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Stock List for Deborah Coltham Rare Books

 

To enquire about the availability of items listed please contact me directly. Please be aware that some items may no longer be available. The forthcoming List Four containing recent acquisitions will be available to download in pdf shortly.
 

Stock List

 

‘The Father of Swedish Surgery’

  1.       ACREL, Olof af.  UTFÖRLIG FÖRKLARING OM FRISKA SÄRS EGENSKAPER,  i afseende til deras särskilta natur, kännetecken och pafölgder, med bihang af nagra slutsatzer, om deras lethalitet samt huru och i hwad form eller ordasätt wittnesbörd deröfwer ma lämmas ... Stockholm, Tryck hos Lars Salvius, 1745.  8vo, pp. [x], [9]- 339, [1] errata; lightly foxed throughout, with a few gatherings a little browned, small tear at tail of A5, and very small worm-trail affecting lower gutter from U through to end just touching a couple of letters but with no loss; an attractive copy in contemporary half-calf over sprinkled boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, ruled in gilt, with gold label lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine a little rubbed, some light surface wear and soiling, extremities a little bumped and rubbed.  £550

Uncommon first edition of A detailed explanation on the characteristics of wounds one of the greatest and most influential physicians in Sweden in the eighteenth century Olaf af Acrel, considered to be an early, if not the first Swedish scientific treatise on surgery.
Olof Acrel (1717-1806), later ennobled as af Acrel, began his studies at Uppsala under the tutorship of men such as Carl Linnaeus and Nils Rosén von Rosenstein. Developing an interest in surgery, in 1740 he was given a state travel grant and spent five years travelling across Europe, studying with the noted physiologist Albrecht von Haller in Göttingen; under Petit and Astruc in Paris; saw Cheselden operate in London, and also studied under Sharp at Guy’s Hospital. The outbreak of the War of Austrian Succession saw him join the French Army, rising to become chief surgeon of a large field-hospital at Lauterburg. He was taken prisoner, though during the winter of 1743-4 was allowed to conduct courses in surgery.
He returned to Sweden in 1744 and passed his final examination for the College of Surgeons. Together with the physician Abraham Bäck, he established Sweden’s first National hospital in 1752, the Royal Seraphim Lazarette in Stockholm, holding the position of chief surgeon for nearly half a century. He was among the first in Sweden to perform eye operations and received many honours from throughout Europe, and his particularly noted for his comprehensive Chirurgiska Händelser (Surgical Cases), published in 1759 (with a second illustrated edition in 1775) and which proved to be a highly influential surgical text-book across Europe, describing operations in detail and discussing improved instruments.
Blake p. 4; Hirsch I, p. 50; Waller 215; not in Heirs, Osler or Wellcome; see Hagelin, Rare and Important Medical Books, pp. 122-3; see Hæger, The Illustrated History of Surgery, pp. 166-7;OCLC: 14333319 cites only the NLM copy, with a further copy located at the National Library of Sweden.

 

  2.      ADAMS, James.  THE GAS QUESTION. Economic and Sanitary. [Glasgow], [Printed by James Macnab, 106 West Nile Street]. 1882. 8vo, pp. 40, with errata slip tipped in at p. 37 (itself with mounted correction slip); lightly browned and foxed; in the original drab printed wrappers, covers somewhat soiled with evidence of vertical fold, spine rubbed and chipped with slight loss at head and tail; a presentation copy from the author, with a mss note by the recipient D. Matheson on upper cover.     £75

A fuller account of arguments first presented in the Glasgow Herald in February 1882 by Dr James Adams, a chemist at Glasgow University, in which he criticises proposed plans to lower the ‘illuminating quality of Glasgow gas from its present standard of 25 to 20 candle power’, for reasons of cost, efficiency and public health.
OCLC: 122420954 noting only Glasgow with KVK locating further copies at the National Library of Scotland, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Dublin.

  3.      [ALMANAC]. [PALMAVERDE].  IL CORSO DELLE STELLE osservato dal pronostico moderno Palmaverde almanacco Piemontese per l'anno 1798. Dove l’indicano le mutazioni dell’aria ec. Il giornale de’ santi, le quarant’ore, ed altre nuove particolari notizie. Torino Nella stamperia di Giambatista Fontana. [1798]. 24mo, pp. 144; including attractive woodcut frontispiece; with woodcut printer’s device on title-page, and woodcut diagram; text within ruled border; aside from some very slight soiling, clean and crisp;  an appealing copy in contemporary mottled sheep, with gilt border, spine ruled in gilt, joints and extremities lightly rubbed with minor wear, with neat date in mss at head of upper cover.  £285

An appealing copy of the noted Piedmontese Palmaverde almanac for the year 1798. First published by Giambatista Fontana in 1722 and based upon the Royal French Almanach, this yearly publication became extremely popular and was indeed the almanac of the court until 1774 when it was discarded in favour of royal printing presses own Calendario della Real Corte. Nevertheless, the Palmaverde remained in circulation well into the nineteenth century. The present example includes monthly calendars, lists of sovereigns, tables of newly appointed knights, bishops and archbishops, magistrates, lawyers etc, as well as monetary tariffs.
As the article by Lodovica Braida reveals, (Le Guide del tempo; produzione, contenuti e forme degli almanachhi piemontesi nel settecento in Journal of Modern History, Vol 65, no 4, Dec 1993) the Palmaverde come from a long tradition of almanacs and calendars printed in Piedmont. Like other almanacs of the period, the Palmaverde  tried to move away from astrological predictions, and in effect became a forum for discussions about social, scientific and economic progress, and concentrating in particular upon the annual developments in the court, and religious and political circles. A survey of 1783 revealed that 18,000 copies were sold a year. All copies appear scarce. This edition not located on OCLC. 

 

The hygiene of sleep

  4.      ANTONELLI, Guiseppe.  IGIENE DEL SONNO Con una tavola. Ulrico Hoepli, Editore-Libraio Dellar Real Casa, Milano. 1905. Small 8vo, pp. xvi, 224; with one full-page illustration; lightly browned due to paper quality; in the original printed boards, tail of spine with small nick, covers a little soiled, extremities lightly bumped and rubbed, with dust-jacket, with small nick at head of spine and some wear; a good copy.     £120

Uncommon first edition of this medical study on the nature and ‘hygiene’ of sleep, by Guiseppe Antonelli, ‘Ufficiale sanitario di Farnese’. Part of the series of popular works published by Ulrico Hoepli of Milan, the present work discusses sleep patterns in sickness and health, as well as for infants, covering such things as the type of bedding used, the way the bed is made, the position of the bed, the sleeping position, nightwear, and hours of sleep. Other topics such as insomnia and snoring are also discussed. The final section deals with nervous related sleep disorders.
OCLC: 14785906 cites five copies at Chicago, the National Library of Medicine, Columbia, Glasgow and the Wellcome.

 

A travelling medicine chest described

  5.      [AZZOGUIDI Germano].  LA SPEZIERIA DOMESTICA.  Operetta utile a tutte quelle persone, che bramano di vivere lungamente, e necessaria a quelli che si trovano lontani dal Medico o dallo Speziale, come per lo pi accade a chi vive nella Campagna, nel Chiostri, Collegi, ec. e a chi intraprende Viaggi di Terra, e principalmente di Mare. Edizione Seconda. Venezia, Nella Stamperia Graziosi a Sant’Apollinare ... MDCCLXXXIV [1784]. 8vo, pp. xiv, 158, [2] publishers printers list; with prominent purple damp bloom affecting upper outer margins throughout;  uncut in the original blue paper wrappers, head of spine torn with loss of about 1cm, with small nick with loss at centre of upper joint, covers faintly dampstained and soiled, corners bumped and worn, extremities a little furled; despite faults, a sound unsophisticated copy.      £300

Second edition (reprint of the 1782 first edition) of this uncommon pocket guide to health ‘for those who desire to live at length’, and for those who find themselves far from medical attention, e.g. in the countryside, in cloisters and colleges, or those undertaking journeys by land and sea.

In the preface the author Azzoguidi (who identifies himself in the preface and was on the medical faculty at Bologna University), explains that the work is intended to form a companion to the ‘Macchinette’ of German manufacture which had become widespread in Italy. These travelling medicine cabinets were made to a standard pattern, so having described the various compartments and containers the author can identify them by letters only. Azzoguidi proceeds to describes each drug, its purpose and use, though always emphasising the need to seek professional advice as soon as possible when necessary. In 1804 Azzoguidi became professor of comparative anatomy. He was the author of several other works,predominantly aimed at students and the medical profession, and is also noted for his work on the structure of the uterus in 1773.

Blake p. 25; Wellcome II p. 78;

 

  6.      BABBAGE, Charles.  OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISCOVERY IN VARIOUS LOCALITIES OF THE REMAINS OF HUMAN ART mixed with the bones of extinct races of animals. [From the Proceedings of the Royal Society for May 26, 1859]. London [1860] 8vo, pp. 16; with seven engraved figures; stitched as issued in contemporary wrappers; a part from some minor soiling a good, clean copy. £275

Original offprint. A fascinating and uncommon ethnological essay by Charles Babbage on the contentious matter of dating human artefacts found in the same geological strata as the remains of extinct animals. ‘Babbage pointed out the imprecise nature of the evidence and concluded that "whilst we ought to be quite prepared to examine any evidence which tends to prove the great antiquity of our race, yet that if facts adduced can be explained and accounted for by the operation of a few simple and natural causes, it is unphilosophical to infer the co-existence of man with those races of extinct animals"’ (Origins of Cyberspace, 78). Babbage goes on to explain at great length how the dating evidence of the time is unclear, given that the events surrounding the flooding of caves are not predictable. He based his evidence from his own experience and observations made when he visited the caverns of Michelstown in Ireland.

The essay first appeared in The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, pp.297-308, in the complete monthly issue for October 1859, before appearing for the second time in the Royal Society of London Proceedings, 1860 (pp. 59-72), and when this offprint was presumably issued.

Origins of Cyberspace, 78 (journal); OCLC: 5004501 cites copies at Yale, the Library of Congress, Harvard, Cincinnati, Victoria and Albert Museum.
 

With additional lithograph of a speculum not found in English edition

  7.       BALBIRNIE, John.  DIE METROSCOPIE oder diagnose und therapie der organischen gebärmutter-krankheiten, gestützt auf die anwendung des mutterspiegels. Nach dem Englischen des John Balbirnie bearbeitet und mit anmerkungen versehen, nebst einem anhange über den gebrauch des stethoscops in der geburtshilfe. Von Dr. Adolph Schnitzer ... mit 1 tafel lithographierter abbildungen. Berlin, bei A. W. Hayn. 1838. 8vo, pp. xvi, [iv], 424, [ii] errata, [ii] plate description; with large folding lithograph plate (a little foxed with small ink stain); some light browning throughout, principally marginal, with a few occasional neat pencil annotations; ex-libris copy with four library stamps on verso of title-page (one of which is prominent on recto), and with accession stamp on front free endpaper; with the armorial book-plate from the Kaiser Wilhelm Bibliothek Posen on front paste-down; in contemporary sheep backed marbled boards, upper cover embossed in gilt, spine ruled and lettered in gilt (through lettering faded and chipped), paper accession label at tail, head of spine and upper joint repaired, extremities rubbed and a little bumped.   £275

Scarce first German translation, containing an additional lithograph plate not found in the original, of John Balbirnie’s obstetrical work, The Speculum applied to the diagnostic and treatment of the organic diseases of the womb, first presented as his inaugural dissertation to the University of Glasgow in 1836. A second edition appeared in the same year under the title A Treatise on the organic diseases of the womb.

The present translation includes additional notes and an appendix on the use of auscultation and the stethoscope in obstetrics, by Adolph Schnitzer (1802-1883), the Berlin surgeon and obstetrician. The large folding plate shows the vaginal speculum - according to Graham in Eternal Eve a rather controversial instrument that many considered to be ‘offensive to feminine delicacy’ (p. 494).

John Balbirnie (1810-1895) is probably best remembered for his interest and promotion of hydrotherapy, notably through several works including The Philosophy of the Water-Cure (1845), The Water-Cure in Consumption and Scrofula (1854) and The physiological basis and curative effects of the Turkish bath (1871).

RCOG p. 4 (1836 edition); this edition not on OCLC which cites copies of the first edition at Iowa, Harvard, Minnesota, Glasgow and the National Library of Medicine; KVK locates copies at the National Library of Scotland and Aberdeen.

 

  8.      BALL, Robert Stawell.  IN STARRY REALMS. With numerous illustrations. London, Isbister & Company Limited … 1898. 8vo, pp. [iii] - x, 371, [1] blank, [2] advertisements, lacking half-title; with collotype frontispiece and numerous textual illustrations; occasional minor spotting; bound in contemporary two-tone cloth, with attractive vignette of solar phenomena and stars embossed in gilt on upper cover, with publisher's device in blind on lower cover, spine lettered in gilt, all edges gilt; an attractive copy.   £45

Second edition, reprinted. This popular work was first published in 1892 and went through several editions. 'The object of the book is to give the general reader some sketches of specially interesting matters relating to the different heavenly bodies. They may be regarded as supplementary to a treatise on elementary astronomy such as my little volume "Starland"' (p. vi). In this attractive volume, Ball discusses such matters as 'The Heat of the Sun', 'The Moon's History', 'Notes on Nebulae', 'Mars as a World', 'A Falling Star', 'Fire-Balls' and concluding with 'An Astronomer's Thoughts on Krakatoa' and 'Darwinism and its Relation to Other Branches of Science'.

 

  9.      [BALLAND,  Eugène Amédée]. ALLENT, B., pseudonym. LES ANIMAUX INDUSTRIEUX, ou Description des ruses qu'ils mettent en oeuvre pour saisir leur proie et fuir leurs ennemis; des moyens qu'ils emploient dans la construction de leurs habitations; de leurs combats; de leurs jeux, et de toutes les ressources qu'ils ont reçues de la nature, pour veiller à l'entretien et à la conservation de leur vie. Paris, A la librairie de l’enfance et de la jeunesse, P.C. Lehuby, successeur de M. P. Blanchard. 1834. 8vo, pp. [ii], 331, [1] blank; with additional engraved title-page, engraved frontispiece and six engraved plates; some light marginal browning, and occasional faint marginal dampstaining, otherwise clean and crisp;  in contemporary mottled calf, borders ruled in gilt, spine in gilt with black morocco label, upper joint cracked and weak, but holding with some wear to head and tail of spine, corners a little bumped and worn; nevertheless, an appealing copy.     £200

Fourth, and surprisingly uncommon edition (first 1821) of this appealing and amusing introduction to animal behaviour and psychology, aimed particularly at young children ‘des deux sexes’. The work, written by the noted children’s author Eugène Amédée Balland though published under the pseudonym of B. Allent, draws heavily upon the natural history works of Buffon.

This popular work was republished a number of times throughout the nineteenth century, and was later adopted by the ‘Ministre de l'instruction publique, pour être donné en prix dans les lycées, et par la ville de Paris’ according to the edition of 1873.

Querard I, 161; not in Osborne; see Gumuchian 4371 for Balland’s work of 1823, Les Papillons, though the present work is not listed.

 

  10.    [BALLOONING EPHEMERA]. [NOTICE OF EXPERIMENTAL FLIGHT]. AVVISO  Ferrara li 29. Maggio, Ferrara, Pe’ Soj. Bianchi e Negri, 1809.  Single leaf folio broadside, 328mm x 232mm, text 288mm x 172mm; margins a little soiled, with a couple of minor tears at head and tail, but not touching text.        £185

An appealing piece of ballooning ephemera - the present notice announces a forthcoming experiment by Antonio Marcheselli on June 25th 1809 in Ferrara to test a new method of stabilising the balloon.

The first balloon flights were carried out in 1783 by Etienne and Joseph de Montgolfier, with the first manned ascent made by Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes in one of the Montgolfier brother's balloons on November 20th, 1783. They ascended from the Bois de Boulogne and crossed Paris, covering a total distance of 5 1/2 miles in approximately 20 minutes. An earlier flight, on the 19th of September in front of Louis XVI and the French Court, had carried a sheep, a cock and a duck. Tragically, Pilatre de Rozier was later killed in an attempted balloon crossing of the English Channel.

The Aviso presents an insight into the leading Italian protagonists in ballooning history. Francesco Zambeccari, the first person to launch a balloon in England wrote his seminal work on ballooning in 1803, and in 1804 together with his assistant Andreoli (also here cited) and Grassetti attempted to cross the Adriatic unsuccessfully, all succumbing to ‘balloon’ sickness and frostbite - the first detailed account of altitude hypoxia.

As the present notice makes apparent, Andreoli and his partner Marcheselli have attempted to improve upon Zambeccari’s experiments using hydrogen and hot air, and the experiment planned for May 29th in Ferrara, to be witnessed by several physicists, will use a newly designed valve to control the release of air.

Sadly, Zambeccari later died during a failed flight in 1812.

For an account of Zambeccari see Rolt, The Balloonists, The History of the first Aeronauts, ff. 96.

 

  11.     BAUMÉ, Antoine. MEMOIRE SUR LES ARGILLES, Ou recherches experiences chymiques et physiques sur la nature des terres les plus propres à l’Agriculture, & sur les moyens de fertiliser celles qui sont stériles. A Paris, Chez Lacombe, Libraire, rue Christine, près de la rue Dauphine. MDCCLXX [1770]. 8vo, pp. [2], xiv, 87, [5]; generally clean and crisp, aside from some minor marginal browning and occasional faint dampstaining at gutter; with attractive engraved book-plate on front paste-down, and with the stamped initials GM at tail of title; uncut in the original blue paste-paper wrappers, covers faintly dampstained, spine and lower cover a worn and chipped with some loss of paper; a good copy.    £225

First edition of this essay on the nature, composition and fertilisation of clay soils in relation to agriculture, by the noted chemist Antoine Baumé (1728-1804). Based upon an essay originally submitted for a contest organised by the l’Académie de Bordeaux in 1767, the work has here been extended, and has been published ‘faire plaisir et me rendre utile aux Amateurs & aux Agriculteurs’ (p. iv).

‘Baume submitted this memoir to the Bordeaux Academy in 1767 and again in 1769 in a competition to answer questions regarding clay - its composition, the natural changes it undergoes and how to fertilize it. He was unsuccessful but felt that his chemical point of view was absolutely new and therefore he had the memoir printed. There was a second edition in 1796’ (Cole 60).

Baumé, apprentice to the chemist Claude Joseph Geoffroy, became a member of the École de Pharmacie and professor of chemistry in 1752. A successful businessman he retired in 1780 to devote himself to applied chemistry, but, ruined in the Revolution, he was obliged to return to a commercial career. He devised many improvements in technical processes, e.g. for bleaching silk, dyeing, gilding, purifying saltpetre, etc., and devised the Baumé scale hydrometer associated with his name. Of his numberous works, he is best remembered for his Chymie Experimentale et Raisonnée (1773), and for his Éléments de pharmacie théorique et pratique (1762) and which went through nine editions.

Provenance: The present copy belonged to the noted Swedish naturalist Gabriel Marklin (1777-1857), who assembled probably one of the best collections of natural history books in Sweden. He helped to establish the Natural History Museum at Upsala, and is remembered for compiling a noted bibliography of Swedish disserations. One of his collections was later sold to Comte Paul Riant.

The book was subsequently purchased from the Marklin collection by the major 19th century Swedish collector, Christian Hammer (1818-1905), jeweller to the court, and whose collection numbered more than 40000 volumes. Cole 60; Duveen p. 52; see Ferguson I pp. 83-84 for biographical note; OCLC: 22224926 cites copies at Delaware, Huntington, Cornell, the University of Wisconsin and the National Library of Scotland.

 

  12.    [BEAUTY]. T. HILL MANSFIELD’S  CA-PILL-A-RIS For the Ladies’ Toilet it has no equal! Cures Dandruff & Baldness enlivens thickens, prevents falling of the hair! Makes brash hair soft and silky. Mrs Henry Works, General Agent for California. No. 467 South Tenth Street, San Jose. [ca. 1884].  8vo, single folded sheet, pp. [iv]; title within ruled border; lightly browned, with some minor soiling; evidence of previous horizontal fold; a good copy.     £75

A most appealing advertising leaflet promoting the wonderful ‘Capillaris’ - a cure not only for skin and scalp conditions, but according to the present leaftet, effective also for the treatment of bronchitis and croup.

T. Hill Mansfield, of Portland Maine, registered a label for ‘Mansfield's Capillaris For The Hair and Scalp’ in 1882, and as the present example from around 1884 highlights, had clearly expanded his distribution down to California., entrusting the sale of his remedy to Mrs Henry Works ‘General Agent fo California’.

It is the first testimonial, however, that is particularly revealing - highlighting the perilous nature of many of the nostrums available for use: - ‘Eighteen years ago Salt Rheum first made its appearance on my head and face. I tried all the remedies generally used for this disease, and received but little benefit. I went to Ann Arbor, Mich., where Dr. Parmer prescribed Iodide of Potassium, alternating with Fowler’s Solution of Arsenic, and for external application a mercurial preperation [sic]. It partially cured me, but left my blood in such a state that I was in a constant chill. This summer I was taken worse than ever, when Mrs. Works induced me to try ‘Capillaris’. After two months I find I am nearly well. My scalp is smooth and white, and entirely free from all eruption for the first time in eighteen years. As a dressing for the hair and to cleanse the skin it has no equal’.

 

  13.    BELL, Benjamin. ARSENAL DE CHIRURGIE,  ou recueil des instruments et des manières d'opérer adoptées par les modernes, Gravés pour le Cours de Chirurgie. A Paris, Chez Théophile Barrois le jeune, Libraire, quai des Augustins, no 18. An IV [1796]. 4to, pp. [iv], with 99 engraved plates, and one unnumbered plate; faint dampstaining throughout affecting lower part of plate and sometimes touching image, with some dampstaining at head affecting latter part of work; in contemporary calf backed marbled boards, inner hinge cracked but holding, spine tooled in gilt with red morocco label, spine repaired, extremities rubbed and bumped; a good copy.         £1,200

Extremely rare first separate edition, with a print run of only 25 printed on vellum paper according to the half-title, of this fine surgical atlas by Benjamin Bell, originally published as part of his noted six volume System of Surgery(1783-1788).

Benjamin Bell was the leading Scottish surgeon of his time and the founder of a surgical dynasty which extended into the twentieth century. He was born in Dumfries, where he served as an apprentice and then went to Edinburgh at the age of seventeen, where he studied under the Monros. He then spent two years studying in Paris, before then moving to London where he trained with William Hunter. On his return to Edinburgh, he engaged in practice, and became the most successful surgeon in Scotland for that period. One of the first surgeons to emphasize the importance of preventing or diminishing pain during surgery, he introduced a number of improvements in amputation technique. A System of Surgery in six volumes was his most ambitious work, written in an attempt to displace Heister's Surgery as the standard textbook. It was the first comprehensive publication by a British surgeon covering the entire subject, and the clarity and precision with which it was written provided a model for later nineteenth century surgical works. It went through seven editions, and was translated into French and German.

See Heirs 1079; see Garrison-Morton 5579; see Waller 844; see Wellcome II p. 134; no copy found on OCLC or KVK.

 

 

  15.    BJÖRLING, Carl Fabian Emanuel. SOLEN Populära föredrag. Tredje Upplagan. Stockholm, F. & G. Beijer. [1874]. [bound with:] METEORITE OCH KOMETER. Med 4 planscher och 18 figurer i texten. Stockholm, F. & G. Beijers förlag. [1874], [and:] OM VINDARNES LAGAR och de nyare försöken till väderleks-förutsägelser. Andra Upplagan. Stockholm, F. & G. Beijers förlag. [1875]. Three works in one volume 8vo; pp. vi, 126, with three coloured lithographs including one double-page; iv, 95, with four lithograph plates; vi, 100, [2], with nine coloured lithograph plates;  in morocco backed marbled boards, spine in gilt; an attractive copy.  £150

An attractive sammelband containing three works of popular science, by the noted Swedish academic Carl Fabian Emanuel Björling, (1839-1910).

A philosophy graduate, who had previously lectured in physics and mathematics at Uppsala and Halmstads, Björling became professor of mathematics at Lund University in 1873. He was the author of several scientific studies and the present volume contains his three of his most noted popular works on the Sun, Meteorites and Comets, and Weather Prediction, in the third, first, and second editions respectively. Each treatise is attractively illustrated with striking lithograph plates, with those illustrating the sun, and the paths of comets particularly striking. The double-page plate highlighting solar flares, is taken from Secchi’s work of 1875, Le Soleil.

Björling became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy in 1886. Poggendorff III, p. 138

 

  16.    BLAKEY, [William].  OBSERVATIONS TRÈS IMPORTANTES POUR LES PÈRES ET MÈRES, et pour les personnes qu'on des familles à soigner. Divisées en trois parties. A Lausanne, chez Jean Mourer, ... 1782. 8vo, pp. 120; some light marginal staining (more prominent in the latter part of the work), with some minor foxing and soiling, small worm trail affecting upper margins of last couple of leaves (not touching text); some neat contemporary marginal annotations in ink;  uncut in modern wrappers with facsimile of title-page on upper cover.  £325

Apparently the fifth edition (though we have been unable to trace the first) of this scarce French edition based upon the principle works of the physician William Blakey (b. 1712).

Divided into three parts, the first discusses the care and hygiene of new-born infants, focusing upon diet and clothing. Section two provides ‘Instructions pour connoitre les descentes ou ruptures, & leurs effets dangereux, ainsi que pour s’en défendre, les traiter & les guérir’, with the final part highlighting the treatment of some the common conditions affecting later life, notably gout and digestive afflictions due to the excesses of too much food and drink.

Presumably English, though described here as being a member of the ‘College Royal de Chirurgie à Paris’, Blakey first published his short treatise Instructions pour prévenir et guerir les descentes ou hernies in 1760, with the English edition Observations concerning ruptures appearing in 1764. KVK cites a 1781 Liege edition of the present work. Of his paediatric work, the first cited edition on both OCLC and ESTC is the 1792 fifth edition of Essay on the manner of preserving children and grown persons from ruptures. In four parts. I. on the manner of bringing up children. II. How to know ruptures. III. Examples of divers cures, among others that of the gout, by no means than those of pleasant and easy regimen. IV. Reflexions and remarks on our knowledge of the animal structure. A note on OCLC states that earlier editions of this were published under the title Method for bringing up children ... and necessary observations for fathers and mothers, but we have been unable to trace any.

Not in Grulee; see Blake p. 49; not on OCLC; KVK locates a copy at the Royal Library of Denmark and Switzerland, with a 1781 Liege imprint on ABES.

 

  17.     BRÜCKNER, Johann Heinrich Gottlieb.  DIE KUNST DIE SEIFEN, besonders die talgseifen mit beträchtlicherer Kostenersparniß als bisher zu bereiten, nach Anleitung chemischer Grundsätze. Görlitz, bei C. G. Anton, 1802. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 358, [10]; with four folding engraved plates (outer margin of one plate browned and furled), two engraved text images, and one folding letterpress tables; somewhat foxed and browned throughout due to paper quality; attractively bound in later half-mottled calf over marbled boards, spine tooled in gilt with green morocco label lettered in gilt, retaining original green silk marker, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, corners a little worn, with attractive decorated endpapers.     £500

Scarce first edition of this detailed chemical treatise on the art of soap-making, particularly those made of tallow, by Johann Brückner, described on the title-page as ‘Seifensiedermeister in Schönberg’.

Clearly aimed at the practitioner Brückner hopes to outline more cost effective methods than previously cited. He begins with a useful list of works on soap-making contained within the preface, and a brief history of the origin of soap. Amongst the various topics covered in this detailed work, Brückner includes an explanation of some chemical terms, the best solvents to use with tallow, how to make good almond soap, and how best to arrange one’s workshop and tools. The folding engraved plates, and two text illustrations highlight various pieces of equipment, with the folding statistical table highlighting ‘über die schwere der aschenlaugen’.

The only edition cited on OCLC is that of 1811, which is also referred to in Engelmann Bibliotheca-mechanico-technologico 54.

Hamberger-Meusel 13; not in Cole, Duveen or Neville; not on OCLC which cites only the 1811 edition; KVK locates two copies only at Tübingen and the Royal National Library of Denmark.

 

  18.    [BURROUGHS WELLCOME & CO]. THE ROMANCE OF EXPLORATION and emergency first-aid from Stanley to Byrd. Chicago Century of progress exposition 1934. 8vo, pp. 160; with frontispiece map and numerous illustrations throughout, some partially coloured; a fine copy in the original red straight-grained publisher’s cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt, with silver endpapers embossed with stars, upper cover very slightly soiled, extremities a little bumped.   £60

First edition of this striking promotional work published by Burroughs Wellcome, to accompany their exhibit at the Chicago Exposition of 1934. The work celebrating several famous explorations and citing numerous heroes of African travel, polar exploration and pioneers of air travel, together with the role that the company played in helping to supply the likes of Scott, Amunden, Stanley and Byrd with first-aid equipment. The frontispiece provides a floor plan of the exhibition, and the whole work is copiously illustrated in colour and black and white depicting famous explorers, the type of first aid kits they carried on their expeditions along with a few photographs from their expeditions. The work concludes with several advertisements for a variety of medical products in the ‘Tabloid’ range, together with depictions of several Burroughs Wellcome properties across the world.

OCLC: 1294691.

 

  19.    [BURTON, Robert].    MELANCHOLY ANATOMIZED: Showing its causes, consequences, and cure. With anecdotic illustrations drawn from ancient and modern sources, and principally founded on the larger work entitled, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. London: William Tegg. 1865. 8vo, pp. xii, 292; with attractive engraved frontispiece (lighty foxed with some marginal browning, printer’s name slightly shaved at tail); lightly browned throughout due to paper quality, with some light marginal dust-soiling and occasional light spotting, gutter exposed along final leaf but holding;  uncut in the original brown publisher’s stipple-grained cloth, covers and spine ruled in black, with title in gilt lozenge on upper cover, and spine lettered in gilt, small paper price label on spine lettered in mss, head and tail of spine lightly rubbed and worn, covers a little soiled, extremities and corners lightly bumped and rubbed; a good copy. £375

Uncommon first edition of this mid-Victorian abridged version of ‘the first psychiatric encyclopaedia’ (Garrison-Morton), here used didactically to warn young readers against ‘an intemperate pursuit of pleasure’, and encourage them instead to lead a life ‘devoted to the practice of real virtue and true religion’, which will result in a health body and ‘perfect serenity of mind’ (p. ix).

William Tegg was responsible of a number of 19th century editions of the full text of Burton’s great Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1621), but as the preface states here, clearly felt there to be a need for a more condensed and accessible version, the original containing: ‘long, though ingenious, digressions, multitudes of quotations, frequent repetitions, and other extraneous or superabundant matter, as to render the regular perusal of it laborious and fatiquing’. In so doing, however, it was necessary in some degree to change the form and reduce the format. ‘The volume, compared with its great original, is a mere boat, formed with a few planks, taken here and there from the body of its parent vessel, differently rigged and ornamented, and accomodated rather for parties of pleasure than purposes of business; but so trimmed .. as to be capable of showing to its passengers the superior pleasures that are to be experienced on the calm and unruffled surface of a virtuous life;  while it exhibits to their view the terrifying dangers of that turbulent ocean which, agitated by the storms of Passion, and the winds of Vice, dashes with rude and raging violence along its surrounding shores’ (p. vii).

‘This deeply serious work by a layman was said by Osler to be “a great medical treatise” (Osler 4621). The author, under the assumed name of Democritus Junior, offers many causes for melancholy, discusses the cure of its many forms and, in his studious discussion, throws much light on the customs and social attitudes of the day. It is a medical work in that, in all its seventy and more editions, it has continued to express the author’s understanding of human psychiatric problems. Almost half of the thousand references to other authors are medical’ (Heirs 406 for the 1624 edition). Five editions appeared in Burton's lifetime and three more in the seventeenth century. ‘It then fell into oblivion together with the all embracing Elizabethan concept of melancholy, but in the Romantic Period at the turn of the nineteenth century was reinstated as a classic of English literature and more than sixty editions and reissues have appeared since 1800. As in the case of so many writers on melancholy Burton's interest in the malady was aroused by having suffered the pangs of it himself. In fact he wrote the book not only to "helpe others of a fellow feeling" but to rid himself of its symptoms' (Hunter and MacAlpine p. 94). Besides its medical importance The Anatomy of melancholy is one of the most famous and fascinating books in English literature. It was Samuel Johnson's favourite book (it was by no means so long forgotten as Hunter and MacAlpine suggest), and was drawn on in later years by some of England's greatest writers. Burton is one of those singular instances in literature of a man turning himself into a book: it was his only publication, and the one into which he poured the whole of his colourful personality and learning.

A second edition appeared in 1867, and Tegg continued to publish editions of the full text.See Printing and the Mind of Man 120; Madan 493; Hunter and MacAlpine pp. 94-98; Osler 4621; OCLC: 225727940 cites only the University of Tasmania for this first edition.

 

  20.    CHAPONNIER, Alexandre. LA PHYSIOLOGIE DES GENS DU MONDE, Pour servir de complément a l'éducation, ornée de planches. A Paris, Chez Firmin Didot Frères, Libraires … 1829.  8vo, pp. [iv], xii, 375, [1] blank; with four plates (one coloured) on seven pages (two folding) at end; some light foxing, otherwise clean and bright; in contemporary calf backed boards, spine decorated in blind and gilt with green morocco label, head of spine slightly rubbed, upper joint a little cracked but holding, boards somewhat scuffed and rubbed; a good copy.     £300

First edition of this rare and rather curious educational work on physiology for adolescents and adults, which provides a complete introduction to the subject. Chaponnier, who was a member of the Paris medical faculty and demonstrated anatomy to painters, defines physiology, and gives an introduction to the human species and the characteristics of the various races. He then goes on to discuss vital properties, movement, the voice and speech, the senses, the functions of the brain, the circulation of the blood, respiration, digestion, secretions, nutrition, sleep, temperaments, the various ages, and death. If Chaponnier is to believed, however, life after reaching adolescence sounds rather depressing: 'C'est au milieu de l'adolescence que l'on voit paraître le plus fréquemment les hémorragies actives du nez, du poumon, la fièvre inflammataoire; certaines phlegmasies, telles que l'angine, la péripneumonie, la pleurésie, l'engorgement des glandes pulmonaires, qui donne naissance à diverses espèces de phtisies, la chlorose, la catalepsie: la mélancolie érotique, ou cette sorte d'aliénation mentale que développent des sensations jusqu'alors inconneus, et qui, chez les femmes, dégénère parfois en véritable folie' (p. 295).

The plates at the end demonstrate sign language, as well as a striking, if rather strange schematic representation of the circulation of the blood.

In addition to the present work, Chaponnier also published two works of medical self-help, La pharmacie sans le pharmacien (1829) and La chirurgie sans chirurgiens (1827): one might speculate that he did not derive his principal income from general practice.

OCLC: 14832622 records just four copies, at Harvard Medical School, the National Library of Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Wellcome.

 

  21.    CHARLIER, Carl Vilhelm Ludwig. INTRODUCTION TO STELLAR STATISTICS Lund, Scientia Publishers, 1921. 4to, pp. 49, [1], with one partially coloured double plate, one black and white, and one half-tone plate, and one graph; small nick to outer margins of title-page, otherwise clean and crisp; original pink printed wrappers, covers very slightly soiled with minimal edgewear; a very good copy.   £125

An attractive copy of this introduction to the study of stellar structure, by Carl Wilhelm Ludwig Charlier (1862 - 1934), professor of astronomy at Lund, Sweden. Divided into three chapters, Charlier outlines some apparent attributes of the stars, sources of our present knowledge of the stars (giving a useful bibliography of star catalogues), and concluding with a chapter on groups of known stars.

Charlier was born in 1862, received his PhD from the University of Upsala in 1887, and became director of Lund Observatory. He received the Watson Medal in 1924 from the National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C., and the Bruce Medal in 1933 from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He died in Lund on the 5. November 1934, an obituary being published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 46 (1934), p. 367

OCLC: 14974500 records copies at Michigan, Columbia, the Paris Observatory and Leiden.

 

  22.    CHARLIER, Carl Vilhelm Ludwig.  STUDIES IN STELLAR STATISTICS. Meddelanden från Lunds Astronomiska Observatorium. Parts I-V, Lund and Uppsala, 1912-1926  Five parts, 4to, pp; 63, [1] blank; [ii], 110, seven plates on six leaves; [iv], 108, [10], five plates; [ii], 54, seven plates; 33, ten plates; in the original light blue and grey printed wrappers, spines of first two volumes neatly rebacked, light soiling and foxing, with some marginal edgewear (particularly affecting Vols II and V with chipping and some loss)   £250

A complete set of Charlier’s detailed memoirs on the study of stellar structure. The five essays discuss: the constitution of the milky way; the motion of the stars; the distances and the distribution of the stars of the spectral type b; stellar clusters and related celestial phænomena; the galaxy of the b-stars.

The work was published in various journals. Parts I, II and III were issued as Kongl. Fysiograpfiska Sällskapets Handlingar. Band 23, Nr 2 & 4 and Band 26, nr 19. Parts III and V as Nova acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis, Ser IV, vol 4, nr 7 and ‘volumen extra ordinem editum 1927’.

OCLC: 44024330 cite Yale, Iowa, Michigan and Missouri as having a complete set, with Stanford, UCLC, Chicago, Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and North Carolina having parts I and II only.

 

  23.    CHURCHILL, Fleetwood. ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MIDWIFERY With notes and additions by Robert M. Huston, M.D. Second American Edition. With one hundred and twenty-eight illustrations from drawings by Bagg and others. Engraved by Gilbert. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard. 1846. 8vo, pp. xvi, [17]- 525, [1] blank; light marginal browning throughout, with some light foxing and soiling, stain affecting upper margins of pp. 401-409; in contemporary sheep, recent red morocco label to style lettered in gilt on spine, upper cover slightly soiled, joints and corners neatly repaired.      £110

One of the most popular midwifery books of the mid-19th century, by the renowned Irish obstetrician Fleetwood Churchill, first published in 1842 in London, with the first American edition published in 1843. It was developed from a syllabus on the same subject which Churchill had published at Dublin in 1834, and ‘the American edition has not only met the approval of the leading journals of this country, but has been adopted as a text-book in many of the largest adn best-organzied medical schools ‘ (Preface p. [vii]). ‘The notes and additions to this second American edition were provided by Robert M. Huston, professor of materia medica and general therapeutics and a former professor of obstetrics and the diseases of women and children at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia’ (Heirs 1708). This edition is also of note, as it describes the practice of midwifery just prior to the introduction of anesthesia.

'Churchill (1808-1878) was an Englishman by birth, having been born in Nottingham. Unable to gain an apprenticeship with the physician of his choice, he elected to study medicine at Edinburgh where he received his degree in 1831. Churchill then went to Dublin to study midwifery and decided to remain there in the practice of obstetrics. He was a founder of the Western Lying-in Hospital, lectured on midwifery at the Richmond Hospital School of Medicine, and later was professor of midwifery in the School of Physic' (Heirs 1707). He wrote a number of works, all of which proved popular and enjoyed awide circulation. His principle works include Outlines of the principal diseases of females 1838, On the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, 1842, and On the Diseases of infants and children 1850. Heirs 1708.

 

  24.    CLARKE, Dennis and Anthony STOYEL. OTFORD IN KENT A history. Published by the Otford and District Historical Society. 1975. 8vo, pp. xiv, 297, [1] blank, with 16 full page photographs and numerous text illustrations; some minor soiling to title-page, otherwise clean and crisp; in the original red publisher’s cloth, spine in gilt, with printed dust-wrapper; good.     £25 

The Cannibals of Palmaria

  25.    [DARWIN]. CAPELLINI, Giovanni.  GROTTA DEI COLOMBI À l'ile Palmaria golfe de La Spezia. Station de Cannibales à l’épogue de la Madeleine. Bologne. Imprimerie Fava et Garagnani. 1873. 8vo, pp. 27; with three chromolithograph plates and engraved text illustrations; uncut and partially unopened in the original green printed wrappers, covers very slightly soiled and stained at tail of upper cover with minor wear to extremities; a presentation copy signed by the author on the upper cover ‘à M. le Dr Linnarsson Hommage de l’auteur’; a very good copy.    £150

Original offprint. An attractive presentation copy of this anthropological essay by Giovanni Capellini, the noted professor of geology and palaeontology and Rector at the University of Bologna.

An ‘extrait des comptes rendus du Congrès international d’Anthropologie et d’Archéologie préhistoriques, 5e Session, Bologne, 1871’, this essay describes his archaeological discoveries made at the Grotta dei Colombi, a prehistoric site on the Island of Palmaria. Capellini believed the inhabitants to have been cannibals, further evidence of his belief that at one time, cannibalism had been universally prevalent.

Provenance: The present copy was presented to Jonas Gustaf Oskar Linnarsson (1841-81), was a noted geologist and a fossil specialist, who contributed articles to a number of Swedish, German and English periodicals. He was a supporter of Darwin.

Poggendorff III p. 233; Not on OCLC; KVK records two copies at the National Library of Italy, and on the ABES catalogue

 

  26.    [DARWIN]. MAUPERTUIS, Pierre Louis Moreau de. DEN PHYSISKA VENUS eller Afhandling om djurens tilskapande. Af herr Maupertuis. Ofversatttning fran den sjunde fransyska uplagan. Forsta delen. Andra uplagan. Orebro, tryckt hos N.M. Lindh, 1806  Small 8vo, pp. 131, [11] index, [2] blanks; some occasional faint spotting, with a few very minor marginal tears, but otherwise clean and crisp; uncut and stitched as issued in the original blue paste wrappers, spine a little cracked with some loss at tail, remains of paper label, covers a little scuffed and soiled; a good copy.  $500

Scarce second Swedish edition (first 1784) of this rare and important book in the development of the theories of sexual generation, anticipating the ideas of Darwin, Mendel and De Vries over a century later. First published in 1745 as Venus Physique, the work was itself an expanded revision of his scarce earlier Dissertation physique a l'occasion du negre blanc of 1744, and is considered to be one of the earliest books on heredity and evolution and genetics by Garrison-Morton, being listed at 215.1, along with only four other books pre-dating the Darwin-Wallace paper (Garrison not citing the earlier Dissertation).

Maupertuis’ ideas were stimulated by the appearance of an albino negro in Paris, which prompted him to search for other cases of abnormal traits being passed down in a family from one generation to the next. Maupertuis attacked the then dominant preformationists theories of embryonic development 'arguing convincingly that the embryo could not be preformed, either in the egg or in the spermatozoon, since hereditary characteristics could be passed down equally through the male or the female parent' (DSB). His theories are strictly mechanistic and he postulates a corporeal contribution from each parent. This argument was based on research performed during 1740 'when he began collecting the pedigrees of the polydacylous Ruhe family. These pedigrees showed that the abnormal trait could be passed either by the male of female parent and that the trait tended to weaken and disappear over time as polydactylous individuals continued to marry normal spouses' (Norman). 'His speculations about evolution were not generally appreciated but his transformist theory is now considered an anticipation of the modern concept of mutation.' Garrison and Morton 215.1.

The work was also translated into Italian and German, but did not appear in an English translation until 1966. Waller 6353; See Garrison-Morton 215.1; Heirs 847 (1745 edition); Needham, A History of Embryology, pp. 218-220; Cole Early theories of sexual generation 1930, pp. 93-4 and 174-5; Hagelin, The Womans Booke, pp. 108-109 (1784 Swedish edition); Glass, Maupertuis, pioneer of genetics and evolution, in Forerunners of Darwin ed. Glass, Temkin, & Straus, pp. 51 - 83; Norman 1459; Osler 3349; not located on OCLC, with KVK citing two copies of this edition at the National Library of Sweden.

 

  27.    DE LEE, Joseph. OBSTETRICS FOR NURSES Fifth edition, thoroughly revised. Philadelphia and London W. B. Saunders Company, 1918. 8vo, pp. 550, with frontispiece, four coloured plates, one folding table, and over 200 black and white illustrations;  original green publishers’ cloth, spine in gilt, lower hinge cracked but holding.    £35

Late edition, first published in 1904 of this much reprinted and popular work. 'Although this book is intended primarily for nurses, the author believes that medical students will find something of value in it, since the duties of a nurse often devolve upon them in their early years of obstetric practice. There are really two subjects considered in this book, - obstetrics for nurses and the actual obstetric nursing, -  and the author has sought to combine them so that the relations of one to the other might be natural and mutually helpful in presenting this branch of medicine in a clear and interesting form. The illustrations are nearly all original, and were made expressly for the work. The photographs were taken by the author from actual scenes, and the reader is invited to study the details, as especial care was taken to render the pictures true to life in every respect' (preface).

The work is copiously illustrated throughout, with not only numerous black and white photographs, but four striking coloured illustrations, together with a large folding statistical chart, recording the weight progression of a premature baby delivered at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital.

OCLC: 2604003.

 

  28.    DESOR, Edouard. DER MENSCH DER WÜSTE. Basel. Schweighauserische Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1876. 8vo, pp. 38; uncut in the original printed wrappers, extremities a little torn and frayed; a presentation copy with unidentified signature on front cover, and inscription at head of title to ‘Herr Prof Loven. Freundschaftlicht von E. Desor’; a good copy.  £100

Uncommon ethnological lecture discussing the desert dwellers of the Sahara, by the noted Swiss geologist and close friend and collaborator of Louis Agassiz, Pierre Jean Édouard Desor (1811–1882). One of a series of academic lectures delivered in Switzerland, and available for purchase by subscription, either individually or in bound volumes, Der Mensch’ (Oeffentliche Vorträge, IV, Band I, Heft [?]), continues on from Desor’s previous lecture (Band I, Heft I), Die Sahara, in which he presented a geological and physical account of the Sahara.  

After early studies of palaeontology and glacial phenomena in Switzerland in collaboration with Agassiz, Desor travelled to America where he conducted a series of geological surveys for the government. He returned to Neuchâtel in 1852 where he became professor of geology, and later president of the Swiss Federal Assembly in 1874. He is noted for his glacial studies, and for his later expedition to the Sahara and the Atlas mountains, during which he made several important observations regarding its physical features, and which were outlined through his correspondence with Justig Liebig, and published in 1865 as Aus Sahara.

Poggendorff III, p. 355; OCLC: 24530495 locates two copies at Yale and Duke University.

 

  29.    DESOR, Edouard. NOTICE SUR UN MOBILIER PRÉHISTORIQUE DE LA SIBÉRIE Communiquée à la Société des sciences naturelles de Neuchâtel, dans sa séance du 1er Mai 1873. Neuchatel, Imprimerie de H. Wolfrath et Metzner. 1873. 8vo, pp. 12, with double-page lithograph plate; in the original blue wrappers, covers a little soiled and creased; a presentation copy signed on the upper cover, ‘Prof Loven, hommage de l’auteur’.  £85

An attractive presentation offprint of a lecture delivered before the Neuchâtel Society of Natural History on May 1st 1873. Desor, the noted geologist and professor at the Academy of Neuchâtel, here outlines a number of Bronze Age archaeological discoveries found in Siberia, many of which are depicted in the double-page plate, illustrating ‘objets préhistoriques en bronze des environs de Krasnojarsk sur le Jenisseï, Siberie’.

Provenance: Sven Lovén (1809–1895) was a pioneering marine biologist (founder of the Kristineberg marine station) and arctic explorer, professor of invertebrate zoology at the Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Riksmuséet) in Stockholm.

Poggendorff III, p. 355; OCLC records no copies in North America, with only one copy at the Bibliotheque D’Art et D’Archeologie.

 

  30.    [EDUCATION - MATHEMATICAL BROADSIDE]. BEDIGIS FILS.  ELEMENTS D’ARITHMETIQUE POUR LES COMMENCANTS. Où se trouvent le nom des Chiffres, les Chiffres Arabes, les Chiffres Romains, les Chiffres Français, ce que vaut le Zéro, la Table de Numération, l'Addition, la Soustraction, la Multiplication, la Division et une Table de Multiplication, avec leurs Explications. A Paris chez les Srs Mondhare et Jean, rue St Jean de Beauvais pres celle des noyers. Bedigis fils, fécit. Coulubrier Sculpsit. 1785. Engraved broadside, image 366 x 247mm; plate mark 378 x 255mm; sheet size 533 x 410mm; title at head, table divided into 11 sections including striking pyramidal representation of the multiplication table; untrimmed, a good strong impression, with two small worm holes along central vertical fold, and very small hole in central cross-section fold but with no significant loss of image, some faint marginal spotting and soiling, with three small marginal tears.      £1,200

A large and striking wallchart outlining the elementary principles of arithmetic specifically for the use of tradesmen, designed by the Parisian firm Bedigis fils and engraved by Coulubrier. This fine and typographically appealing engraving introduces the user to Arabic, Roman and French numerals, the properties of zero, and tables outlining the principles of addition, subtraction, division, and most strikingly for multiplication - which takes the form of a pyramidal table in the centre of the broadside.

It seems probable that this is a collaboration between François Nicholas Bédigis (b. 1738? or 1758- ca 1800) and the engraver Remi-Claude Coulubrier. Bedigis was a member of the Académie d'écriture of Paris, and is best known for his two works on the art of writing and penmanship L’Art d'écrire démontré par des principes approfondis et développés dans toute leur étendue and Démonstrations de l’art d’écrire - both making prominent use of engraving, and the later also printed by Mondhare.

For more details of his calligraphical works see Becker, The Practice of Letters, item 154 p. 84;

 

  31.    EHRENBERG, Christian Gottfried. ÜBER DIE FORMBESTÄNDIGKEIT UND DEN ENTWICKLUNGSKREIS DER ORGANISCHEN FORMEN.  Ein bild der neuesten bewegungen in der Naturforschung. Ein vortrag in der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin vom 18. December 1851. Berlin. Ferd. Dümmler’s Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1852. 8vo, pp. 35; a part from some very minor foxing, a clean crisp copy; uncut in the original printed wrappers, covers slightly soiled with minor edgewear, with publishers’ advertisements on rear cover; a good copy. £125

Uncommon original offprint of this biological lecture on generation and the development and persistency of form of organic life, by the renowned German biologist, microscopist, scientific explorer, and a founder of protozoology and micropaleontology Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876). Presented before the Berlin Academy of Sciences on the 18th December 1851, Ehrenberg takes as his starting point Harvey’s principle of ‘omne vivum ex ono’, before outlining a brief synopsis of the latest theories and research with regards to the origins of life.

‘Believing that all animals possess with an equal degree of completeness the important organs of life, he endeavored to demonstrate the presence of complete organ systems in single-celled animals’ (Concise DSB).

Ehrenberg was appointed professor of medicine at Berlin University in 1827, where he began his studies on microscopic organisms, which until then had not been systematically studied. For nearly 30 years Ehrenberg examined samples of water, soil, sediment, and rock and described thousands of new species, among them well-known flagellates such as Euglena, ciliates such as Paramecium aurelia and Paramecium caudatum, and many small fossils, in nearly 400 scientific publications. He also demonstrated that the phosphorescence of the sea was due to organisms. A member of the Royal Society of London, in 1839 he won the Wollaston Medal, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. After his death in 1876, his collections of microscopic organisms were deposited in the Museum für Naturkunde at the Humboldt University of Berlin. The "Ehrenberg Collection" includes 40,000 microscope preparations, 5,000 raw samples, 3,000 pencil and ink drawings, and nearly 1,000 letters of correspondence.

Hirsch II, p. 384; see Stafleu I pp. 727-730 for a detailed survey of his principle works; not in Pritzel or BM Natural History; OCLC: 30953205 cites copies at Yale and Harvard.

 

  32.    ETHERIDGE, R. ON FIVE INTERESTING SHIELDS from Northern Queensland, with an enumeration of the figured types of Australian Shields. [In, the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, (Second Series, Vol. IX). [1895]. 8vo, pp. 506-517, [1] blank; with six sepia illustrations;  with wrapper mounted to recto of first leaf.     £75

Uncommon offprint by Robert Etheridge Junior (1846-1920), published in the year that he became Curator of the Australian Museum in Sydney, and originally published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

Son of the noted Scottish palaeontologist Professor Robert Etheridge, F.R.S. (1819-1903), Robert junior followed in his father’s footsteps, and in 1866 travelled to Australia to be assistant field geologist to the Geological Survey of Victoria. Returning to England in 1871, he became assistant in the geology department of the British Museum. In April 1887, Etheridge became palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of NSW and also to the Australian Museum. In 1887 he led a collecting trip to Lord Howe Island. He became Curator of the musuem in 1895, and later Director. The present essay was one of over 355 papers and articles published on both palaeontology and ethnography.

 

  33.    EUCLID. LES QUINZE LIVRES DES ELEMENTS D’EUCLIDE Traduits en François par D. Henrion ... plus, le livre des donnez du même Euclide, aussi traduit en François par ledit Henrion. Tome I [-II]. A Rouen, Chez Jean Lucas, ruë aux Juifs, à côté de la petite porte de l’Hotel de Ville. MDCLXXVI [1676]. Three parts in one volume, 8vo; pp. [viii], 532, [1] blank; [iv], 527, [1]; 116 ‘Commentaire ou preface de Marin philosophe, sur le livre des donnez d’Euclide’; with woodcut title-page printer’s device, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces, and numerous woodcut text illustrations; somewhat browned and foxed throughout, with some occasional light marginal dampstaining, neat marginal tear at head of p. 169 in Vol II, touching text but without loss;  in contemporary mottled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands decorated in gilt, with red morocco label lettered in gilt, tail of spine, joints and corners neatly repaired, covers a little stained, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped; a good copy.     £1,200

Uncommon Rouen edition of this noted translation of Euclid by the French mathematician Didier (or Denis) Henrion (ca. 1580-1632), originally published in Paris in 1615 and the first French edition of the complete text. The first Rouen edition was 1626, with a further issue in 1649 (of which this is a re-issue), with all previous editions published in Paris. Though the author of several mathematical works and translations of texts from Latin into French, including his Traité des logarithmes (1626), the second work on the subject published in France, it is for this translation of Euclid that Henrion is best remembered. 

Henrion is believed by some sources to be the pseudonym of Clément Cyriaque de Mangin.

Brunet II 1090; Riccardi p. 31; Steck IV, 64; for French translations of Euclid see ‘Les Traductions francaises d’Euclide’ in Revue francaise d’histoire des sciences 1957 p. 38ff; OCLC: 39494837 locates two copies at the Burndy Library and the New York Public Library with a further copy at Columbia.

 

  34.    [EXHIBITIONS - BRITISH MUSEUM]. [MASSON, David]. THE BRITISH MUSEUM Historical and Descriptive. With numerous wood-engravings. Edinburgh, William and Robert Chambers. 1850. 8vo, pp. viii, [9]-432; with numerous wood-engravings; browned throughout due to paper quality; in modern red cloth, preserving upper cover vignette from original binding; spine in gilt. £45

First edition, and attributed by COPAC to David Masson, written as part of the Chamber's Instructive and Entertaining Library series, though clearly acting as a stand alone work.

‘The present volume is intended to serve a double purpose - that of a guide-book for the use of visitors to the British Museum, more full and popular than any yet existing; and that of a descriptive account of this national collection, sufficiently interesting in itself to be read with pleasure by persons at a distance... almost all the illustrations have been engraved from drawings taken on the spot’ (preface). OCLC: 26863011.

 

Commentary on Guy de Chauliac

  35.    FALCON, Jean. REMARQUES SUR LA CHIRURGIE DE M. GUY DE CHAULIAC;  diligemment conférées avec toutes les impressions précédentes, & pour la plupart mises en langage plus intelligible; outre la traduction nouvelle de tous les textes latins de l'auteur. Oeuvre de singulière doctrine, & utilité, pour tous ceux qui sont amateurs de la chirurgie. A Lyon, chez Jean Radisson ... MDCXLIX [1649]. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 1000, [54]; woodcut title-page vignette and appealing floriated woodcut initials throughout; clean tear affecting p. 80 but without loss, with some marginal worming throughout the work, most prominent between pp. 155-200, 227-285, 300-339, 469-520 (with loss of some page numbers), 797-839 and 908-931 (affecting headlines with some loss), elsewhere touching the text in places but without any significant loss, with some marginal dampstaining at the beginning and end of the work; in contemporary limp vellum, spine lettered in manuscript, covers soiled and browned with remains of ties, lower upper corner torn with slight loss; despite faults, a good copy. £775

First edition entirely in French of this rare commentary on the surgical work of Guy de Chauliac, apparently intended for the use of barber-surgeons, and based upon an earlier commentary by Jean Falcon (fl. 1491-1541), a doctor at the Faculty of Montpellier, and noted for successfully treating François I.

One of nine commentaries and annotations by Falcon, the work is a translation of Notabilia supra Guidonem (1559), in which  the text of the commentary was in French though without inclusion of Guy’s text itself, and with other authorities quoted in Latin. The 1559 commentary was itself paraphrased from Falcon’s first annotated edition of 1515, Cy commencement les notables declaratifs sur le Guidon, which later became Le Guidon en francoys (1537 - see Durling 1421 and 2241, and Waller 3822). Nicaise, in his detailed study La Grande Chirurgie de Guy de Chauliac (1890), is damning of Falcon’s work, stating that ‘mais les commentaires, les gloses, qu'il a ajoutés au texte de Guy, ne montrent pas qu'il ait été, ni un homme instruit, ni de bon jugement’ (p. cxxxvi). ‘Cette édition ne donne pas le texte de Guy; elle est semblable à celle de 1559; le texte français est modifié selon les progrès de la langue, et les passages latin sont traduits en français. Dans ces deux éditions il n'est pas question des traités V et VI de Guy, (fractures, dislocations et maladies spéciales)’ (Nicaise 30, p. cxxxviii). Nevertheless, it provides the medical historian with an insight into the type of literature available to surgeons of the day, at whatever level of skill and education, and emphasises the continued influence exerted by the works of Guy de Chauliac.

Modern surgery begins with Guy de Chauliac, ‘the most eminent surgeon of his time; his authority remained for some 200 years. He distinguished the various kinds of hernia from variocele, hydrocele, and sarcocele, and described an operation for the radical cure of hernia. The book, which was originally written about 1363, includes his views on fractures, and gives an excellent summary of the dentistry of the period. It is the greatest surgical text of the time’ (Garrison-Morton 5556).

Originating in Aragon, Jean Falcon (fl. 1491-1541) (or Jean/Juan Falco) was a doctor at the Faculty of Montpellier. He enjoyed an immense reputation, and successfully treated François I for a urinary infection, possibily syphilis. Nicaise, 30; Krivatsy 3883 (imperfect copy); Wellcome III p. 6 (also imperfect);

 

A celebration of the European Fishing Industry

  36.    [FISHERIES EXHIBITION]. EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE DE PÊCHE DE BOULOGNE-SUR-MER Solennité de la Cloture. Constitution et travaux du Jury. Analyse des rapports de ses sections. Arrété préfectoral proclamant la liste des récompenses. Boulogne-Sur-Mer. Imprimerie de Charles Aigre, 4, Rue des Viellards. Mars 1867. 8vo, pp. 56; stitched as issued in the original grey printed wrappers; apart from some minor soiling and slight edgewear to wrappers, an attractive, bright copy.    £125

A most attractive and uncommon exhibition catalogue for the 1867 ‘Exposition internationale de pêche’ held at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Including the closing speech, the constitution of the jury, an analysis of the reports of the juries, together with lists of the various prize-winners spanning the whole of Europe, this fascinating catalogue provides an insight into the state of the European fishing industry. Entrants could be judged in five categories: boat design and development; sail and net making, together with improvements to clothing wear; in relation to food production, including methods to preserve the fish, or make related products; the vast category of any innovations relating to domestic economy, medicine or agriculture, but outside the realm of food production; and finally literary contributions, both printed and manuscript, contributing to the science of pisciculture and ostreiculture. Similar catalogues were produced for the 1866, and 1868 exhibitions, and both found at the Bibliothek Nationale de France. Not on OCLC: Copac cites a copy at Edinburgh, with two further copies listed on KVK at the National Libraries of Portugal and Denmark.

 

‘Promoting the frequent use of the bath’

  37.    FONDA, Sebastian F. ANALYSIS OF SHARON WATERS,  Schoharie County; also of Avon, Richfield, and Bedford Mineral waters. With Directions for invalids. New York: R. Craighead, Printer, Caxton Building, 81, 83 & 85 Centre Street. 1857.  8vo, pp. 96; aside from some light paper browning, and minor foxing affecting paste-downs and endpapers, clean and crisp;  in the original blind-stamped brown publisher’s cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt, spine and extremities a little sunned and faded, head and tail of spine and corners lightly bumped with some minor wear, covers a little spotted; a good copy. £225

First edition, second issue, originally published in 1854, of this detailed work providing a discussion of the internal and external benefits of the mineral waters of Sharon Springs, whilst entering ‘into some detail on the anatomy and physiology of the human system’ (preface). High in sulphur and magnesium, Fonda considers the waters to be particularly beneficial in the treatment of cutaneous diseases such as scabies, porrigo, prurigo, lepra, ichthyosis and psoriasis. ‘Sharon Springs are in Schoharie County, near the lines of Montgomery and Otsego counties - in a healthy, rich, agricultural region. Board can be had in private families at from three to eight dollars, and in hotels at from five to fifteen dollars per week. The hotels are spacious and airy, and are well conducted ... Its growth and prosperity will doubtless be commensurate with the increasing reputation of the waters’ (p.16).

OCLC locates copies of this edition at Yale, Loma Linda and Michigan.

 

Austrian-Australian diplomatic row

  38.    FRAUENFELD, Georg Ritter von. DER AUFENTHALT DER K. K. ÖST. FREGATTE NOVARA AUD DEN STUARTS-INSELN (Aus den Sitzungsberichten der Kais. königl. zoologisch-botanischen Gessellschaft, Jahrgang 1860). Gedruckt bei Karl Ueberreuter.  8vo, pp. 3, [1] blank; some marginal soiling and light browning; disbound as issued.      £85

Offprint. One of a series of reports published by the Austrian naturalist Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld (1807-1873). Frauenfeld was one of the leading scientists on board the Imperial and Royal frigate Novara during its round-the-world voyage (1857-1859), and he published accounts of the journey in a variety of academic journals, including 'Voyage from Shanghai to Sydney aboard the Imperial and Royal Frigate Novara' in the Proceedings of the Vienna Zoological-Botanical Society (1859). Frauenfeld had responsibility for zoology and the collection of natural history specimens, and was assisted in this task by Johannes Zelebor (whose duties included the preservation of zoological specimens), Eduard Schwarz (botanist and ship's doctor), and Anton Jellinek (botanist and gardener).

As the present short notice highlights, however, the voyage was not without incident and controversy and the crew of the Novara became embroiled in a diplomatic argument over their visit to the Stewart’s Islands, the small group of five islands which  form part of the Solomon Islands and are today known by the name Sikaiana. A year after their visit in October 1858, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article in January 1860 accusing the crew of the theft of livestock and abuse of local inhabitants. News of the accusation eventually reached Austria, Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter, another scientist on board, raising the matter at the meeting of the Imperial Geographical Society in Vienna on 20 March 1860. He strongly repudiated the accusation, stating that the visit had been cordial, and that the the crew had remunerated the islanders for the supply of livestock.

Frauenfeld here offers an equally firm rebuttal, describing the charges against them as vicious lies, concluding that: ‘Wenn wir alle diese Umstände und die Zeit, wie vorstehend dargethan, zusammenfassen, so ergibt sich die Unmöglichkeit von selbst, dass auch nur das Mindeste von den Matrosen verübt werden konnte, ohne dass es von den Vorgesetzten derselben oder von uns mitgesehen, miterlebt worden wäre. Ob es die Schmähsucht wagen will, jene solchergestalt zu Mitschuldigen, uns zu Lügnern zu stempeln, mag getrost abgewartet werden, da die Novara auf ihrer ganzen Fahrt überall bestimmt den Eindruck hinterliess, dass solche Gerüchte nur als Gemeinheit gebrandmarkt werden können’ (p. 3).

No definitive answer has ever emerged however as to exactly what transpired. The Austrians were clearly keen to defend the scientific endeavour of the voyage and the honour of the Imperian Austrian mission. The Islanders and their Australian defenders were adamant that an outrage had occurred, and it is possible that the scientists were ignorant of the methods used by the crew to obtain the livestock on some of the outer and less habited islands. Relations between the two nations, however, were undeniably damaged.

see http://www.michaelorgan.org.au/novara1.htm.

 

 

The largest work ever published on artesian wells.

  40.    GARNIER, Jacques Franbourg. DE L’ART DU FONTENIER SONDEUR ET DES PUITS ARTÉSIENS, ou Mémoire sur les différentes Espèces de Terrains dans lesquels on doit rechercher des Eaux Souterraines, et sur les Moyens qu'il faut employer pour ramener une Partie de ces Eaux a la Surface du Sol, a l'Aide de la Sonde du Mineur ou du Fontenier. A Paris, Chez Carilian-Goeury, Librairie des Ingénieurs et de L’Ecole royale des Ponts et Chaussées, et de l’Ecole royale des Mines, quai des Augustins, no. 41. 1822. Large 4to, pp. 143; with nineteen folding engraved plates (a little foxed as usual, with some occasional light marginal dampstaining though not touching image) containing 126 figures; aside from some occasional light foxing, and minor marginal dampstaining, a fresh, crisp copy;  a most attractive copy bound in contemporary calf backed, green ribbed morocco, borders decoratively tooled in gilt, spine also in gilt with red morocco label, extremities a little bumped and worn.    £775

Scarce first edition, variant issue, and an attractive wide-margined copy, of "the most copious work ever published on artesian wells." (Sotheran 8275m 2nd ed. of 1826), intended for the use of miners, well-drillers, geologists and the like.

Garnier (1785-1865) was an engineer in the Corps Royal des Mines, and the manuscript of this work won a prize of 3000 francs given by the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale in 1818 for the best introductory treatise on improved drilling techniques. The excellent and highly detailed plates depict the various pieces of drilling equipment described in the text, as well as cross-sections of geological strata.

The copies cited on OCLC have Madame Huzard as printer. On the present copy, the details of Chez Carilian have been pasted on to the title page, over this earlier imprint.

Roller and Goodman I, p. 444; not in the Bibliotheca Mechanica; OCLC: 8639679 and OCLC: 47930942 though locating only US copies at Oklahoma, Northwestern and the Library of  Congress, Yale, Delaware and the Academy of Natural Sciences.

 

On grasshoppers

  41.    GEUBEL, Heinrich Karl.  NEUERE BEITRÄGE ZUR ZOOLOGIE: enthalten eine Reihe von Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen über einige Gryllus- Locusta-, Acridium-Arten. Frankfurt am Main, 1846. 8vo, pp. 46; a part from a couple of small marginal tears, a clean crisp copy; uncut in the original pink printed wrappers, small tear affecting outer margin of upper cover, covers a little soiled; a good copy.   £80

First edition, and an attractive copy, of this detailed comparative entomological study on orthoptera, the order of insects with gradual metamorphosis, that include grasshoppers, crickets and locusts, by the Marburg zoologist Heinrich Karl Geuber.

This is one of a number of zoological essays by Geubel on subjects including invertebrates, fossils and shells, and botanical chemistry.

OCLC: 13772446 cites copies at Harvard, Cornell and the Academy of Natural Science.

 

 

  43.    [GREAT EXHIBITION]. TOMLINSON, Charles. CYCLOPAEDIA OF USEFUL ARTS,  Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, mining, and engineering. Vol. I. Abattoir to Hair-Pencils. With an introductory essay on the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Vol. II. Hammer to Zirconium. The whole illustrated by forty steel engravings, and two thousand four hundred and seventy-seven wood engravings. London: George Virtue ... [1852-] 1854.  Nine volumes, large 8vo; pp. 240: 241-480: 481-640, lxxx,: 641-816, lxxxi-cxliv: 817-832, cxlv-clx, [1]-208: 209-448: 449-688: 689-928: 929-1052, xvi preface, iv dedication, [8] advertisements; with two engraved titles, 41 steel and wood-engraved plates, one folding wood-engraved plan of the Great Exhibition Halls and 2468 wood-engraved illustrations in the text (a few full-page); some occasional light foxing to plates, with some light marginal dust-soiling throughout, and a few small marginal tears due to rough opening; a clean and bright copy in the original crimson blind stamped cloth, gilt device in centre of upper covers, spines elaborately gilt, spines slightly sunned, cover of vol. VI a little marked; but overall the set in excellent condition.   £1,500

First edition, uncommon in the original divisions, of this magnificent technical encyclopaedia inspired by the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace in 1851. Written at the height of the period of enthusiasm for all things mechanical, technical and industrial, this alphabetical review of current progress and invention is extremely impressive. The subjects discussed are not just dealt with in principle, but gone into in considerable detail and in many cases the descriptions are supplemented with precise, graphic illustrations. Construction processes such as bridge-building; mechanical inventions including steam-engines; and techniques as different as printing, binding and drainage - all these and many equivalents are discussed. There is an entry for 'strength of materials'; electricity, including its many uses, and electric machines are discussed in detail; and Charles Babbage's difference engine is both described and depicted in the entry entitled 'calculating machines'. An invaluable reference to the state of industrial and technological development at the time, as well as a very attractive souvenir of the most momentous and monumental single act inspired by the enormous enthusiasm for such development - the Great Exhibition.

The Cyclopaedia is found in three versions: monthly parts in wrappers, in 'divisions' (as here) and in most commonly in two volumes.

 

  44.    GRIMAUD DE CAUX, Gabriel. DE LA MANIÈRE D’ENSEIGNER ET D’ETUDIER L’HISTOIRE NATURELLE. Extrait de la Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, Novembre 1857. [paris, Imp. de Mme Ve Bouchard-Huzard...] 1857. 8vo, pp. 14;  some light marginal dust-soiling otherwise clean; stitched as issued (though loose), uncut and unopened in the original wrappers; with presentation inscription on upper cover ‘Pour Monsieur Fahreus à Stockholm’.   £85

Offprint. This short essay by the medical writer Gabriel Grimaud de Caux (1800-c. 1875) discusses the manner of teaching and studying natural history, and was first published in La Revue et Magasin de Zoologie. Grimaud de Caux wrote several works, including a medical dictionary, studies on public water supplies, and  two noted works on human sexuality and reproduction Physiologie de l'espece, histoire de la generation de l'homme (1837) and Histoire de la generation de l'homme (1847) in collaboration with Gaspard Saint-Ange.

OCLC: 82568578 giving no locations.

 

  45.    GUAYNERIO (or GUAINERIO), Antonio. OPUS PRAECLARUM ad praxim non mediocriter necessarium cum Joannis Falconi nonnullis non inutiliter adjunctis ... Reperiuntur Lugduni, ... In bibliotheca Scipionis de Gabiano, 1534. 8vo, ff. [8], 307; without the final blank leaf; title-page in red and black with woodcut border and woodcut device, printed in gothic type, with woodcut initials; title-page and final leaf lightly browned and soiled, both with some minor edge wear and a couple of small marginal holes due to paper flaws, with some marginal damp-staining sporadically throughout, though most prominently affecting the preliminary leaves and from gathering R to the end, small wormhole at upper margin from ff. cclxxi to the end getting more pronounced and touching a few page numbers with some slight loss, a few headlines shaved close; in later full vellum, spine lettered in ink, with significant loss of vellum at tail of spine exposing cords, vellum split along extremities in places, corners bumped and worn, covers a little spotted and browned; with the modern book-plate of Dr Samuel X Radbill on front paste-down; despite faults, still a good copy of a scarce work.  £1,850

Rare and attractive early sixteenth century edition of this compilation of the works of the 14th century physician Antonio Guainerio, divided into twelve sections, including those on the head, eye, heart, mania, and plague, and with a notable section on the nervous system. Of particular interest is a detailed section on gynaecology, with the author noting pregnancy in the absence of menstruation.

Guaynerio (or Guainerio) was in Pavia towards the end of the 14th century, studied medicine under Jacobus Foroliviensis and settled in his home town as a physician. He held the position of Archiater at the court of Amadeus VIII and in his travels through France met with great acclaim. He was the first to mention metal sounds in the treatment of urethral strictures. Several outbreaks of the plague in parts of Savoy prompted the Duke to call on Guaynerio who was proved successful in fighting this disease. Waller p. 9 cites the 1497 Venice edition of his Opera Medica (see also Hain 8099 and Klebs 480.6), with Durling noting a 1518 edition of the present title edited by Claudio Astari, and Durling and the Wellcome citing a 1525 edition also printed in Lyons but by J. Myt for C. Fradin.

The attractive title-page in red and black is surrounded by a handsome woodcut border. With initials throughout and other small woodcut decorations, the work is typographically appealing.

Durling 2190; Wellcome I, 2958; Baudrier, Bibliographie Lyonnaise, VII, p. 176; see Poynter, Wellcome Incunables nos 271-273; OCLC: 14325670 cites further copies at the University of Minnesota, the New York Academy of Medicine and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, with further copies located at Chicago and Texas.

 

‘Letters to Married Women’

  46.    [GUIDE FOR MOTHERS]. [SMITH, Hugh and Marie-Angélique Anel LE REBOURS].  DE ARTZ DE MOEDERS in aangenaame spectatorialle vertoogen, op eene klaare en eenvoudige wyze leerende, wat men moet doen om het gestel van jonge kinderen voor te bereiden tot een gezond, lang, en gelukkig leeven. Te Amsterdam, by Yntema & Tieboel, en Te Harlingen, by Volkert van der Plaats Junior. 1771. 8vo, pp. [ii], iv, [iv], 236, [4] advertisements; some minor worming notably affecting the first few leaves but without significant loss, and some occasional faint marginal dampstaining and soiling, otherwise clean and crisp; uncut and a nice wide-margined copy in nineteenth century maroon calf-backed boards, joints a little rubbed, extremities and corners bumped and slightly worn; still a good copy.   £285

Scarce first Dutch edition of both Hugh Smith’s Letters to Married Women (first 1767), and Marie-Angélique Anel Le Rebour’s Avis aux Meres (first also 1767).

Smith’s common-sense guide to the care of infants in late 18th century England, was first published anonymously, and was one of the earliest popular handbooks aimed at women and the domestic market - a growing literary genre at the time across Europe. Written in the familiar style of letter-writing, Smith includes 'Letters' on birthmarks, miscarriages, breast feeding, weaning, the appearance of teeth etc., as well as general suggestions for the raising of children until the time of their leaving the nursery. Dr Smith was an early exponent of mothers breast-feeding their own babies and infants up to the age of six or seven months, and also advocated the efficacy of drinking milk, notably cow's milk, after weaning.

This popular work was much in vogue during the last thirty years of the century, and passed through at least six English editions, with reprints in Dublin, Philadelphia and translations into French and German.  There were two Hugh Smith's practising medicine in London at this time; the other, who practised at the Middlesex Hospital, may have been the present author's father according to DNB. All editions of this work appear to be extremely scarce with only the National Library of Medicine having the first and second editions of 1767 and 1768 respectively.

Also included here is the first and only Dutch translation of Mme Le Rebours Advice to Mothers who want to nurse their children, which also advocated breast-feeding for mother’s. Mme Le Rebour was a friend of Rousseau, and wrote the present work at his behest.

Blake p. 421; Wellcome V, p. 132; see Grulee 728 (1792 edition) and Still, History of Paediatrics, pp. 453 - 458 for a full discussion of the Smith’s work; OCLC cite no futher locations.

 

Anti-swaddling, pro-glass-feeding bottles

  47.    [GUIDE FOR MOTHERS]. STRUVE, Christian August.  UEBER DIE ERZIEHUNG UND BEHANDLUNG DER KINDER IN DEN ERSTEN LEBENSJAREN. Ein Handbuch für alle Mütter, denen die Gesundheit ihrer Kinder am Herzen liegt. Hanover, Hahn, 1798.  8vo, pp. xii, 286 [ie 284]; some occasional light browning and spotting, otherwise clean and crisp; in contemporary blue paste-paper boards, covers slightly spotted and soiled, with minor wear along upper joint, slight paper loss at head and tail of spine, corners bumped and lightly worn; a good copy.    £375

Uncommon first edition of this practical and progressive work on the care and health of infants by the noted physician and educationalist Christian August Struve (1767-1807) - ‘a manual for all mothers for whom the health of their children is dear to their heart’.

Guiding the reader through all aspects of the important first three years of a childs development, amongst the topics discussed are the dangers of the harmful habits and superstitions of midwives, inoculation, on ‘Vom Stillen der Kinder’, and concluding with an interesting final chapter on the importance of play and children’s games in relation to their health and well-being. Of particular interest is Struve’s strong stance against the swaddling of infants, and of his advocacy of the use of glass feeding bottles and his emphasis upon their careful cleaning. He is also very against the use of ‘sucking-bags’ - unhygienic feeding devices made out of old rags. Considered by Still to be a sensible and advanced writer of the age, he discusses the work in some detail: ‘a book on the care of children, not on their diseases. He deals fully with the feeding both of infants and older children. He is still of the opinon that character is conveyed by breast-milk, ‘an influence sufficiently corroborated by authentic fact’. On weaning he gives a choice of two beverages for the infant - good milk or well-fermented beer. The beer may be given in teh form of a soupl, made by mixing beaten up eggs with beer’ (Still p. 49).
Christian Struve was born in Görlitz and studied in Leipzig, before returning to his home town to practice medicine. The author of several popular works on education and the preservation of health throughout life, he was a supporter of Rousseau and collaborated on an edition of Emile in the same year as the present work: Emil oder ueber die Erziehung. Handbuch der Erziehung fuer Muetter und Kinderfreunde nach Rousseau von D.Christian August Struve (Glogau 1798). His influence is clearly felt in the present work (though not overtly cited), with the views of several other leading figures mentioned throughout including Hufeland, Rosenstein, Parmentier, Baldini, Weikard and Hahnemann.  The book was translated into English by Willich in 1800 as A familiar treatise on the physical education of children.

Still, ff. 49; not in Blake or Waller; OCLC: 26565199 cites copies at the Wellcome, and Philadelphia, with further copies located at the British Library, Berlin and Bayern.

 

  48.    HAMLIN, Cyrus. CHOLERA AND ITS TREATMENT Lewiston: Published by John G. Cook & Co, Druggists [no date but 1866]. 12mo, pp. 15, [1] advertisement; a little browned and soiled throughout; stitched as issued in the original printed wrappers, with small map showing location of Cook & Co on rear cover, and advertisements on inside covers, small tear affecting outer margin of upper cover, small nick with loss at head of spine, covers a little soiled; still a good copy.    £85

A most appealing and practical guide to the treatment of cholera, no doubt written in response to the threat posed by the fourth pandemic, and a nice provincial imprint.

‘A graduate of Bowdoin College and the Bangor Theological Seminary, Hamlin was chosen by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to open a Protestant school in Turkey. Arriving in Istanbul in February 1839, Hamlin opened the shcool the following year and was its director until his resignation in 1860 ... Having observed outbreaks of cholera during his many years in Turkey, Hamlin writes, “I think there is no disease which may be avoided with so much certainty as the cholera”’ (Atwater 1545). Hamlin suggests a number of treatments including the administration of anti-diarrhetics consisting of equal parts of laudanum and rhubarb, and the application of mustard poultices. The Atwater copy has a Boston imprint, and he cites a further issue with a Cincinnati imprint and which is dated 1866. Atwater 1545;

 

 

  50.    HARVEY, William.  THE ANATOMICAL EXERCISES OF DR WILLIAM HARVEY. De Motu Cordis 1628: De Circulatione Sanguinis 1649: The first English text of 1653 now newly edited by Geoffrey Keynes. Issued on the occasion of the tercentenary celebration of the first publication of the text of De Motu Cordis. The Nonesuch Press London [1928]. 8vo, pp. xvi, 202, [1]; with one folding engraved plate (slight offsetting onto text); some occasional light marginal browning; uncut and partially unopened in the original ochre goatskin, ruled in gilt, top edge gilt, spine darkened, covers a little faded with slight soiling and marking, with usual browning of endpapers from turn-ins, else a good copy.    £175

Number 573 (of 1450 copies) of the finely printed Nonesuch Press edition, issued to celebrate the tercentenary of the printing of the first edition of the most famous book in the history of medicine. This is the only modern edition of the 1653 text of the De motu cordis - which had been the first English edition of Harvey's seminal work. Printed on handmade Van Gelder paper by Joh. Enschede en Zonen in Haarlem, the engraved folding plate is by Charles Sigrist after a drawing by Stephen Gooden. Keynes 25.

 

‘By the founder of Secondary Schools in Germany’

  51.    HECKER, Johannes Julius. BETRACHTUNG DES MENSCHLICHEN KORPERS nach der anatomie und physiologie, nebst einem anhang allerhand zur erhaltung der gesundheit dienender regeln und anmerckungen, samt übersetzung einer vormals in lateinischer sprache von dem hochberühmten Herrn Fried. Hoffmann, Med ... Halle, in Verlegung der Wäysen-Haus. 1734.  8vo, pp. [64], 624, [40] index; with woodcut head- and tail-pieces and  twelve folding engraved plates; title-page in red and black; title-page slightly shaved along upper margin cropping author’s name, plates a little browned a little browned and foxed throughout, with some occasional ink staining and minor marginal dampstaining;  in contemporary full calf, all edges gilt with attractive gilt tinged marbled endpapers, spine tooled in gilt, borders ruled in gilt, spine rather crudely rebacked, preserving half of the original spine and title, extremities bumped and a little worn; despite faults, a good, crisp copy.    £550

First edition of this uncommon elementary treatise on anatomy and physiology, by the noted Berlin theologian and pedagogue Julius Hecker (1707-1768).

Born in Werden, Hecker studied theology in Halle and became influenced by the work and teaching of the noted pedagogue August Herman Francke (1663-1727). He subsequently taught in various charitable institutions, including one of Francke’s Franckesche Stiftungen, later moving to the military orphanage at Potsdam where he gained the trust and support of the King. Returning to Berlin, he went on to establish the noted 'Okonomisch-mathematische Realschule' - considered to be the first such ‘Realschule’ or secondary school which aimed to provide a practical, science based and vocational education, as opposed to a purely classical curriculum. Following the guiding principles of Francke, Hecker also believed in a naturalistic approach, with lessons often conducted in the garden, and indeed the school became famous for it’s botanical garden.

Hecker clearly draws upon several sources for his work, including Wepfer, Browne, Verheyen, Heister and Kulmus, though in particular the work of Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742), the Halle physician, and author of several works on medicine, chemistry and paediatrics. He was among the first to describe several diseases, including appendicitis and German measles, and to recognize the regulatory role of the nervous system.  

Rach, Biographien zur deutschen Erziehungsgeschichte, p. 119.

 

Planetary Rotation examined

  52.    HEDIN, Sveno Gabriel and Adolphus Freder BECKMARCK, respondens.  ROTATIONE SOLIS ET PLANETARUM CIRCA AXES Quam ... Sveno Gabr. Hedin ... In aud. Car. Maj. D. 14. Dec 1776. Upsaliæ, Typis Edmannianis [1776].  4to, pp. [iv], 36; attractive woodcut head-piece and one engraved plate; with paper backstrip; a good copy.    $330

Scarce doctoral dissertation by Sveno Gabriel Hedin (1744-1821), a member of the faculty at Uppsala, discussing theories of planetary rotation and providing an analytical solution. In a well researched study, the author cites the work of Galileo, Kepler, Scheiner, Cassini, Bernoulli, Euler, D’Alembert, Frisius, and Newton.

Houzeau-Lancaster 12354; OCLC: 70160388 cites one copy at CRL, with a further copy located on KVK at the British Library.

 

  53.    HENSHAW, Henry Wetherbee. PERFORATED STONES FROM CALIFORNIA (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of Ethnology: J.W. Powell, Director). Washington, Government Printing Office. 1887.  8vo, pp. [3]-34; with sixteen textual illustrations; paper a little browned due to quality; in the original printed wrappers with paper backstrip, small tear at upper margin, with some minor soilng and creasing.      £50

First edition of this noted study on American Indian artifacts and antiquities by the pioneering anthropologist and naturalist Henry Wetherbee Henshaw (1850-1930). OCLC: 1192160.

 

  54.    HIPPOCRATES. OPERA OMNIA. Graece & Latina edita, et ad omnes alias editiones accommodata ... Joan. Antonidae Vander Linden. Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: Apude Danielem, Abrahamum & Adrianum à Gaasbeeck. 1665. Two volumes, 8vo; pp. [xl], 788 (i.e. 880), [2]; [iv], 1034, [134], [2] blank; with engraved title in volume I (a little browned with small paper flaw affecting upper gutter with small loss), and engraved portrait of Hippocrates on *8v, and numerous woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials; light damp-staining affecting inner margin of first few leaves of vol. I, small worm-trail neatly repaired at tail of vol I from title to H6, outer corner of p. 497 in Vol II neatly repaired, title-page of vol II lightly foxed, both volumes lightly foxed with some marginal browning, otherwise clean and crisp; a most attractive copy in late 18th century full red morocco by Bradel with his ticket, all edges gilt, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, with triple gilt border to covers, inner gilt dentelles and marbled endpapers; with three armorial book-plates in each volume, and the signatures of ‘John Warburton, Caius Coll. Cambridge, 1810’, and a later signature in Greek. £1,500

A lovely copy of the first edition of this highly esteemed edition by Van der Linden of the collected works of Hippocrates.

‘Convenient and well-printed handbook edition in two volumes, which divides the text into chapters and paragraphs, and includes the margin numbers of earlier editions. The text itself is often marred by Linden’s forthright criticism, and as he died in 1664, Cornarius’s translation was printed with it, which often does not correspond to the parallel text. But much is contained only in this edition by way of a very rich collection of éloges, literary parallels and extracts, and a very good index is added, so that it will always remain of scholarly and commercial value by its rarity’ (cf Choulant, Handbuch, p. 23).

Pierre Jean Bradel succeeded to the  business of his uncle Nicolas Derome le jeune (1731-1790), master binder since 1760, and easily the most famous binder of the period.

Celli, Bibliografia Hipocratica, 2635; see Garrison, pp. 92-101 for a discussion of Hippocrates.

 

  55.    HODSON, Thomas. THE ACCOMPLISHED TUTOR Or, complete system of liberal education: containing the most improved theory and practice of the following subjects: 1. English Grammar, and elocution. 2. Penmanship, and short hand. 3. Arithmetic, vulgar and decimal. 4. Stock-holding, and merchants accompts. 5. Mensuration, and architecture. 6. Optics. 7. Algebra. 8. Doctrines of Annuities. 9. Trigonometry. 10. Logarithms. 11. Geography. 12. Astronomy. 13. Mechanics. 14. Electricity. 15. Pneumatics. 16. Hydrostatics. 17. Hydraulics. 18. Drawing, engraving and painting. And other useful matter. Embellished with twenty copper-plates and six maps, neatly engraved. Second Edition. In Two volumes. London: Printed for H.D. Symonds, Paternoster Row; and Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, Poultry. 1802. Two volumes, 4to, pp. viii, 470; viii, 458s; with attractive engraved frontispiece, and 26 engraved folding plates and maps; some occasional light spotting and foxing, with some sporadic but very faint marginal dampstaining, otherwise clean and crisp;  uncut in the original paper-backed boards, spines considerably torn and worn with significant loss, though with remains of the original printed labels, cords and joints loose but holding, boards a little rubbed and soiled; preserved in a modern cloth clamshell box, with red morocco label on spine; with the contemporary ownership signature of Philip Braithwaite on front endpapers; despite wear, an appealing unsophisticated copy.  £585

Scarce second edition (first 1800) of this uncommon and most attractive guide for young adults, which as the title suggests introduces the reader to all the essential elements of a liberal education, but concentrating in particular upon the sciences. Hodson has endeavoured to include only the most important information, rejecting anything that he considers to be superfluous, and has included in his work 26 finely executed copper-engraved plates, in an effort to aid the young reader further, illustrating such things as styles of hand-writing, Dr Herschel’s Forty-foot telescope (plate 7), the solar system (plate 16), two globes depicting the world (plate 10), electrical experiments and apparatus (plates 20 and 21), pneumatics and hydraulics (plate 24).

A third edition appeared in 1806 (with an identical pagination). All editions appear to be scarce.

See ESTCT121347 for 1800 first edition; OCLC: 8006690 cites copies of the present edition at Harvard, UCLA, New York Public Library, Yale and Columbia.

 

  56.    [HOMOEOPATHY]. RUCCO, Julius. LA MéDECINE DE LA NATURE protectrice de la vie humaine a l’usage des praticiens et des gens du monde, désireux de suivre le progrès de la médecine rationnelle dans la cure des maladies chroniques, opiniâtres aux moyens ordinaires. Paris. Chez J. B. Baillière Libraire de L’Académie Impériale de Mèdecine ... A Londres, Chez H. Baillière ... A New York, ... A Madrid. [n.d. but ca. 1854?]. 8vo, pp. 255, [1] imprint; lightly browned and foxed throughout due to paper quality, with small damp-stain affecting upper margins of last two gatherings, three small tears to outer margin of half-title neatly repaired;  rebound in modern brown morocco backed boards, spine in compartments ruled and lettered in blind and gilt, preserving the original printed wrappers, outer margin of upper wrapper neatly reinforced; a good copy.   £225

Scarce first edition of this hoœopathic treatise on the health and the treatment of disease, by the ubiquitous Italian physician, Julius Rucco.

Rucco, the author of popular several works, divides the present practical guide on the protection of health into three sections. The first outlines some general tenets of health and hygiene, Rucco then discussing the use and benefits of homoeopathy in the treatment of various chronic diseases including epilepsy, migraines, paralysis and cancer. From page 95-108 he includes a list of homeopathic remedies and their length of efficiency in terms of days. The final section highlights in particular the homeopathic treatment of cholera, Rucco concluding with a selection of reviews for his work on the pulse, for a number of English, French, Italian and Belgian journals and colleagues. ‘Ce singulier volume renferme entre autres, un traité de la respiration d’après les lois de la nature, et un chapitre consacré aux diverses affections de l’âme. Traitement homoeopathique p. 47 et jusqu’à la fin (Caillet).

A Neapolitan by birth, Rucco studied not only in Italy, but then moved to Baltimore, published his physiological dissertation in Philadelphia in 1818, and subsequently was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians of London. He is best remembered for his 1827 two volume work on the pulse, a development of his earlier and scarcer work on the subject published in Italian in 1810 Lo spirito dell’arte sfigmica applicato al trattoto dell febbri ed alla dopia classe delle malattie.

Caillet 9699; Munk’s Roll, III, p. 254; OCLC: cites only one copy at the National Library of Medicine, with KVK locating three further copies at the British Library, the National Library of Italy (dating the work 1854?), and the National Library of Switzerland (suggesting 1855).

 

  57.    HOPPUS, Edward PRACTICAL MEASURING MADE EASY To the meanest capacity, by a new set of tables; which upon a bare inspection, shew what is the solid or superficial content (and consequently the value) of any piece or quantity of timber, stone, board, glas, &c., used in building, &c., also, the solid content (and consequently the value) of all kinds of squared or round timber, whether it be standing or felled ... with a preface; shewing the convenience and excellence of this new method, and demonstrating that whoever ventures to rely upon obsolete tables and directions publish’d by Isaac Keay, is liable to be deceived (in common cases) 10 s. in the pound ... Calculated and re-examined from the press, by E. Hoppus, Surveyor to the Corporation of the London Assurance. The Second edition; to which is now added a very useful appendix, concerning the value of nails, locks, hinges &c. London, Printed and Sold by E. Wicksteed at the Black Swan in Newgate-street. 1738. Narrow small 4to, pp. [iv], xxxix, [9] (including two advertisements on p. xxx and xl), 176; with one small folding leaf of plates; some light marginal soiling and browning throughout, with occasional minor ink stains, and small stain at gutter affecting gatherings K & L; in contemporary calf, tooled in blind, spine and extremities neatly repaired; a good copy. £225

Surprisingly uncommon second edition of this extremely popular and practical mathematical guide for the use of builders and carpenters. Hoppus’ Practical Measuring Made Easy continued to be published for well over a century. The note of approbation on the verso of the title is signed by Hoppus himself, and a glowing testimonial by the mathematician Charles Leadbetter faces the title. Leadbetter (1695-1744) was an excise officer, who taught mathematics, astronomy and navigation in London and gained a considerable reputation by correctly predicting the solar eclipse of 1715. In 1717 he published ‘A treatise on eclipses for 26 years’. Agnes Clerke (in DSB) described him as one of the first commentators on Newton and says that his books were useful in their time. 

ESTC t133665; OCLC: 13499514 cites four copies at UCLA, Harvard, Texas and Virginia Historical Society, with further copies on KVK at Oxford, the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

 

  58.    [HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION]. MANUEL A L’USAGE DE MM. LES ADMINISTRATEURS DES HOPITAUX DE LYON. A Lyon, De l’imprimerie de S. Darnaud Cutty, .Place Louis-Le-Grand, Façade du Rhône, no. 8. 1821. 8vo, pp. [ii], 98, [42] blank leaves; attractive woodcut printer’s device on title;  text a little foxed and browned, notably half-title and title-page; neat manuscript notes in a contemporary hand on first two leaves of blanks; green roan-backed drab boards, with three roan ‘pen’ loops along fore-edge, surfaces a little scuffed, extremities lightly rubbed and worn; a good copy.          £325

A rare insight into the day-to-day running of early nineteenth century hospitals. The present handbook has been issued for the use of the administrators of the two principle hospitals in the wealthy industrial town of Lyon - the Hotel-Dieu and the associated charitable institution, the Hôpitaux de la Charité.

After a brief history of their establishment, the handbook proceeds to outline the governing rules and regulations. The instructions given are incredibly precise, often down to the specific hour that ceremonies and duties should be carried out.  A strict dress code is provided, with sections devoted to the election of the President, the different functions of the administrators on the Council, to a notice detailing the invitation list for the annual dinner to recognise local dignitaries. Other paragraphs relate to the opening and running of the medical courses, to the ‘Concours pour la nomination des médecins’, the ‘Installation des Chirurgiens-Majors’, and the correct procedure for the installation of a bursar. What is particularly evident is the importance of the Church in the day-to-day running of the two establishments, with precise instructions for several religious festivals and processions given, including the funerals of council members, officers, student surgeons and interns, down to the prayers to be said at the weekly administrative meetings. 

Not on OCLC; KVK locates only one copy at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

 

  59.    [HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION]. [HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT ACCOUNTS FOR THE HÔTEL-DIEU, PARIS 1754-1763].  ÉTAT GÉNÉRAL DES RECETTES ET DEPENSES FAITTES POUR L’HÔTEL DIEU DE PARIS pendant dix années echues le dernier Decembre 1763. Eight large folio sheets, 500mm x 675mm, stitched to form a pp. 16 booklet, 500mm x 340mm, and then folded to form a quarto for convenience; written in a neat contemporary hand in brown ink; internally quite clean aside from some light spotting; outer leaves quite foxed and soiled, notably along the folds and outer margins, with some faint dampstaining, small hole affecting central fold. £1,200

A unique document providing an insight into the running of the most famous hospital in France, the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, produced only twenty years before Tenon’s report highlighted the appalling conditions to be found there. The present manuscript, written in a neat, if sometimes slightly illegible calligraphic hand, presents a detailed audit of the expenses and receivables over a ten year period from 1754 to 1763. The income is divided into two sections, ordinary and casual, and reveals the considerable amount of income received from rental property, as well highlighting such things as the income received from apprentice midwives for their upkeep, charitable donations, and from the sale of possessions of those who die in the hospital. Similarly the expenditure is divided into regular and extraordinary expenses, and reveals that some of the highests costs were, inevitably, for the provision of meat, wheat and wine. The cost of such things as drugs, bed linen, hosiery, and spices is also noted, in addition to the rents that the hospital itself had to pay on various properties, and for wages to ‘des ecclisiastiques, medecins, chirurgiens, officiers &’. Extraordinary expenses include compensations, special payments to apprentice midwives, and a series of payments ‘Legis? universelle de’ presumably to patrons of the hospital, including the Cardinal de Noailles.

Provenance: From the collection of the famous bibliophile Sir Thomas Phillips (1792-1872), who accumulated the largest collection of manuscripts, medieval and modern, ever put together by one man.

 

 

  62.    JAMET, Noel Philibert. TRAITE DE LA CIRCULATION DES ESPRITS ANIMAUX divisé en quatre parties. Par un Religieux de la Congregation de Saint Maur. A Paris, Chez Jean Couterot, & Loüis Guerin ... MDCLXXXIV [1684]. 12mo, pp. [xl], 248, with woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces; small worm-trail affecting lower outer corner throughout, though with no loss of text; aside from some light browning, clean and crisp; in contemporary full calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, ruled and decorated in gilt, head and tail of spine and joints repaired, minor worming affecting upper outer margin, corners repaired; still, a good crisp copy.  £485

Uncommon first edition, re-issue with cancel title-page (first 1682), of this philosophical study on ‘des esprits animaux’ - an attempt to solve certain questions unexplained by the recent discovery of the circulation of the blood, to which several chapters are devoted though, rather strikingly, with no obvious mention of Harvey. It also attempts to correlate the more recent advances in the discovery of the lymphatic system. These sections deal more openly with the work of Pecquet and Bartholin - though infact some of the questions touched upon had already been solved by Pecquet.

The work has also been attributed to Jean Bonet. The 1682 is identical, with only a differing publisher’s imprint: ‘A Paris, Chez la veuve de Louis Billaime, au second pillier dans la grand’sale du Palais, à l’image S. Augustin’.

Krivatsy 6199 (1682 edition); Wellcome III, p. 345 (1682 edition); Quérard, Les Supercheries litteraires devoilees, p. 381 under ‘Un Religieux Bénédictin’; not in Bedford, or in any of the principal Harvey references; OCLC: 14324465 locating further copies in the US at Berkeley, Yale, and Harvard.

 

With 50 mounted specimens

  63.    JEPPE, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm.  HERBARIUM VIVUM [no date, and no publisher, but probably Rostock, A.F. Achiller, 1826]. Small folio, ff. 50; with fifty mounted specimens of grasses and weeds; somewhat foxed and dampstained, with some worming affecting first 13 leaves; stitched as issued, retaining the original paper upper wrapper (lacking lower cover), with paper label, cover dampstained, extremities furled and rather soiled, with ownership signature of Werner von. Scwerin.  £675

A scarce example of this early nineteenth century herbarium, produced by the seed seller Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jeppe.

On comparison with an alternative issue, the present example is seemingly the cheapest of three issues available to the buyer, here without the text, and with each sample labelled. A more expensive attractively bound issue contained text and detailed explanatory notes, with a mid-price issue also available for purchase. The de-luxe edition also came with a selection of seeds.

'Little is known about the life of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jeppe except that he was a merchant at Rostock when he published his Herbarium vivum, an early seed catalogue, in 1826. The work contains pressed mounted specimens of fifty species of fodder, grasses, and noxious weeds, a knowledge of which Jeppe considered essential for local merchants and agriculturalists. For the weeds, he suggested means of control and eradication. Yet the majority of the plants presented in the Herbarium vivum are beneficial grasses, and Jeppe gave their distinguishing characteristics, soil preferences, and practical uses. Each description is provided with a carefully prepared specimen of the plant, including flowers and seed-clusters. Jeppe's catalogue served, no doubt, as a useful source of information for his customers, who, according to an enclosed subscription list, included pastors, military leaders, nobility, and landed gentry' (University of Chicago online catalogue of the Berlin Collection and under the section popular culture. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/berlin/).

Provenance: The owner was Werner von Schwerin, a member of a distinguished Swedish family.

OCLC: 64885261 cites copies at Groningen, Tresoar and Leiden, with further copies located at Chicago (the above copy with a collation of [10]p. 50 plates) and of the 1835 third edition located at the New York Botanical Garden Library.

 

 

  65.    KIERNANDER, Jonas. UTKAST TIL MEDICINAL-LAGFARHETEN Domare til Uplysing, Läkare til Hjelpreda och Barnmorskor til Underwisning I ämnen, som röra Människo-Kroppen. Stockholm, Tryckt hos Anders Jac. Nordström. [n.d. but 1776]. 8vo, pp. [ii], [xxxi] preface and contents, [i] blank, 746, [12] index; with engraved title-page; light marginal browning throughout, with some occasional spotting, later ownership inscription on title-page;     £225

A rare Swedish manual on forensic medicine written for the 'enlightenment of judges, the assistance of physicians, and the instruction of midwives'.

Jonas Kiernander was Physician to the King and a member of the Royal Board of Medicine in Sweden. He felt compelled to write this treatise 'mindful of how unconsciously and negligently forensic medicine has, since long times past, been practised in the Kingdom of Sweden' (Preface). As a result of numerous errors in the examination of dead bodies, the poor compilation of examination reports and general medical ignorance, felons often evaded punishment, or even worse, innocent people were wrongly convicted by judges who were impeded from making fair decisions through a lack of accurate autopsy reports. Kiernander resolved to improve matters by compiling this manual, at present in draft form whilst he carried out further research on the subject.

The work is divided into three sections, the first dealing with embryology, the second with paediatrics, whilst the final section examines common ailments and causes of fatality affecting man. Each section provides notes of guidance for the judge, words of counsel to the Physician, and instructions to midwives to enable them to carry out their duties. He also includes some general notes on the characteristics of many severe and chronic diseases, a knowledge of which he believes to be imperative for those in forensic medicine, and which also includes proposed preservations against the plague. Descriptions of numerous poisons, are also provided, based upon the work of Linnaeus. Where-ever possible the events are substantiated by numerous observations. Kiernander makes many references to Dr Olaf Acrel, Sweden's leading surgeon at the time, who wrote several important surgical works.

Blake p. 242; Wellcome III, p. 391.

 

  66.    LEHMANN, Johann Georg Christian. NOVARUM ET MINUS COGNITARUM STIRPIUM Pugillus tertius, quem indici scholarum in gymnasio Academico Hamburgensium. Anno Scholastico 1831 Habendarum Praemisit. Hamburgi. Typis Joannis Augusti Meissneri, Amplissimi Senatus, Gymnasii Academici et Joannei Typographi. [1831]. [together with]. Pugillus Quartus, quem indici scholarum in gymnasio Academico Hamburgensium. Anno Scholastico 1832 Habendarum Praemisit. Hamburgi. Typis Joannis Augusti Meissneri, Amplissimi Senatus, Gymnasii Academici et Joannei Typographi. [1832].  Two volumes, 4to, pp. 58; vi, 64; clean and crisp;  good wide margined copies in the original green wrappers, extremities a little furled with a few small nicks at head of upper joint and extremities, covers slightly creased and soiled; presentation copies to Professor Wahlberg, with inscriptions at head of upper cover and at head of title-page.   £250

Attractive copies of the third and fourth essays in a series of ten botantical monographs published between 1828 and 1857, by the noted botanist Johann Georg Christian Lehmann, devoted to the large genus Potentilla, and to liverworts.

Lehmann (1792 – 1860), a professor at Hamburg University from 1818, and head of the botanical garden, was a prolific author, writing a number of important works. In 1820 he had published a more detail essay on Potentilla, Monographia Generis Potentillarum, accompanied by 20 accurately engraved plates.

Provenance: Pehr Fredrik Wahlberg (1800-1877), was a noted Swedish botanist and professor of natural history and materia medical at the Karolinska Institute. A was a pupil of Carl Thunberg, he became a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences he wrote several works. Stafleu II, ff. 819, and specifically 4328; ADB XVIII, pp. 143-145; Pritzel 5472; BM Natural History, III, p. 1082; see OCLC: 1069431 for a full listing of the series.

 

  67.    LELOIR, Henri. RECHERCHES CLINIQUES ET ANATOMO-PATHOLOGIQUES sur les affections cutanées d’origine nerveuse. Avec 4 planches en chromo-lithographie et plusieurs figures intercalées dans le texte. Paris, aux Bureaux du Progrès Médical ... A. Delahaye & E. Lecrosnier Éditeurs ... 1882. 8vo, pp. [iv], 220, with four chromolithograph plates and text illustrations; gutter of half-title neatly repaired with title-page and final leaf gutter strengthened, and upper corner of final leaf repaired, paper a little browned due to quality; library stamp on half-title and front paste-down; in recent cloth-backed boards, spine lettered in gilt; a presentation copy from the author signed on the title-page "mon ami Pautry. Souvenir de la Charité", and with Pautry’s signature on half title.  £300

Uncommon first edition of this detailed pathological study on skin conditions ‘of nervous origin’ by the physician and member of the Parisian faculty, Henri Leloir (1855-1896).

Divided into five sections, the first is titled ‘Faits cliniques sur lesquels on peut s’appuyer pour songer a l’origine nerveuse de certaines dematoses’, and includes a discussion of the ‘influence des émotions morales’, and ‘fréquence chez les sujets atteints d’affections cutanées, de maladies diverses du système nerveux’. Section two outlines the value of anatomical and pathological research and the objectives of the study. Part three presents Leloir’s studies concerning such conditions as vitiligo, ichthyose, leprosy, eczema, and herpes, with the fourth section discussing ‘physiologie pathologique’. A useful and lengthy bibliography, together with his conclusions are found in the final section.

Henri Camille Chrysostôme Leloir studied at Lille and Paris, obtaining his doctorate in 1881. In 1882 he became Chef de clinique at the Hôpital St.-Louis under Jean Alfred Fournier (1832-1915), and in 1885 was appointed professor at the faculty. Leloir made important contributions on tuberculosis of the skin, trophodermatoses and Lepra, which he had studied in Norway, Italy, and Southern France. ‘Henri Leloir (1855-96) ... is chiefly remembered for his writings on pathology, many of them with Vidal, and his description of lupus vulgaris erythematoides (1891). His premature death removed one of the brilliant French dermatologists’ (Pusey, p. 119).

Pusey, The History of Dermatology, p. 119; OCLC: 30759800 cites three copies at the New York Academy of Medicine, Texas and Wellcome.

 

  68.    LEWERS, Arthur Hamilton Nicholson. A PRACTICAL TEXTBOOK OF THE DISEASES OF WOMEN Sixth edition, with 166 illustrations, four coloured plates, and 74 illustrative cases. London, H.K. Lewis, 136 Gower Street, W.C. 1903. 8vo, pp. xviii, 533, [2], 16 publisher’s advertisements; with 166 illustrations and four coloured plates; some light browning, with some light finger-wear to outer margins; in the original red publisher’s cloth, upper cover stamped in black and gilt, spine in gilt, cloth a little rubbed and worn; a good copy.       £30

Late edition, first published in 1888, of this surprisingly uncommon and comprehensive practical guide. Lewers was a Senior Obstetrics physician at the London Hospital, and examiner in obstetric medicine at the University of London, and the Royal College of Physicians.

OCLC: 20069223 cites copies of this edition at McGill, the College of Physicians, Wisconsin, Cambridge, Oxford and the Wellcome.

 

  69.    LLOYD, John. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH WALES IRON WORKS (1760 to 1840). From Original documents. London: Printed by the Bedford Press, 20 & 21, Bedfordbury, W.C. 1906. Folio, pp. viii, 218; with errata note tipped in; with 29 black and white photographs and facscimiles (some partially coloured), and one large folding linen-backed map; some occasional light foxing; in contemporary red half morocco, spine tooled in gilt with green morocco label, corners a little bumped and worn; a good copy.   £275

An attractive and surprisingly uncommon first edition of this historical survey of  the iron industry in South Wales, copiously illustrated. The work is based upon documents acquired over many years by the legal firm of Walter & Powell in Brecon, who had been employed by several of the chief ironamasters in the area. The firm eventually closed and the papers lay hidden, eventually coming to light and used as a basis by Lloyd for his history.

‘Whether the play is worth the candle is another matter. I think it has been, because the introduction of a great chain of Iron Works into SOuth Wales in barely more than a generation, and their rapid development to a great height of prosperity, and subsequently their equally sudden decadence, is too important a factor in South Wales history, and in the history of our country, to be ignored’ (preface).

 

The Autopsy of Antonio Cocchi described

  70.    MANETTI, Saverio. LETTERA DEL SIGNORE DOTTORE SAVERIO MANETTI ... Sopra la malattia, morte, e dissezione anatomical del cadavere di Antonio Cocchi, celebre professore di medicina in Firenze, con diverse annotazioni risguardanti gli studi, perizia medica, e opere del medesimo. Seconda edizione, riveduta, e corretta dall’Autore. In Firenze, nella stamperia di Pietro Gaetano Viviani, MDCCLIX [1759].  4to, pp. 35, [1]; with woodcut printer’s device on title, and attractive woodcut head-piece and initial; somewhat foxed and lightly browned throughout, though still crisp; an attractive wide-margined copy on thick paper, in contemporary vellum, yellow label lettered in gilt on spine, covers a little soiled and slightly scuffed, with accession number in ink at tail of spine; with attractive contemporary? book-plate on front paste-down with the signature of ‘Giulio da Montanto’. £275

Uncommon second edition, revised and corrected, of this unusual work in which the Florentine physician and botanist Saverio Manetti (1723-1785) describes the last illness, death and autopsy of his famous colleague, the physician, philosopher, naturalist and scholar Antonio Cocchi (1695-1758). The ‘Lettera’ addressed to Giovanni Lorenzo Guarnieri, also includes extensive notes on Cocchi’s life, together with a discussion of his published and unpublished works.

The essay first appeared in the Giornale de’Letterati (Rome, 1758), with the first separate edition published in Rome in 1759 (a copy of which is at the Wellcome).

Manetti was director of the Botanical Garden of Florence from 1749 to 1782. In addition to having disseminated the works of Linnaeus in Florence (C. Linnaei Regnum vegetabile, 1756), he is particularly remembered for his part in the publication of one of the greatest illustrated ornothologies ever produced, the Storia naturale degli uccelli, of which Peter Dance writes ‘The production of its five massive folio volumes must have been one of the most remarkable publishing ventures ever undertaken in Florence. Begun in 1767, and [based on birds taken from the collection of Giovanni Gerini], it was completed ten years later. It was larger, better engraved and more vividly coloured than any previous work on birds ... The attitudes of the birds themselves give this book its unique character. Strutting, parading, posturing, and occasionally flying....are birds whose real-life counterparts would surely disown them, and not without reason, for Manetti seems in these pictures to be depicting the human comedy, the habits and mannerisms of contemporary Italian society. His book may still be rated among the very greatest bird books, if only for its magnificent comicality’ (S. Peter Dance, The Art of Natural History: Animal Illustrators and their Work. London: 1978).

Blake p. 285; Wellcome IV, p. 42; OCLC: 14333685 locates further copies at UCLA, Yale, Minnesota, Berkeley and Toronto.

 

  71.     MARIE DE SAINT URSIN, P. J. MANUEL POPULAIRE DE SANTé a l’usage des personnes intelligentes vivant à la Campagne; ou instructions sommaires sur les maladies qui régnent le plus souvent, et les moyens les plus simples de les traiter; suivies de notions chirurgicales et pharmaceutiques. A Paris, Chez Léopold Collin, Lib., rue Git-le-Coeur, no. 3 et chez L’Auteur ... An. 1808.  8vo, pp. [iv], xxviii, [29]-571, [4] errata, [1] blank; with woodcut textual diagrams; some light foxing and browning throughout due to paper quality, but otherwise clean and crisp; in contemporary calf backed marbled boards, spine lettered and ruled in gilt and black, head and tail of spine lightly rubbed, spine a little stained and faded, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped; a good copy.  £375

Uncommon first edition of this practical medical guide, by the physician and former chief medical officer for the Northern Division of the French Army, P. J. Marie de Saint-Ursin (1763-1818).

Published three years after his popular guide to health for women, Saint-Ursin here turns his attention to general health, aimed in particular at those living in the country. Advice is given on the nature and treatment of the most common diseases and complaints, with a brief section outlining some simple surgical procedures also included, covering the treatment of abcesses, fractures, dislocations, and childbirth. He suggests a number of useful instruments to have at hand, and includes a bibliography of reference works (p. 513). The work concludes with some ‘notions élémentaires de pharmacie’, including suggested plants and herbs to use, a selection of simple remedies, as well as a handy guide to comparative guide to ancient and modern weights and measures, ‘Synonymie des anciens poids avecs les nouveaux’ (ff. 558). 

Saint-Ursin was born in Chartres and studied medicine at the University of Rheims, and in addition to his military positions became Inspector General of Health, and was Secretary of the Société Académique de Paris, as well as being a member of several academic societies. Between 1800 and 1810 he edited the Gazette de Santé. He rejoined the army during Napoleon’s Russian campaign where he was taken prisoner. He returned to France in 1815 becoming the Chief Medical Officer of the Military Hospital at Calais, until his death in 1818.

The proposed supplement to the present work Coup-D’Oeil historique de la Médecine ancienne et moderne, advertised on the verso of the title-page, was never published.

 

A Surgical Conversation between Master and Student

  72.    MASIERO, Filippo. LA CHIRURGIA COMPENDIATA. Ovvero instruzioni per il chirurgo in prattica. Seconda editione. Venetia, presso Steffano Curti, 1690. 8vo, pp. [xxxii] including attractive additional engraved allegorical title-page, 416; with appealing woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials, and fourteen engraved plates; aside from some light marginal dampstaining affecting the first few leaves, clean and crisp;  in eighteenth century mottled calf, spine attractively tooled in gilt, with attractive gilt border and central vignette on covers, joints and head and tail of spine neatly repaired, with new marbled endpapers; an attractive copy.  £1,200

Second edition (first 1688) of this scarce and attractively illustrated late seventeenth century compendium of surgery, written by Filippo Masiero (fl. 1688- ca. 1724?), professor of surgery at Padua and first surgeon of the ‘Ospedale di San Francesco’ in Padua, and intended to accompany his surgical course.

Divided into ten sections and written in a conversational form between two a surgeon and his student, Turanio and Alchindo, Masiero introduces the student to the principal surgical prodedures, the appropriate instrumentation, and associated therapeutic methods, and hopes that this practical and accessible work will provide all that is necessary for the student to complete their surgical studies at Padua. Section nine contains an extensive material medica. An elegantly written work, a number of sonnets are also included, predominantly in praise of Masiero. The attractive plates depict injuries to the head, amputations, and a number of surgical instruments.

Masiero later wrote a response to the plague of 1721 in Marseille, Il più temuto de’male peste (1722), and which included a striking depiction of a plague doctor. A third edition of the present work appeared in 1698, and the work remained popular during the first half of the eighteenth century with a sixth edition published in 1749.

Bibliotheca Riviniana 5397; Krivatsy 7527; Wellcome IV, p. 74; not in the Orr collection or Parkinson and Lumb; OCLC: 9181365 cites copies at Virginia and Wisconsin with further copies at the Bancroft and Berkeley; the first edition of 1688 at the National Library of Medicine and Wisconsin only.

 

  73.    [MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, By a] . THE ART OF FEEDING THE INVALID A series of chapters on the nature of certain prevalent diseases and maladies; together with carefully selected recipes for the preparation of food for invalids. By a Medical Practitioner and A Lady Professor of Cookery. London: The Scientific Press, Limited, 140 Strand, W.C. [n.d. but 1892]. 8vo, pp. [xiv] advertisements, viii, 264, [10] advertisements; some light foxing throughout, cords exposed at p. 48 but holding, very faint dampstaining at lower gutter (more evident along outer edge) contemporary brown publisher’s cloth, advertisements on inside front and back covers, spine and upper cover lettered in gilt, with lower cover blind-stamped in black with a advertisement for Cadbury’s Cocoa, covers a little scratched and stained, joints and extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, minor wear to head of spine. £110

First edition of this work on practical dietetics for the sick and convalescent, ‘the joint production of a Medical Practitioner of extensive experience and widely known as the author of a standard book; and a lady Professor of Cookery, who not only holds the best diploma, but has established a considerable reputation as a writer and lecturer in Great Britain and Ireland’ (preface). The work is clearly aimed at ‘Matrons of Institutions, Sisters and Nurses, heads of households, and all who have care’.

Chapters are devoted to specific illnesses and conditions, with advice given on the ‘nature and tendency of each’, followed by a list of suitable recipes: these are then found in full from page 117 onwards in the second section of the work. Advice is given on the dietary requirements of febrile diseases, chronic illness, gout, constipation and diarrhoea, liver and kidney diseases, diabetes, tuberculosis and consumption, corpulence, and concluding with a section on the diet of children. The work notes that diet was increasingly recognised as an important and integral part of medicine, and that the correct administration of food was vital. The preface cites Florence Nightingale comment ‘“Every careful observer of the sick will agree in this, that thousands of patients are annually starved in the midst of plenty, from want of attention to the ways which alone make it possible for them to take food”’ (p. 2).

The work contains a fascinating collection of advertisements from some venerable English establishments, including ‘S. Sainsbury’s Pure Fruit Syrups’; ‘Robinson’s Barley Water’; a selection of special foods for invalids supplied by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.; ‘Natural Pure Wheaten Food’ by Farola, in addition to Malvern Spring Water and products by both Frys and Cadbury’s. Accessories such as bed tables, bedside lights, and smelling salts are also highlighted.

Neither OCLC, or KVK provide any clue as to the true identities of the authors.

 

  74.    MEINECKE, Johann Ludwig Georg. LEHRBUCH DER MINERALOGIE mit Beziehung auf Technologie und Geographie. Für Schulen und den Privatunterricht Halle, bey Hemmerde und Schwetschke, 1808. 8vo, pp. xiv, 218; some light foxing and spotting due to paper quality, one gathering a little creased; with numerous contemporary marginal annotations in pencil;  in contemporary green paste-paper boards, with red paper label lettered in gilt on spine, covers soiled, joints and extremities rubbed and worn with some loss of paper.  £285

First edition of this rare introduction to mineralogy for schools and private institutions, designed to give students an understanding of the chemical and technical underpinnings of the subject, written by Johann Meinecke (1781-1823), professor of chemistry at Halle and the author of a number of similar educational scientific works discussing chemistry, botany, physics and mathematics.

A second edition was published in 1824, with the addition of four folding plates. Poggendorff II, 103; not in Cole; OCLC record only two European locations at Amsterdam and Strasbourg.

 

By Newton’s proponent in Sweden

  75.    MELANDER, Daniel. ASTRONOMIE ... Förra [-Senare] Delen. Stockholm, Tryck Hos Johan Pehr Lindh, 1795. Two volumes, 8vo, pp. iv, xliii, [i] blank, 392, with three folding plates: 474, [8], with two folding plates; some light spotting and foxing throughout, with some very occasional light dampstaining; with occasional neat manuscript notes in ink throughout, and with neat index and notes in mss at end of Vol I, and on mount of plate IV; in contemporary half calf over sprinkled boards, spines ruled in gilt with gold morocco labels lettered in gilt, head of spine of Vol II chipped with some loss, joints of Vol II starting to crack, extremities rubbed, corners bumped and a little worn; still a good copy; from the libary of Anders Broberg with his book-plates on front paste-downs, and with the signature of E? Tollstedt on both paste-downs.    £425

An uncommon first Swedish edition of Daniel Melander’s widely disseminated text-book on fundamental astronomy, Conspectus praelectionum academicarum continens fundamenta astronomiae, first published in 1779. This comprehensive work introduces the student to the prevailing theories of the day, frequently citing the works of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe, La Lande, Maupertuis, Caroline and William Herschel, and of course Newton, of whom Melander was a noted supporter.

Daniel Melander or Melanderhjelm (1726-1810) was intending to be a priest, but his father persuaded him to study science and mathematics for which he had a particular aptitude. A student at Upsala where he studied philosophy, mathematics and physics, graduating as master of philosophy, he became lecturer in physics in 1757 and professor of astronomy by 1778. In 1782 he moved to Stockholm where he became one of the leading scientists in Sweden in the later half of the eighteenth century, with a major worldwide correspondence. He led the 1802 expedition to Lapland on a comparative study of the meridian following up on the expedition lead by Maupertuis in 1736.

Poggendorff II, 108; OCLC 31718741 cites two copies at Texas and the Paris Observatory, with further copies located at Wisconsin and the British Library, Berlin, and the National Libraries of Denmark and Finland.

 

  76.    [MERCEDES CALCULATORS AND ELECTRIC TYPEWRITERS].  MERCEDES EUKLID REKENMACHINE. Rotterdam, Mercedes, 1938. [together with]. EEN INSTRUMENT VOOR DE BEDRIJFSLEIDING. Mercedes Elektra. Rotterdam, Mercedes, 1938. Together, two finely illustrated trade brochures, folio; pp. 4 with 10 fine coloured plates of various models of the Euklid calculating machine; pp. 4 and 8 coloured plates of the Elektra typewriters; stapled as issued in drab wrappers, with pocket at rear to hold plates, slight rusting around staples; appealing and scarce examples.  £375

Two finely illustrated trade catalogues from Holland promoting two of the leading products from the German manufacturer Mercedes Bureaumaschinenwerke, (no relation to the automobile company). Designed by Christel Hamann of Berlin in 1905, the Mercedes-Euklid was an early 20th century calculating machine. The Euklid was based on a principle different from the machines made at that time. The machine had a set of ten parallel racks, one for each digit 0 to 9. Each rack moved a distance proportional to its corresponding digit while actuating over unidirectional wheels to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication or automatic division. The Mercedes-Euklid 1 had only stop-division and the racks were set by levers, but later models, like the Mercedes-Euklid 3 and the Mercedes-Kopernikus had automatic division and full keyboard. A rotating crank was used for multiplication and division. A number of models are here advertised. Similarly the Mercedes Elektra proved immensely popular, being one of the first electrically powered standard typewriters, first produced in 1926. The machine was a technical success and was produced in successive models.

See Martin, Ernst (1992). The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen): Their History and Development. MIT Press.

 

 

  78.    [MIDWIFERY]. HOORN, Johan von. DEN SWENSKA WÄL-ÖFWADE JORD-GUMMAN hwilken grundeligen underwijser huru med en hafwande handlas, en wandande hielpas, en barna-qwinna handteras, och det nyfodda barnet skiotas skal. Mäst effter egen Förfarenhet, jemte wäl-öfwade personers Skriffer, alla Läkare och Feldscherer; men särdeles Bammoderskor och Huus-Mödrar til Gagn och Nytta, med tienliga figurer författat ... på egen bekostning utgifwin. Stockholm, Tryckt uti Nathanael Goldenaus Tryckerij. 1697. [bound with]: THEN SWENSKA WÄLÖFWADE JORDE-GUMMANS ANDRA DEEL. Bestånde uti Ottatijo Märckwärdige förlosningar, förrättade, och på Fransöska beskrefne, af Paul Portal, Bedswuren Felscher, och berömd Jord-Mästare i Paris. Men nu, förtheras förträffliget, på Swenska öfwersatte, och med några tienliga Påminnelser, uthgifne ... Stockholm, tryck af H.C. Merckell ... 1723. Two works in one volume, 8vo; pp [ii] additional engraved title-page, [xvi], 20, [4] index, 328, [20]; without the two leaf Royal Privilege never bound here, with eleven engraved plates; [32], 233, [7] index, [8] book-binder’s catalogue; without the engraved frontispiece portrait of Hoorn, neatly excised; both works lightly browned with some occasional light spotting, otherwise clean and crisp, book-binder’s catalogue more heavily browned due to differing paper quality; in contemporary sprinkled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, with red morocco label lettered in gilt, spine a little crack and rubbed at head, tail and along bands, extremities lightly rubbed, corners bumped and slightly worn; despite faults, still a good copy of a scarce work.    £2,000

Scarce first edition, published at the author’s own expense, of the ‘first Swedish handbook for midwives and also the first complete medical textbook to be published in Sweden’ (Hagelin p. 81).

‘Von Hoorn’s well-known Jorde-Gumman is one of the great classics within Swedish medical literature. The much rarer second volume, published twenty-six years later and one year before the author’s death, is a Swedish version of Paul Portal’s La Pratique des Accouchemens (1685) translated by Von Hoorn and with his own commentaries’ (ibid).

‘The first to teach midwifery to both medical students and midwives in Sweden, Hoorn was an exceptionally well-trained physician, who upheld the highest standards of practice of his time. Born into an affluent family, Von Hoorn studied at Leyden, where he spent five years and obtained his M.D. in 1690. He moved on to Amsterdam and then to Paris, where his teachers were Mauriceau, Portal and Peu. But much of his instruction came from Madame Allegrain, a midwife at the Hôtel-Dieu. As men were excluded from the hospital, he delivered some of the midwife’s patients, using backdoor methods by offering bribes to some poor childbed women’ (Cutter & Viets p. 222). On his return to Stockholm in 1691 he began to give private lessons to booth physicians and midwives on the art of delivery and became City Physician in 1708. ‘The often barbarous conditions, ignorance and superstitions under which women were delivered during this period was alarming. The ... eighty midwives in Stockholm ... had no proper education and stood helpless when confronted with complicated deliveries’ (ibid).

Through his efforts, official regulation of midwives in Stockholm came into force in 1711, which ensured that women had to complete two years of education and practice, and pass an exam at the Collegium Medicum in order to get a licence and membership of the guild of midwives. Like Smellie, Von Hoorn permitted his students to observe with him any particularly difficult births and used a mannequin in demonstrating delivery.

Many of the plates have been copied from Siegemundin’s Hoff-Wehe-Mutter (1690). Though at first sight depicting the placenta with umbilical cord, the striking additional engraved title-page in fact represents the Rose of Jericho - a plant which was believed by ancient authorities to ease and aid delivery. The border with two peacocks and lilies symbolises the attributes of Juno, the patroness of midwifery. The frontispiece portrait of Von Hoorn, illustrated by Hagelin, is not found in the present copy - clearly the unfortunate victim of an avid eighteenth century portrait collector - a common if now regrettable vogue.

Krivatsy 5962 and Blake p. 359 (with portrait); Hagelin, The Woman’s Booke, pp. 80-85, without the Royal Privilege as here; Cutter & Viets pp. 222-223; Waller 4882 and 7577 (no mention of portrait); not in R.C.O.G. or Wellcome; OCLC: 14301672 and 14319295 locate only one futher US copy at the University of Minnesota (with portrait), with KVK citing further copies at the National Library of Sweden (one copy also without privilege and portrait) and Bayern, and a copy of the 1697 volume only at Manchester.

 

  79.    [MILITARY MEDICINE - WWI]. LONDON. A souvenir, copyright photographs with descriptive letterpress. The 3rd London General Hospital. Published by the Photochrom Co., Ltd. London and Tunbridge Wells. [1918].Oblong 4to, engraved title in red and black, with 35 photographs interleaved with caption sheet, including Portraits of the King and Queen, a view of the hospital by Corp. A H Fullwood, and 32 tourist views, and with two double page plates containing photographs of the life at the hospital;  original canvas boards with title in blind on upper cover, spine with tasseled cords, a bit and soiled, but generally good; with pasted presentation form on inside front cover, signed ‘Miss H. M. Butler’.  £100

An attractive and scarce WWI memento. The album consists mainly of photographs of London sights, but includes two large folding photographic plates depicting life at the military hospital, which was temporarily housed in the buildings of the Royal Victoria patriotic asylum, Wandsworth. The first photograph shows the staff, officers, administrative staff, men and three 'blind masseurs', with the second plate showing staff 'at work and play', including pictures of the wards and an intake of patients, juxtaposed with the 'nurses boat race' and 'comic boxing'. As the presentation inscription suggests, copies were seemingly given to staff as well as patients.

 

  80.    MONCRIEFF, Alan.  INFANT FEEDING London, Edward Arnold & Co., 1946. 8vo, pp. [iv], 30, [2]; some very minor foxing, outer corners a little creased; stitched as issued in the original printed grey wrappers, covers a little foxed, minor wear to head and tail of spine, corners creased.    £75

A 1946 reissue, first published in 1940, of this practical guide to infant feeding by the noted paediatrician, Sir Alan Moncrieff. ‘The subject matter of this little book is more or less identical with two chapters and a portion of a third in the eighth edition of Lectures on Diseases of Children by R. Hutchinson and A. Moncrieff (Edward Arnold, 1940)’ (preface).

‘Moncrieff joined the staff of The Hospital for Sick Children as house physician in 1925. He studied in Paris for a while after qualifying and then in Hamburg, and this period greatly influenced his thinking, particularly in regard to infant feeding. He returned to become the medical registrar and pathologist to Great Ormond Street Hospital, and in 1947 became physician. In 1945 he was appointed the first Nuffield Professor of Child Health, University of London. He was Medical Correspondent to The Times and author and editor of many books, including Nursing and Diseases of Sick Children, Diseases of Children, 4th Edition (with Donald Paterson), and Child Health. He was deeply interested in the psychological needs of the children in hospital, and was foremost in advocating daily visiting of parents.  In 1961 he was the first to receive the James Spence Medal of the British Paediatric Association, and in 1964 he was knighted’ (from the on-line History of Great Ormond Street Hospital). In 1946 he founded and became the first Director of the Institute of Child Health of the University of London,

See Grulee 1565 for the Hutchinson & Moncrieff work.

 

  81.    MONCRIEFF, Alan. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE NEW-BORN BABY. A guide for midwives. Third Edition. Published by the National Association for Maternity and Child Welfare, 5 Tavistock Place, London, W.C. 1, 1949. 8vo, pp. 48, with four textual illustrations and tables, and one further small table; paper lightly browned throughout due to paper quality; stapled as issued in the original green printed wrappers, covers very slightly soiled.  £50

Third edition, first published in 1936 of this practical guide, written by the noted Great Ormond Street paediatrician, Sir Alan Moncrieff. ‘In the following pages an attempt has been made to outline the principles and practical measures to be adopted by the midwife in her care of the new-born baby during the early days of life. Remarkable strides have been made during this century in reducing the infant mortality rate to about one-fifth what is was in the closing years of the eighteen-hundreds, and of each thousand live births over one hundred babies now survive the first year who would die were it not for the great improvements effected mainly by the Infant Welfare movement. It is ... and unfortunate fact that the number of deaths in the first month, the neonatal mortality, has not decreased to anything like the same extent. During this period it is the midwife rather than the mother who is responsible for the infant’s welfare ... so this little book is intended to interpret for the practising midwife the latest views on the best way of securing the health of the new-born baby’ (introduction).

Not in Grulee, though other works by Moncrieff cited; OCLC: 30189155 cites two copies at Oxford and the British Library, with a copy of the 1936 first edition at McGill.

 

  82.    MORIN, Joseph. MANUEL THÉORIQUE ET PRATIQUE D’HYGIÈNE Ou l’art conserver sa santé. Paris, Roret, Libraire, rue Hautefeuille au coin de celle du Battoie. 1827. 12mo, pp. [vi], 328; including an advertisement leaf for Roret’s Manuels at the front; aside from some occasional minor marginal soiling, clean and crisp; an appealing copy in contemporary marbled calf, spine attractively tooled and lettered in gilt, with very small worming hole at head of spine and lower joint. £185

A most appealing and uncommon little hand-book providing advice on general health and hygiene by Dr. Joseph Morin, a member of the faculty of medicine in Paris. According to the preface Morin was inspired by the work of the physiologist François Chaussier Manuel Théorique et pratique d’hygiène, and begins with a general introduction to the physiology of the body, before examining in detail matters relating to food and drink, attitudes to exercise, issues of clothing, and care of the skin. Of particular note, he provides quite a detailed discussion of number of different sources of nutrition, both animal and vegetable, providing a brief description of each and commenting upon how good they are for the digestion. A similar list is then provided for various types of refreshments. He also devotes considerable attention to care of the skin, with chapters also discussing the benefits of bathing. The final chapter is devoted to issues of health relating to women, including menstruation, pregnancy and child-birth.

OCLC: 24394310 cites copies at McGill, Harvard, the Library of Congress, Rochester and the Wellcome.

 

  83.    MORTON, E. J. C.  HEROES OF SCIENCE. ASTRONOMERS. Published under the direction of the committee of general literature and education appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge … [1882]. 8vo, pp. vi, 341; with numerous textual illustrations; title-page foxed, with foxing throughout, but a good, crisp copy; in contemporary cloth, blocked in gilt and red, head and tail slightly bumped; from the library of Stillman Drake with his book-plate on front paste-down.  £40

First edition of this appealing and popular little introduction to the 'lives of the chief Astronomers' together with a basic explanation of their principal discoveries. These are considered by Morgan to be Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Lagrange and Laplace and Herschel, although the final lengthy chapter contains a discussion on modern astronomy including such luminaries as Bessel, Huggins, Wollaston, Adams and Fraunhofer.

 

‘Apply voltaic electricity to the patient’

  84.    MURRAY, John. REMARKS ON THE DISEASE CALLED HYDROPHOBIA prophylactic and curative. London: Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, MDCCCXXX [1830]. 8vo, pp. ix, [3], 86. [2]; some light foxing and soiling, a couple of small marginal tears due to rough opening, with some marginal dust-soiling; uncut in the original grey boards, neatly rebacked, corners bumped and worn; a good copy.  £250

 Uncommon first edition of this interesting treatise on the nature and treatment of hydrophobia or rabies, by the Scottish popular scientific writer and lecturer, John Murray (ca. 1786-1851).

One of the most feared of the infectious diseases, little progress was made on understanding the nature of the disease until the germ theory had been established by Pasteur in the 1880s. Until that date various prophylactic measures were employed, notably the local excision and cauterization of the injured tissue. Murray here presents a number of case histories before outlining his suggested curative and prophylactic methods. In particular he suggests applying ‘voltaic electricity to the patient, ab initio. The pensile galvanic pile is a convenient mode of excitement, and is promptly renewed; the organs concerned in respiration should be included in the circle formed by the conducting wires, and afterwards the brain. Our chief reliance would be on an atmosphere of chlorine, applied ... to the surface of the body, so that the system should be charged with it. The next remedial measure is to impregnate the atmosphere which the patient breathes, either with chlorine or with the vapour of red fuming nitrous acid, placed near, and the latter would less irritate the lungs’ (p. 82).

Citing the work of several European authors on the subject (though with no reference to James Thacher’s noted work of 1812), Murray has been particularly influenced by the work of Trolliet, Nouveau Traité de la Rage (Lyon, 1820).

Murray was born at Stranraer in about 1786. He was the author of several popular scientific works on physics and chemistry, medicine, geology, natural history, and manufactures, and became well known as a lecturer at mechanics' institutions in various parts of the kingdom. He is also noted for his contribution to debate on the safety lamp prompted by Davy’s memoirs in 1816, and exhibited at his lectures ‘an experimental safety lamp, the body of which consisted of muslin rendered incombustible by steeping it in a solution of phosphate of ammonia, and which was quite effective. From these experiments Murray deduced a theory of the efficiency of the safety-lamp which was opposed to that propounded by Davy. A résumé of his researches on this subject is given in his Observations on Flame and Safety Lamps, 1833. In 1835 he gave evidence on the safety lamp and ventilation before the select committee of the House of Commons on accidents in mines (Reports, pp. 237-49)’ (DNB). OCLC: 14838729.

 

  85.    [NACHTEGALL, Frederick]. LÆREBOG I GYMNASTIK for almue- og borger-skolerne i Danmark Kjobenhavn, Tryckt hos Andreas Seidelin, 1828. 8vo, pp. vi, [3]-120; with four folding plates; some light foxing; a most attractive copy in contemporary calf backed decorated boards.  £150

A most attractive copy in contemporary patterned boards, of this uncommon textbook introducing gymnastics, for the use of schools and the general public, anonymously written by the Danish pioneer Franz Nachtegall.

In 1799 Nachtegall (1777 – 1847), a disciple of Gutsmuth, founded a gymnastics institute in Copenhagen, the first in Europe to prepare physical education teachers.  The Crown Prince of Denmark, who was serving as regent, felt that gymnastics would be useful for military training and he subsequently created the Military Gymnastic Institute in 1804 and appointed Nachtegall its director.Through his influence, gymnastics was introduced into schools from 1814, and thus thanks to his efforts, Nachtegall is at the root of Danish but also of European gymnastics and physical education. Per Henrik Ling of Sweden (1766-1839) was a student at Nachtegall’s gymnasium for five years.

The four folding plates highlight various pieces of apparatus, in addition to some basic moves, both in the gymnasium, but also the basic swimming strokes.

 

  86.    [NATUROPATHY]. LUST, Benedict, editor. KNEIPP WATER CURE MONTHLY Vol I, no 6 June 1900, A Magazine devoted to the late Rev. Father Kneipp’s method and kindred natural systems. Published by the Kneipp Magazines Publishing Company. [1900]. 4to, pp. [89]-108, [4]; with numerous textual illustrations; lightly browned, some minor creasing and soiling; stapled as issued in the original printed pink wrappers, staples a little rusted, spines slightly torn at head and tail, covers a little soiled, some chipped and wear to extremities.       £70

A seemingly scarce example of this monthly magazine advocating the holistic methods of the famous German practitioner Sebastian Kneipp. Kneipp was a prolific writer, and his works, notably his famous So Sollt ihr Leben! (first 1889, translated into English in 1894 as Thus Shalt Thou Live) proved immensely popular.

Benedict Lust (1872-1945), ‘the father of naturopathy’, was a German immigrant to America in 1892 when he contracted tuberculosis. So ill that he decided to return home to die, Lust resolved to seek the help of Kneipp, and within eight months was cured. He returned to the US in 1896, commissioned by Fr. Kniepp to spread his methods of water treatment combined with herbs and simple lifestyle changes. Although there were already other Kneipp institutions in the USA at he time, Lust was the only one with the authorization of Kneipp himself and he was the first one to combine it with the methods of the other European naturopaths. He established a sanitarium, store, and the magazine Amerikanische Kneipp-Blatter, and the English-language magazine The Kneipp Water Cure Monthly, later renamed The Naturopath & Herald of Health in 1902. In the same year Dr. Lust established the Naturopathic Society of America and the American School of Naturopathy, functioning as president of both (prior to, and following, name changes) until his death.

OCLC: 42259018 locates five collections at the National Library of Medicine, Brown University, Florida, the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Collection of Natural Medicine.

  

  88.    NIGHTINGALE, Florence. NOTES ON NURSING: What it is, and what it is not. London: Harrison, 59, Pall Mall, Bookseller to the Queen. [1860].  8vo, pp. 79, [1] blank; a couple of small nicks affecting outer margin of a couple of leaves (seemingly due to a paper fault), occasional minor dust-soiling to margins, otherwise clean and crisp; in the original blind-stamped pebble grained limp cloth, expertly rebacked, upper cover lettered in gilt, corners and extremitieis a little bumped with minor wear; a good copy. £675

A nice copy, of the first edition, early issue, conforming to Group 9 of Skretkowicz’s bibliography without [The right of translation is reserved] on the title-page.

The Notes on Nursing is by far the best-known of Florence Nightingale’s works ... The work is an incomparable treatise on nursing, but as Sir James Paget indicated, it is more than that; it is an alphabet of household hygiene’ (Bishop & Goldie p. 17). The administrative experience that Nightingale gained at the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, in the 14 months between her appointment as Superintendent in 1853 and her departure for the Crimea in October 1854, coupled with her previous training and independent investigations into nursing, enabled her to transform the provision of nursing to the army in the Crimea, which culminated in the reduction of hospital mortality rates from 42% to 2%. This scientific and methodical approach to nursing found its most popular and influential expression in Notes on Nursing, as Eimas notes, 'this no-nonsense book is not only a call for the establishment of training of nurses; it offers the most practical advice on the care of patients'.

The bibliographic history of the work is notoriously complicated, with different forms of the first edition cited. Skretkowicz’s detailed examination of over 100 copies has revealed an indiscriminate variation in binding, end-papers (both colours and type settings) and typographic corrections. He states that ‘virtually all copies examined are made up of different combinations of sheets in many varying states. This binding together of mixtures of sheets in different states occurs almost immediately, possibly within hours of beginning production. Given the considerable number of different states of each inner and outer form in every sheet, the idea of attempting to establish with certainty any specific ‘issue’ of Notes on Nursing  beyond the first is utterly impractical.’ According to his listings, the present copy appears to belong to group 9, with the third setting of advertisements, binding 3 (with four blind-rules), and no translation notice. In relation to the Bishop and Goldie bibliography, the present copy has all of the early readings of text, with the exception of one correction on p. 40 - arrow root now reading arrowroot..

Garrison-Morton 1612; Bishop and Goldie 4(i); Eimas 1884; Norman 1602; Grolier, 72; PMM; See Skretkowicz, Victor,  Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing, [in] The Library, March 1993, Sixth Series, Volume 15, Number 1.

 

  89.    [NOGARET, François Felix].  LA TERRE EST UN ANIMAL: ouvrage suivi d’une epître à M. de Buffon sur les trois règnes. Troisième édition. A Paris, Chez la Ve Lepetit, jeune ... et chez Pigoreau, Libraire ... An XIII - 1805.  12mo, pp. 152, with attractive metal engraved frontispiece; lightly browned and foxed throughout due to paper quality; bound in old marbled wrappers. £185

Third edition, first published in 1795 as Conversation d’une courtisanne philosophe, of this work in praise of Buffon, by the French critic, and writer of erotic literature, François Félix Nogaret (1740-1831), known as the French Aristénète.

As with previous works, Nogaret includes a number of poems, including ‘A Montucla Aux Enfers’, and his ‘Épitre en vers sur l’histoire naturelle’. He also includes testimonies from Buffon and Voltaire. 

Cohen de Ricci, 752; Gay, I, 723; Cioranescu.  II 48315; Querard VI, p. 440; OCLC: 30855637 cites on copy at Duke, with a copy of the first edition located at Berkeley.

 

Chiromancy, Metoposcopy and Physiognomy

  90.    [OCCULT AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE]. RONPHYLE pseud?, Nicola SPADONI, and Johan Sigismund ELSHOLTZ. HÖCHSTFÜRTREFFLICHES CHIROMANTISCH-UND PHYSIOGNOMISCHES KLEE-BLAT Bestehend Aus drey herrlichen Tractaten Und zwar erstlich Des Kunst-beruhmsten Ronphyle Hand-Wahrsagung; Zum andern Niclas Spadons Schauplatz der Curiositaten; Und dann drittens D. D. Johann Sigmund Eltzholtzens Anthropometrie oder Mess-Kunst des Mess-Kunst des Menschlichen Corpers. Welchen wegen gleichheit der materie Dominici de Rubeis Physiognomische tafeln Cardani Metoposcopie und Melampus von den Mählern des menschlichen cörpers miteingerucktz. Alles aus dem Frantzösischen, Italiänischen, Lateinischen und Griechischen übersetzt auch mich darzu gehörigen kupffern gezieret und den curiösen liebhabern eroffnet und gewiedmet. Durch I. G. D. T. Nürnberg, In Verlegung Johann Ziegers, 1695. Three works in one volume 8vo, pp. [ii] engraved frontispiece (excised at tail slightly shaving engraver’s name), [xiv], including general title-page in red and black, [xvi], 112, with separate title-page and eighteen engraved illustrations on 13 plates; pp. 208, with separate title-page; pp. 550, with separate title-page and seven engraved plates; in all 25 figures on 20 engraved plates; gatherings B and E of first work heavily browned, tear to page 44 of second work touching a couple of letters, with gatherings B, D and E browned, marginal tear with minor loss to p. 407 of third work, with further marginal tears affecting pp. 4, 447 and 550; light foxing throughout with some marginal browning; an attractive copy bound in contemporary blind-stamped pig-skin over boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, preserving the original metal clasps, covers lightly soiled.         £2,200

An attractive copy of the first edition of this rare compilation of three ‘wonderful’ occult works highlighting the principles of chiromancy, metoposcopy and physiogonomy, here translated into German by the anonymous ‘I.G.T.D.’ 

The three works deemed worthy of translation are Ronphyle’s ‘Chyromantie oder Hand-Wahrsagung’, first published in French in 1665; Nicola Spadoni’s ‘Studium curiosum’, originally published in Italian in 1662; and Johann Elzholtz’s ‘Meßkunst des menschlichen Körpers’ which was first published in Latin as ‘Anthropometria’ in 1654.

I. First published in 1653 as La chyromantie naturelle. Of Ronphile, who may be the poet Rampalle who signs the dedication, we know very little. "C'est un des meileurs traités de chiromancie qui existent, orné de nombreuses figures finement gravées," (Caillet 9577). 

II. First published as Studio di curiostiá nel quale si tratta fisionomia, chiromantia, metoposcopia. Nicola Spadoni (fl. 1661-1673) ‘treated Physiognomy, Chiromancy, Metoposcopy ... It is held that one should prognosticate from the time of conception rather than that of birth, and that celestial causes concur in the fabric of man's complexion or temperment...Sleep and dreams...are also treated...the interpretation of moles and warts, is discussed...’ (Thorndike VIII p. 466).

III. The ‘art of measuring the human body’ or Anthropometria is an interesting attempt to judge one’s character from the proportions of the human body and frame, and was one of the first works to attempt to do so. The work was ‘intended to be of use to painters and sculptors as well as to students of medicine and physiognomy, and considered the analogy of the human body with the universe, and what its proper proportions were, and the symmetry of its different parts ... he not only touched upon physiognomy but also on astrological chiromancy and gave figures of planetray lines in the hand and on the sole of the foot. His final chapter was on moles, based upon his own experience as well as such previous writers as Melampus, Haly Abenragel, and Ludovivo Settala...’ (Thorndike VIII p. 465). Elsholtz (1623-1688) was a typical 17th-century polymath, but one with a significantly ‘broad medical and scientific interest and experimental tendencies’ (ibid). In addition to the present significant work he wrote on the culinary and dietetic properties of plants, and is also remembered as one of first (in 1677) to deal with venous infusion and blood transfusion. The works of Girolamo Cardano, Metoposcopia (1658), and Dominicu Rubeis Tabulae physiognomicae (1639) are also drawn upon by the anonymous author.

The most attractive allegorical frontispiece by J. L. Honnig of Nurnberg depicts a scholar seated at a table reading a number of works on chiromancy, physiognomy and metoscopy, with a number of putti measuring a human body in the background.

Graesse, Magica 101 and 107; Krivatsy 5755; Sabattini, Bio-Bibliografia Chiromantica, 1946, 565; VD 17 3:606181M; not in Rosenthal; see Thorndike VIII, pp. 464-467; OCLC: 5233147 cite copies at Iowa, Wisconsin and the University of London, with further copies located at Berlin and Göttingen, Denmark and the Royal Library of Sweden.

 

Scarce paediatric work

  91.    OKEN, Lorenz. PREISSCHRIFT ÜBER DIE ENTSTEHUNG UND HEILUNG DER NABELBRÜCHE.  Landshut, bei Philipp Krüll,  Universitätsbuchhändler. 1810. 8vo, pp. vi, [ii], 194, [5]; with two folding plates; foxed throughout (notably affecting title-page, first plate creased along fold, with some furling to outer edge due to previous bad folding; uncut and partially unopened in contemporary grey wappers, covers a little soiled and sunned with stain affecting lower cover, paper label on spine; with rather obtrusive library stamp at head of title-page, with smaller earlier ownership stamp below.      £325

A little known paediatric work by one of the leading founders of the Nature Philosophy school, dealing with umbilical hernias which predominantly effect infants. These are painless congenital malformations affecting the naval, and which are now understood to usually close by themselves without the need for surgical intervention, though surgery is often advised if the problem persists after the age of five.

Oken divides his work into four sections dealing in turn with an anatomical, pathological, therapeutical and clinical discussion of the subject. In his preface he outlines the main points under discussion: ‘Welches ist die structur des nabels und der nächsten teile vor und bei der geburt eines kindes? Welche natürliche voränderungen erleidet er in der kindheit und in der ferneren lebenszeit? Welche widernatürliche anlagen können dabei von der geburt an sich finden, oder nachher entstehen und das austreten der eingeweide des bauchs und ihre einklemmung veranlassen? Und was haben anatomische und chirurgische operationen darüber gelehrt?’ (p. v). The two folding plates depict fifteen figures explaining the development of the abnormality from the earliest foetal stages. Throughout the work he frequently cites the work of previous embryologists and surgeons including Dionis, Garengeot, Petit, De Graff and Haller, and discusses both surgical and non-surgical methods of treatment, with the final figure depicting a surgical truss.

Oken, a follower of Kant, first published his system of naturphilosophie in 1803 at the age of twenty-four, and his school of thought Naturphilosophen flourished in early nineteenth century Germany. With the rise of experimental natural science - the founders of which were hostile to Naturphilosophie - Oken's reputation was somewhat eclipsed, and indeed some believe his views, and those of his associates, to have been harmful to the progress of biology. In recent years, however, Oken's role and that of the Naturephilosophen has been reassessed, as closer studies of the Romantic period and, in particular, biology at that time and its subsequent repercussions upon modern biology, has been undertaken.

Grulee 1295; OCLC: 4586500.

 

‘Dr. Mann is the most skillful and successful in the treatment of deformities of any man in America’

  92.    [ORTHOPAEDIC BROADSIDE]. MANN, John Preston.  DEFORMITY OF THE SPINE AND LIMBS; Disease of the Joints; Spinal Curvature; Hip Disease; Stiff Knees; Enlarged and Inflamed Joints; Contracted Cords; White Swelling; Crooked Feet and Hands; Wry Neck and Paralysis of all the Limbs. [New York, J.P Mann, No. 133 West 41st Street. n.d. but but ca. 1880s?]. Engraved broadside 316 x 237mm; with twenty four engraved illustrations depicitng patients before and after treatment, each with a note of comment below image; additional banner printed in red advertising an ‘Office at Ashland House, 1052 Washington Street Boston’; evidence of previous horizontal and vertical folds, some light offsetting, and small ink stain affecting outer left margin, with small paper flaw at tail touching a couple of letters; some furling to extremities with a couple of small tears; however a well-preserved and striking example.      £750

An extremely eye-catching and wonderful example, this large broadside advertises the benefits to be found by visiting ‘Dr Mann, No. 133 West 41st Street, New York’, who for over thirty years ‘has spent his time in perfecting the treatment of deformities’. The twenty four striking illustrations highlight a number of patients before and after treatment, Mann offering to show future clients the original daguerrotypes of all the patients cited, and from which the engravings have been taken. Mann is supremely confident of his methods, as the circular reveals: ‘To the afflicted. The above proofs are so ample that it is presumed further evidence is unnecessary to convince you that your case may also be thus favorably treated. It is necessary in nearly every case that the patient should be under my immediate care during treatment’. It is interesting to note, however, that he does add a caveat in response to critics who feel that it is ‘quite derogatory to advertise publicly in this manner’. ‘Although as a general rule public advertisements of remedies or of personal skill and services are to be received with the greatest care, on account of their almost invariable worthlessness, still there are exceptional cases’: needless to say Mann considers his evident talents to be one such exception! In addition to the illustrations, a number of glowing testimonials are included.

John Preston Mann (1822?-1893) was born in Mannsville NY (named in honour of his successful merchant grandfather Newton Mann) and graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1842 (the first college to grant medical degrees to women, and later absorbed by Syracuse University). The son of a blacksmith and gunsmith, he ‘moved to New York ca. 1860, where he specialized in the treatment of deformities. Having learned blacksmithing from his father, Mann was able to adapt his metal-working skills to design and manufacture of corrective braces. He is noted as being one of the earliest practitioners to succeed in straightening club feet without cutting cords. See Atwater II, 2360.

 

  93.    OWEN, R. Jones. THE CHEMISTS’ & DRUGGISTS’ COMPENDIUM: A handbook of practical receipts and processes in chemistry, pharmacy, perfumery, homœopathy, photography, dye-making, wine-making, cosmetics, artificial essences, confectionary, veterinary medicine etc, etc. London: Printed for the author by H. J. Wicks, Rolls Buildings, E.C. sold by Newbery & Sons, St. Paul’s Churchyard ... 1871. 8vo, pp. [iv], 112; the final eight pages are advertisements including a number of illustrations; some occasional light foxing and soiling; in the original green publisher’s cloth, ruled in black with title in gilt on upper cover, covers a little soiled and ink-stained, inner hinge starting, spine rubbed with faint dampstain at head, extremities and corners lightly bumped and rubbed.    £125

Scarce first edition of this attractive alphabetical listing of the most up-to-date pharmaceutical and chemical receipts, compiled by R. Jones Owen, ‘author of “The Practice of Perfumery”’, and drawn from such leading authorities as Liebig, Watts, Ure, Squire and Cooley, as well as a number of contemporary periodicals.

‘The last few years have been productive of many useful improvements, many important inventions, and many startling discoveries, in connection with this art, which have yet no other record than the pasing notice of the periodical press. In compiling the following collection of receipts and processes in pharmacy and its allied arts, I have therefore aimed at giving a special prominence to those of most recent date, but not to the exclusion of those which, though less novel, will not be considered less valuable’ (preface).

Of note to historians of photography, one of the myriad of substances cited by Owen is collodion, used in the photographic process until the present year of publication, when it was superceded by Richard Maddox’s introduction of gelatin emulsion.

Not on OCLC, with KVK locating only one copy at the British Library.

 

  94.    PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus. DE RE RUSTICA LIBRI XIIII Parisiis, ex officina Roberti Stephani typographi Regii. MDXLIII.  1543 8vo, pp. 186, [6]; aside from some occasional light marginal browning and soiling, clean and crisp; evidence of previous book-label at tail of title-page; neatly rebound in half vellum over marlbed boards; with the book-plate of Nils Sandberg on front paste-down.  £875

An attractive copy of this famous classical treatise on agriculture by Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius (4th c. A.D.), published by the noted Parisian printer Robert Stephanus.

Together with Cato, Varron and Columelle, Palladius was one of the most important agricultural writers from Antiquity, and a collected edition of their work was first published in Venice in 1472, with the famous Aldine edition appearing in 1514, and known collectively as Scriptores rei rusticae. This edition by Stephanus is more commonly found bound together with his 1543 Paris editions of Cato and Columella's works both entitled De re rustica. “The set is an interesting example of this fine French printer's adaption of the famous Aldine classics that were proving so popular in Italy in the 16th century” (Hunt on Cato). 

Whilst drawing from various Roman and Greek agricultural writers including Columelle, Palladius (4th-cent. A.D.) continually quotes from personal experience, derived from his estates in Italy and Sardinia. One of the most popular texts of the Middle Ages, used by scholars such as Albertus Magnus, the work is divided into 14 books, the first outlining general principles of agriculture, with the following 12 providing a month by month calendar for the agricultural year. Book 14 is an appendix in verse on the grafting of trees. As such it provides a fascinating insight into farming practices, commenting upon issues such as climatic variations, soil quality and variation, the position of the farm and outbuildings, with useful architectural details given. Advice on livestock and poultry breeding, the keeping of hives, and on wine growing and making are also included. A unique manuscript translation into Middle English, produced around 1420, was preserved at Colchester Castle. ‘Ce beau recueil se compose de plusieurs parties chiffrés séparément, chacune ayant un titre exprès. Elles ne sont pas toujours reliées dans l’orde indiqué sur le titre principal’ (Renouard).

Renouard, Annales de l’Imprimerie des Estienne, p. 55; 2; Adams P111; BM Natural History, IV, p. 1504; see Simon, Bacchiae 173:606 (under Scriptores rei rusticae); and Simon, Gastronomica 321; Cagle A Matter of Taste 416a; Vicaire p. 648; OCLC: 8394526.

 

Probably a forgery

  95.    PARACELSUS, Aureolus Theophrastus. DE SUMMIS NATURAE MYSTERIIS COMMENTARII TRES à Gerardo Dorn conuersi, multóque quàm antea fideliter characterismis & marginalibus exornati, auctíque. Quorum nomina sequens pagella dabit. Basilæa, Ex Officina Pernæa Per Conr. Waldkirch, 1584. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 173, (but 147), 10 pages of illustrations, [1] blank; with full-page woodcut portrait of the author, with woodcut head-pieces and initials, and numerous text woodcuts; lightly browned throughout due to paper quality, with some occasional light spotting, and some faint marginal dampstaining affecting the first and last few leaves, outer margins very slightly cropped occasional shaving the odd letter of marginal notes; copiously annoted and underlined throughout in both pencil and ink in a couple of hands, with manuscript notes on final endpaper, and a note on front endpaper, ‘Freiburg den 21 Marti 1748’; in eighteenth century blue paste-paper boards, spine lettered in ink, head of spine worn with loss of written label, upper joint slightly worn, covers a little soiled; a good copy. £2,000

Second edition (first 1570) of this rare compilation of works purportedly by Paracelsus (1493-1540) and translated and edited by Gerard Dorn, though according to Sudhoff more probably a forgery by Dorn. Dorn claims to have translated the original from German into Latin, but as no original German edition exists, it seems reasonable therefore to assume that the editor was in fact the author. Divided into four sections, the work discusses De spiritibus planetarum; De occulta philosophia; Medicina coelestis, sive de signis zodiaci & mysteriis eorum and the brief De transmutationis metallorum tempore.

Born Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, he took the name Paracelsus later in life, meaning 'superior to Celsus', an early Roman physician.

Adams, P274; Caillet, 8309; Duveen, p. 453; Graesse, Magica, 111; Parkinson and Lumb 1808 (1570 edition); Rosenthal 8867; Sudhoff, Versuch einer Kritik der Echtheid Paracelsischen Schriften, 125 (1570 edition discussed in detail) and 201; VD 16, Vol. 15, P507; Wellcome I, 4779; OCLC: 11311085 cites copies at the National Library of Medicine, Washington, Nebraska and Wisconsin, with further copies located at Yale, Harvard, Pennsylvania and Bayern.

 

A cure for Yellow Fever - the scourge of the military

  96.    [PATENT MEDICINE ADVERTISEMENT]. [WILLICH, Anthony Florian Madinger]. YELLOW FEVER, NO. 40, CHARING-CROSS: Dr. Willich, late physician to the Saxon Ambassador ... approves and recommends to the immediate notice of the public at large, (and those in particular who are going to the West-Indies, America, or any other Parts of the World, that may be, or have been subjected to Pestilential Disease) the remedy which is sold, at the Proprietor's Warehouse, No. 40 Charing-Cross, London to prevent and cure the yellow fever. [London]. Topping, Printer, Playhouse-yard, Blackfriars, [n.d. but 1804]. 8vo, pp. [4]; very lightly foxed, with evidence of previous stab-marks;  uncut and disbound, extremities a little worn.        £150

A later issue of this scarce early nineteenth century medical advertisement advocating a remedy to cure ‘that most dreadful malady the yellow fever’, and apparently given the unequivocal backing of the eminent physician and dietician, Anthony Florian Madinger Willich.

Somewhat surprisingly unattributed to any practitioner or pharmacist, the ‘Yellow Fever Remedy’ is rather the product of a group of anonymous proprietors at ‘No. 40 Charing Cross’. The present issue does however conclude with a  'Copy of a circular letter', dated 24 May 1804, and signed for the proprietors by John Bendle - though we have been unable to establish whether he was the originator of the remedy. An earlier example held by the Wellcome does not include this last circular.

As was often the vogue with such remedies, the proprietors have claimed the support of a well-known and respected physician, and this short pamphlet includes not only the testimony of Willich stating that this is no mere nostrum, but of several ‘Professional Men’ notably several naval and military officers. Indeed, it is the hope of the proprietors, that the remedy will not only be indispensable to those abroad, but in particular to those in the armed forces and especially mariners heading for the Western Hemisphere.

OCLC: 26966127 cites a copy at the Wellcome only who also have an 1803 issue, with a further copy located at the National Library of Medicine.

 

 

  98.    PESTALOZZI, Jérôme Jean. DISSERTATION SUR LES CAUSES ET LA NATURE DE LA PESTE. Qui a remporté le Prix à l’Academie Royale des Belles Lettres, Sciences & Arts de Bordeaux, pour l’année 1722. A Bordeaux, Chez R. Brun, Imprimeur de l’Academie Royale, ruë Saint Jâmes. MDCCXXII [1722].  12mo, pp. [ii], 53, [3]; with woodcut printer’s device on title-page and woodcut head-piece and initial; cropped a little close along upper margin but with no loss, some light marginal browning and dust-soiling, with faint dampstaining affecting outer edge of last couple of leaves; in marbled wrappers, inside covers a little dampstained, head of spine chipped, covers a little rubbed, corners slightly furled.   £285

First edition of this rare prize-winning essay discussing the outbreak of plague that affected Marseilles in 1721, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, by Jerome-Jean Pestalozzi (1674-1742), who was at the time physician at the Hôtel-Dieu in Lyon.

One of several works by Pestalozzi on the subject, the present essay was published a year after his treatise Avis de precaution contre la peste, and both works subsequently appeared in expanded versions in his collective work of 1723, Opuscules sur la maladie contagieuse de Marseille.

Pestalozzi (or Pestalossi) was born the son of a doctor in Venice in 1674, and studied in Valencia before moving to take up his position in Lyon in 1696, which he occupied for 23 years. As well as the present work, he wrote several small works on the plague, as well as a longer Traité de l'eau de mille-fleurs (1706).

Blake p. 345; Querard VII, 82; OCLC: 14296781 cites three further copies at Harvard, the College of Physicians and the Wellcome.

 

  99.    POEDERLÉ, Eugène-Joseph-Charles-Gilain-Hubert d'Olmen, Baron de MANUEL DE L’ARBORISTE ET DU FORESTIER,  ouvrage extrait des meilleurs auteurs anciens & modernes, & soutenu d’observations faites dans différens Pays où l’auteur a voyagé. A Bruxelles; et se trouve A Paris, Chez Valade ... MDCCLXXIV [1774]. 8vo, pp. [viii], x, 405, [1]; with attractive woodcut head- and tail-pieces; outer margins of title-page uncut, aside from some minor browning a clean, crisp copy; contemporary mottled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, decorated in gilt with red morocco label, some slight scuffing to surfaces, corners bumped and a little worn; an attractive copy.   £385

Rare first edition, re-issue with cancel title-page of this detailed handbook on arboriculture and forest management, by Baron Eugène Joseph d’Olmen Poederlé (c. 1725-1813). In his work, first published in 1772, Poederlé cites the work of authors both ancient and modern, including Caton, Columelle, Palladius, Buffon and Du Hamel, as well as drawing upon his own experiences and observations made during a series of tours throughout Europe to observe practices and forestry techniques in other nations, including America. A subject about which he clearly feels passionately, Poederlé addresses his work in particular to his Belgium compatriots, both amateur and professional, and hopes to provide a useful and inspirational guide.

The nine chapters discuss tree nurseries; propagation through seeds, layering or cuttings; the care of the young saplings; seasonal planting times, and the correct methods of planting, maintaining and pruning; soil and climate requirements; coppicing; and on the exploitation of the wood. The final, and by far the most lengthy chapter, contains an alphabetical list of trees, Poederlé giving their names in Latin, Flemish and Wallon, before outlining the properties, growing requirements and uses. A useful insight into the state of arboriculture during the latter stages of the eighteenth century. Clearly a popular work, a second edition appeared in 1788, with a third edition in 1792.

‘Belgian landed gentleman, botanist, sylviculturist and agronomist living in Bruxelles and on his property at Saintes’ (Stafleu IV p. 308).

Stafleu 8086; Pritzel 7222; BM Natural History IV, p. 1590 (third edition); KVK locates one copy of this edition at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France; OCLC 68349497 records only two copies of the 1772 edition.

 

  101.  QUETELET, Lambert-Adolphe-Jacques. SUR L’ANTHROPOMÉTRIE Ou sur la mesure des différentes facultés de l’homme. Extrait des Bulletin de l'acadèmie de Bruxelles, 2. serie, Tome 31, Nr. 2; [Bruxelles], 1871. 8vo, pp. 12; lightly soiled and browned, with evidence of previous horizontal fold; unstitched and unopened, with minor nick along outer margin; a good copy.     £225

Rare original offprint of this essay by Quetelet providing a brief synopsis of his important work on the measurement and characteristics of man, Anthropométrie, ou mesure des différentes facultés de l’homme (Bruxelles 1870), perhaps designed to coincide with the publication of the more common re-issue of 1871.

The work originated the study of anthropometry. 'Quetelet showed that if a series of anthropological measurements of either physical or intellectual qualities were plotted on squared paper, allowing x to be the measurements and y to be their frequency, they formed a curve like that representing the expansion of the binomial, or like that formed by plotting the errors of a great number of observers' (Penniman, p. 105). ‘By applying the mathematics of the Gaussian curve to anthropological data, it became possible to plot the average or 'standard' deviation from the statistical average, and thus to interpret anthropological data with greater exactness’ (Norman 1771). 

Quetelet's early life was concerned with mathematics and the physical sciences and he was influenced in his work on probability by scientists such as Laplace and Fourier. The anthropological implications of mathematical data soon captured his attention and as early as 1831 he introduced the 'homme moyen' in Recherches sur le penchant au crime. His Sur l'homme, 1835, which later became Physique Sociale, 1869, established a new era in statistics.

See Einaudi 4593, (Brussels 1871); see Garrison-Morton 171, (Paris 1871); Hadden History of Anthropology p. 21; Penniman, A Hundred Years of Anthropology, p. 105; Palgrave III, p. 247; KVK locates only one copy, at Erfurt.

 

  102.  [RED CROSS SOUVENIR]. BRENTHURST MILITARY HOSPITAL FOR PLASTIC SURGERY [n.p., n.d., but presumably privately printed, Brenthurst Association, c. 1942]. Small oblong booklet, 16x10cm, pp. [24], printed on recto only, with armorial front cover, and 11 photographic views of the hospital; bound together with a blue ribbon, extremities a little soiled; a good copy.    £125

Headed by the internationally renowned plastic surgeon Jack Penn, F.R.C.S., and founded in 1941, Brenthurst Military Hospital in Johannesburg achieved worldwide fame during World war II as a pioneering centre for military reconstructive surgery. This privately printed souvenir pamphlet provides a most evocative view of the hospital, set admidst tranquil surroundings, with a view of the operating theatre, some of the staff at work, and a number of patients recouperating.

 

  103.  [RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY].  FLOWERS AND THEIR TEACHINGS By the author of "Sunshine and Shadows in Kattern's Life". The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row. [1874]. Small 16mo, pp. [viii], 168; with engraved title-page and frontispiece, charming floral engraved initials and tail-pieces, five full page engraved illustrations, and several charming smaller illustrations; occasional light spotting; with inscription on front free endpaper 'Mary Emily Lacy, July 20th 1877, with Bella's Love'; in the original publisher's cloth, title on upper cover surrounded by attractive floral cartouche in black and gilt, spine similarly decorated and lettered, binder's stamp in blind lower cover, head of spine lightly rubbed, extremities slightly bumped; a good copy.    £35

First edition of this charming and beautifully illustrated botanical work for young children. The author provides a short description of several shrubs and flowers, discussing points of historical interest, associated myths and stories, and where appropriate, including verses of well-known poems. In this way, the snowdrop, the daisy, the daffodil, the lilac, the hawthorne, the 'nasty nettles', holly and several others plants are introduced to the curious, nature loving and God-fearing child.

By this time, the Religious Tract Society had, for several years, been successfully publishing similar popular, cheap texts focusing upon more 'secular' topics but from a Christian viewpoint, in an effort to spread their evangelical message to a mass audience. Their many works proved to be incredibly popular, and indeed some titles sold over 30,000 copies, in contrast to the average sale of only 5,000. Freeman 1220.

 

  104.  [RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY]. [STRONACH, C].  PICTURE BOOK FOR LITTLE CHILDREN London: The Religious Tract Society; 56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul’s Churchyard; and 164, Piccadilly: and sold by the booksellers. [1859]. Small 8vo, pp. [iv], 144; each page with an attractive wood-engraved vignette; lightly browned throughout with some occasional minor soiling;  in the original pink blind-stamped cloth, lettered in gilt on upper cover and spine, spine and covers somewhat soiled and faded; still an appealing copy.    £30

Sole edition. Anecdotes and poems one to each page, each illustrated with a wood engraving. Osborne p. 1074;

 

How to aspirate brain abscesses

  105.  RENZ, Wilhelm Theodor. ERSTE HEILUNG EINES TRAUMATISCHEN GEHIRNABSCESSES durch consequente aspiration des eiters, ohne vorhergegangene trepanation. Tübingen, verlag der H. Laupp’schen Buchhandlung. 1867. 8vo, pp. 46; a little foxed; uncut in the original printed wrappers, with woodcut illustration of neurosurgical instrument on upper cover; a very good copy. £250

First edition of this uncommon neurosurgical essay, outlining a procedure to aspirate brain abscesses without the need for prior trepanation, and including a number of case histories. Renz, a student of Victor Bruns and Virchow, later became a physician in Stuttgart. He concludes expressing the hope that his method will prove as useful as Chassaignac’s invention of surgical drainage tubes, used to drain abscesses.

OCLC: 14860322 cites only two copies at the National Library of Medicine and the College of Physicians.

 

  106.  [RESUSCITATION]. [BITTER, Dr. Henry].  1767-1917. GESCHIEDKUNDIG OVERZICHT VAN DE MAATSCHAPPIJ  tot Redding van Drenkelingen te Amsterdam. [Amsterdam, Typ. N.V. de Erven H. Van Munster & Zoon. 1917]. 8vo, pp. 75, [1] imprint; with frontispiece photograph portrait, one double-page plate of portraits, one double-page facsimile decree, four plates and one further facsimile; wide-margined copy on thick paper; some occasional light foxing and spotting, recto of frontispiece somewhat foxed; uncut in original tan publisher’s cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt, borders ruled in blind, covers a little soiled, corners bumped.     £110

Uncommon first edition of this attractively illustrated early 20th history of the Amsterdam Humane Society, founded in 1767 by a group of wealthy merchants of Amsterdam in an attempt to aid in the resuscitation of the many drowned in their waterways. The Society offered money to those who would follow their rules of rescuscitation, and more money if they were successful. The success rate was high, leading to the formation of similar societies throughout Europe. The Amsterdam Society led to the beginning of organized resuscitation efforts and was the spiritual founder of all other humane societies.

For the 1768 history of the Society, Historie en Gedenkschriften van de Maatzschappy see Resuscitation, An Historical Perspective, A Catalogue of an Exhibit at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, 1976, item 13’; OCLC: 64501964 citing thirteen copies in the Netherlands, with one further copy located at the University of Minnesota. 

 

  107.  RICHARDS, F. OLD SEVENOAKS.  Iluustrated by C. Essenhigh Corke, F.R.P.S. Sevenoaks: Printed by J. Salmon, 85, High Street, 1901. 8vo, pp. 132; with frontispiece and six half-tone plates and numerous pen illustrations throughout;  in the original blue cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt, spine a little faded, head and tail a little bumped.    £65

Scarce turn of the century guide to Sevenoaks, printed by J. Salmon who remain in business to this day. OCLC: 35233852.

 

  108.  ROGERS, Philip. A VALE IN KENT A Historical Guide to the Darent Valley. P.M.E. Erwood (Publications) Ltd, 13, High Street, Welling, Kent. 1955. 8vo, pp. viii, 150, with eight plates of photographs and one plan; some minor foxing otherwise clean;  original blue cloth , spine lettered in gilt, covers a little soiled and bumped. £40
OCLC: 3872738. 

Fine manuscript copy of the Regulations and By-laws

  109.  [ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS]. STATUTA COLLEGII MEDICOR[UM] LONDINENSIUM [n.d. but circa 1740s]. Manuscript; 8vo, ff. [6] blank, 82, [6] blank, though one leaf with calligraphy writing template; in neat manuscript throughout, each page ruled in red and paginated; first leaf very slightly cropped along outer margin, with loss of a couple of letters;  a lovely copy in contemporary black morocco decorated in gilt; with the armorial book-plate of Charles Chauncy M.D., the book-label of Frederick Kanmacher P.R.I et F.L.S., and an illegible signature on front paste-down, and with the modern book-plate of Nils Sandberg on rear paste-down.         £1,200

A most attractive manuscript copy of the complete Statutes and By-Laws of the College of Physicians of London, the oldest medical institution in England, and owned by the early eighteenth century physician Charles Chancey M.D. (1709-1777).

In 1518 Henry VIII chartered the College of Physicians, granting it examining, licensing and policing powers over medical practices in London. It was granted Royal status under Charles II. Unlike some European counterparts, however, the college did not succeed in extending its jurisdiction to a wider region, nor did it have control over the licensing of surgeons and apothecaries. The first printed edition appeared in 1693 (Wing R2123).

Such manuscript copies appear uncommon, although both the Wellcome and the Hunterian Libraries both hold similar examples. The present copy bears quite a close resemblance to Wellcome MS.4296, a copy dated 1711, though does not include the Garter-Arms, and has head-lines in black ink rather than red. The text in both is surrounded by a ruled border.

At the end of the our volume, ff. 75, is found a list of members, beginning with the the president ‘Joh Clerke’ (possibly John Clarke who was president 1645-1649, though perhaps Josiah Clerk (1708), followed by a list of ‘Candidati et Admissi in ordine ad candidatos’ and concluding with a short list of the ‘Licentianti’. The Wellcome copy does not include a similar list of names, though instead contains lists of fees payable by Licentiates, and other manuscript additions, in a different though contemporary hand.

Provenance: Charles Chauncey was born in London, and graduated M.D. from Cambridge in 1739. ‘He was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 1st October, 1739, and a Fellow 30th September, 1740. He was Censor in 1746’. A fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian societies, he left a very valuable library, which devolved to his brother Nathaniel on his death. ‘The united libraries of the two brothers, both “very able scholars and able bibliomaniacs”, was sold at auction by Leigh and Sotheby, in April 1790. To Dr. Chauncey, the College are indebted for the fine painting of Sir Samuel Garth and Dr. Mead’ (Munk’s Roll, II, p. 145).

See Munk’s Roll II, p. 145; cf. Moorat, ^gCatalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library^g (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), 4297.

  

  111.   RUTHERFORD, Robert. DISSERTATIO MEDICA INAUGURALIS, DE ASCITE ABDOMINALI Quam, annuente summo numine, ex auctoritate reverendi admodum viri D. Georgii Baird, SS. T.P. ... Pro Gradu Doctoris ... Edinburgi, excudebat Robertus Allan, 1815. 8vo, pp. [viii], 29, [2] blank;  bound in modern boards; a presentation copy signed on the half title ‘To Dr. Morrison, with the author’s compliments’.     £85

Uncommon doctoral dissertation by Robert Rutherford of Edinburgh University, on ascites or abdominal dropsy, the accumulation of serous fluid in the peritoneal cavity.

OCLC: 27409180 cites two copies only at Wisconsin and the Wellcome (incomplete).

 

‘A system of Medical Music’

  112.  SCHNEIDER, Peter Joseph. DIE MUSIK UND POESIE. Nach ihren wirkungen historisch-kritisch dargestellt, oder: systematisch geordneter versuch einer genauen Zusammenstellung und möglichst richtigen Erklärung derselben. Eine auf belehrung und unterhaltung abzweckende familien-lektüre für die gebildete welt. Bonn, gedruckt bei Carl Georgi, 1835.  Two volumes, 8vo; pp. [iv], 353; [iv], 380; with fragments of music within text; both volumes rather foxed and soiled, though principally marginal, ink corrections to p. 229 of Vol I, worm-trail affecting inner gutter of vol II. between pp. 152-198 with no loss of text, and from pp. 223-241 just touching a few letters; with library-stamps, library-labels and accession numbers in ink and crayon on front paste-downs, on recto and verso of title-pages, and on one of the separate titles, and with ownership signature removed from upper corner of each front free endpaper; in contemporary paper-backed green marbled boards, with remains of red paper labels lettered in gilt on spines, both spines rather crudely repaired, though head and tail of spines still chipped and worn, extremities rubbed and bumped.       £385

First edition of this detailed and systematic history of the therapeutic use of music, by the physician and ‘philosophie und musik doktor’ Peter Joseph Schneider (1791-1871). The main tenet of the work is actually revealed in the separate title immediately following the main title-page: System einer medizinischen musik or ‘A system of medical music; an indispensable handbook for students of medicine, medical practitioners, principals of lunatic asylums, practical physicians and unmusical teachers of different methods’. Over the course of the work, Schneider examines the effects and influence of music on a healthy body, on the moral effects of music, on music and children, and on the healing properties of music on a number of different illnesses, but in particular nervous and mental disease, as well as containing an interesting discussion on tarantualism. Of interest is his list of the human characteristics of the various major and minor keys: for example he considers C major to be pure, A minor soft and pious, F major to be restful and D minor to be rather brooding: ‘C-dur, ist ganz rein. Sein charakter heißt, unschuld, einsalt, naivität, kindersprache, judengedantke. A-moll fromme weiblichkeit und weichlichkeit des charakters. F-dur gefälligkeit und ruhe. D-moll schwermüthige weiblichkeit, die spleen und dünste brütet’ (p. 287).

Of the present work, Engel states that it is a comprehensive study, and contains ‘much information of the subject in questions’ but which is ‘interspersed with many remarks and citations which have little or no bearing on music considered medically. The last seventy two pages of the second volume contains a sort of autobiography of the author’ (Engel, p. 108).

Engel, Musical Myths and Facts, (1876), Vol II, p. 107; Becker, Systematisch-chronologische darstellung der musikalischen literature, (Leipzig 1930), supplement, p. 8 and 11; Euing Musical Library Catalogue, p. 114; Schullian, Music and Medicine, p. 458; OCLC: 14823859 cites copies at Berkeley, the National Library of Medicine, Michigan, the Library of Congress, with further copies at Harvard, Chicago, the New York Public Library and Glasgow;

 

How much to send a telegraph

  113.  SCHÜCK, Rudolph. TASCHENBUCH FÜR DEN TELEGRAPHISCHEN VERKEHR von Hamburg nach sämmtlichen Telegraphen-Stationen Europa’s. Hamburg. Verlag von Fritz Schuberth. 1856. 8vo, pp. 64; some minor dust-soiling and creasing;  uncut and unopened in the original printed wrappers, lower wrapper loose but holding, spine and extremities a little chipped; still a good copy of an ephemeral item.   £110

An appealing copy of this scarce portable tariff guide for sending a telegraph across Europe, listing the different telegraph stations in each country, and how much it will cost to send a message from Hamburg. Not located on OCLC or KVK.

 

  114.  SEGOND, Louis Auguste. HYGIÈNE DU CHANTEUR, influence du chant sur l’économie animale; causes principales de l’affaiblissement de la voix et du développement de certaines maladies chez les chanteurs; moyens de prévenir ces maladies. Paris, Labé, Libraire de la Faculté de médecine, ... 1846. 8vo, pp. [iv], xvi, [17]- 246; with numerous text illustrations; occasional foxing and light marginal browning; uncut in the original printed wrappers, wrappers a little soiled, corners torn, preserved in glycine dust-jacket.    £225

Uncommon first edition of this practical and popular guide for singers on the health and care of the voice, by the experienced Parisian physician, physiologist, and accomplished singer, Louis Auguste Segond. Dedicated to his singing teacher, Manuel Garcia, this helpful work provides advice on all areas of vocal training and hygiene, providing an explanation of the anatomy and physiology of the throat and larynx, the importance of the lungs and breathing techniques, the role of the vocal chords, ‘théories de la voix de poitrine et de la voix de tête’, physical influences that can affect the voice, such as age and sleep, the use of gargles and lubricants, as well as a discussion on the removal of the tonsils. Segond also includes a discusson on castrati (p. 208).

The work was well-received, and was translated into English in the same year, Vocal Care for the Singer, with a second edition appearing in 1848. It was still being referred to in 1910 by the Boston Symphony Chorus. ‘In 1846, the French medical doctor Louis August Segond published a very helpful book Hygiène du chanteur, dedicated to Manuel García. Concerning sleep, he advises ‘Dormir c’est réparer’ (p. 189) - that is, to sleep is to repair [the voice] - and he recommends an eight-hour sleep cycle for singers. His observation that ‘la disposition bonne ou mauvaise de la voix est une conséquence de l’état général de l’organisme’ especially applies to the aging voice’ (Scott, For the Love of Music, p. 214).

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1919; OCLC: 14824138 locate copies at the National Library of Medicine, Arizona, the New York Academy of Medicine, New York Public Library, Brigham Young and the Eastman School of Music, Rochester.

 

  115.  [SMALLPOX - Inoculation]. RAST DE MAUPAS, Jean Baptiste Antoine. REFLEXIONS SUR L’INOCULATION DE LA PETITE VEROLE, et sur les moyens qu’on pourroit employer pour délivrer l’Europe de cette maladie. Mémoire lu le 19 Juillet 1763, dans l’Académie des Sciences, Belles-lettres & Arts de Lyon. A Lyon, Chez Aimé Delaroche, Imprimeur-Libraire de l’Académie des Sciences, aux Halles de la Grenette. MDCCLXIII [1763]. Small 8vo, pp. 40; with appealing woodcut head-piece and initial; some very minor soiling; in later marbled wrappers, inside covers a little foxed, extremities a little chipped and torn; a good copy.  £375

Rare first edition of this interesting essay, delivered before the Academy of Sciences in Lyon, arguing against the practice of smallpox inoculation and proposing alternative methods on how best to eradicate the disease from Europe by the physician Jean Baptiste Antoine Rast de Maupas (1732-1810), a professor at Lyon. During his essay he poses a couple of questions for discussion: ‘L’Inoculation de la petite vérole est-elle utile ou nuisible aux hommes?’ and ‘Quels moyens peut-on employer pour déliver l'Europe de la petite vérole?’. To answer the first, he provides a brief history of traditional methods of treating smallpox and of inoculation, before Maupas outlines his concerns about the practice, citing a number of cases where the effects have been detrimental. He therefore believes that ‘je dirai que pour délivrer l'Europe de la petite vérole, il faut se conduire suivant des principes directement opposés à l'inoculation: loin de multiplier la contagion, il faut l'écarter, en prenant les mêmes precautions, en employant les mêmes moyens contrre cette maladie, que ceux qui ont eu tant de succès contre la lepre et la peste’ (p. 21). He advocates various public health methods such as the isolation of cases, and specialist hospitals, and in doing so cites the practices of other nations, notably in England.

Blake p. 371; Miller p. 315; Wellcome IV, p. 475; Hirsch IV, p. 673; Querard VII p. 459; OCLC: 14327183 cites three further copies at Yale, Göttingen and Lyon.

 

  116.  SMILES, Samuel.  MEN OF INVENTION AND INDUSTRY London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1884. Crown 8vo, pp. viii, 390; with a presentation book-label on front paste-down; in a presentation calf binding, spine tooled in gilt with black morocco label, with the armorial stamp of the Hull & East Riding College on upper cover.   £45

An attractive presentation copy of this fascinating biographical work, by Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), here adding to his valuable researches into the origins and history of manufacturing and commerce - with chapters on Phineas Pett and English ship-building; Francis Pettit Smith and the screw-propeller; John Harrison and the chronometer; John Lombe and the silk industry; William Murdock; three chapters on the steam press (Frederick Koenig, the Walters, William Clowes); Charles Bianconi in Ireland; industry in Ireland; Harland, Wolff and ship-building in Belfast, etc.

Smiles first won popularity as an author with his life of George Stephenson, 1857. This success allowed him to publish Self-help, previously turned down by Routledge, in 1859. In Self-help Smiles had given brief biographies of men who had achieved great things in their lives by their own efforts. The engineers, some, like Brindley, of lowly origins and without formal education, provided him with ideal material for more detailed studies, and for elevation to the status of heros. The public enthusiasm for these men and their work which was Smiles' legacy died with him (1904), and only began to re-emerge in the writings of Asa Briggs and L.T.C.Rolt. He subsequently published a number of similar works including, The lives of Boulton and Watt (1865), Industrial Biography (1863) and The Lives of Engineers (1861-2).

 

 

‘Anthro-porno’

  118.  STRATZ, Carl Heinrich. DIE FRAUEN AUF JAVA. eine gynäkologische studie. Mit 41 abbildungen im text. Stuttgart. Verlag von Ferdinand Enke. 1897. 8vo, pp. x, 134; with numerous black and white half-tone illustrations; one gathering loose; uncut and largely unopened copy in modern publisher’s cloth, with the original front wrapper mounted on upper cover, title written in mss on spine.    £225

First edition (also published in Dutch in the same year) of this ethnological and gynaecological study by the German physician Carl Heinrich Stratz (1858-1924), considered now to be quite a controversial work.

The result of a five year stay on the island of Java, Stratz provides an account of his gynaecological work and his efforts to introduce modern techniques, in so doing refuting some dominant prejudices. The account includes several case histories, and together with the numerous illustrations provides a detailed study.

His work however, has subsequently come under critical review by academics, as an example of several works at the turn of the century termed as ‘pornographic racial taxonomy’ or ‘anthro porno’. The numerous photographs depict nubile naked or semi-naked women, often revealing their genitalia, but as they are contained within a scientific work could be viewed by readers without fear of censure, to entertain as much as educate. This fascination with native and ‘exotic’ races led to Statz’s publication in 1901 of Die Rassenschönheit des Weibes, in which he evaluated scientifically various ethnic groups for their beauty, to eventually find that none could measure up against the standard of white, feminine beauty, and which has become the main focus of academic criticism. OCLC: 14795333.

 

  119.  STRÖMER, Nils Hjalmar. EN FÄRD GENOM WERLDSRYMDEN Populära föredrag. Stockholm, J. Beckmans förlag. 1879. 8vo, pp. 171, [5]; with nine plates, four coloured lithographs one folding, one double-page, with numerous black and white figures within the text; lightly browned due to paper quality, with a couple of gatherings a little loose, but holding; occasional pencil annotations; in the original roan backed decorated boards, inner hinge cracked but holding,  spine a little rubbed, corners bumped and lightly worn.    £110

First edition of this attractive introduction to astronomy and the universe, by the Swedish popular science author and lecturer, and friend of August Strindberg, Nils Hjalmar Strömer (1849-1886).

Divided into five ‘lectures’, each addressed to ‘Mina Damer och Herrar’, Strömer discusses the sun, comets, fixed stars, the planets, and a brief history of astronomy. The work is copiously illustrated, with the planets and the movement of comets particularly striking. The four coloured lithographs show a partial eclipse of the sun, two spectographs, and a vivid depiction of  ‘protuberanser’, or solar flares, and is probably taken from Secchi’s Le Soleil of 1875. Indeed it is interesting to note that some of the plates, most notably the frontispiece of the partial eclipse of the sun, had previously been used by Björling in his work of 1874, Solen.

 

An exposition of utopian socialism

  120.  TAMISIER, Alphonse. COUP D’OEIL SUR LA THEORIE DES FONCTIONS Deuxieme edition. Paris, A la Librairie Societaire, 1846. 8vo, pp. 32; with neat archival tape repairs along gutters of title-page, p. 17, 19, 21, 27, 31, some light browning due to paper quality, a few marginal nicks due to rough opening, with pencil marginal markings throughout;  uncut, neatly rebound in recent half cloth, spine lettered in gilt; despite faults a good copy.      £175

Rare second edition (first Lyons 1841) of this exposition of the principles of the noted French utopian socialiast and  philosopher Charles Fourier. The first edition was published anonymously and with a different title, using the present title as a drop-head title on p. 1.

Fourier, from a bourgeois family, condemned existing institutions and evolved a kind of utopian socialism. In Théorie des quatre mouvements (1808) and later works he developed his idea that the natural passions of man would, if properly channelled, result in social harmony. To achieve this goal, many of the artificial restraints of civilization were to be destroyed. The social organization for such development was to be based on the “phalanx,” an economic unit composed of 1,620 people. Members would live in the phalanstère (or phalanstery), a community building, and work would be divided among people according to their natural inclinations. Fourier was not ready to discard capitalism completely; basically his ideal was an agricultural society, systematically arranged. His writings anticipated the 20th-century social problems resulting from mechanization and industrialization. Fourierism obtained a number of converts in France, and several newspapers spread the doctrines, but followers failed to establish any lasting colony there. After Fourier’s death his principal disciple, Victor Prosper Considérant, tried to found a colony in Texas called La Reunion. Albert Brisbane and Horace Greeley were the principal figures in the sudden and wide development of colonies in the United States, the most successful of the communities being the North American Phalanx at Red Bank, N.J.

Fourier was also a champion for the extension of women's rights as the general principle of all social progress. Goldsmiths’ 34911; Barbier 707 for the first edition under the title Théorie générale; not in Kress or Einaudi;

 

  121.  TARNIER, Stéphane.  RECHERCHES SUR L’ÉTAT PUERPÉRAL et sur les maladies des femmes en couches. et sur les maladies des femmes en couches. Thèse pour le Doctorat en Médecine, présentée et souteneu le 17 avril 1857. Paris, Rignoux, Imprimeur de la Faculté de Médecine, ...1857. 4to, pp. 75, [1]; title-page rather browned and soiled, somewhat spotted and browned throughout due to paper quality, with some faint marginal dampstaining, and a few minor marginal tears; bound in later black morocco backed marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt, preserving the original blue upper wrapper; with an inscription in blue ink at tail of title ‘Exemplaire appartenant à Robert Merger, son admirateur. Pour Vincent Loffredo, affectueusement. Merger’     $740

Extremely rare doctoral thesis by Stephane Tarnier, the pioneering French obstetrician, and a fascintating contribution to the contentious debate surrounding the causes of puerperal fever at the time. Based upon observations during his time as a student at the Maternité, the present thesis, in which he provides a history of the disease and disccusses its propagation through contagion, became the basis of future studies and works on the subject. The present study contains much statistical information and a number of case histories. At the time the Maternité suffered from a high mortality rate as a result of the disease, largely caused by having too many beds crowded too closely together, a situtation which still existed in 1864 as observed by Léon Le Fort (see Eternal Eve, p. 414).

The spread of disease was to remain at the forefront of Tarnier's work, and indeed he is remembered as being the first to introduce Lister's principles of antisepsis into obstetrics, which he discussed in his book De L'Asepsie et Antisepsie en Obstétrique, 1894 as well as being the inventor of the axis-traction forceps. He is also renowned as the inventor and designer of the first incubator for rearing premature babies, or those too weak to survive unaided under normal conditions. This was constructed in 1880 and was first used at the Maternité.

Not in Garrison-Morton, Waller or Cushing; OCLC: cites only one copy at the University of Minnesota.

 

  122.  TAYLOR, John Ellor. THE PLAYTIME NATURALIST. London, Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1889. 8vo, pp. xvi, 287; with 364 engraved illustrations; occasional light dust-soiling; in the original publisher's cloth, attractively decorated on the upper cover in red, black, white and grey, depicting butterflies, mice, birds and insects, spine lettered in gilt, also decorated with scenes from nature, evidence of old library label on spine, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped; a good copy from the library of the Church of Ireland Training College, Kildare Street, Dublin.   £40

First edition of this extremely attractive natural history guide for boys, by the popular science writer John Ellor Taylor. 'As the writer was once a boy himself, and vividly remembers the never-to-be-forgotten rambles and observations of the objects in the country … he thought he could not do better than enlist this younger generation in the same loves and the same pleasures' (Preface).

 

  123.  TAYLOR, John Ellor. OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS And Where to Find Them. A Handbook for Students. With 331 Illustrations. London Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1885. 8vo, pp. xii, 331; with 331 engraved textual illustrations; some occasional spotting and dust-soiling; uncut in the original grained cloth, inner hinges starting; covers decorated in gilt and black depicting a fossil and geological hammer, spine lettered in gilt, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped; a good copy.   £35

First edition of this simple, practical and well illustrated introduction to geology and in particular to 'invertebrate fossil animals'.  John Ellor Taylor was a self-taught man from Lancashire. Greatly interested in the sciences, and in particular geology, he rose to become a successful popular science writer. In conjunction with John Gunn he established the Norwich Geological Society in 1864 and was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1869 and a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1873.

 

  124.  THOMAS, Cyrus. WORK IN MOUND EXPLORATION Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of Ethnology: J.W. Powell, Director. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1887. 8vo, pp. [3]-15; with one illustration and one table;  original printed drab wrappers with paper backstrip, covers a little creased and soiled with pencil markings;     £80

First edition of this short statement ‘explaining the plans and describing the work of the mound exploring division of the Bureau of Ethnology’ (p. 3) by Cyrus Thomas (1825-1910).

During his life, Cyrus Thomas held many different positions including deputy county clerk, postmaster, a minister and lawyer before he settled upon anthropology. In 1858, he helped establish the Illinois Natural History Society; and in 1869 he became Curator and Commissioner for Entomology and Ichthyology. He joined the Smithsonian Institution in the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1881, remaining there until 1910. During that time he published a number of articles about Mesoamerican writing systems, and most notably, did extensive field surveys and excavated mounds. Indeed his published findings on mound explorations are used to this day.

Cyrus Thomas also wrote Introduction to the Study of North American Archeology in which he stated his belief that the Native Americans and their ancestors had built the mounds he was excavating and were, therefore, not a lost race. Excavations of prehistoric mounds conducted from 1881-1890, first by Mr. Wills de Haas and later by Thomas led to his 1894 publication Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology, which contained evidence that the mounds were built by Native Americans.

Not on OCLC which cites later works on the subject by Thomas.

 

  125.  TICHY, Joseph Wenceslas. Dissertatio inaugualis medica DE ARENULIS IN LOTIO ADPARENTIBUS ut infallibili salutaris morborum eventus, signo prognostico. Pragæ, in Officina Wolfgangi Gerle. 1775. 8vo, pp. [xii], 106, [2] explanatory leaf; with attractive woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials, and attractive engraved folding plate; some light spotting and foxing, otherwise clean and crisp; uncut in contemporary marbled paste-paper boards, head and tail of spine a little rubbed and worn, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped; a good copy.   £150

Scarce and most attractively printed doctoral dissertation on nephrology, discussing in particular the nature and construction of renal calculi. Tichy provides an historical discussion of the subject, with frequent bibliographical references, and the work is particularly notable for the most attractive folding engraved plate depicting various crystalline forms.

Wellcome V. p; OCLC states two further copies at Bayern and Göttingen.

 

  126.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. CHATTANOOGA MEDICINE CO., LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN NO. TWO SONGSTER McElree’s Wine of Cardui, a tonic for women. Manufactured by the Chattanooga Medicine Co., Chattanooga Tenn. [n.d. but ca. 189?]. Small 12mo, pp. [32]; lightly browned throughout due to paper quality with some occasional light marginal dampstaining; stapled as issued in the original pink wrappers, covers a little soiled with some minor abrasions, tail edge of upper wrapper shaved cropping imprint, extremities a little rubbed and furled with a couple of minor tears; a good copy.  £75

One in a series of half a dozen or more song books issued over several years by the Chattanooga Medicine Co., advertising their ‘Wine of Cardui’, a tonic to cure a myriad of female disorders throughout life. Case histories are interspersed with the lyrics of various popular and patriotic songs.

‘According to B. Wilson, the Chattanooga Medicine Company “was formed in 1879, with Z. C. Patten heading it. He obtained the rights to the formula for a vegetable laxative from M.A. Thedford ... and it was named Black-Draught. The success of this brand led to another ... A Mr R. L. McElree ... supposedly had inherited a formula for a uterine medicine derived from a plant that was commonly called ‘blessed thistle’. He began selling it in packaged form and the name for the brand was chosen from Cardus benedictus, a synonym for cnicus benedictus [blessed thistle]. In 1882 the brand was soldd to the Chattanooga Medicine Co., and by the turn of the century they had promoted it to one of the top twenty medicinals in the world” (19th century medicine in glass, 1971, p. 126)’ (Atwater S-230.1).

  

  127.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. FOSTER-MILBURN Co., A KIDNEY STEW Flavoured with facts and boiled in the kettle of common sense. Foster-Milburn Co., Sole Agents for U.S. Buffalo, N.Y. [n.d. but ca. 1900?]. Small oblong 12mo, 82mm x 150mm, pp. 24; paper somewhat browned due to paper quality; stapled as issued in the original green printed wrappers.   £60

An appealing promotional guide from the Foster-Milburn Co., of Buffalo, advertising their famous ‘Doan’s Kidney Pills’, to help cleanse and purge the ‘human sewerage system’.

T. Milburn Co., Ltd. first began producing patent medicines in Acton, Ontario in 1867, and moved to Toronto in 1873, and in addition to the kidney pills made the following remedies; Burdock Bitters (for boils, pimples, headaches and internal problems); Dr. Wood's Norway Pine Syrup (for coughs and colds); British Troop Oil (for cuts, burns, bruises and stiff joints - for farm animals as well as people), Milburn's Laxa-Liver Pills (self-explanatory); and Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills. Foster-Milburn Co., were presumably an American subsidiary across the Border in Buffalo. Doan Pills as a brand are still available today, though for the treatment of backache.

 

  128.  [TRADE CATALOGUE - HOMOEOPATHY]. MUNYON REMEDY CO. GUIDE TO HEALTH and treatise on the use of Munyon’s Homoeopathic home remedies. Published by Munyon’s Homoeopathic Home Remedy Co, New York ... Philadelphia ... by Munyon’s Homoeopathic Home Remedy Co. Copyright 1900.  Small 8vo, pp. 32; with text illustrations; browned due to paper quality, with minor stain affecting outer edge; stapled as issued in the original printed wrappers, spine and outer margins slightly foxed, a couple of minor tears to extremities.     £60

A nice example of this scarce health guide cum promotional brochure extolling the virtues of Munyon’s Homoeopathic remedies and special cures, to treat a myriad of conditions, including stomach complaints, dyspepsia, liver and kidney diseases, colds, coughs, rheumatism and even cholera. The remedies take the form of pellets, oils and balms, and inhalers, and a price-list of the various cures can be found on the inside front cover.

OCLC: 162532137 cites only one copy at the University of Rochester.

 

  129.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. [PIERCE, Dr Ray Vaughn]. COMMON-SENSE Applied to the practice of medicine and surgery by the faculty of the Invalid’s Hotel and Surgical Institute, Buffalo, NY.1883. 8vo, pp. 24 (including outer wrappers); with numerous engraved illustrations; rather browned throughout, with dampstain affecting upper gutter throughout (more prominent at start), and some soiling, evidence of previous vertical fold; in the original printed wrappers, rather stained and soiled, with evidence of rodent damage along outer margins and tail of spine.      £70

Another appealing example from the prolific advertising corpus of Dr Ray Vaughn Pierce of Buffalo. Already an established nostrum seller in Buffalo, in 1878 Pierce expanded his business empire by building a large hotel which would serve invalids who required on-site treatment, including surgical operations. ‘In 1883, Ray Vaughn Pierce incorporated the World’s Dispensary Medical Association, a corporation that encompassed his already exisiting proprietary medicine business, the newly rebuilt Invalids’ Hotel & Surgical Institute, and the publishing branch of the firm. The title of this pamphlet is drawn from Pierce’s best known work, ‘The People’s common sense medical adviser’, which appeared in 100 editions between 1875 and 1935. It describes and illustrates the facilities of the Invalid’s Hotel & Surgical Institute, and addresses the specialties for which its staff of physicians and surgeons are renowned, with disorders ranging from piles to cleft palate to the ‘delicate diseases of either sex’. ‘Thus, many clients who wrote to Pierce were thereafter told that their condition could not be satisfactorily treated at home, and they should come to Buffalo, expecting to stay upwards of a month, at what became known as the Invalid’s Hotel and Surgical Institute. Pierce promised luxurious accommodations and “painless operations” for a variety of problems, particularly those affecting the reproductive organs’ (Gewitz, p. 169). Many of his methods, nostrums and treatments, were, perhaps needless to say, highly dubious, and he fell foul of the Buffalo medical community. Despite this, he found great favour amongst the general populace, and was elected at a New York state senator in 1877, and was elected to the US Congress in the following year.

Atwater 3874.

 

  130.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. [PIERCE, Dr Ray Vaughn]. LADIES’ NOTE BOOK AND CALENDAR Compliments of the World’s Dispensary Medical Association. Buffalo, New York, [1909]. 12mo, pp. [32]; with numerous text illustrations; a little browned due to paper quality; stapled as issued in the original printed card wrappers, printed in blue, covers a little soiled.    £40

A later example from the prolific press of Dr Pierce. Not in Atwater.

 

By the “Prince of Quacks”

  131.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. [PIERCE, Dr Ray Vaughn]. TREATISE ON THE CHRONIC DISEASES Dr Pierce’s Compound Extract of Smart-Weed. [Buffalo, NY 1902]. 8vo, pp. 24; with numerous text illustrations; in the original pink printed wrappers with single hole punch in upper corner and original tie, remains of printed advertisement on upper wrapper; covers a little soiled with minor dampstaining at lower rear corner; a good copy.   £75

A nice example of this promotional brochure, produced by one of the most famous of the 19th century nostrum sellers, Dr Ray Vaughn Pierce (1840-1914), advertising amongst other things, his acclaimed ‘Golden Medical Discovery’.

‘Beginning in the late 1860s and for over ninety years, the Pierce family held forth in Buffalo producing a variety of popular nostrums, and for much of this time operating an institute whereby sufferers from across the country could come to the “Queen City” for the relief of those chronic diseases which were beyond even the powers of the Pierce panaceas sold at drug stores’ (Gewitz, Dr Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery’, The Journal of Medical Humanities, Vol 11, no 4, 1990, p. 163). In addition to selling via mail order, Pierce established his Invalid’s Hotel and Surgical Institute in Buffalo, and issued his numerous publications through his own press, the World’s Dispensary Medical Association.

See Atwater 2798 for an extensive biography of Pierce; cf Atwater 3880;

 

  132.  [TRADE CATALOGUE]. POND’S EXTRACT. A HAND BOOK OF FIRST AID Suggestions for first aid to the injured in accidents and emergencies, with valuable information as to how to care for the sick and prevent spread of disease. Illustrated. Pond’s Extract Company, New York & London. [n.d. but ca 1903]. 8vo, pp. 24; with numerous text illustrations; some minor soiling, otherwise clean and crisp; stapled as issued, in the original coloured printed wrappers, staples slightly rusted, extremities a little worn; an appealing example.   £75

A scarce ephemeral survivor, and a most evocative example illustrating the continuing vogue to combine advertising with practical health hints, here produced by the famous Pond’s Extract Company in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.

‘It is a First Aid book for every-day use in the household, factory, camp or store. The teachings of this book are based upon modern surgical practice, adn are such as have been applied practically by First Aid societies and associations all over the world ... The contents of Pond’s Extract Accident Case are so complete and so simple that any person can apply them without difficulty. Every article is surgically clean and suited for application to any wound. By the courtesy of Johnson & Johnson, manufacturing chemists, whose high-grade surgical productions are celebrated throughout the civilized world, and which are used in all Pond’s Extract Accident Cases and Cabinets, we are enabled to illustrate the various ways of practicing First Aid as taken from their well-known Hand Book of First Aid (copyright 1903)’ (Introduction).

‘‘Pond’s Extract’ was an extract of hamamelis viginica (witch hazel) promoted as an anodyne, tonic, styptic, and astringent ...  In 1846 chemist Theron T. Pond extracted a healing ‘tea’ from the bark of witch hazel for use as a topical salve for wounds and purported remedy for numerous other ailments. Pond was among the first to create a commercial product ... in 1849 Pond and several partners formed T.T. Pond Company. Mr Pond soon sold out and died in 1852. The company moved its manufacturing facilities to Connecticut, then moved its sales offices to New York. The company incorporated in 1914 with the name Pond’s Extract Company’ (Atwater 2863).

 

  133.  VALLETTI, Felice. GINNASTICA FEMMINILE Con 67 incisioni. Milano, Ulrico Hoepli Editore-Libraio della Real Casa. 1892. 8vo, pp. [iv], 109, [1] publisher’s advertisement, [2] blank, 32 publisher’s catalogue; with 67 textual illustrations; text lightly browned with some minor soiling, publisher’s catalogue more heavily browned due to paper quality; in the original grey publisher’s cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in black and red, head and tail of spine bumped, covers a little soiled, extremities a little rubbed and bumped; a good copy.     £110

A most appealing introduction to exercise and gymnastics, specifically for young women, by Felice Valletti, the author of several works on gymnastics. The various chapters introduce a series of excercises using ropes, hoops, elastic cords, bars, and wall frames. A chapter is also devoted to the benefits of running races - an excellent form of exercise for the lungs, especially along shady tree-line gardens!  The work is most attractively and evocatively illustrated throughout. OCLC: 21997480 locates one copy at the Wellcome.

 

‘The Yellow Rogue’

  134.  [VETERINARY RECEIPTS]. EINIGE VON DENEN MEDICIS APPROBIRTE UND THEILS PROBIRTE PRAESERVATIV- UND CURATIV RECEPTA, welche bey der in dem Churfüstl. Pfleg-Gericht Schwaben, unter dem Huff- Horn- und Klohn-Vieh eingerissenen Vieh-Sucht: den gelben Schölm genannt mit göttlichen Beystand sollen gebraucht werden, und auf anbefehlung eines Chur-Bayrischen Hochlöbl. Hof-Raths in München, zu nutzen des publici in Truckt gegeben worden München den 16 Julii. [Munchen]. Gedruckt und zu finden bey Johann Jacob Vötter, 1753. 8vo, pp. [8]; clean and crisp; in modern speckled boards.£185

A scarce and appealing collection of ten approved remedies and preservatives for the care and treatment of horned and hooved animals including horses, cattle and pigs, employed by veterinary professionals in Swabia and here offered up for public use to tackle in particular a roguish disease known as ‘den gelben schölm’. In addition to recommending blood-letting, the various recipes include the use of salpetre, turpentine and garlic.

Blake p. 133; not in Dingley; KVK cites one further copy at Bayern.

 

  135.  WELLS, Samuel. R. WELLS’ NEW DESCRIPTIVE CHART for giving a delineation of character according to phrenology and physiognomy; for the use of practical phrenologists. New York: Fowler & Wells Co., Publishers. 27 East 21st Street. Copyright  by S.R. Wells 1869. Revision and Copyright  by Fowler and Wells Co, 1895. 8vo, pp. 49, [7] ‘First Principles: Or Outlines of Phrenology with forty three illustrations’, [8] publisher’s advertisements; with advertisements on inside front and back covers; title-page blank spaces for name of client here unused; very faint dampstain affecting outer margins of first couple of leaves and occasionally throughout, with some light soiling and browning, upper corners of last couple of leaves a little creased, otherwise clean and crisp; in the original printed wrappers, upper cover somewhat soiled and stained, extremities a little chipped. £135

An appealing example of a phrenological chart for the use of practical phrenologists (though here unused) and designed to provide ‘a delineation of character’. This appealing and scarce ephemeral survivor, first published in 1869 and here revised and reissued in 1895, is an example of the collaborative work of America’s leading phrenologists, Samuel Robert Wells and Orson Squire Fowler .

‘Among the most influential leaders of the [phrenological] movement in America during the 19th century were two brothers, Orson Squire Fowler (1809-1887) and Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811-1896), and their business associate, Samuel Roberts Wells (1820-1875). The Fowler brothers began as itinerant phrenologists, lecturing and reading heads throughout New England. After a brief practice in Washington, O. S. Fowler went to Philadelphia in 1838 and opened an office called the Phrenological Museum where he began publication of the American Phrenological Journal. The business moved to New York City in 1842, where the two brothers, their sister, Charlotte, and Lorenzo Fowler's wife, Lydia, became notable phrenologists, and the Phrenological Cabinet, displaying casts, skulls, charts, and other artifacts of the movement, became a popular fixture in the city ... In 1843, Charlotte Fowler married a medical student, Samuel Roberts Wells, who then entered into partnership with his brothers-in-law, forming the publishing house of Fowler and Wells. The firm produced hundreds of titles and editions and, literally, thousands of copies of phrenological texts, and also sold charts, sets of cranial casts, and the famous symbolical heads. In addition to their mercantile ventures, the Fowlers were educators, training an army of phrenologists and supplying them with the tools of their trade’ (from ‘Talking Heads Phrenology at the Countway Library of Medicine’ - an on-line exhibition by Harvard University Medical Library).

Samuel R. Wells died in 1875, following some economic reverses, and the Fowler and Wells publishing house went out of existence in the early 20th century.

OCLC: 2743093 and 29164910.

 

  136.  WHISTON, William. HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF DR. SAMUEL CLARKE. Being a supplement to Dr. Sykes’s and Bishop Hoadley’s Accounts. Including certain memoirs of several of Dr. Clarke’s friends. ... London, Sold by Fletcher Gyles ... 1730. 8vo, pp. 191, [3] A catalogue of the works of the Reverend Dr Samuel Clarke, [4] A Compleat Chronological Catalogue of Mr Whiston’s Writings, [2] Proposal for printing by subscription; first leaf of text a little soiled, some occasional light marginal soiling throughout, with several neat pencil markings in margins, otherwise clean and crisp; sympathetically rebound in modern calf-backed marbled boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, with red morocco label lettered in gilt.     £575

First edition of this primary biographical source for the noted mathematician and natural philosopher Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) and which includes a list of his works. Whiston’s title refers to Syke’s Elogium of Clarke in the Present state of the republick of letters for July 1729, and an ‘Account’ given by Benjamin Hoadley as a preface to Clarke’s Sermons.

Both Whiston and Clarke were associates and ardent supporters of Newton. Clarke is probably best remembered for his correspondence with Leibnitz in defence of Newtonian theory. Whiston (1667-1752) graduated MA at Cambridge in 1693 and was later elected a fellow of Clare Hall. Newton thought highly of Whiston and arranged for him to succeed him as Lucasian professor in 1703, although he was later thrown out for his Unitarian religious views.

 

  137.  [WHITING, Sydney]. MEMOIRS OF A STOMACH Written by Himself, that All who Eat may Read. Edited by a Minister of the Interior. Fourth Edition. (Revised with Additions). [London:] Published by Chapman and Hall ... and Sold by All Booksellers. [N.d., but 1854?]. 8vo, pp. [ii] engraved frontispiece, xvi, [9]-135, [1] blank, [6] publisher’s advertisements; with engraved title-page vignette; light soiling and foxing throughout; uncut in original blind-stamped green cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt; head and tail of spine and corners expertly repaired and refurbished. £200

Fourth edition (first 1853) of this extremely popular and light-hearted examination of diet and health, and an interesting example of medical anthropomorphism. This edition is slightly changed from earlier editions, ommitting the two poems 'To Julia' and including a new poem 'The Stomach to Ilia' and a song 'Columbine May-Day' (for which, apparently, music was available!).

This entertaining little monograph, written in informal style, nevertheless contains the medical facts in the notes to the text. Included within this 'autobiography' of the author the stomach, there is a play entitled 'The Doctor and the Patient' (which includes a number of prescriptions and a meeting between Allopathist and Homoeopathist); two further poems ('The Poet and the Stomach', and 'Love's Astronomy'); and 'Rules for Special Practice in the Court of Health'.

The stomach considers that "I hold a superior position to my helpmate Mr. Brain; for ... if he separated the good from the bad, and digested all matters which he receives as thoroughly as I do, he would have a greater right to look down upon me than he has at present" (‘Author’s preface’).

See Simon Gastronomia 1035 (7th edition); The work was translated into both French and German; OCLC: 57291988 cites three copies of this edition at Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins and Cambridge.

 

Planetary Orbits

  138.  WIJKSTROM, Andreas and Samuel KLINGENSTIERNA, praes. METHODUS GEOMETRICA DETERMINANDI ORBITAS PLANETARUM ... praeside ... Samuele Klingenstierna .... Specimine Academico, Publice Examinandam Sistit stipendiarius regius Andreas Wikström. In Audit. Carol. Majori D. XIX Aprilis Anni MDCCXLIX. Upsaliæ [1749]. 4to, pp. [vi], 28; with attractive woodcut head-piece and initials, and textual diagrams; lightly foxed; with paper backstrip.   £185

Rare dissertation analysing the various geometrical methods to determine planetary orbits completed by Anders Wijkström (1726-1763) at Uppsala University under the supervision of Samuel Klingenstierna (1698-1765), who, as professor of geometry "contributed decisively to the development of teaching and research in mathematics and physics at Uppsala" (DSB). In particular, Wijkström discusses the work of Brahe, Kepler and Newton.

Houzeau-Lancaster 11951; Not on OCLC; KVK cites a copy at the British Library.

 

 

                                 

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