872, bound in front of Canada Lancet, vol. 3: NLM. 63 Letter, Billings to Johnson & Lund, June 11, 1872: MS/C/81. 64 Letter, Judd to Billings, June 13, 1872: MS/C/81. 65 Letter, Chaillé to Billings, Nov. 29, 1872: MS/C/81. Chaillé was an editor 1857-1861, 1867. His signature is in volumes 3 and 19, NLM; it may have been in others and been cut off during rebinding. In his letter Chaillé listed several journals he was willing to part with, and named persons to whom Billings should write. 66 Letter, Billings to Talbot, Apr. 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 67 Postal card, Brown to Billings, July 18, 1873: MS/C/81. Brown offered journals from his own collection. 68 Letter, Campbell to Billings, July 18, 1872: bound in Canada Health Journal: NLM. Campbell sent the complete five issues, all that were published, of his periodical, and information about its fate. 69 Letters, Billings to Gross, Sept. 23, Oct. 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 70 Billings' letter, with remarks and an offer by Fulton to forward publications to Washington, is in Canada Lancet 4: 442-3 (May, 1872). 71 Letters, Fitzpatrick to Billings, May, June 1, June 22, 1872; Feb. 22, 1873: MS/C/81. Billings offered $3 cash or volumes of Scientific American in exchange for Fitzpatrick's journals. Letter, Saunders to Billings, May 14, 1872: 72 MS/C/81. 73 Letter, Robertson to Billings, May 14, 1872: MS/C/81. 74 Letters, McIntosh to Billings, Aug, 12, 31, Sept. 19, 1872: MS/C/81. 75 Letter, Jones to Billings, Oct. 23, 1872: MS/C/81. 76 Letter, Fulton to Billings, May 7, 1873, sending bill for the ad. The advertisement is missing in the NLM copy of Canada Lancet. "Letters, Clark to Billings, June 6, 23, 1873: MS/C/81. 78 Letter, Hawkins to Billings, Sept. 8, 1873: MS/C/81. 79 Letters, Duncan to Billings, Apr. 9, 1872; June 25, 1873: MS/C/81. 80 Letter, Butler to Billings, May 14, 1872: MS/C/81. 81 Letter, Billings to Postmaster, Keokuk, Mar. 8, 1872: MS/C/81. 82 Letter, Armor to Billings, Apr. 13, 1872: MS/C/81. 83 A list of post offices to which the clerk wrote is attached to the letter to Keokuk, above. 84 Letter, Dowell to Edwards, Mar. 15, 1872: MS/C/81. 85 Letter, E. S. Fletcher, clerk, Galveston P.O. to Billings, Mar. 21, 1872: MS/C/81. 86 Letter, Affleck to Billings, May 14, 1872: MS/C/81. Billings, according to pencilled note on the letter, sent circulars and the Library's catalog. The first volume of the Transactions at NLM has Affleck's signature inside the cover and on the title page. 87 Letter, Postmaster, Hartford, to Billings, Apr. 13, 1872: MS/C/81. 88 Letter, Van de Warker to Billings, June 27, 1872: MS/C/81. The Library, unfortunately, never completed its set of this periodical. Eclectic Medical and Surgical Journal underwent changes in its title and ended as Union Journal of Medicine. Billings had not yet become an expert on medical literature, and he thought that the two were different journals. 89 Letter, Hollifield to Billings, Mar. 22, 1872: MS/C/81. 90 Letter, Billings to James, Cincinnati, Feb. 19, 1872: MS/C/81. Italics supplied. 91 Letter, James to Billings, May 2, 1872: MS/C/81. 92 Letter, Woodward to Billings, April 26, 1872: MS/C/81. 9 Letters, Surg. John Moore to Billings, Mar. 25, 1872: Billings to Newton, Apr. 27, 1872: MS/ C/81. 4 Letter, Newton to Billings, Apr. 30, 1872: MS/C/81. Newton's subsequent letters show his continued helpfulness to the Library. 95 Letters, Thomas to Billings, Apr. 23, 30, June 13, 1872: R. D. McClatchey, American Institute of Homeopathy, to Billings, June 13, 20, 1872: Buckman to Billings, June 27, 1872: MS/C/81. Buckman gave Billings bibliographic data about his journal. 96 Letters, Comings to Billings, May 2, 15, June 11, 1872: MS/C/81. 97 Letter, Lodge to Billings, Apr. 25, 1872: MS/C/81. 98 Letter, Lodge to Billings, June [no date], 1872; list of volumes purchased from Lodge, July 6, 1872: MS/C/81. Covers of Medical Investigator, Vol. 4, 1866, Nos. 3 and 5 in NLM carry Lodge's signature. 99 Letter, James to Billings, Oct. 29, 1872: MS/C/81. 100 Letter, Alden to Billings, Dec. 19, 1872: MS/C/81. 101 Letter, Billings to Flügel, Nov. 11, 1871: NLM. 102 Italian book scouts who supplied journals to L. W. Schmidt of New York issued and circulated an Italian translation of Billings' wantlists. 103 For example, Billings' instructions to Bossange to advertise in Bibliographie de la France and local medical journals, in letter, April 11, 1874: MS/C/81. 104 Letter, Trübner & Co., to Billings, Mar. 20, 1875: NLM. 105 Letter, Bossange to Billings, May 8, 1877: NLM. 106 Letters, Billings to Partridge and Pearne, June 7, 1872: MS/C/81. From the endorsement on the back of the letter to Pearne, I would assume this was a form letter, copied by Billings' clerk and sent to other consuls. 107 Letter, Partridge to Billings, Oct. 25, 1872: MS/C/81. 108 Letters, Pearne to Billings, Aug. 27; Billings to Pearne, Oct. 18, 1872: MS/C/81. 109 For example, letter, Billings to William Hunter, Assistant Secretary of State, Sept. 2, 1873: MS/C/81. Billings asked for names of consuls in Madrid, Barcelona, Cadiz, Saville, Lisbon, Calcutta, Bombay, and Melbourne to help him procure journals the Library had been unable to obtain. There are letters to consuls in other cities in Billings' correspondence. 110 Letters, Cooper to Billings, Oct. 2, 1874; (no date) 1875: MS/C/81. C/81. Letter, Hall to Billings, Aug. 7, 1873: MS/ 112 Letters, Skilton to Billings, Jan. 27, 1873; Nov. 14, 17, 1874; Jan. 26, April 22, 1875; Feb. 25, 1877: MS/C/81. 113 Published by Government Printing Office, Washington. The list contained information on almost 300 journals, Canadian as well as United States. 114 Index-Catalogue, v. 1, pp. 2-126. New lists or additions to the lists were published in front of each succeeding volume of Index-Catalogue. 115 "The Medical Journals of the United States," Boston Med. Surg. J. 100: 1-14 (Jan. 2, 1879), and "A Century of American Medicine 1776-1876," Amer. J. Med. Sci. 72: 439-80 (1876), to mention two of Billings' most notable articles. 116 Letter, Collins to Billings, Feb. 20, 1872: MS/C/81. For other examples of bibliographical information sent to Billings see letters, Fenwick to Billings, Dec. 12, 1871; Eve to Billings, Apr. 6, 1872; Chaillé to Billings, Nov. 29, 1872: MS/ C/81. 117 Letter, Billings to C. T. Collins, Feb. 21, 1872: MS/C/81. 118 Statistics given by Billings on p. 177 of his chapter, "Medical libraries in the United States," in Bureau of Education, Special Report, Public Libraries in the United States. . ., Part 1, 1876. Titles of the journals purchased by the Library, 1869-1872, 1874-1909, are in manuscript volumes in NLM. V Gathering Books and Other Literature for the National Medical Library ACQUIRING BOOKS BILLINGS' appetite for books was always greater than his means, and he tried in every way possible to obtain the most for his money. He purchased European imprints from or through Continental book agents because their prices were cheaper than American dealers charged.' He did not buy second or later editions of recent works unless there was an imperative reason for doing so. 2 He bawled booksellers out when, in his opinion, they asked higher prices than he thought publications were worth. On one occasion he wrote to bookseller L. W. Schmidt, New York: "I must remark that I think your prices a little high. From most booksellers I get a discount. If you continue to invoice me at full retail price I shall have to purchase elsewhere."3 At times he offered less than catalog prices, hoping that if publications were not sold to other buyers the bookseller would be willing to accept Billings' terms.* Billings also bought volumes from physicians, advertising in journals for works that were difficult to obtain.5 Having a fairly accurate idea of the current market value of secondhand medical works, owing to his constant perusal of catalogs, he sometimes disappointed sellers by low offers. Richard J. Dunglison refused Billings' offer of $135 for 165 volumes of dictionaries from the estate of his father, Robley, and auctioned them in Philadelphia. F. Peyre Porcher, Charleston, South Carolina, offered to sell eleven 16th century books (Galen, Celsus, Hippocrates, etc.) that he had bought in Florence, Italy, many years earlier for $250. He sent them to Washington for Billings to examine. Billings replied with a check for $175, telling Porcher to accept or return the check. Porcher, needing money "in these times of hardship" agreed "with a pang of regret. דיי Billings browsed through bookstores when he visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Boston, and other cities on official business or to attend meetings of medical societies. While in Philadelphia in early 1871 he stopped at Peter Doyle's shop and purchased a volume which, unknown to him, was wanted by Samuel Gross, a noted surgeon and biographer. When Gross learned |