History of Medicine in PubMed

The History of Medicine subset of PubMed includes citations to journal articles in the history of the health and biomedical sciences dating back to 1966. New records are added to PubMed daily.

This page shows how to search for historical articles in PubMed. Sample Searches can be found below.

Note: Citations to selected book chapters in the history of the health and biomedical sciences can be found in LocatorPlus.

Click here to search

History of Medicine Subset

How to Search    See Search Tip!

1. Enter search term[s] in Query Box.
2. Limit by Language.
3. Enter selected Time Period (ancient, 18th century, etc.) in Query Box.
4. Enter selected Geographic Location (Asia, France, New York City, etc.) in Query Box.
5. Click Go.

Time Period (Enter in Query Box.)

For this time period	Enter
before 500 A.D.	Ancient
500-1450 A.D.	Medieval
1451-1600	Early Modern
1601-present	Modern
For this century	Enter
15th	15th century
18th	18th century
20th	20th century

Or select from History of Medicine MeSH tree.

Geographic Locations (Enter in Query Box.)

See MeSH Tree for list of Geographic Locations (city, state, country, region).

Sample Searches (History of Medicine Limit is in effect.)

1. Search by Subject and Time Period

Search for citations to articles about midwifery in medieval times. Click to see results.

2. Search by Subject, Time Period, and Geographic Location

Search for citations to articles about smallpox in Massachusetts in the 18th century.

3. Search by Author

Search for citations to articles by a specific author. Enter last name and initial(s) (initials are optional).

4. Search by Personal Name as Subject

Search for citations to articles about a person. Enter last name, initials (optional) and [ps] (personal name as subject). See Search Tip!

Search Tip!
Limiting your search to the History of Medicine subset may exclude relevant records that have not been tagged with the subject History of Medicine. Searches most commonly affected are:

1. Author and Personal Name as Subject [ps] searches. Try searching without the History of Medicine Limit.

2. Searches that include publisher-supplied records. Until these records are tagged by NLM with the History of Medicine subject, they can be searched only by Author, Title, and Keyword.

For More Information

See left sidebar menu on PubMed home page for Overview, Help, FAQs, Tutorial, etc.

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