What also makes books on disease interesting is that doctors that study the disease are specifically studying one type of disease, therefore the information is very in-depth. If one wants to find documentation of some of the first diseases ever recorded, a collector should look into finding books on malaria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, just to name a few.
When starting a medical collection on historical diseases, a great book to add to any collection is Phthisiologia: or, A Treatise of Consumptions by Richard Morton. This book was one of the first to use anatomical dissections to explain the spread of diseases and also one of the first to apply the principles of pathology to study diseases.
Whether a collector wants to find information on the history of a specific disease or just find general collectible books on the history of medicine, there are many subjects to choose from and a vast variety of documents available!
Duchesne, Joseph. Tetrade des plus grieves maladies de tout le Cerveau. Claude Morel: Paris (1625). Other Author-Josephus Quercetanus; Full title-Tetrade des plus grieves maladies de tout le cerveau: Composee des veilles, observations and pratique des plus scavans and experts medecins, tant dogmatiques que hermetiques
Morton, Richard. Phthisiologia: or, A Treatise of Consumptions. Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford: London (1694). Full title-Phthisiologia: or, A Treatise of Consumptions: Wherein the Difference, Nature, Causes, Signs, and Cure of All Sorts of Consumptions are Explained
Hartman, George. The Family Physitian, or a Collection of Choice. Richard Wellington: London (1696). Full title-The Family Physitian, or a Collection of Choice, Approv'd and Experienc'd Medies, for the Cure of Almost All Diseases Incident to Humane Bodies
Mandeville, B. A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases. J. Tonson: London (1730). 2nd Edition
Cheyne, George. The English Malady. G. Strahan: London (1733). Full title-The English malady: or, a treatise of nervous diseases of all kinds, as spleen, vapours, lowness of spirits, hypochondriacal, and hysterical distempers, and c.
Langrish, Browne. The Modern Theory and Practice of Physic. Bettsworth C. Hitch: London (1738).
Lorry, Anne Charles de. Tractatus de morbis cutaneis. P. Guillaume Cavelier: Paris (1777).
Goodwyn, Edmund. The connexion of life with respiration. J. Johnson: London (1788). Full title-The connexion of life with respiration: or, an experimental inquiry into the effects of submersion, strangulation, and several kinds of noxious airs, on living animals, with an account of the nature of the disease they produce
Howard, John. An account of the principal lazarettos in Europe. William Eyres: London (1789). Full title-An account of the principal lazarettos in Europe; with various papers relative to the plague: together with further observations on some foreign prisons and hospitals; and additional remarks on the present state of those in Great Britain and Ireland
Laennec, Rene T. H. De l'auscultation mediate. J.-A. Brosson and J.-S. Chaude: Paris (1819). 2 volumes
Lawrence, William. A Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye. John Churchill: London (1833).
Laennec, Rene T. H. A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest and on Mediate Auscultation. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman: London (1834). Translated from french with notes by John Forbes
Andral, Gabriel. Essai d'hematologie patologique. Fortin, Masson: Paris (1843).
Ricord, Philip. Illustrations of Syphilitic Disease. A. Hart Late Carey and Hart: Philadelphia (1852). Translated by Thomas F. Betton; Other author- Paul Goddard
Stokes, William. Diseases of the Heart and the Aorta. Lindsay and Blakiston: Philadelphia (1854). First American Edition
Cazenave, Pierre Louis Alphee. Lecons sur les maladies de la peau. Labe: Paris (1856).
Mitchell, S Weir. Clinical Lessons on Nervous Diseases. Lea Brothers: Philadelphia (1897).
Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. The Bibliomania or Book Madness: History, Symptoms and Cure of this Fatal Disease. The Bibliophile Society: Boston (1903). 4 volumes; 483 copies
Kelly, Howard A. Diseases of the Kidneys, Ureters and Bladder. D. Appleton and Company: New York (1914). 2 volumes; Other author-Curtis F. Burnam; Full title-Diseases of the Kidneys, Ureters and Bladder: With special reference to the diseases in women