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CATALOGUE 45


NIGEL PHILLIPS The Cart House Paddock Field Chilbolton Hampshire SO20 6AU England

Antiquarian Books

(Member: A.B.A. & I.L.A.B.) Telephone: (+44) or (0) 1264 861186 Fax: (+44) or (0) 1264 860269 E-mail: nigel@nigelphillips.com Website: www.nigelphillips.com

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CATALOGUE 45 This catalogue is also available digitally as a PDF file. Further illustrations can also be seen on the website.

The cover illustration is taken from Item 34, Englefield. Even the topographical plates in this fine book show the geological features in great detail.

Š Nigel Phillips 2016


1.

ACCADEMIA DEL CIMENTO. Saggi di Naturali Esperienze. Terza edizione Fiorentina preceduta da notizie storiche dell’Accademia stessa e seguitata da alcune aggiunte. Firenze: dai Torchi della Tipografia Galileiana, 1841. Small folio, 3 leaves, pp. (3)–133, 2 leaves, pp. 183, vii, (ii), (ix)–xc, and 22 stilted engraved plates. Original cloth-backed printed boards, paper label on spine, uncut. Joints almost imperceptibly repaired, some minor foxing, an excellent copy. Inscribed on the front free endpaper, copy no. 186 presented to Dott. Marco Aurelio Guzzoni. £600 The best edition of the only publication of the Accademia del Cimento, in effect the first report ever published from what we would now call a research laboratory — the Accademia del Cimento [Academy of Experiment], founded in Florence in 1657, before the formal foundation of either the Royal Society or the Académie des Sciences. Two of its founder members, Viviani and Torricelli, were disciples of Galileo; others included Borelli, Steno, Redi and Cassini. The text was written by Count Lorenzo Magalotti, and includes accounts of experiments on temperature and air pressure (including Torricelli’s invention of the barometer), the velocity of sound and light, phosphorescence, magnetism, amber and other electrical bodies, the freezing of water, etc. Carlo & Favaro 815. Wolf, History of science, I, pp. 55–59. See Dibner 82 and Norman Catalogue 485 for the first edition of 1667. This finely produced edition has an extensive history of the Accademia del Cimento by Vincenzo Antinori and additional notes at the end by G. Gazzeri.

2.

ACCUM, Frederick. A Practical Treatise on Gas-Light; exhibiting a summary description of the apparatus and machinery best calculated for illuminating streets, houses, and manufactories, with carburetted hydrogen, or coal-gas: with remarks on the utility, safety, and general nature of this new branch of civil economy. London: printed by G. Hayden…for R. Ackermann… 1818. 8vo, 1 leaf, pp iii, (i) blank, v, (i), 186p, and 7 hand-coloured engraved plates (2 folding, and plate 1 bound as a frontispiece). Also 4 pages of adverts for Ackermann’s books inserted at the end. Original drab boards, uncut. Boards worn at ends of spine and upper joint cracked, corners a little worn, but a fresh and clean copy. £1500 FIRST EDITION of the classic book on gas-light technology, and in its own way one of the defining books of Regency England. It was “the first book to describe and widely influence the production and distribution of gas for illumination” (David L. DiLaura in J.H. Lambert, Photometry, 2001). Frederick Accum was a chemist by profession, but in about 1810 he became involved with the publisher Rudolph Ackermann, who was active in the promotion of various artistic and scientific projects to introduce into England the illumination of towns by gas. It is widely acknowledged that this book, published by Ackermann, was essentially responsible for the prompt adoption of this mode of lighting in London and other large cities. Of the seven rather beautiful hand-coloured plates, four show machinery and three various light fixtures and chandeliers. Partington III, 827: “His chief work was in founding the gas industry…”

3.

ANDERSON BROTHERS. The Velocipede; with instructions how to learn it, and illustrations of two and three wheelers, and a short descriptive account of its usefulness as an easy mode of locomotion. Published by Anderson Brothers, Velocipede manufacturers, 93 Stockwell Street, Glasgow. April, 1869. Small 8vo, 1 leaf (half-title), pp. 22, (2) adverts, 1 leaf (blank). With 4 woodcut illustrations in the text, and a woodcut of Anderson Brothers’ premises on the advert leaf. Original printed yellow wrappers. Some spotting, spine of wrappers worn, upper wrapper a bit soiled, lower corner of lower wrapper missing through rodent damage but not touching the lettering (an advertisement for Anderson Brothers), also just affecting lower corners of the last two leaves. £750 continued... 1


Item 2, Accum

FIRST EDITION (?) of one of the earliest British works on the bicycle. It was preceded by a 20-page booklet in 1868, and there were several other publications on the bicycle in 1869 in England, France and Germany. This work, however, appears to be unrecorded, no copy appearing in COPAC. The title above is taken from the upper wrapper; the half-title and caption title read “The velocipede: and how to use it”, and COPAC records a copy of this title, but it is a different work, being published in London and having 20 numbered pages. The text includes instructions for riding a bicycle, models available, and accounts of recent bicycling events, including one of riders who were stoned as they passed through Birmingham on their newfangled machines.

4.

ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS. Resolutions of the Associated Architects; with the Report of a Committee by them appointed to consider the causes of the frequent Fires, and the best means of preventing the like in future. [No place, printer or date; London: Society of Architects, 1793.] 8vo, pp. (iv), iii, (4)–31. Original wrappers (spine torn and worn), uncut and largely unopened. £250 FIRST EDITION. The Association of Architects in London was formed in 1792 for the purpose of examining the cause of the frequent house fires, which spread rapidly as the floors were wooden and party walls were usually made of lath and plaster. The Association’s recommendation was the extensive use of plaster as a bedding for the floors in upper storeys, which would be an efficient retardant. This method was adopted in the repairs carried out to the numerous properties owned by the Duke of Bedford.

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5.

BABBAGE, Charles. A Comparative View of the various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives. London: Printed for J. Mawman...and sold by J. Booth... 1826. 8vo, pp. xxxi, 170, (27), 1 leaf (imprint), 1 folding letterpress table. Original(?) mauve cloth, partly faded to brown, unlettered. Tear at top and bottom of upper joint, a little spotting in signature I, otherwise a nice, clean copy. Signature of Joseph March, 1832, on front endpaper. £1800 FIRST EDITION of Babbage’s first substantial published work, the first thorough treatise on actuarial theory, complete with folding table of mortality statistics, generally considered the first reliable life table. Babbage was a founder member of the statistical section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1832. “Babbage was offered the position of director and actuary of the fledgeling Protector Life Assurance Company with the prospect of an annual income of £2500, a substantial improvement on his father's grudging allowance. He spent several months studying the life assurance business and computed a new set of life tables. The venture was abandoned the day before its scheduled launch on 1 July 1824. Babbage used his actuarial knowledge as the basis for a small popular work, A Comparative View of the Various Institutions for the Assurance of Lives (1826). The book was not intended for the professional actuary but for the general populace unwary of the pitfalls of conveniently misrepresented benefits. It was, at least in part, a work of consumer protection with Babbage self-cast as champion of the exposé” (ODNB). Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace, 36.

6.

BARRY, Martin. Researches in Embryology. (First series.) From the Philosophical Transactions.—Part II. for 1838. [And:] Researches in Embryology. (Second series.) From the Philosophical Transactions.—Part II. for 1839. London: Printed by R. and J.E. Taylor... 1839. 2 volumes, large 4to, 1 leaf, pp. 301–341, and 4 stipple-engraved plates with 4 engraved leaves of key letters; 1 leaf, pp. 307–380, 1 leaf (blank), 4 plates, all from drawings by the author. Original blue wrappers (slight damage to the spine of the First Series), fine, fresh copies, in original buff paper slipcases (dust-soiled and worn on the spines), printed paper label on the wrappers and slipcases. Presentation copies, the First Series to Prof. Herbert Mayo FRS and the Second Series to Francis Kiernan FRS, both inscribed on the title-page in the same hand “...With the Author’s respects.” £200 OFFPRINTS of two of the three parts of the series (the third was published in 1840). “In this three-part series Barry tried to follow the history of the mammalian ovum from its first appearance within the ovary through its early stages of development. His numerous observations (mostly on rabbits) resulted in a series of descriptions and illustrations (drawn by himself) that give a good account of that development. “Barry made two notable embryological observations: the segmentation of the yolk in the fertilized mammalian ovum and the penetration of the spermatozoon into the mammalian ovum. In 1839 he pictured the two-, four-, eight-, and sixteen-cell stages in mammals and described as similar to a mulberry that stage which Ernst Haeckel later named the morula. Barry concluded that the process he described in the mammal was similar to that already recognized in fishes and barachians, thus strengthening his belief in the unity of the animal world” (DSB).

7. BAUMÉ, [Antoine]. Manuel de Chymie, ou exposé des opérations et des produits d’un cours de chymie. Ouvrage utile aux personnes qui veulent suivre un cours de cette science, ou qui ont dessein de se former un cabinet de chymie. A Paris: Chez Didot [etc.], 1763. Small 8vo, pp. xii, 495, (1). Long manuscript commendatory note about Baumé’s Chimie expérimentale et raisonnée on verso of title with some show-through, diminishing brown stain in upper corner of first 20 leaves, ink stain in lower margin of last page. Near-contemporary half continued... 3


sheep, spine gilt with red label. Two old inscriptions on title-page, including “Blanchard ainé” (deleted) in lower margin. £950 FIRST EDITION of a very scarce and popular book; there were several later editions in French, and translations into German, Italian, and English. “A compact introductory and review textbook covering the basis of all of the principal operations of chemistry and the substances treated therein” (Cole). Baumé (1728–1804) was one of the leading apothecaries of Paris and manufactured drugs and other chemicals in large quantities. His researches “cover almost the whole field of chemistry, and they were not confined to the science itself, but extended to chemical technology and to the application of the science to manufactures” (Ferguson). Cole 54. DSB, I, p. 527. Ferguson, I, p. 84. Neville I, p. 97 (“Rare”). Partington, III, pp. 90–95.

8. BAYEN, [Pierre] and [Louis Martin] CHARLARD. Recherches Chimiques sur l’Étain, faites et publiées par Ordre du Gouvernement; ou réponse a cette question: Peut-on sans aucun danger employer les Vaisseaux d'Etain dans l'usage économique? A Paris: De l’Imprimerie de Philippe-Denys Pierres, 1781. 8vo, pp. viii, 285. Contemporary blue boards, spine ruled in gilt (edges rubbed, tips of corners and head of spine slightly worn). £850 FIRST EDITION. “This government-ordered study was undertaken to determine whether tin from various sources contains arsenic in large enough amounts to make the use of vessels of tin harmful to health. Bayen and Charlard (Rouelle had been named to work with them but he died before the work began) repeated the experiments of Marggraf and added new ones. Their conclusion was that tin contained no arsenic or only minute harmless traces. In the course of the many experiments the nature and reactions of tin were examined in detail. The Avant-Propos contains a history of tin” (Cole). Bayen (1725–1798) was one of the first to doubt the phlogiston theory and performed noteworthy experiments on calcination; he is considered a forerunner of Lavoisier. Cole 64. DSB, I, pp. 529–530. Duveen, p. 54. Neville I, p. 101: “A classic work...” Partington, III, pp. 394–399.

9. BEAUFOY, Colonel Mark. Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with numerous scientific miscellanies. Vol. I [all published]. London: Printed at the private press of Henry Beaufoy, F.R.S., May 1834. Large 4to, 4 leaves, pp. cxix, (1), 688, stipple-engraved frontispiece silhouette portrait, 16 engraved plates and 8 double-page tables. Including the initial engraved presentation leaf, inscribed in this copy to Count Pozzo de Borgo. Original green patterned cloth (small tear on upper cover), paper label on spine, uncut and unopened. Inner hinges a little shaky and some foxing on the plates, but a very nice copy. Well printed on good paper at the private press of the author's son. £650 FIRST EDITION. Between 1793 and 1798 Beaufoy undertook pioneer researches on the resistance of bodies in water. “Not only did Beaufoy investigate the individual effects of head form, tail form, length, and surface area, but his measurements were sufficiently precise for him to conclude that, as the velocity increased, ‘friction always increases in a much less ratio [from 1.71 to 1.82] than the duplicate ratio’ ” (Rouse & Ince, History of hydraulics, p. 129). Beaufoy’s experiments produced many useful results in shipbuilding, as well as the first practical verification in England of Euler’s theorem of resistance of fluids. He was a founder of the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture (the first such body to exist), and also the first Englishman to climb Mont Blanc. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca mechanica, 28.

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10. BECKMANN, Johann. A History of Inventions and Discoveries. Translated from the German, by William Johnston. London: Printed for J. Bell... 1797. 4 volumes, 8vo, 1 leaf, pp. ii (contents), (v)–xii, 488; 2 leaves, pp. 443; 2 leaves, pp. 491. Contemporary mottled calf, flat spines gilt with green morocco labels. A fine and fresh set. Old stamp of a Scottish library on front pastedowns. £750 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of the first reliable history of inventions and discoveries. It was not designed as a complete history of technology (a term coined by Beckmann), but rather as a collection of historical descriptions of individual inventions. The text, written in a very readable style, is supplied with numerous full and accurate references in the footnotes, which has ensured the book’s historical value to the present day.

11. BENNET, Rev. A[braham]. New Experiments on Electricity, wherein the causes of thunder and lightning as well as the constant state of positive or negative electricity in the air or clouds, are explained; ... Also a description of a doubler of electricity... Derby: John Drewry, 1789. 8vo, 2 leaves, pp. (vi) list of subscribers, (v)-xvii, 18–141, folding engraved frontispiece and 3 folding plates. Contemporary half calf, marbled sides, brown morocco label on spine. Label chipped, short cracks at ends of upper joint, tips of corners slightly worn, a little offsetting from the frontispiece, but a nice, fresh copy. £1250 FIRST EDITION. Bennet was the inventor of the gold-leaf electroscope which bears his name (first described in the Phil. Trans.), “which is considered the most sensitive and the most important of all known instruments for detecting the presence of electricity” (Mottelay). He also invented the electrical doubler, designed to increase small quantities of electricity by continually doubling them, a process mechanised in 1788 by the natural philosopher William Nicholson using a winch to turn a metal disc round a central metal ball. Bennet claimed he had been on the point of mechanising his own apparatus when Nicholson announced his scheme to the Royal Society. Bennet was also the first to observe the contact electrification of metals. Wheeler Gift 552. This is apparently the only edition of his only book. Bennet was the curate of Wirksworth in Derbyshire, and was elected FRS in the year in which this book was published.

12. BERGMAN, Torbern. Opuscules Chymiques et Physiques. Recueillis, revus et augmentés par lui-même. Traduits par M. de Morveau, avec des notes. A Dijon: Chez L.N. Frantin, Imprimeur du Roi. 1780 [–1785]. 2 volumes, 8vo, 8 leaves, pp. xxxi, (i), 446, (2), 1 folding letterpress table, 2 folding engraved plates; 3 leaves, pp. iii–xvi, 525, (1), 1 leaf (errata), 2 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf (neat repairs to spines and tips of corners), spines gilt in compartments with two red morocco labels, marbled endpapers, red edges. Bookplates of Thomas Hun. £900 FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH of the first two volumes of Bergman’s Opuscula physica et chemica. The translation was nominally by Guyton de Morveau, but according to Partington it was actually done by Mme. Picardet supervised by Guyton, with the approval of Bergman, who supplied a large number of corrections and additions. Guyton himself added an introduction to each volume and a large number of long and valuable notes. Guyton discontinued the translation on the death of Bergman in 1784. Cole 104. Duveen pp. 66–67. Neville I, pp. 124–125. Partington III, p. 183, calling the second volume “very rare”. Sinkankas 578 (not seen).

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13. BERGMAN, Torbern. Traité des Affinités Chymiques, ou attractions électives; traduit du Latin, sur la derniere édition de Bergman. Augmenté d’un supplément & de notes. A Paris: Chez Buisson,... 1788. 8vo, pp. (viii), 444, 1 leaf (approbation by Fourcroy and privilege), 1 leaf (blank), 3 large folding letterpress tables and 4 folding engraved plates. Short tears in lower margin of A8, heading at top of plate 3 shaved but legible. Contemporary pale mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, marbled edges and endpapers, a fine copy. Small paper label of Fabroni on title-page, probably the Italian chemist Giovanni Fabroni (1752–1822). £800 FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH of Bergman’s book on elective affinity, one of his most important contributions to chemistry. He was the first to draw up tables of chemical affinity between two substances, one for wet and another for dry reactions. “Bergman was the first to recognise the effect of heat on chemical affinities and in his work he gives tables of affinities which are still recognized as being substantially correct and complete. He was also the first to introduce the idea of double affinity” (Duveen). The French edition contains a supplement and very extensive notes by the translator, François Joseph Bonjour (1754–1811), who was Berthollet’s assistant. The notes are antiphlogistic in nature and include unpublished material by Berthollet. Cole 98. Duveen p. 67. Neville I, p. 127. Partington III, p. 184, J(c).

14. BERZELIUS, Jöns Jacob. Théorie des Proportions Chimiques, et table synoptique des poids atomiques des corps simples, et de leurs combinaisons les plus importantes. Paris: Firmin Didot Bros. & J.B. Baillière, 1835. 8vo, 2 leaves, 477 pages. Original printed wrappers (spine & upper wrappers somewhat chipped, some dampstaining and light browning), uncut. £325 Second edition. “The revised, corrected, greatly enlarged, and final French edition of this important work, in which the table of atomic and molecular weights is considerably augmented. Very scarce” (Neville). The first edition of this book (Paris, 1819) presented Berzelius’s electrochemical (or dualistic) theory, which dominated the chemical world for many years. The table presented in the first edition, and here greatly enlarged, was the first attempt at a complete list of atomic weights. Neville, I, p. 147.

15. BERZELIUS, Jöns Jacob. De l’Emploi du Chalumeau dans les Analyses chimiques et les Déterminations minéralogiques. Traduit du Suedois par F. Fresnel. Édité par Méquignon-Marvis père. Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1842. 8vo, 2 leaves, 396 pages, 4 folding engraved plates. Contemporary polished green sheep-backed marbled boards, flat spine nicely gilt. A fine and attractive copy. £325 A later edition in French (1st edition, in Swedish: 1820) of this very scarce and famous work in which Berzelius describes the use of the blowpipe in chemistry and mineralogy. “The scientific apparatus and reagents available in Sweden when Berzelius began his work were very inadequate... The new forms of apparatus that he built were described in the various editions of his textbook and became standard pieces of equipment in laboratories all over the world. He was especially skillful in the use of the blowpipe, which had been developed in the Scandinavian countries. He utilized it in many of his analytical procedures, and the book that he wrote concerning it popularized its use abroad” (DSB, II, p. 93). The apparatus which Berzelius developed allowed him to greatly improve the accuracy of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and he introduced many new methods. Partington, IV, pp. 146–149.

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Medical Endorsement of Harvey 16. BEVERWYCK, Jan van. De Calculo Renum & Vesicae liber singularis. Cum epistolis & consultationibus magnorum virorum. Lugd. Batav. [Leiden]: Ex Officina Elseviriorum, 1638. 12mo, pp. (xvi), 305, (15). Contemporary calf, spine gilt with red morocco label (spine and corners neatly repaired), marbled endpapers. Small area of leather on lower cover pitted, a little foxing, but a very good copy. £1600 FIRST EDITION. The first part of this book (pp. 1–208) contains Beverwyck’s treatise on calculi in the kidney and bladder. The second part (pp. 209–305) contains letters addressed by Beverwyck to some prominent physicians whom he consulted on that subject, with their replies, followed by several consilia by Santorio, Spiegel, Horst, et al. Beverwyck, physician and professor of medicine at Dordrecht and a relative of Vesalius, wrote a letter to William Harvey at the end of 1637, in which he expressed his admiration for Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood. At the same time he sent him a copy of the present book, which is one of the first medical treatises to contain an endorsement of Harvey’s discovery. The passage in question is found on pp. 20–24. It is discussed by Walter Pagel (William Harvey’s Biologica Ideas, New York, 1967), who reproduces the title-page of this book and two pages of the passage on Harvey. It escaped the notice of Dr. Ernst Weil when he compiled “The Echo of Harvey’s De Motu Cordis, 1628 to 1657” (J. Hist. Med., XII, April 1957). Keynes’s “The Reception of Harvey’s Doctrine during his Lifetime, 1628–1657” (based on Weil), in his Life of William Harvey (1966), pp. 271–273 and 452, and Bibliography, p. 121, lists the 1644 edition, and discusses the book, but is apparently unaware that Beverwyck’s letter appeared in this first edition. Harvey replied to Beverwyck in a long letter which included praise for the De Calculo Renum. Kiefer catalogue 59. Willems, Les Elzevier, 463.

17. BLANCHARD, [Jean Pierre]. Journal and Certificates on the Fourth Voyage of Mr. Blanchard, who ascended from the Royal Military Academy, at Chelsea, the 16th October, 1784, at 9 minutes past twelve o‘clock, and was accompanied, as far as Sunbury, by John Sheldon, Esq. Professor of Anatomy, and Fellow of the Royal Society; and, from Sunbury, continued his voyage, alone, to Rumsey, in Hampshire. London: Printed for the Author, by Baker and Galabin... 1784. 4to, 4 + 29 pages. Title a little soiled and with a small hole in the fore-edge margin. Later blue wrappers, spine of wrappers and lower corners of paper worn. Signed by Blanchard at the end of the dedication. £3200 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, printed in the same year by the same printers and for the same booksellers as the first edition in French. This English edition is dated 27 November at the end of the dedication; the French edition is dated “Ce Novembre”. Blanchard was one of the most celebrated of the early aeronauts. The present account is of his fourth aerial voyage, from Chelsea to Romsey, a distance of about 75 miles. In this he was accompanied by the English surgeon and anatomist John Sheldon (1752–1808). Sheldon had become much involved with early efforts at ballooning, making calculations about the gravity of the atmosphere and investigating materials for construction. He had attempted to make a balloon earlier in 1784. This voyage with Blanchard was his first ascent, but unfortunately the two had a violent argument while in the air, and so Sheldon alighted at Sunbury, while Blanchard proceeded alone to Romsey. This flight was made only two months after the first aerial voyage in England, by Lunardi. The following year Blanchard made the first balloon voyage across the English Channel with an American physician, Dr. J. Jeffries. He is also responsible for the introduction of the parachute as an adjunct to the balloon.

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18. BOERHAAVE, Hermann. Methodus Studii Medici emaculata & accessionibus locupletata ab Alberto ab Haller. Amsterdam: Jacob a Wetstein, 1751. [Bound with:] PEREBOOM, Cornelius. Index auctorum et rerum memorabilium Methodus Studii Medici Hermanni Boerhaave... Leiden: Jacob a Wetstein, 1759. 2 volumes and the index in 1 volume, 4to, pp. (xviii), 572, engraved frontispiece by Wandelaar and 3 folding plates; 2 leaves, pp. 573–1118, (6) errata; 48. Two half-titles, two titles printed in red and black, woodcut ornaments. Contemporary calf, neatly rebacked preserving the original gilt spine (but the gilt rubbed), new morocco label, corners neatly repaired, red edges. Fore-edge of upper board rubbed, and paper slightly browned, but a good copy. £750 First edition of this title, an important work in medical history and bibliography. Boerhaave’s introduction to medical literature, Methodus discendi medicinam, 1726, is here completely re-worked and much improved and enlarged by his pupil Albrecht von Haller. The classified bibliography of medical books has been brought up from the original 500 to about 10,000 titles, and “is remarkable for those sententious critical aperçus for which Haller is so justly famous” (Garrison). The usefulness of this enormous publication is greatly enhanced by the addition of Pereboom’s index of authors and subjects which appeared several years later and is seldom found with the main work. See G&M 6746: “The edition of 1751, including the additions of Haller, is the best.” Fulton, The great medical bibliographers, p. 60. Lindeboom, Bibliographia Boerhaaviana, 98 and 101. Osler 1116.

19.

“Bonomo's Beautiful Discovery” BONOMO, Giovanni Cosimo. Osservazioni intorno a’ Pellicelli del Corpo Umano... con altre osservazioni scritte in una lettera all’ Illustriss. Sig. Francesco Redi. In Firenze: Per Piero Matini... 1687. 4to, 1 leaf, 16 pages, 1 leaf (blank), 1 engraved plate. Modern soft boards in the style of Italian carta rustica. £2800 FIRST EDITION. The first clinical and experimental proof of infection by a microparasite. Bonomo, a pupil of Redi, observed the scabies mite, which at that time was thought to be a consequence, not a cause, of the disease. With the aid of the microscope, Bonomo, in collaboration with Giacinto Cestoni, “was able to show that the scabies mite reproduces by laying eggs, and that it possesses mouth parts with which it penetrates the skin. The success of local therapies aimed at killing the mites enabled Bonomo to conclude that they were the cause of scabies, and that they transmitted the disease from scabies victims to healthy people — the first clinical and experimental proof of a ‘live’ infection” (Norman). G&M 2529.1 (microbiology) and 4012 (dermatology). Norman Catalogue 265. Pusey, History of dermatology, pp. 44–45: “There is hardly a more interesting document in dermatology than Bonomo’s letter...” Foster, A history of medical bacteriology and immunology, pp. 2–4: “Bonomo's beautiful discovery...”

First Book on the Laws of Percussion 20. BORELLI, Giovanni Alphonso. De Vi Percussionis Liber... Bononiae [Bologna]: Ex Typographia Jacobi Montii. 1667. 4to, pp. (xii), 300, 30, (2) errata and imprimatur, and 5 engraved plates with numerous figures. Small area of half-title very well restored, short tear in fore-edge margin of following two leaves carefully repaired, pale dampstain almost throughout, otherwise a very clean copy. Contemporary limp vellum, a bit marked. Signature of Richard Short, Rome, on title-page (probably the book’s first owner); Macclesfield bookplate on front pastedown and blindstamp at top of title-page. £3200 continued... 8


FIRST EDITION. The first book on the laws of percussion, and an important work on the subject, containing the first exposition of the theory of the percussion of solids. Borelli also gives the name ‘resilience’, probably for the first time, to a number of problems now classed under that name. In his introduction he deals at length with Galileo’s theory of impact. As well as a detailed discussion of impact, the book also deals with the dynamics of falling bodies, vibration, gravity, fluid mechanics, and pendular motion. Chapter XXV, pp. 185–188, deals with the attractive force of the magnet. Borelli’s wide-ranging studies in mechanics were the prelude to his important wok in biomechanics. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca mechanica, pp. 41–42. Cinti 147.

Photometry 21. BOUGUER, [Pierre]. Essai d’Optique sur la Gradation de la Lumiere. A Paris: Chez Claude Jombert... 1729. 12mo, 12 leaves (including the first blank), 164 pages, 2 leaves, and 3 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf (upper joint cracked but firm, tips of upper corners worn), spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label, red edges, marbled endpapers. £2800 FIRST EDITION of the book which “clearly establishes Bouguer as the discoverer of the first practical way of measuring light, as well as nearly all the usual photometric theory. In particular it sets out the exponential law of attenuation of light in transparent media, a law which is frequently attributed to Lambert or even to Beer” (Middleton). “In the latter part of the Essai, Bouguer published the second of his great optical discoveries, often called Bouguer’s law: In a medium of uniform transparency the light remaining in a collimated beam is an exponential function of the length of its path in the medium. This law was restated by J.H. Lambert in his Photometria (1760) and, perhaps because of the great rarity of copies of Bouguer’s Essai, is sometimes unjustifiably referred to as Lambert’s law” (Middleton in DSB). The Essai is considerably rarer than the extended version which was posthumously published by La Caille under the title Traité d’Optique in 1760. As well as W.E. Knowles Middleton’s article on Bouguer in the DSB, see also his “Note on the Invention of Photometry” in Amer. J. of Physics, 31 (1963), pp. 177–181.

First Chemical Dictionary to be Published After the Discoveries of Lavoisier 22. CADET DE GASSICOURT, Charles-Louis. Dictionnaire de Chimie, contenant la théorie et la pratique de cette science, son application a l’histoire naturelle et aux arts. A Paris: Imprimerie de Chaignieau ainé. An XI. — 1803. 4 volumes, 8vo, pp. cc, 448, 1 folding engraved plate; 560, 3 folding plates; 726, 1 folding plate; 607, 1 folding plate. Half-titles. Contemporary tree calf, flat spines richly gilt with two green morocco labels, orange endpapers. A little foxing, tips of some corners worn, but a very nice set. Signature of D’Hargevillier(?) on titles. £1200 FIRST EDITION of the first chemical dictionary to be published after the discoveries of Lavoisier. “As a scientist Cadet is noteworthy for his part in the diffusion and popularization of the New Chemistry rather than for any specific discovery. His most important work, the four-volume Dictionnaire de Chimie, published in 1803 and dedicated to Fourcroy, replaced the old chemical dictionary of Macquer. Cadet’s Dictionnaire clearly elucidated the revolutionary changes that had occurred in chemistry and in chemical nomenclature” (DSB, III, p. 6). At the end is a large index and an extensive bibliography of works cited in the text. The plates depict chemical apparatus. This was the only French edition. Cole 227. Neville I, p. 233.

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Printed in Mauritius
 Superb Lithographs of Sugar Canes 23. CALDWELL, James. Report on [Sugar Canes in] New Caledonia. [No place, publisher or date; ?Vacoas (Mauritius): 1871?.] [Manuscript title on the upper wrapper:] Sugar Canes collected in New Caledonia in 1869, 1870 for the Colony of Mauritius by J. Caldwell. Drawn from nature and on stone, and painted by Mad. M. de C. Moon. Printed by J. Caldwell. Vacoas [Mauritius]: 1873. 4to, 11 pages, and 44 very fine lithographed plates of sugar canes numbered and captioned in manuscript and signed by the artist and lithographer M. de C. Moon. Caption title. Original buff wrappers (dust soiled, spine torn and stitching loose), title in manuscript on the upper wrapper. Small stain on plate 32, otherwise in fine and fresh condition, preserved in a quarter morocco solander box. Inscribed in the upper corner in the same hand as the title: “Lady Stevenson”. £12,500 SOLE EDITION of this extremely rare and finely illustrated work on the varieties of sugar cane cultivated on New Caledonia, an archipelago belonging to France 750 miles east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. The sugar crisis of 1860 in the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, caused by a world-wide fall in the price of sugar and the ravages of a cane disease, motivated thousands of sugar workers and planters to migrate to the much larger Pacific island of New Caledonia. Judging by Caldwell’s observations contained in the text, the sugar supply in New Caledonia, although one of its principal foodstuffs, was barely sufficient for the local requirements (cannibalism sometimes making up nutritional deficits). Caldwell seems to have been sent by the government of Mauritius to study the sugar industry there and bring back specimens of each variety (Mauritius had thriving sugar plantations at that time). Unable to obtain any local information on the varieties of sugar cane growing on the islands, Caldwell set about the task for himself. In his report — the present work — Caldwell reviews the history of New Caledonia from about 1840 and the state of the sugar industry, which was at the time “on a very small scale,” with only one working sugar house. He describes the enormous difficulties experienced — drought, lack of capital, devastation caused by swarms of locusts, inadequate labor, etc. — on the islands to grow and process cane. In the appendix (pages 9–11), he lists all the 44 varieties of canes that he collected for the government in Mauritius, with carefully observed details. Each is accompanied by an exquisite lithographed illustration, finely hand-coloured and captioned in manuscript. For these illustrations he engaged Mrs. Maley de C. Moon, his companion and a resident of New Caledonia, to execute the original paintings and prepare them for lithography. Mrs. Moon was a botanical artist whose “talent for drawing is quite remarkable”, producing “exquisite drawings of island flowers” (Cheke & Hume, Lost land of the dodo, 2008, quoting Pfeiffer, 1861). Mrs. Moon’s husband William had died in 1862, and thereafter she associated with James Caldwell, travelling with him to islands in the Indian Ocean, New Caledonia, Australia and India, where she died in 1880. Lady Stevenson, to whom this copy was evidently presented, was presumably the widow of Sir William Stevenson, the governor-general of Mauritius between 1857 and 1863. We have located five other copies (National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales, Alexander Turnbull Library, Kew, and the Natural History Museum, London). All of them seem to lack a complete set of the lithographed plates (the Alexander Turnbull Library has only twelve plates and the copy at Kew is accompanied by original drawings; the other located copies seem to have no plates). As the copy at the Mitchell Library of the State Library of New South bears a note stating that they received the 11-page pamphlet on the 24th April 1871, and the inscription on the wrapper of the present copy indicates that the plates were printed in 1873, it would appear that the text and plates were printed two years apart.

24. CARRINGTON, Richard Christopher. Observations of the Spots on the Sun from November 9, 1853, to March 24, 1861, made at Redhill. London: Williams and Norgate... 1863. continued... 10


Large 4to, 1 leaf, 248 pages, 1 leaf, and 168 plates (including 4 double-page and plates 102A & B). Original brown cloth, minor wear to ends of spine and small tear at ends of upper joint. A few spots here and there, and a few neat MS annotations, but a nice copy. £850 FIRST EDITION. The first systematic investigation of the drift of spots over the sun’s surface, and the most important book on the subject. “Carrington is better remembered by posterity, however, for his pioneering investigations of the motions of sunspots. While his observatory at Redhill was in the course of construction, he... was struck by the scarcity of systematic solar observations. Since he was well aware that no public observatory was then occupied with work of this nature, he resolved to remedy the observational deficiency by ‘close and methodical research’... His Observations of the spots on the sun, a ponderous quarto volume, was published in 1863 with the aid of Royal Society funds. In this book he determined the position of the sun’s axis with unprecedented accuracy and established the important empirical laws of sunspot distribution and the variation in solar rotation as functions of the heliocentric latitude, which served to revolutionize ideas on solar physics just as effectively as the results of spectrum analysis” (DSB). Clerke, A popular history of astronomy, pp. 144–148. Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1853–1861.

25. CAVALLO, Tiberius. A Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air, and other permanently elastic fluids. To which is prefixed, an introduction to chymistry. London: Printed for the author. 1781. 4to, pp. xii, 835, (9) index and errata, 3 folding plates of apparatus by Basire, 1 folding letterpress table. Gatherings N to P spotted, some foxing and browning elsewhere and some small stains. Good modern half calf antique. Eighteenth century annotations on 3 pages (one of which is somewhat soiled), the first of which gives details of the “Engine at Hawksbery” (a water pump), possibly Hawkesbury Hall, Warwickshire, occupied by the Parrott family who had been operating mines in the neighbourhood from at least 1721. £800 FIRST EDITION of Cavallo’s large treatise, published as a handsome quarto at his own expense, on the physics and composition of the atmosphere, “a judicious examination of contemporary work, particularly Priestley’s, presented from a nondogmatic phlogistic point of view” (DSB). He gives a short introductory course of chemistry, describes an improved air pump and eudiometer, and gives an account of some extensions of the experiment by Ingenhousz on the influence of light on the growth of plants, among much else. Cole 236. Duveen pp. 127–128. This was the only edition in English.

Life in the Deep Sea 26. CHIMMO, William. Bed of the Atlantic. From one sounding of 12,000 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean in latitude 47o north, longitude 23o west, are taken upwards of one hundred microscopic drawings of minute organisms; beautifully illustrating “In that great and wide sea are things creeping innumerable.” [No place, printer, publisher or date; London: J. Maltby & Sons, 1870.] 4to, pp. 40, (1) subscribers list, and 14 plates lithographed by Maltby from drawings by the author (7 of which have a black background). Contemporary blue half calf and blue cloth sides (crack in lower part of joints), the upper cover with an image of an Asterolampra (Bishopii) in gilt, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. A fine copy. A FAMILY COPY, inscribed on the front endpaper “Father’s Book / to Mary / from Mother / Westdown [Weymouth] / Xmas 1904.” £2800 SOLE EDITION of an extremely rare and pioneering work in oceanography. Commander William Chimmo, RN, commanded HMS Gannet from 1865–1868, and in 1868 was ordered by the Admiralty to define the northern limits of the Gulf Stream and to take soundings within those limits. Chimmo describes and illustrates in this book specimens brought up from 12,000 feet deep, which may have continued... 11


been the deepest specimens ever recovered at that time. In 1869 and 1870, HM Ships Porcupine and Lightning brought up specimens from 14,600 feet, as recounted by C. Wyville Thomson in his book The depths of the sea (London, 1873). Although Thomson covers the history of deep-sea sounding and dredging before the Challenger Expedition, he makes no mention of Chimmo. From 1956 to 1958 Chimmo, then a Captain, was secretary to the Hydrographer of the Admiralty. As a midshipman Chimmo had published Euryalus; Tales of the Sea (London, 1860), which included three consecutive voyages in search of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition. Included with this copy of Chimmo’s book are the following:
 1) 7 numbered leaves of pencil drawings, with captions in ink or pencil, which are probably Chimmo’s on-the-spot sketches, made while he was on the voyage. The drawings are quite rudimentary, but show his important initial jottings and impressions, which could later be developed in to the beautiful plates in his book. (Slight dampstaining to corner of some leaves.)
 2) A series of 9 autograph letters from the printer and publisher J.W. Maltby to Chimmo, dated February to April 1870, concerning his work for Chimmo on this book, discussing the plates, paper, binding, subscribers list, corrections, etc. The print run seems to have been 130 copies.
 3) Six copies of the prospectus for the book, 10 x 8 inches, a single sheet printed on one side only. The title is different, viz: “A Pictorial Illustration of Marine Life at Great Depths...”
 4) A part-printed note of thanks from the Royal Society for the receipt of their copy of the book, dated 25th March 1870.
 5) A similar receipt (chipped and dampstained) for Chimmo’s later work, Natural History of the Euplectella Aspergillum (Venus Flower Baskets), dated 12th April 1878.
 6) One of Chimmo’s specimens of the Venus Flower Basket, 9 inches high, standing in a contemporary filigree holder (broken) of silver or white metal, with wooden base. Chimmo dredged for these glass sponges off the Philippine Islands. The Venus Flower Basket was recently selected by Sir David Attenborough as one of the ten creatures that he would save from extinction (in his television programme Attenborough’s Ark), describing it as “among some of the most beautiful and...most remarkable organisms.”

Newton in America 27. COLDEN, Cadwallader. The Principles of Action in Matter, the Gravitation of Bodies, and the Motion of Planets, explained from those principles. London: Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall. 1751. 4to, pp. (xii), 215, 2 folding engraved plates. Modern half calf antique, fine copy. Inscribed at the top of the title “Hasely Court”, the home of James Muirhead and his wife Katherine, who was the daughter of James Watt Jr.’s business partner Matthew Robinson Boulton of Tew Park in Oxfordshire, and granddaughter of the great Matthew Boulton of Soho. £3600 FIRST COMPLETE EDITION. One of the first, if not the first, American books based on Newton’s works. It was the most ambitious scientific work attempted in the American colonies to date, and Colden’s major scientific effort. Conscious that Newton had admitted his inability to understand the cause of gravity, Colden furnishes his own explanation based on Newton’s theories. “Colden never realised that his work was in direct conflict with the laws of motion of the Principia, which he did not fully comprehend. He therefore resented being called an opponent of Newton and sought to apply his method to explanations of heat, fermentation, putrefaction, colors, and fertilization” (DSB). The first edition, consisting of the first two chapters only, was published in New York in 1745, and is a very great rarity — Babson recounts how Thomas Jefferson sought a copy with great difficulty, and perhaps in vain, as early as 1786. The London edition of 1746 was unauthorised and had the same content. In this, the third and last edition, the first two chapters are revised and the following chapters and the plates are published for the first time. Colden was born in Scotland but became a prominent American physician, historian and colonial official. Not in Babson, Gray or Wallis (Babson 47 has the London edition of 1746).

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28. COOKE, James. Mellificium Chirurgiae, or the marrow of many good authors enlarged: wherein is briefly, fully, and faithfully handled the art of chirurgery in its four parts... As also an appendix, wherein is methodically handled the cure of those affects usually happening at sea, and in camp, with other necessary to be known. To which is added new institutions, physical and chirurgical; Hyppocrates Aphorismes, sorted under several heads of diseases of the parts of the body... London: Printed by T.R. for John Sherley,... 1662. 2 parts in 1 volume, 12mo, 18 leaves, pp. 351, 509. Imprimatur leaf before the title, title within double ruled border. Short (2 cm.) tear in C*8 without loss, a few other short marginal tears, paper a little browned, and some other minor marks and stains. Contemporary calf, rebacked, no free endpapers. £1400 Second edition. A Civil War surgical manual, first published in 1648. The second and larger part contains The Art of Chirurgery, and the first part the Institutions and Aphorisms. Wing C6013. Russell, British Anatomy, 198. Blas Bruni Celli, Bibliografia Hipocrática, 820 and 821 (the part with the Institutions and the Aphorisms of Hippocrates did not appear in the first edition). The first two editions are rarely found; later editions were enlarged in format and provided with illustrations, and are more frequently seen, although many copies are in poor condition. See Parker, The early history of surgery in Great Britain, pp. 111–113: “...became a favourite textbook for surgery, midwifery, and therapeutics.”

29. DELAROCHE, François and Jacques Etienne BÉRARD. Mémoire sur la détermination de la chaleur spécifique des différens gaz. Extrait des Annales de Chimie; février 1813. [Paris:] H. Perronneau... 1813. 8vo, 2 leaves, 115 pages, 2 folding letterpress tables and 2 folding engraved plates of apparatus. Modern boards, original upper wrapper bound in, uncut and largely unopened. Half-title a bit creased and dust-soiled, some minor dust-soiling in margins. Presentation copy, inscribed on the upper wrapper “A Monsieur Professeur Prevost de la part de F. Delaroche.” Pierre Prévost (1751– 1839) was a Swiss physicist and philosopher, particularly noted for his work on radiated heat. £350 FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. In this prize-winning memoir Delaroche and Bérard suggested that there was a simple relationship between the specific heat of a compound gas and its chemical composition. To compare the specific heat of gases, they passed them through a spiral tube immersed in a copper calorimeter filled with water. The rise in temperature of the water when a current of hot gas under constant pressure was passed through the spiral was taken to be proportional to the specific heat. Their method was essentially that used earlier by Lavoisier who is often quoted. Their measurement of the specific heat of gases disproved Crawford’s theory of combustion. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca mechanica, pp. 199–200 (this copy).

30. DONNET, Alexis. Carte Topographique, Minéralogique et Statistique de la France, réduite de celle de Cassini a l’échelle de 1/388800 (1 lig. p[ou]r. 450 T[oises]). Rectifiée d’après les nouvelles observations astronomiques, les levés du cadastre, les travaux des ponts-et-chaussées, des mines &c... Gravée par R. Wahl, Dandeleux, et Malo... La lettre gravée par Al[phon]se Pelicier. Paris: Chez Hyacinthe Langlois... 1817. Large oblong folio (53 x 73 cm.), 24 numbered leaves (including the title), “Tableau d’assemblage” leaf, and an engraved leaf of map symbols (of smaller size, mounted on a half-sheet). Six leaves including the title slightly larger and folded in at the fore-edge. Contemporary marbled boards, recently rebacked and recornered with rose-coloured cloth. One plate torn at the fore-edge without loss, one plate lightly browned and soiled in the fore-edge margin, some other very light browning. £2200 FIRST EDITION of a pioneering cartographical work, combining exact geological and topographical details with economic and statistical features. The leaf of map symbols has not been present in continued... 13


any other copy seen, and it shows that the maps mark thirteen different sorts of mines, as well as foundries and other industrial and manufacturing locations, geological areas (as a source of building materials), etc. The symbols are divided in three subjects, topographical, hydrological and mineralogical. The 24th plate is a statistical analysis of all the départements of France. This book appeared shortly after the end of the long war between France and England. Evidently of value, a second edition appeared in 1826.

31. [DOSSIE, Robert.] The Elaboratory laid open; or, the secrets of Modern Chemistry and Pharmacy revealed... The second edition: with considerable additions, and several emendations. London: Printed for J. Nourse... 1768. 8vo, pp. xviii, (ii), 456, (8). Contemporary speckled calf, unlettered (small chip in head of spine). Inscribed “Earl of Macclesfield” on the front endpaper, but not from the library at Shirburn. £550 Second and last edition, considerably enlarged to cover subjects not in the first edition of 1758. “A practical work on chemical preparations written in a clear and understandable manner. The Introduction contains descriptions of apparatus and operations. Parts II and III give the preparations, each of which is followed by a ‘Note’ commenting on details of the process, purity of product, etc... Part IV gives methods for the detection of substitutions and adulterations” (Cole). In this work Dossie paints a good picture of industrial chemistry in mid-eighteenth century England, and describes the manufacture of concentrated sulphuric acid on a commercial scale for the first time. Cole 380. Neville I, p. 380. Partington II, pp. 761–762.

32. DURLACHER, Lewis. A Concise Treatise on Corns, Bunions, and the Disorders of Nails, with advice for the general management of the feet. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co... [n.d., c. 1858]. 12mo, pp. xii, (13)-123, (1). Original rose blind-stamped cloth, lettered in gilt, spine faded to brown. Half-title and last page browned from the endpaper, but a very fine copy. Bookplates of Walter Seelig and J. Colin Dagnall, the historians of chiropody (see below). £300 Third edition, first (undated) issue. See G&M 4325 (first edition of 1845, which was illustrated). This book gave the first description of anterior metatarsalgia (later designated Morton's metatarsalgia), plantar digital neuritis, oncycophosis, Durlacher's corn, etc. It placed chiropody on a scientific basis, and is, in the opinion of J.C. Dagnall, the most important book in the literature. In his preface, Durlacher comments that “the present edition is not, however, a mere reprint of the second [of 1850], but has been considerably altered in its form and arrangement.” Although Durlacher says there was a second edition, no copy seems to be extant. Another issue with a reset title-page is dated 1858, and has the misprint “lining” on p. 113 corrected to ”lacing”. See Dagnall, “The history of chiropodial literature”, in The Chiropodist, 1965.

33. Economy (The) of the Hands and Feet, Fingers and Toes. Which includes the prevention, treatment, and cure, of corns, bunnions, and deformed nails; the removal of excrescences... By an old army surgeon. London: Published by Effingham Wilson... 1830. [Bound with:] The Art of Preserving the Feet; or, practical instructions for the prevention and cure of corns, bunnions, callosities, chilblains, &c... To which are added directions for the proper management of the hands and nails. By an experienced chiropodist. Fourth edition. London: Henry Colburn... 1818. 2 works in 1 volume, 12mo, pp. xvi, 108, lithographed frontispiece; pp. xvi, 239. Frontispiece and title of first work a bit browned. Contemporary half calf, rubbed, upper joint cracked but firm. £300 FIRST EDITION and fourth edition respectively of two early items of English chiropodial literature, much influenced by Heyman Lion’s book of 1802.

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Important Geological Map 34. ENGLEFIELD, Sir Henry C. A Description of the Principal Picturesque Beauties, Antiquities, and Geological Phœnomena, of the Isle of Wight. With Additional Observations on the Strata of the Island, and their continuation in the adjacent parts of Dorsetshire. By Thomas Webster, Esq. Illustrated by maps and numerous engravings by W. and G. Cooke, from original drawings by Sir H. Englefield and T. Webster. London: Printed by William Bulmer and Co...for Payne and Foss... 1816. Folio, 4 leaves, pp. xxvii, 238, (4), (2) blank, 47 engraved plates (9 folding) and 3 folding maps (1 hand-coloured and geological). Half-title, plate 1 bound as a frontispiece, sub-title to the “Additional Observations”. Very faint dampstain in upper and lower margins towards the end. Twentieth century maroon straight grained morocco, spine lettered in gilt with gilt-ruled panels (spine slightly faded), t.e.g., other edges uncut, marbled endpapers, by Riviere & Son. A very good and large copy. Signature “Brannon” on half-title, i.e. George Brannon, author of Vectis Scenery and other books on the Isle of Wight. £1200 FIRST EDITION, including an important geological work and an early geological map. “Webster’s original geological work was entirely concerned with the stratigraphy of the uppermost Jurassic, the Cretaceous, and the Tertiary rocks of southern England. In his chief paper (1814) Webster recorded a highly important piece of research, perhaps the first of its kind (being detailed and thoroughly scientific) on the geology of a British region... Of even greater importance was his survey of the Isle of Wight (Cretaceous and Tertiary) and ‘Isle’ of Portland (mostly Jurassic and Cretaceous), with the production of one of the first geological maps of any part of Britain and one that was on a larger scale and more accurate than anything previously attempted. The geology of this classic region was almost completely unknown before Webster sketched, in words and pictures, the features of its structure...” (John Challinor in DSB).

Item 34: Englefield continued... 15


Webster’s contribution, in a series of twelve letters, occupies over half of this large and beautifully produced book, beginning on p. 117. Most of the folding plates are panoramas of cliff and rock formations.
 Challinor 80; also pp. 93–94: “...unsurpassed... The appearance of the map is a landmark in the history of the geological mapping of Britain.” Geikie, The founders of geology, p. 239.

Ettner meets Boyle 35. [ETTNER, Johann Christoph von.] Des Getreuen Eckharts entlauffener Chymicus, in welchem vornemlich der Laboranten und Proceß-Krämer Boßheit und Betrügerey... zu erkennen und zu fliehen; hernach bewährteste Artzney-Mittel...zu gebrauchen. Dann sonderliche, philosophische, politische, medicinische am meisten aber chymische Anmerckung und Process...vorgestellet werden. Augspurg und Leipzig: bey Lorentz Kroniger u. Gottlieb Göbels sel. Erben, 1697. Small 8vo, pp. (xiv), 1120, engraved title. Printed title in red and black and the fore-edge and folded in. Contemporary very fine copy. Bookplates Safstaholms Library and Berndtsson.

creased vellum, of the Gustaf £4800

FIRST EDITION, second issue, with the date altered from 1696. “The book is directed against chemical quackery of the time and is of considerable historical interest. “One point which has not, I believe, been mentioned before is the very interesting passages referring to Eckhart’s visit to England, and particularly his relations with Robert Boyle. One visit to Boyle is mentioned on pp. 653–655, where Boyle discusses some colours with him and makes some experiments. He shows him a ring made of ‘auro philosophico’ and invites him to visit the Collegium Regium with him. This is described on pp. 678–681, when Eckhart and his friends meet Boyle at Gresham College... They see the library and inspect the library catalogue... There is a further mention of Boyle, when he makes his return visit to Eckhart (p. 790), and they talk for two or three hours” (Duveen). Ettner (1650–1724) was a noted physican and chemist from Breslau who often wrote under the pseudonym Eckhart. Fulton 359 (this issue). Duveen p. 198 (this issue). Ferguson I, p. 252 and Neville I, p. 429 (both 1696 issue).

Item 35, Ettner

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The Most Desirable Edition for Purposes of Study 36. EUSTACHIUS, Bartholomeus. ALBINUS, Bernard Siegfried. Explicatio Tabularum Anatomicarum Bartholomei Eustachii. Accedit tabularum editio nova. Leidae Batavorum [Leiden]: Apud Joannem Arnoldum Langerak & Joannem & Hermannum Verbeek, 1744. Large folio, pp. (viii), 28, 277, (3), and 47 engraved plates on 43 leaves + 54 outline plates on 46 leaves. Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, numerous woodcut ornaments. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label (ends of spine almost imperceptively restored), red edges, marbled endpapers. A few leaves a little browned, single wormhole in lower blank margin of first 30 leaves, but a lovely copy. With four bookplates including those of de Bellissen Bénac, Pierre Bézy, and Dr. P. Créhange. £3500 First edition to be edited by Albinus of Eustachius’s anatomical plates, important in the history of anatomy by reason of their date (1552), but not published until 1714 (G&M 391). As with other critical editions which Albinus published, this is a beautifully produced book. The plates were reengraved by Wandelaar, who was the engraver for Albinus’s own anatomical plates, and lettered outline plates were provided. Albinus wrote the preface, and added extensive notes to each plate. This edition, according to C.D. O’Malley in DSB, “is the most desirable one for purposes of study.” Choulant, p. 202.

37.

FARADAY, Michael. Manipulations Chimiques... traduit de l’Anglais par M. Maiseau... et revu pour la Partie technique par M. Bussy. Paris: A. Sautelet et Cie, libraires, 1827. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xxiv, 428; 2 leaves, 364 pages, 1 leaf (errata). Woodcuts in the text. Original paste-paper wrappers (minor wear, some light foxing, minor dampstain to last 20 leaves of vol. 2, uncut, original printed labels on spine (chipped). £475 First edition in French (1st edition: London, 1827). “This is Faraday’s only monograph; it gives a splendid picture of his experimental genius, his ability to turn things to new uses, and also of the laboratory practice of the day... Parts of it at least can still be read with profit by a chemist wishing to improve his basic laboratory techniques” (Knight, Natural Science Books in English, p. 141). The valuable notes have been added by the translator Raymond Balthasar Maiseau (1782– 1843), who also converted English weights and measures into the metric system. Much of the text was reviewed by Antoine Alexandre Brutus Bussy (1794–1882). Neville I, p. 443: “Rare.”

38. FERRIS, Samuel. A General View of the Establishment of Physic as a Science in England, by the incorporation of the College of Physicians, London, together with an inquiry into the nature of that incorporation. In which it is demonstrated, that the exclusion of all physicians, except the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, from the corporate privileges of the College, is founded in usurpation, being contrary to the letter and spirit of its charter. London: Printed by C. Whittingham, for J. Johnson... and J. Cuthell... 1795. 8vo, 2 leaves (half-title and title), pp. xvi, 168. Contemporary marbled boards, sometime rebacked with plain paper and endpapers replaced, uncut edges. Boards worn but internally a very clean copy. Inscribed on a binder’s leaf before the half-title: “With the authors best wishes.” £240 SOLE EDITION. Ferris, admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1785, published this work as an objection to the methods adopted by the College for the examination of physicians for admission.

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39.

FLOYER, Sir John. The Ancient [Psychrolousia] Revived: or, an essay to prove cold bathing both safe and useful. In four letters... Also a letter of Dr. Baynard’s, containing an account of many eminent cures done by the cold baths in England... London: Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford... 1702. 8vo, pp. (xxiv), 328, (1) errata. Title within double ruled border. Contemporary mottled calf, panelled in blind on sides, unlettered. A fine copy. Bookplate of Denis Gibbs. £450 FIRST EDITION. “A history of cold bathing, which Floyer believed to be therapeutic. Floyer showed that Roman customs of bathing had been practised in Britain in former times, and attributed to their disuse the occurrence of many diseases” (Norman). “Floyer played an important role in stimulating public interest in wells and waters, enthusiasm for which had been growing since the Restoration. He was not averse to the therapeutic use of temperate and warm baths on occasions, but his special predilection was for cold-water bathing. To provide local facilities, he persuaded ‘worthy and obliging’ gentlemen of Lichfield to contribute towards the construction of cold baths at Abnalls, a mile from the city... Floyer's The ancient Psychrolousia revived... (1702), which reached six editions, was the most published of his works” (Denis Gibbs in ODNB). G&M 2029. Norman catalogue 808. Extremely common in its later editions, this first edition is scarce. Baynard’s letter occupies almost half of the book.

40. FORSTER, Thomas. Researches about Atmospheric Phaenomena. London: Printed by J. Moyes...for Thomas Underwood... 1813. 8vo, pp. xvi, 219. Half-title. Original boards, uncut. Boards rather worn and soiled, but internally a fine and fresh copy. Early signature of A. Wilkinson at top of title. £450 FIRST EDITION, and the first of several publications by Forster on the atmosphere and meteorology. A lengthy illness in 1810, coupled with the comet of 1811, turned Forster's attention to atmospheric phenomena, especially in relation to health. From that time on he wrote a succession of learned papers describing meteorological phenomena, but this was his most important book on the subject. The first two chapters are on clouds, the first being an elaboration of Luke Howard’s newly introduced theory of cloud modification. Although Howard’s paper had been published, his books on the subject did not appear for another fifteen years. Other chapters are on winds, atmospheric electricity, weather forecasting, peculiarities of weather, etc. Forster was an early user of balloons in his experiments to determine movement of the upper air, making an ascent himself in 1831.

41. FORSTER, Westgarth. A Treatise on a Section of the Strata, from Newcastle-uponTyne, to the mountain of Cross Fell, in Cumberland; with remarks on mineral veins in general. Also, tables of the strata, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, &c. To which is added, a treatise on the discovery, the opening, and the working of lead mines; with the dressing and smelting of lead ores. Second edition, greatly enlarged... [Alston(?):] Printed, for the author, at the Geological Press, and sold by John Pattinson, Alston, Cumberland; sold also, by W. Baynes and Son...London; and by Thomas Bell, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 1821. 8vo, pp. xii, x, (11)–422, xvi (Appendix), (18) index and list of subscribers, 11 engraved plates numbered 3–10 and 12–14 (including 10 folding and 4 hand-coloured), folding letterpress table. With 20 diagrams and sections of strata in the text. Some foxing and light offsetting from the plates. Modern drab boards as the original, printed paper label on spine, uncut. Inscribed on a (rather dust-soiled) binder’s leaf at the beginning: “Presented to the Dub[lin] Nat. Hist. Society by Dr. Bryan Bellingham Esq M.D. [deleted, and added beneath:] Mr. Richard Glennan. £650 Second edition, greatly enlarged from the first which contained only 156 pages. One of the first English books to illustrate geological strata by the use of a section. “The convenient method of showing graphically a stratigraphical succession by a geological column was already in use at the continued... 18


end of the eighteenth century... Westgarth Forster’s book...is notable for a very long column, some 5½ feet long altogether, which is shown in portions and comprising a total thickness of strata of ‘1345 yd. 0 ft., 10 in.’ ” (Challinor, p. 93). The work is divided into three parts: on the strata of coal, on mineral veins in general, and on the discovery of mines, which includes lists of mines, lists of smelting houses, heights of principal mountains, etc. “Though the book was written when the science of geology was in its initial stage; when even people of education recognised no distinction between one kind of rock and another; when such terms as stratified and unstratified, aqueous and igneous, seldom appeared in print, and were scarcely ever heard; when the great works of Buckland, De la Beche, Phillips, Lyell, Murchison, Sedgwick, and other geologists had not yet appeared, the classification of the strata which it contains is the one still in use” (preface to the third edition of 1883). Hoover 318 (also the second edition).

42. FOURCROY, [Antoine François] de. Leçons Élémentaires d’Histoire Naturelle et de Chimie; dans lesquelles on s’est proposé, 1o. de donner un ensemble méthodique des connoissances chimiques acquises jusqu’à ce jour; 2 o. d’offrir un tableau comparé de la doctrine de Stahl & de celle de quelques Modernes: pour servir de résumé à un cours complet sur ces deux sciences. A Paris: Rue et Hôtel Serpente. 1782. 2 volumes, 8vo, 2 leaves, pp. lxxxviii, 584; 2 leaves, 848 pages, 1 leaf, 4 folding letterpress tables and 1 folding engraved plate. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with red and black morocco labels, red edges, marbled endpapers. The black labels rubbed, small hole near top of spine of vol. 2, but a fine set. Small stamp on versos of half-titles. £1250 FIRST EDITION. This was Fourcroy’s first major publication. It is a résumé of the course of seventy lectures that he gave each winter in his laboratory and contains a comprehensive account of all parts of chemistry, including recent work on gases. Fourcroy also included sections concerned with the analysis of animal fluids and solids and their application to medicine. In this first edition Fourcroy did not yet adopt Lavoisier’s theories completely, and he included unbiased accounts of rival theories. Only in the preliminary discourse to the second edition of 1786 did he renounce the phlogiston theory. The book became very popular, running to several later editions and translations. Cole 459. Duveen pp. 224–225. Neville I, p. 468. Partington III, p. 537.I. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 8, 96–98 and 177–180; bibliography no. 1.

43. FOURCROY, [Antoine François] de. Elements of Natural History, and of Chemistry: being the second edition of the elementary lectures on those sciences, first published in 1782, and now greatly enlarged and improved, by the author... Translated into English. With occasional notes, and an historical preface, by the translator. London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson... 1788. [And:] Supplement to the Elements of Natural History and of Chemistry...carefully extracted from the edition of 1789, and adapted to the English; by the translator of that work. London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson... 1789. 5 volumes (4 volumes + the Supplement), 8vo, with 8 letterpress tables (7 folding) in vol. 4 and 2 folding tables in the supplement. Contemporary tree calf, red and brown morocco labels on spines (the Supplement also in tree calf and apparently rebacked at a very early date to match), yellow edges. Lower joint of vols. 1 and 2 cracking, and brown morocco label missing from vol. 1, pale brown stain in first few leaves of vol. 2, but a nice set. Signature of Thomas Sydenham at head of title in vol. 1. £1200 Second edition in English, but the first edition of William Nicholson’s translation, done from the improved and updated second edition of 1786, with important notes and a valuable preface on recent events in chemistry by Nicholson. It was in the preliminary discourse to the second edition that Fourcroy finally renounced the phlogiston theory. The supplement, which is not always found continued... 19


with the main work, is not a translation of P.-A. Adet’s supplement to Fourcroy’s second edition, but was prepared independently by Nicholson. Cole 464. Neville I, p. 468 (without the supplement). Partington III, p. 537.IA. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 8, 96–98 and 177–180; bibliography nos. 10 and 11.

44. FOURCROY, [Antoine François]. Philosophie Chimique, ou vérités fondamentales de la chimie moderne, disposées dans un nouvel ordre. Paris: 1792. L’An IV de la Liberté Françoise. Small 8vo, pp. iv, (5)–128. Original blue sugar-paper wrappers (almost detached, stitching loose), uncut. Extensive neat annotations in a contemporary hand in the margins of the first 59 pages, and a note in another(?) hand at the top of the first page of text. £950 “THE GENUINE FIRST EDITION of Fourcroy’s remarkably lucid exposition of the new antiphlogistic system of chemistry... The book was immediately successful, and a pirated reprint quickly appeared... The international importance of this work is proven by the many translations and editions that followed during the next two decades...” (Neville). For anyone “uncertain of the anti-phlogistic theory, Philosophie chimique was without a rival... and it was probably more influential than any other book in spreading the antiphlogistic theory throughout the world” (Smeaton). It is interesting to note on the title-page that by “L’An IV de la Liberté Françoise” Fourcroy had dropped the aristocratic “de” from his name. Cole 469 (pirated edition, with some pages misnumbered, etc.). Duveen p. 225 has the second edition. Neville I, pp. 469–470. Partington III, p. 538, IV. Smeaton, Fourcroy, pp. 191–195; bibliography no. 32A.

45. FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Oeuvres... Traduites de l’Anglois sur la quatrieme édition. Par M. Barbeu Dubourg. Avec des additions nouvelles et des figures en taille douce. A Paris: Chez Quillau l’aîné... Esprit... Et l’Auteur... 1773. 2 volumes, 4to, 2 leaves, pp. xxii, (ii), 338, (2) blank; 2 leaves, pp. xiii, (ii), 318, (2), engraved frontispiece portrait and 12 engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with red and brown morocco labels, triple gilt fillet on sides, red edges, marbled endpapers. Joints cracking at ends but still quite tight, a few small chips from head of spine or edges, small stains on 2L4 of vol. 1, some very minor foxing, but essentially a fine, bright copy. £950 FIRST COLLECTED EDITION IN FRENCH, the most complete early edition of Franklin’s scientific writings in any language. The first volume contains the first collected edition in French of Franklin’s correspondence on electricity with Peter Collinson, Experiments and Observations on Electricity, described by Printing and the Mind of Man as “the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America.” The second volume includes other wide-ranging works by Franklin on ventilation, the art of swimming, inoculation, sound, meteors, stoves, correspondence, etc., some of which had not previously been published. For Franklin’s work on electricity see PMM 199 and Grolier One Hundred (Science), 31a.

46. FRERICHS, Friedrich Theodor. Klinik der Leberkrankheiten. Zweite verbesserte Auflage. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1861. [And:] PathologischAnatomischer Atlas zur Klinik der Leberkrankheiten. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1858 (–1861). Text: 2 volumes in 1, 8vo. pp. xix, 416; xiv, 549, figures in the text. Atlas: 2 volumes, 4to, 20 pages + 12 hand-coloured lithographed plates; 22 pages + 14 coloured plates, all with multiple figures. Text in contemporary half calf, spine gilt (slightly damaged by worm); atlas in the original cloth-backed boards. A few spots in the text, the atlas in fine state. £800 continued... 20


Item 46, Frerichs Second editions of the first volumes of both text and atlas, first editions of the second volumes. G&M 3620 (first editions, also 1858–61). Frerichs, professor of pathology at Berlin, is particularly remembered for his extensive investigations into diseases of the liver. “He published two quite distinct monographs under the title Klinik der Leberkrankheiten, which summarized the history and existing knowledge with respect to this organ and added Frerichs’ own brilliant conclusions. The degenerative condition known as acute yellow atrophy was treated at length, Frerichs calling attention to the excretion of excessive quantities of leucine and tyrosine and their presence in the urine in crystalline form as pathognomonic for the disease. His most important experimental investigations were on jaundice, [and]...he was much interested in the fatty liver, and demonstrated a partial relationship between the diet and its origin” (Long, History of pathology, 268–269). In this book Frerichs also gave a classic description of progressive familial hepatolenticular degeneration (“Wilson’s disease”), which Kinnear Wilson himself described in 1912.

47. GOOCH, Benjamin. A Practical Treatise on Wounds and other Chirurgical Subjects; to which is prefixed a short historical account of the rise and progress of surgery and anatomy, addressed to young surgeons. [Volume 2: Cases and Practical Remarks in Surgery, with sketches of machines, simple in their construction, easy in their application, and of approved use. The second edition, with large additions and emendations. Vol. II.] Norwich: printed for the author, by W. Chase... 1767. continued... 21


2 volumes, 8vo, pp. x, xviii, 19–459; xxvi, 422, (2) blank, and 17 engraved plates (11 folding). Both title-pages are engraved, each with a large pictorial vignette. Two or three wormholes in extreme lower corner of most of volume 2 twice becoming a wormtrack in a dozen leaves, a few minor marks, but a nice set. Contemporary calf, red morocco labels on spine, small repair to head of spine of vol. 2. £1200 First edition of the first volume, second edition of the second volume, as published. “The surgical treatise which would eventually bring him recognition as one of the outstanding provincial surgeons of eighteenth-century Britain” (ODNB). Benjamin Gooch earned a place in surgical history as the innovator of Gooch’s splint. He was an ingenious designer of surgical apparatus and appliances, and his mechanical genius has been compared to that of Hugh Owen Thomas. He designed appliances for the treatment of head injuries, prolapse of the rectum, and other conditions, but his most famous was the splint for the treatment of fractures, described in this book. Gooch’s splint remained in use until the 1920s, when plasterof-paris bandages, first introduced in 1852, finally took its place. Much of the second volume is on surgical devices of his own design, and a large part of the first volume and the first cases of the second volume are on wounds of the head. The Cases and Practical Remarks had been published in 1758 with only 184 pages and 12 plates. Gooch greatly enlarged it and published it as volume 2 of the present work. He also published Medical and Chirurgical Observations in London in 1773, and a collected edition appeared in 1792 after his death. See A. Batty Shaw, “Benjamin Gooch, Eighteenth Century Norfolk Surgeon” in Medical History, 16 (1972), pp. 40–50); also the article in ODNB.

48.

Gray’s Anatomy GRAY, Henry. Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical. The drawings by H.V. Carter, M.D. The dissections jointly by the author and Dr. Carter. London: John W. Parker and Son, 1858. 8vo, pp. xxxii, 750, (2), with 363 text illustrations. Including the half-title and final advertisement leaf. Small (2 cm.) stain on pp. 77–92. Original brown pebble-grain cloth and chalk-glaze endpapers (very careful restoration to spine). £3400 FIRST EDITION. G&M 418. The most famous textbook of anatomy in the English-speaking world. “Gray's anatomy”, as it is familiarly known, has been the standard work for over a century. It is comprehensive, logically arranged and very well illustrated. “The work was superior to other treatises on anatomy in three areas — the lucid and logical arrangement of a mass of detailed description; clear new drawings based on dissections by the surgeon-author and the artist, a physician; and sections on the surgical anatomy of defined areas, such as the axilla, the elbow, the popliteal space, the perineum, and the laryngotracheal region. Even today, the book is considered a standard reference on anatomy...” (Lilly). Lilly, Notable Medical Books, 211. Grolier One Hundred (Medicine) 68.

49. GREGORY, James. Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary. Edinburgh: Printed by Murray & Cochrane,... 1800. [And:] Additional Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary. Edinburgh: Printed by Murray & Cochrane,... 1803. [And:] Memorial for the Managers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh---Chargers, against the Incorporation and Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh---Suspenders. Edinburgh: Printed by D. Willison, 28 January 1801. [And:] Memorial for The Royal College of Surgeons; against the Managers of the Royal Infirmary. [No place or printer,] 13 February 1801. [And:]
 Memorial for John and Charles Bell, Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, against the Managers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. [Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell & Son,] 26 February 1801. 5 works in 2 volumes, 4to, pp. v, 260; xxx, 513; 72, 30 (Appendix); 38, 11 (Appendix); 78, 30 (Appendix). Contemporary calf, spines gilt with red morocco labels, Greek key pattern border in continued... 22


gilt on sides. Bindings a bit rubbed, and short cracks at ends of joints, but a very good set. Armorial bookplates of Kinnaird. Presentation copy of the Additional Memorial, inscribed on the verso of the title “To Archibald Irwinton Esqr. From The Author” (the word “To” is partly cropped). £900 FIRST EDITIONS of Gregory’s two principal publications in his controversy with the managers of the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh and with John and Charles Bell. Gregory (1753–1821) was a successful professor of medicine at Edinburgh, but “wasted his great powers on temporary and irritating controversies. He was keen-witted, sarcastic, and bitterly personal, though probably from pleasure in the exercise of his powers rather than from malice... He afterwards attacked, with considerable justice, in his Memorial to the Managers, the prevailing practice of allowing all the surgeons in Edinburgh to officiate at the infirmary in turn” (DNB). One result was the limitation of the number of surgeons to six, and the exclusion of John Bell himself, from which Bell never quite recovered. Gregory was eventually expelled from the College in 1808. Several of the published works of John Bell and Andrew Duncan senior give detailed accounts of this controversy. An exceptional set including three of the separate printings in this extremely prolix controversy.

50.

GUEST, Richard. A Compendious History of the Cotton-Manufacture; with a disproval of the claim of Sir Richard Arkwright to the invention of its ingenious machinery. Manchester: Printed by Joseph Pratt, Chapel Walks, and sold by E. Thomson... 1823. Large 4to, 2 leaves, pp. (3)–70, (3), and 12 plates (3 lithographed and 9 engraved). Original bluegrey boards (new matching paper spine and printed label), uncut. Boards a little soiled, some minor foxing, but a very good copy. £950 FIRST EDITION of the earliest history of the cotton industry. Although it is heavily biased in favour of the claims of Kaye and Highs as the true inventors of Arkwright’s cotton machinery, the book is nevertheless a key source of information on both Arkwright and other contemporary figures, on the machinery itself, and on the social changes wrought by the huge growth in the industry brought about by mechanisation. The lithographed plates, which are early examples of lithography, show the old methods of weaving, and the engraved plates are a fine series of detailed views of the new machinery. Loosely inserted is a 2-page (and conjugate blank) printed circular produced by Marriott & Rogers, dated at Liverpool, 1st January 1831, detailing imports of cotton through Liverpool, Glasgow and London between 1819 and 1830, with a detailed analysis of the figures.

51. GUTHRIE, George James. Lectures on the Operative Surgery of the Eye: being the substance of that part of the author’s course of lectures on the principles and practice of surgery which relates to the diseases of that organ... London: Printed for Burgess and Hill,... 1823. 8vo, pp. xxvii, 523, (1), and 5 engraved plates (3 hand-coloured). Lacking the half-title. Faint dampstain on first few leaves and pale dampstain on last two (uncoloured) plates and leaves of text, otherwise a very clean copy. Modern half calf antique, spine gilt, green morocco label. £800 FIRST EDITION. G&M 5845. “The first systematic English textbook on ophthalmic surgery and the second such text published anywhere. Guthrie’s writings are marked with extraordinary perception and make fascinating reading to this day” (D.M. Albert, in the introduction to the Classics of Ophthalmology edition). Albert, Norton & Hurtes, Source Book, 953: “Includes important work on artificial pupil.” Becker Catalogue has the second edition of 1827.

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52. HAHNEMANN, Samuel. The Homœopathic Medical Doctrine, or, “Organon of the Healing Art;” a new system of physic, translated from the German...by Charles H. Devrient, Esq. with notes by Samuel Stratten, M.D. Dublin: W.F. Wakeman... 1833. 8vo, pp. xxv, (i), 332. Contemporary calf, neatly restored. £900 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. The founding work of homœopathy.
 “Hahnemann was convinced that minute doses of drugs in greatly attenuated concentrations were efficacious cures. When modern practice is compared with the indiscriminate and massive prescriptions of his own day it will be seen how much closer we are to his views than to those of his contemporaries. Certainly his treatment showed that the vix medicatrix naturae, given a chance, with occasional and gentle assistance, often suffices to effect a cure. He gave great prominence to therapeutics, introduced many new specifics, but ignored the growing science of pathology. In his emphasis on the importance of studying the patient as a a whole, he foreshadowed the psychosomatic component of modern medicine” (PMM). See PMM 265 and G&M 1966, the first edition, in German, of 1810.

53. HALES, Rev. Stephen. La Statique des Vegetaux, et l’analyse de l’air. Experiences nouvelles lûes à la Société Royale de Londres. Ouvrage traduit de l’Anglois, par M. De Buffon... A Paris: Chez Debure l’aîné,... 1735. 4to, pp. xviii, (vi), 1 leaf (errata), pp. 408, (2) privilege, and 20 numbered plates by Maisonneuve on 10 sheets. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label, marbled endpapers. Paper very slightly browned, old library stamp on title with a small piece of paper pasted over it, tiny chip in foot of spine, generally a very nice copy. £1250 FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH of Hales’ founding work on plant physiology, translated by Buffon, and published as a handsome quarto volume, “an influential French translation which has the famous ‘Préface du traducteur’, in which Buffon praises the experimental method, and includes Hales’ appendix of 1733” (DSB). It was Buffon’s first literary production. Hales studied the movement of sap in plants, and discovered what is now known as root pressure. He studied the amounts of water that plants used, and the influence of light and air on them. In that respect he discovered that plants take carbon dioxide from the air as an essential nutrient. “His work was so great an advance that it stands alone in its time, and deserves close attention” (Morton, History of Botanical Science, pp. 246–254). Hales’ work on the analysis of the air led to his invention of artificial ventilation, and facilitated the work and discoveries of Black, Lavoisier, and Priestley. See Printing and the Mind of Man 189(a); Dibner 26; Horblit 45a; and Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1727. Foster, Lectures on the history of physiology, pp. 231–232. Cole 585. Neville I, p. 579. This copy has a cancel title with the imprint of Debure l’aîné.

First Book on a Single Case of Insanity 54. HASLAM, John. Illustrations of Madness: exhibiting a singular case of insanity, and a no less remarkable difference in medical opinion: developing the nature of assailment, and the manner of working events; with a description of the tortures experienced by bomb-bursting, lobster-cracking and lengthening the brain. London: Printed by G. Hayden,... 1810. 8vo, pp. xi, 81, 1 leaf (adverts), folding engraved plate from a drawing by the patient, and folding engraved diagram (both on one sheet). Half-title. Contemporary speckled calf, flat spine lettered and ruled in gilt. Foxing on the endpapers, short tear in blank area of plate, otherwise a lovely copy. Armorial bookplate of Kinnaird. £2400 FIRST EDITION. G&M 4924.1: the first medical book devoted to a single case of insanity. The patient was John Tilly Matthews, suffering from what would now be called paranoid schizophrenia. continued... 24


While in care, Matthews demonstrated a remarkable skill as a draughtsman, and was taught engraving by one of Haslam’s friends. The plate of an “Air Loom” was engraved by Hawkesworth from Matthews’ own drawing. The device is a kind of “influencing machine”, imagined by the patient, with which his enemies acted on him by means of electricity and magnetic fluid, inflicting tortures such as “lobster-cracking” — inducing the feeling of being cracked like a lobster. This is the first illustration of such a device. The case played a decisive part in Haslam’s career; Matthews’ treatment at Bethlem Hospital attracted a good deal of attention from the Parliamentary Committee of 1815/16, and Haslam’s somewhat arrogant evidence to the Committee resulted in him losing the post of Physician to the Bethlem Hospital. See Hunter & Macalpine pp. 634–639. Leigh, The historical development of British psychiatry, pp. 107–114: “...a masterpiece of clinical description.”

Early Scientific Lectures 55. HAUKSBEE, Francis. A Course of Mechanical, Optical, Hydrostatical, and Pneumatical Experiments. To be perform’d by Francis Hauksbee; and the explanatory lectures read by William Whiston, M.A. [No place, printer, or date; London: 1715?] 4to, pp. 3, (1), 20 leaves, and 20 engraved plates numbered in four sequences according to subject. Caption title. First 2 leaves and several corners a little browned and soiled, small piece missing from corner of first and last leaf. Good modern half calf antique. £850 FIRST EDITION of the scientific experiments demonstrated publicly by Francis Hauksbee (1688– 1763), nephew of the instrument maker of the same name who was giving similar lectures in about 1705. George Wilson was lecturing on chemistry around the turn of the century, and John Harris began lecturing on mathematics in about 1698, and these were the earliest scientific lectures in London, but the present lectures by Hauksbee appear to be the earliest to be published. “Hauksbee...became very active in the lecturing world, advertising courses given with Whiston at Crane Court. His co-operation with Whiston, who like Hauksbee failed to obtain the distinction of FRS, continued for many years... At least until 1727 Hauksbee was still giving ‘A Course of Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy’ with Whiston, in which Newton's improvements to the reflecting telescope were demonstrated, along with magnetical experiments and entertainments” (ODNB). There are four issues listed in ESTC, of which the present is the rarest (2 copies); leaves 12–14 are misnumbered 21–23, the catchword on p. 1 is ‘An’, and the last page is numbered 24. See Wellcome III, p. 224, and Musson & Robinson, Science and technology in the Industrial Revolution, p. 40

First Readable Edition 56. HAÜY, l'Abbé [René Just]. Exposition Raisonnée de la Théorie de L’Électricité et du Magnetisme, d’après les principes de M. Æpinus. Paris: Chez la Veuve Desaint,... 1787. 8vo, pp. xxvii, (v), 238, 4 folding plates. Original wrappers, new paper spine with printed paper label, uncut. Dampstain on last eight leaves of the prelims, and minor dampstain in upper corner of final few leaves and plates. Signature in upper corner of title of an officer in the French corps of engineers. £800 FIRST EDITION. Franz Aepinus published in 1758 “one of the most original and important books in the history of electricity. It is the first reasoned, fruitful exposition of electrical phenomena based on action-at-a-distance” (DSB). It is extremely rare (and always has been — Beccaria had not seen a copy by 1772), and difficult to read, but “most of its content became easily available in 1780 [i.e. 1787] in the excellent nonmathematical epitome composed by R.J. Haüy, who managed to preserve the spirit and clarity of the original” (DSB). Haüy also described pyro-electricity, and incorporated the recent results of Coulomb, including his torsion balance to establish the laws of electric and magnetic attraction. Wheeler Gift 541. Mottelay pp. 286–287. Ekelöf 581. Neville I, p. 602. Sinkankas 2808.

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The Ophthalmoscope 57. HELMHOLTZ, H[ermann L.F. von]. Beschreibung eines Augen-Spiegels zur Untersuchung der Netzhaut im lebenden Auge. Berlin: A. Förstner’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. (P. Jeanrenaud.) 1851. 8vo, pp. 43, 1 leaf (contents and imprint), 1 leaf (blank), engraved plate with three figures from original drawings by Helmholtz. Old stamp of Dr. Nadoll(?) of Zürich in upper corner of title, some spotting especially on the title-page. Original yellow printed wrappers (slightly dust soiled, spine torn), uncut. £4250 FIRST EDITION. The original description of the ophthalmoscope, invented by Helmholtz, one of the greatest events in the history of ophthalmology. “The introduction of the ophthalmoscope was the most significant advance in ophthalmology since the development of cataract surgery and marked the beginning of modern ophthalmology” (Albert). This instrument made it possible to examine the fundus of the living eye, which in the words of the great ophthalmologist von Graefe “unfolded to us a new world” (Ency. Brit.), and greatly improved the ability to diagnose diseases of the eye. G&M 5866. Grolier One Hundred (Medicine), 65. Lilly, Notable Medical Books, 205. Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1851. Albert, Dates in Ophthalmology, 1851. Norman Catalogue 1041. This copy has the name of P. Jeanrenaud in the imprint on the title-page and not on the upper wrapper (as in the Grolier exhibition copy, the copy Helmholtz gave to his wife); another issue has the reverse.

58. HORNE, Henry. Essays concerning Iron and Steel: The first, containing observations on American sand-iron: The second, observations, founded on experiments, on common iron-ore, with the method of reducing it first into pig or sow-metal, and then into bariron; on the sort of iron proper to be converted into good steel... With an account of Mr. Reaumur’s method of softening cast-iron; and an appendix, discovering a more perfect method of charring pit-coal... London: Printed for T. Cadell... 1773. 12mo, pp. iii, 223. Contemporary tree calf, flat spine richly gilt, red morocco label, gilt borders on sides, marbled endpapers, yellow edges. A fine and pretty copy. Contemporary signature of Jonathan Walker (see below) on front endpaper. £1500 FIRST EDITION. An important account of crucible steel, or cast steel, and of its introduction by Benjamin Huntsman in Sheffield, which differs from the accepted, oral tradition by saying that the process was invented by a London cutler, John Waller. Horne was also a cutler and a producer of such high quality steel. Despite Horne’s published account, the invention is regarded as Huntsman’s, and his crucible steel paved the way for all the modern steel casting and alloying processes, without which the developments of the nineteenth century would not have been possible. Friedrich Engels even attributed the development of England’s industrial might to Huntsman’s discovery, by virtue of the high quality tools and machinery that it created. The Huntsman method remained the only way of producing steel ingots until Bessemer's invention in 1856 enabled steel to be made in bulk. The signature in this copy is quite possibly that of Jonathan Walker (1710–1778) or his son (1756/7–1807), iron-founders. “Samuel, Aaron, and Jonathan Walker established an iron-founding business in the period when coke was replacing charcoal as fuel, and they soon diversified into the manufacture of both cementation steel and the new crucible steel. They rank alongside the firm established by Benjamin Huntsman in the transformation of the south Yorkshire heavy metal industries in the second half of the eighteenth century” (ODNB).

59. HOUGHTON, Thomas. Rara Avis in Terris: or the Compleat Miner, in two books; the first containing, the liberties, laws and customs of the lead-mines, within the wapentake of Wirksworth in Derbyshire; in fifty nine articles, being all that was ever made. The second teacheth, the art of dialling and levelling grooves; a thing greatly desired by all miners, being a subject never written before by any. London: Printed in the year 1681. continued... 26


12mo, pp. (viii), 105, (7). Title within single ruled border, diagram on p. 102. Small hole in A3 and A4 with loss of 4 or 5 letters, paper somewhat browned and dampstained. Contemporary sheep (foot of spine and one lower corner worn, no rear endpaper, piece cut from front free endpaper). £900 FIRST EDITION, first issue, of a very scarce book. “Dedicated ‘To all Miners and Maintainers of Mines within the Wapentake of Wirksworth, or elsewhere: The Author wisheth Happiness and Prosperity in Lead-Mines.’ An expert on the laws of mining and its techniques, Houghton (fl. 1680) signs his dedication ‘From my Lodging in Warwick-lane, near the Colledge of Physitians, London. Novemb. 12, 1680.’ The first part (60 pp.) discusses fifty-nine articles on the legalities of lead mining in Derbyshire, which were originally drawn up on 10 October 1665. The second part describes dialing and the first account of leveling grooves for miners, with examples and numerical tables. Sir Isaac Newton owned a copy of this work, most copies of which were read to pieces by miners, hence its rarity... Parts of the text were reprinted in the English edition of Alvaro Alonso Barba (London, 1738)” (Neville). The second issue, published the same year, has a new title-page and the addition of miners’ terms (sig. F5). Wing H2933. Hoover 435 (second issue). Neville, I, p. 663 (second issue).

60.

HUNTER, John. Observations on Certain Parts of the Animal Oeconomy. London: Sold at No 13, Castle-Street, Leicester Square, 1786. 4to, pp. (vi), 44, (2), 45–225, 18 engraved plates mostly by Skelton from drawings by Rymsdyk and William Bell. Printed on light blue paper. Foxing on front endpapers and two plates. Contemporary tree calf, flat spine ruled in gilt and with red morocco label, a lovely copy. Armorial bookplate of Kinnaird. £1400 FIRST EDITION. G&M 309. A collection of fourteen papers, some of which had been published in the Philosophical Transactions. The majority are zoological and include his observations on the secondary sexual characteristics in birds and on the air sac in birds. Also included are: a paper on the descent of the testis; “Proposals for the recovery of persons apparently drowned”, in which he established the essentials of treatment, advocating ventilation of the lungs with a double bellows (Huston, Resuscitation, 45); a paper on his precise observations on body temperature and the mechanisms for maintaining it (Fulton, Selected Readings in Physiology, pp. 335–337); a paper on digestion, in which he suggested the importance of acidity in gastric juice (see Foster, Lectures, pp. 220–222); a description of the branches of the olfactory nerve; and most famously the first publication of the paper on the structure of the placenta, in which he claimed priority over his brother William in the discovery of the circulatory relationship between the placenta and the uterus (Radcliffe, Milestones in midwifery, 58). Norman Catalogue 1118.

61. HUNTER, John. A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds. To which is prefixed, a short account of the author’s life, by his brother-in-law, Everard Home. London: Printed by John Richardson, for George Nicol,... 1794. 4to, pp. lxvii, 575, engraved frontispiece portrait after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and 9 plates. Some spotting in gatherings R and S (as usual), some very light browning towards the end. Contemporary mottled calf, flat spine gilt, black morocco label (neat repairs to ends of spine and joints), an unusually nice copy. £3800 FIRST EDITION. John Hunter, one of the greatest surgeons of all time, collected the material for this “epoch-making book” (G&M) while serving with the army at Belle Isle during the Seven Years’ War. Published posthumously, it is easily the largest work by a British surgeon to date. His studies on inflammation in particular are fundamental for pathology, as there was little understanding of the subject before his time. He classified inflammation into three types, and was the first to assess and describe three essential factors of wound pathology: first, that an external agent in the air, and continued... 27


not the air itself, is a factor in wound inflammation; second, that a good blood supply is essential in maintaining the natural defences of the body; and third, that the presence of mortified tissue in a deep wound prevents healing and promotes the onset of sepsis. He was outstanding in importance to orthopaedic surgery among eighteenth century surgeons, and made epoch-making studies of the surgical diseases of the vascular system. He was acknowledged by Virchow as the founder of experimental and surgical pathology, and his collection of pathological specimens was at one time the finest in the world. G&M 2283. Grolier One Hundred (Medicine), 52. Lilly, Classical Works, 112. Willius & Keys, Cardiac Classics, pp. 263–275, reproducing Hunter’s description of his own fatal illness, angina pectoris. Bick, Classics of Orthopaedics, 4. Long, History of Pathology, pp. 148–153. LeFanu, John Hunter, A List, p. 15.

62. HUTTON, Charles. A mathematical and philosophical dictionary: containing an explanation of the terms, and an account of the several subjects, comprized under the heads of mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, both natural and experimental... London: Printed by J. Davis, for J. Johnson...and G.G. and J. Robinson... 1796 (–1795). 2 volumes, 4to, pp. viii, 650; 2 leaves, pp. 756, and 37 engraved plates. Half-titles. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt in compartments, green morocco labels (joints cracked but perfectly firm). Armorial bookplates of William Brodie. £1100 FIRST EDITION of the most comprehensive scientific encyclopaedia in English to date, and the only large one since Harris’s Lexicon Technicum (1704–1710) almost a century earlier. “The dictionary reveals a deep and extensive knowledge of British and continental works and is still used by historians as a valuable source. The British reader was provided with bibliographical and biographical information on continental mathematicians such as D’Alembert, Euler, and Lagrange. The entries on engineering are particularly valuable, while mechanics, optics, and astronomy are less complete, especially from the point of view of mathematical treatment...” (ODNB). It also includes the first publication of Thomas Pellett’s 1727 catalogue of Newton’s papers. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca mechanica, pp. 169–170.

63. JONES, Philip. An Essay on Crookedness, or Distortions of the Spine; shewing the insufficiency of a variety of modes made use of for relief in those cases; and proposing methods, easy, safe, and more effectual for the completion of their cures; with some hints for the prevention of these affections, and their disagreeable, painful, and dangerous consequences. Illustrated with several copper plates, taken from distorted subjects. London: Printed for the author by S. Gosnell...and sold by J. Johnson...and T. Cadell, Strand. 1788. 8vo, pp. x, 149, (1), engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, folding facsimile letter from John Hunter, and 5 engraved plates (4 folding) of distorted spines. Contemporary calf, nicely rebacked. Portrait a little foxed and offset onto the title, otherwise an excellent copy. £1100 FIRST EDITION. Philip Jones’s monograph on distortions of the spine was probably the third in England, after Percivall Pott in 1779 and Timothy Sheldrake in 1783. He worked closely with the Hunters, attending William Hunter’s anatomical lectures (the portrait shows him holding a copy of “Minutes of Anatomical Lectures”), and working with him on occasions. He had many patients referred to him by John Hunter, and included in the book a facsimile letter of approbation from him. Two of the specimens illustrated in the plates are from William Hunter’s museum.

64. KIRKBY, Rev. John. The Doctrine of Ultimators. Containing a New Acquisition to Mathematical Literature, naturally resulting from the consideration of an equation, as reducible from its variable to its ultimate state: or, a discovery of the true and genuine continued... 28


foundation of what has hitherto mistakenly prevailed under the improper names of Fluxions and the Differential Calculus. By means of which we now have that apex of all mathematical science entirely rescued from the blind and ungeometrical method of deduction... London: Printed for J. Hodges,... 1748. 4to, 2 leaves, pp. v–viii, 3 leaves, pp. 146. Contemporary mottled calf, very neatly rebacked and tips of corners repaired. A little foxing and minor browning, otherwise a good copy. From the Kenney Collection, with their book label. £900 SOLE EDITION. Kirkby, a vicar originally from Cumberland, became tutor to Edward Gibbon in Putney. Unfortunately he lost the post by omitting the name of King George in the morning prayers, thus irritating his patron (DNB, unaware of the existence of the present book in listing Kirkby’s publications. According to Wallis, the DNB confuses this author with his namesake of St. John’s, Cambridge). Guicciardini, The development of Newtonian calculus in Britain, p. 161 (listed among the works on the foundations of calculus). Wallis, Biobibliography, p. 206.

65. KÖNIG, Carl Hindrich. Inledning til Mecaniken och Bygnings-Konsten, sämte en beskrifning öfwer åtskillige af framledne commerce-rådet och commendeuren af...Hr. Polhem opfundne Machiner. Stockholm: tryckt af Peter Jöransson Nyström, 1752. Small 4to, pp. (viii), 183, and 30 folding engraved plates (numbered I–XXVIII plus XV* and a second plate numbered XVI). Large engraved vignette on title and another at the beginning of the second Book, some fine woodcut ornaments. Red half morocco c. 1940, spine gilt in compartments. One gathering a bit browned, but a nice copy. £2750 FIRST EDITION. This Introduction to the mechanics and the science of construction, including a description of several of the machines invented by the late...Mr. Polhem is a detailed treatise on the industrial work in Sweden in the first half of the eighteenth century. The last part, pp. 155 to the end, is an explanation of Christopher Polhem’s machines illustrated on 25 of the plates, and is one of the best accounts of Polhem’s work. (His own Patriotiska testamente, 1761, which gives the first description of rolling mills and other methods of iron-working, is not illustrated.) After a career as a mining engineer during which he devised water-powered machinery that mechanized operations at the great Falun copper mine, Polhem (1661–1751) built a factory for iron and other metal products at Stjaernsund in 1704 which was quite remarkable. It used division of labour, hoists, and conveyor belts to minimize manual labour, anticipating mass-production techniques later adopted in America and England. His ‘alphabet’ of machine components enabled him to build every conceivable machine and demonstrated the basic elements of mechanism used by later machine builders. His rolling mill was later adapted by Henry Cort to the production of wrought iron in England. “These new techniques of production exerted an important influence in Sweden and elsewhere. They represent the highest level of accomplishment of an iron industry based on charcoal and dependent for primary power on water-wheels and horse-driven gins” (Singer et al, A history of technology, III, pp. 342–343).

Comprehensive Work on Fire Prevention 66. KRÜGELSTEIN, Johann Friedrich. Vollständiges System der Feuerpolizeywissenschaft. Leipzig: bey Voss und Compagnie, 1798 [–1799–1800]. 3 volumes, 8vo, pp. vi, (ii), 666, (1) imprint; (viii), 699, (1); vi, (ii), 592, 2 folding engraved plates & several woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary half sheep and marbled boards, spines gilt with red & green morocco labels. A fine and handsome set. From the library of His Serene Highness Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen. £1200 continued... 29


FIRST EDITION of one of the most complete treatises on methods of fire prevention to appear in Germany in the 18th century. The author describes methods of constructing fireproof buildings, materials which are inflammable and non-inflammable, chemicals which could render building materials fireproof, the need for securely erected heating and cooking apparatus as well as safe lighting. There is also a discussion of the economic harm caused by fires, fire insurance, etc. Krügelstein stresses the need for city regulations to be imposed regarding building codes and fire brigades. The second half of volume 3 is devoted to descriptions of many types of fire wagons and engines, pumps, etc. including those manufactured in France and England. The author provides a history and bibliography of fire engines. The attractive plates depict several fire engines with pumps. The author was a physician and town official at Ohrdruf.

67. LABELYE, Charles. A Short Account of the Methods made use of in Laying the Foundation of the Piers of Westminster-Bridge. With an answer to the chief objections that have been made thereto... To which are annex’d, the plans, elevations and sections belonging to a design of a stone-bridge... with an Explanation of that Design. London: Printed by A. Parker, for the author. 1739. 8vo, 2 leaves, pp. vi, 82. Woodcut headpiece and initials. Modern quarter morocco. £650 FIRST EDITION. Westminster Bridge was the first major bridge to be built over an English river for more than a century, and was also only the second masonry bridge over the Thames. The controversial choice as the architect was the Swiss engineer Charles Lebelye, who employed a novel method of founding the piers; they were built inside timber caissons which had been towed out and sunk onto excavations prepared for them in the bed of the river. Once the masonry was laid the timber sides were removed, leaving a flat base for the pier. This system had never been used before in this country and nowhere before on such a large scale, and much of Labelye’s book is given over to describing it. The book appeared a year after the start of construction. The plan mentioned on the title-page was published later and separately, and is given a separate number by Skempton. Skempton 812.

68. [LABELYE, Charles(?)]. The Present State of Westminster Bridge. Containing a description of the said bridge, as it has been ordered into execution by the right honourable, &c., the commissioners appointed by Parliament, and is now carrying on. With a true account of the time already employed in the building, and of the works which are now done. In a letter to a friend. London: Printed for J. Millan... 1743. 8vo, pp. 30, (2) adverts. Quarter calf and marbled boards (of the 20th century), uncut. Paper a little browned. Armorial bookplate of Nathan of Churt. £400 FIRST EDITION. Westminster Bridge, opened in 1750, was the first major bridge built over an English river for a century. Its designer was the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye, whose appointment displeased the disappointed British architects. By the end of 1742, despite many setbacks, twelve of the fourteen piers were completed and the construction of the fourth arch was well under way. The present pamphlet, reporting progress, is dated 8 December 1842 and was almost certainly written by Labelye to refute his critics. Skempton 814.

69. LABELYE, Charles. A Description of Westminster Bridge. To which are added, an account of the methods made use of in laying the foundations of its piers. And an answer to the chief objections, that have been made thereto. With an appendix... As also its geometrical plans, and the elevation of one of the fronts, as it is finished, correctly engraven on two large copper-plates. London: Printed by W. Strahan, for the author. 1751. continued... 30


8vo, 2 leaves, pp. iv, 119. Contemporary half calf, rebacked, corners worn. Title-page and last (blank) page a little dust-soiled, light foxing on the first and last few leaves. £850 FIRST EDITION of this title, but the book is actually an enlargement of Labelye’s Short Account published in 1739, a year after construction of the bridge began. The present book came out a year after the bridge was completed, and contains a 33-page appendix on the building of the bridge, its costs, and the materials used. Westminster Bridge was the first major bridge to be built over an English river for more than a century, and was also only the second masonry bridge over the Thames. The controversial choice as the architect was the Swiss engineer Charles Lebelye, who employed a novel method of founding the piers; they were built inside timber caissons which had been towed out and sunk onto excavations prepared for them in the bed of the river. Once the masonry was laid the timber sides were removed, leaving a flat base for the pier. This system had never been used before in this country and nowhere before on such a large scale, and much of Labelye’s book is given over to describing it. Pages 99–119 form a prospectus for a further work on Westminster Bridge by the same author which was never written, and the two copperplates mentioned in the title were published separately as one plate and not as part of this book. It is given a different number by Skempton. Skempton 819.

70. LAFOREST, [Nicholas-Laurent]. L'Art de Soigner les Pieds, contenant: un traité sur les cors, verrues, durillons, oignons, engelures, les accidens des ongles & leur difformité. Un chapitre sur la manière de soigner les pieds des soldats en garnison & dans les mouvemens... Troisième édition. A Paris: Chez l'Auteur...Méquignon l’aîné...[&] Blaizot..., 1788. 12mo, pp. xvi, 192, and 2 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf, rebacked preserving the original gilt backstrip with green morocco label, tips of corners repaired, triple gilt fillet on sides. marbled edges and endpapers. Bookplate of J. Colin Dagnall, the historian of chiropody (see below). £275 Third and final edition of the first influential book on chiropody, with two plates of chiropodial instruments and of foot conditions, including hallux valgus. “It was a good book, well written and containing much based on original observation, as opposed to the few previous references in medical books which simply passed on the views of earlier writers... Laforest laid the foundations of chiropodial writing, and his basic principles on the cause and treatment of corns, bursitis and onychocryptosis hold true today. He is credited by some medical historians (Valentin, Geschichte der Orthopädie), as being the first to describe, and certainly to illustrate, the condition of hallux valgus. Bick considers that his book ranks with the work of Peter Camper (1722–1789) in laying the foundations of foot orthopaedics” (J.C. Dagnall, “The history of chiropodial literature”, in The Chiropodist, 1965).

71. LARREY, Baron Dominique Jean. On the Use of Moxa, as a therapeutical agent. Translated from the French, with notes, and an introduction containing a history of the substance, by Robley Dunglison. London: Printed for Thomas and George Underwood... 1822. [Bound with:] BOYLE, James. A Treatise on a Modified Application of Moxa, in the treatment of stiff and contracted joints: and also in chronic rheumatism... With observations on... the treatment of diseased joints; and...spinal diseases. Second edition. London: Printed for Callow and Wilson... 1826. 2 works in 1 volume, 8vo, pp. (viii), lxxvi, 148; pp. viii, 219, (1), 2 lithographed plates on 1 folding sheet bound as a frontispiece. Contemporary half calf (label on spine missing). Signature of B. Bickersteth on title of [1]. A very clean copy. £600 [1] FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH and first separate edition. “Moxa was apparently Baron Larrey’s grand hobby, and was regarded by him as cinchona was by Heberden — good in many diseases, bad in none. Of the octavo 319 pages of the Baron’s Recueil des mémoires de chirurgie (Paris, 1821), no continued... 31


less than 160 are devoted to the moxa. This portion of the work has been translated and published under the above title by Dr. Dunglison, and he has performed the task, not simply well, but in a masterly and interesting manner, incorporating and adding much original matter” (Edinbugh Med. J., quoted by Lessell). [2] Second edition. The first edition appeared the previous year.
 These are two of the best books on the subject of moxa published in the nineteenth century. Lessell, Bibliotheca medica de Asia Orientali, 821.L2 and 825.B1 respectively. Waring, Bibliotheca therapeutica, p. 269.

72. LATTA, James. A Practical System of Surgery. Edinburgh: Printed for G. Mudie & Son, A. Guthrie, and J. Fairbairn, 1795. 3 volumes, 8vo, 3 leaves, pp. 2, vii, 505, 7 folding engraved plates (including 2 numbered V); 2 leaves, pp. xi [i.e. ix], 534, 9 plates; pp. xiii, (iii) blank, 708, 5 plates. Half-titles. Tear in blank area of 4 plates, some soiling and minor foxing in all volumes. Contemporary tree calf, rebacked and corners repaired with sheep, red and green morocco labels, slight wear to corners and edges. A few neat library inscriptions on endpapers and preliminary pages (but not the titles), 19th century MS ex libris of William Murray and stamp of Dr. Donald Paisley on free endpapers. £1100 FIRST EDITION. Latta was house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and afterwards in private practice. His book is well regarded and valuable for the extensive case histories that it gives (Hirsch). Much of the first volume is on hernias, but includes bloodletting and lithotomy; most of the second volume is on surgery of the head and neck, including the brain, the eyes, dentistry, harelip, etc.; the third volume is largely on wounds and fractures. The plates, all of which are folding, show surgical instruments. This was the only English edition, but it also appeared in two German editions. Zeis Index 1810.

73. LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent, et al. Méthode de Nomenclature Chimique, proposée par MM. de Morveau, Lavoisier, Bertholet, & De Fourcroy. On y a joint un nouveau systême de caractères chimiques, adaptés à cette nomenclature, par MM. Hassenfratz & Adet. Paris: Cuchet, 1787. 8vo, 2 leaves, 314 pages, 1 large folding printed table and 6 folding engraved plates. Contemporary mottled calf (foot of one joint repaired). Very good copy. £1300 FIRST EDITION, second issue, of one of the key books in the history of modern chemistry. Lavoisier’s discoveries made a new and rational chemical nomenclature imperative. Initiated by Guyton de Morveau, still an adherent of the phlogiston theory, the project was taken up by Lavoisier, who soon convinced Guyton of the truth of his system. They entered into collaboration with Berthollet and Fourcroy. The result of their combined efforts is contained in the present volume, the most important milestone in the development of chemical nomenclature. The new nomenclature, with only slight modifications, is still the basis of the language of modern chemistry. In this second printing of the first edition, the pages 257–272 are misnumbered 241–256. Cole 566. Duveen & Klickstein 129. Sparrow, Milestones of Science, p. 27 and plate 113.

74. LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent. Trattato Elementare di Chimica presentato in un Ordine nuovo dietro le Scoperte moderne. Venice: A. Zatta & Sons, 1792. 4 volumes, 8vo. With 2 folding printed tables and 13 folding engraved plates. Some light staining to the early leaves of vol. III. Contemporary limp boards (vol. III sympathetically rebacked to match), uncut, a very good set with half-titles. Bookplate of the Bibliothecae Nobilis Collegii Ptolemaei. £800 Second edition of the Dandolo translation into Italian (the first edition in Italian appeared the year before); this edition contains some additional notes and corrections. Volume III, entitled Esame delle Affinità Chimiche, is Dandolo’s translation of parts of the essay on chemical affinity by continued... 32


Guyton de Morveau in the Encyclopédie Methodique. Volume IV is Dandolo’s adaptation in Italian of the “Synonimie” and the “Dictionnaire” of the Nomenclature Chimique (Paris, 1787). “One of the great milestones in the history of chemical literature. By common consent modern chemistry begins with this work, ‘which finally freed the science from its phlogiston chains and formed the starting point of its modern progress. It may be said to have done almost as much for chemistry as Newton’s Principia did for physics’ (Zeitlinger). Lavoisier used the balance to demonstrate the weight of matter at every chemical change, defined the terms element and compound, explained combustion and the rusting of metals as a chemical combination with oxygen, and through his concept of the conservation of matter developed methods of chemical analysis. The book contains the first list of twenty-three chemical elements and their compounds” (Neville, II, p. 21). Dandolo (1758–1819), a wealthy Venetian, occupied himself with the breeding of sheep, the production of silk, the manufacture of grape sugar, and oenology; he wrote on these and other economical subjects. Cole 793. Duveen & Klickstein 150 and 181. Neville, II, p. 26.

The Pirated Edition 75. LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent. Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un Ordre nouveau et d’après les Découvertes modernes... Seconde Édition. Paris: Cuchet, 1793. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xliv, 322; viii, 327, 2 folding printed tables and 13 folding engraved plates, drawn and engraved by Madame Lavoisier. Contemporary calf-backed paste-paper boards, flat spines gilt, green morocco lettering pieces on spines. £800 The rare pirated “second” edition, printed by de Boiste, and issued without the knowledge or authorization of Lavoisier. “One of the great milestones in the history of chemical literature. By common consent modern chemistry begins with this work, ‘which finally freed the science from its phlogiston chains and formed the starting point of its modern progress. It may be said to have done almost as much for chemistry as Newton’s Principia did for physics’ (Zeitlinger). Lavoisier used the balance to demonstrate the weight of matter at every chemical change, defined the terms element and compound, explained combustion and the rusting of metals as a chemical combination with oxygen, and through his concept of the conservation of matter developed methods of chemical analysis. The book contains the first list of twenty-three chemical elements and their compounds” (Neville, II, p. 21). Cole 777. Duveen & Klickstein 156. Neville, II, p. 21–23.

76.

LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent. Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un Ordre nouveau et d’après les Découvertes modernes... Seconde Édition. Paris: Cuchet, 1793. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xliv, 322; viii, 331, 2 folding printed tables and 13 folding engraved plates, drawn and engraved by Madame Lavoisier. Antique sheep-backed marbled boards (some foxing), flat spines gilt. £800 Second edition, although this edition, printed by Chardon, appears to have followed, rather than preceded, a pirated “seconde édition” printed by de Boiste earlier in the same year. “One of the great milestones in the history of chemical literature. By common consent modern chemistry begins with this work, ‘which finally freed the science from its phlogiston chains and formed the starting point of its modern progress. It may be said to have done almost as much for chemistry as Newton’s Principia did for physics’ (Zeitlinger). Lavoisier used the balance to demonstrate the weight of matter at every chemical change, defined the terms element and compound, explained combustion and the rusting of metals as a chemical combination with oxygen, and through his concept of the conservation of matter developed methods of chemical analysis. The book contains the first list of twenty-three chemical elements and their compounds” (Neville, II, p. 21). Cole 778. Duveen & Klickstein 157. Neville, II, p. 23.

33


77. LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent. Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d’après les découvertes modernes... Troisième Edition, corrigée et augmentée de plusieurs Mémoires nouveaux. Paris: Deterville, 1801. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xliv, 386; vii, 377, (1), 2 folding printed tables and 13 folding engraved plates, drawn and engraved by Madame Lavoisier. With the half-titles. Contemporary calf-backed pastepaper boards (joints and ends of spines carefully repaired), flat spines gilt, green morocco lettering pieces on spines. £800 Third edition, with important additions. For the first time, the first two of the three papers Lavoisier wrote on respiration are reprinted in this work, as well as his two memoirs on transpiration, the second of which had not been previously published. “One of the great milestones in the history of chemical literature. By common consent modern chemistry begins with this work, ‘which finally freed the science from its phlogiston chains and formed the starting point of its modern progress. It may be said to have done almost as much for chemistry as Newton’s Principia did for physics’ (Zeitlinger). Lavoisier used the balance to demonstrate the weight of matter at every chemical change, defined the terms element and compound, explained combustion and the rusting of metals as a chemical combination with oxygen, and through his concept of the conservation of matter developed methods of chemical analysis. The book contains the first list of twenty-three chemical elements and their compounds” (Neville, II, p. 21). Cole 780. Duveen & Klickstein 159. Neville, II, p. 23–24.

78. LE DRAN, Henri-François. Traité des Operations de Chirurgie. Paris: Chez Charles Osmont,... 1742. 8vo, pp. (viii), 570 [i.e. 580], (2) privilege, 1 folding engraved plate. Contemporary French mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label. Paper a little browned, chip in head of spine, foot of spine and tips of corners worn. £525 FIRST EDITION of a standard French surgical text of the eighteenth century. Le Dran was one of France’s foremost surgeons, and a celebrated teacher with many pupils from Germany, including Haller. In 1724 he was appointed one of the four surgeons of the Charité, establishing an anatomical school there, and in the 1730s served as chief surgeon to the army, publishing an important book on gunshot wounds. He made notable contributions to the operation of lithotomy, included in this book, which also includes chapters on hernia, head injury, cancer, hare lip, etc.

79. LECREULX, [François Michel]. Recherches sur la Formation et l’Existence des Ruisseaux, Rivières et Torrens qui circulent sur le Globe Terrestre; avec des observations sur les principaux fleuves qui traversent la France, sur les causes des changemens qu’ils éprouvent dans leur cours, les moyens de les contenir dans leur lit, d’en tirer avantage pour la navigation... A Paris: Chez Bernard... 1804. 4to, pp. xv, 407, 1 leaf (errata), and 8 folding engraved plates showing various aspects of hydraulic engineering. Half-title with additional imprint of Goeury (bookseller to the École des Ponts et Chaussées) pasted on. Contemporary German boards, spine with gilt bands and red label. Some minor foxing but a fine copy. Old library stamp on half-title (Chaussée Commission) and title (Oberbaudirector). £650 FIRST EDITION. Lecreulx (1734–1812) was one of the most important civil engineers in France during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He oversaw the construction of a large number of important bridges and in 1801 was appointed inspector general of bridges and roads. He took part in the planning of most of the chief public works programmes during the years of the Empire. This work is a comprehensive theoretical and practical treatise on river control. The excellent plates depict various techniques of damming, embankment, construction of locks, etc. Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp. 201–202: “His masterwork...”

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80. LINDEN, Joannis Antonides van der. Lindenius Renovatus, sive...De Scriptis Medicis libri duo... Noviter praeter haec addita plurimorum authorum...ad presentum continuati...& ab extantioribus mendis purgati à Georgio Abrahamo Mercklino... Norimbergae [Nuremberg]: Impensis Johannis Georgii Endteri, 1686. 2 parts in 1 volume, 4to, 12 leaves (including the engraved and printed titles), pp. 1097, (59); ((vi), 160, (2) errata. Separate title to the second part. Contemporary French speckled calf, joints and ends of spine very neatly repaired, flat spine richly gilt, red morocco label, marbled endpapers. Some foxing throughout, and a small (1 cm.) tear in fore-edge margin of the printed title, otherwise a nice copy. £900 LAST AND BEST EDITION (issue with statement of royal privilege on the title), expanded and corrected by Georg Mercklin. See G&M 6744 (first edition of 1637): “Van der Linden’s book was at the time of its appearance the most complete medical bibliography yet produced. He issued corrected editions in 1651 and 1662 and G.A. Mercklin published a considerably expanded version as Lindenius renovatus in 1686.” The second part is a subject index which Besterman calls “useful for its elaborate classification.” “Linden’s bibliographic work...is a list of medical writings arranged alphabetically by the first name of the author, with indexes of surnames and subjects... An innovation found in Mercklin’s revision is the listing of a few articles from the publications of learned societies... In spite of the large number of references contained in this work, it has been criticised for what it omitted. It is, moreover, the first medical bibliography which resembles a modern work of similar content... Altogether, the De scriptis medicis shows a new grasp of the potentialities of the printing press not found in earlier bibliographies...” (Brodman, The development of medical bibliography, 1954, pp. 29–33). See also Fulton, The great medical bibliographers, pp. 35–36; Besterman, Beginnings of systematic bibliography, p. 57.

81. [LING, Per Henrik]. Reglemente för Gymnastik. Stockholm, Elméns och Granbergs tryckeri, 1836. 8vo, pp. (iv), 119, (1), 8 folding printed tables and 3 folding engraved plates. Uncut in contemporary blue paper wrappers. Minor damage to head of spine, occasional insignificant spotting, but a fine copy. £250 FIRST EDITION (a second edition appeared in 1853). Ling’s “Rules for gymnastics” is a highly detailed manual of gymnastic exercises for the Swedish army, written by order of the government, which also commissioned him to write Reglemente för bajonettfäktning [Regulations for bayonetfencing], published the same year. Ling had begun printing his important Gymnastikens allmänna grunder only two years earlier in 1834. Hagelin, Kinetic Jottings, p. 149.

Family Copy 82. LING, [Per Henrik]. Gymnastikens allmänna grunder. Upsala: Palmblad & Comp. 1834. Leffler och Sebell, [published by P. J. Liedbeck and C. A. Georgii]. 1840. 12mo, pp. (x), (11)–239. First part printed on light blue paper. Wormhole in inner margin of pp. 65–68, short tear or paper flaw touching a few letters in pp. 205/6 repaired at an early date. Contemporary quarter roan (spine rubbed). Signature of C. H. Liedbeck and note: ”Fragment” on title-page (see below). £950 FIRST EDITION. The foundation of modern gymnastics and therapeutic massage. Ling established the Swedish school of physiotherapy with his institute for training gymnastics teachers in Stockholm in 1813. “Of great importance to orthopedic surgery was the remarkable work of the Swedish gymnast Per Henrik Ling... Ling developed the ancient Greek art of calisthenics to a science based on sound anatomic and physiological principles... After Ling, scientific body building by rational calisthenics became a recognized procedure not only for the weak child or adult, but, of even greater consequence, continued... 35


as an integral part of the plans for preventative medicine which were taking form in the schools and gymnasia of all civilised nations” (Bick). Carl Harald Liedbeck (1851–1920) was P. J. Liedbeck’s son and Ling’s grandson. He graduated from the Gymnastiska Centralinstitutet in 1871 and worked as a physical training teacher in Stockholm and a substitute teacher at the institute during the years 1875–88. He wrote the textbook Gymnastiska dagöfningar [Daily gymnastic exercises], to be used in elementary schools. G&M 381 and 4478.104. Bick, Source book of orthopaedics, pp. 474–475. Keith, Menders of the maimed, pp. 214–217. The book was published between 1834 and 1840, hence the first part is printed on different paper.

83. LION, Heyman, Chiropedist. An Entire, New, and Original Work; being a Complete Treatise upon Spinæ Pedum; containing several important discoveries. Illustrated with copperplates; exhibiting the different species of spinæ. Edinburgh: Printed by H. Inglis, for the author... 1802. 8vo, pp. xiv, (15)–428, and 5 engraved plates (plate IV coloured, as in some other copies). Later half calf by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, uncut edges. Pale foxing of the paper throughout, otherwise a very good copy. Bookplate of J. Colin Dagnall, the historian of chiropody (see below). £750 FIRST EDITION, second issue, of the first original British work on chiropody. Disappointed at being refused a medical degree, Lion, a German Jewish émigré, sat down to write this book. “His odd and arrogant writing led to the book being generally derided by the lay and professional press. In fact it is first class and was based completely on his personal experiences and observations. Stripped of its padding it can be seen to be a great improvement on Laforest’s book... The greatest praise we can give to Lion’s book is to say that every chiropodial writer since has used and borrowed from Upon Spinæ Pedum” (J.C. Dagnall, “The history of chiropodial literature”, in The Chiropodist, 1965). This issue omits the first paragraph of the preface, in which Lion admits to diffidence and anxiety of the work’s approbation. Although COPAC locates a dozen copies in the British Isles, this book is rarely seen for sale (Mr. Dagnall noted that he had seen only 3 copies in the 15 years from 1957 to 1972).

Essential Advice for Captain Cook 84. MacBRIDE, David. Experimental Essays on medical and philosophical subjects: particularly, I. On the fermentation of alimentary mixtures, and digestion of the food. II. On the nature and properties of fixed air. III. On the respective powers...of antiseptics. IV. On the scurvy... V. On the dissolvent power of quick-lime... The second edition, enlarged and co rrected. London: Printed for A. Millar and T. Cadell,... 1767. 8vo, pp. xiv, (ii), 296, 2 folding letterpress tables and 4 engraved plates (1 folding). Contemporary calf, spine ruled in gilt with red morocco label (neat repairs to spine, one lower corner a little worn). Some gatherings slightly browned, as in other copies seen. Armorial bookplate of Matthew Waters. £1200 Second London edition. The Irishman David Macbride studied in Glasgow and became a naval surgeon. His principal subject of investigation in this series of five essays was fixed air (carbon dioxide). Of particular interest is the essay on scurvy, which Macbride considered to be due to a lack of fixed air, and of vegetables rich in fixed air. He therefore recommended fresh vegetables as a cure for scurvy, or for longer voyages, an infusion of malt that he called the wort. Macbride’s experimental results also sparked Joseph Priestley’s interest in the medicinal possibilities of the new gases he was discovering, and this research led to the work of Thomas Beddoes and the Pneumatic Institute. At the end of this edition is a 10-page Postscript detailing how the wort cured scurvy on the Royal Naval ship Jason, commanded by MacBride’s brother. The Admiralty ordered that the wort should be given further trial, and sent copies of this edition of the book to Captain Cook, who took continued... 36


them on his first voyage in 1768. Heeding Macbride’s advice, Cook took every opportunity to obtain fresh supplies, and never lost a man to scurvy, a quite extraordinary feat at the time. The first edition, without the important postscript, was published in London in 1764, and this second edition was also published in Dublin earlier in the same year. Keevil, Medicine and the Navy, III, pp. 308–309. Partington, History of chemistry, III, pp. 143– 144. Cole 854. Neville II, p. 107.

85. MACQUER, [Pierre Joseph]. Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry. Translated from the French... The second edition. London: Printed for A. Millar, and J. Nourse... 1764. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xix, 419, 6 engraved plates; viii, 434. Contemporary red morocco, green morocco labels on spines. First gathering of vol. 1 bound in the wrong order, some light foxing at the beginning of each volume, a few small scuff marks in the leather, but a very good set. £700 Second edition in English of Elémens de chymie-theorique (1749) and Elémens de chymie-pratique (1751), translated by Andrew Reid fom the 1756 editions. The introductory text (Théorique) was arranged to present the basic truths of chemistry in a logical order, from the simple to the complex. The Elémens de chymie-pratique formed a complete course of practical chemistry for beginners. Cole 887. Neville II, p. 121. Partington III, p. 80. This edition is a page-for-page reprint of the first of 1758 with the errors corrected.

Macquer’s Definitive Text 86. [MACQUER, Pierre Joseph]. Dictionnaire de Chymie, contenant la théorie & la pratique de cette science, son application à la physique, à l’histoire naturelle, à la médecine & à l’économie animale; avec l’explication détaillée de la vertu & de la maniere d'agir des médicamens chymiques; & les principes fondamentaux des arts, manufactures & métiers dépendans de la chymie. A Yverdon: [no printer,] 1767. 3 volumes, 8vo, pp. xxx, (ii) blank, 582, (2) blank; 1 leaf, pp. (3)–655; 1 leaf, pp. (3)–647, (3) blank. Some foxing, one or two wormholes through upper margin of vol. 3 becoming a short wormtrack in 20 leaves. Contemporary half sheep, sides rubbed, edges and tips of corners worn, head of spine of vol. 1 worn and foot a little chipped. Small printed book label of Citoyen J.-B. Breitel on titles. £800 Third edition of the first modern chemical dictionary. Although technical dictionaries had appeared earlier, this was the first attempt to cover the whole field of chemistry, pure and applied, in an encyclopaedic manner. The 26-page introduction traces the progress of chemistry from its origins to the time of Stahl and Boerhaave. The book was an immediate success and it was several times reprinted and translated; it produced many imitators. There are substantial entries for glass and wine. Cole 865. DSB, VIII, pp. 618–624. Partington III, pp. 80–90. See Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1766. Neville pp. 114–115: “Printed in French, this Swiss edition is the first to be printed outside France. It ‘was copied from the original Paris edition, and the printer took note of all four substantial alterations listed after the preliminary discourse, making this the only version of the first edition with Macquer’s definitive text...”

Classic Example of the Neo-Hermetic Manner 87. MAIER, Michael. Viatorium, hoc est, de Montibus Planetarum septem seu Metallorum... Oppenheimi: Ex typographia Hieronymi Galleri, sumptibus Joh. Theodori de Bry. 1618. 4to, 136 [i.e. 138] pages, 1 leaf (blank). Title within engraved border incorporating a portrait of Maier and representations of the seven metals, 7 emblematic engravings in the text. Paper somewhat browned (as usual?), small burnhole in P2 affecting five letters. Eighteenth century mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments (very careful repairs to ends of spine and corners), red morocco label, triple gilt fillet on sides, darker discolouration from old tape repairs on sides. Large continued... 37


armorial bookplate of Charles B. Caldwell, Co. Meath, on front pastedown; also later bookplate, and small stamp of C. Patten. £8500 FIRST EDITION. “Maier’s ‘Viatorium, that is Concerning the Mountains of the Seven Planets or Metals’, an Ariadne’s thread through the ocean of chemical errors, considered each planet or metal in turn, beginning with Mercury, and stated three things as to each: its use in making gold, in tincture, and in medicine. Each was further accompanied by a picture...” (Thorndike, VII, p. 172). “All of Maier’s treatises are written with great erudition and display substantial knowledge of mythology and ancient history. They are classic examples of the neo-Hermetic manner, having no clear chemical sense. Yet there appear in his writings sentences and considerations that are sometimes astonishing, as in Viatorium..., in which he deliberates why lead and copper weigh more after being roasted (as Lazarus Ercker had observed)... The writings of Maier were highly valued and popular among alchemists. In the history of chemistry they represent a certain regression, however, for Maier was a fervent believer in the transmutation of metals, which was for him a synonym of the word ‘chymia’ ” (DSB). Michael Maier (1568–1622) was a Rosicucian, physician to Rudolf II of Hungary and Bohemia, an ardent alchemist, and a friend of Robert Fludd, whose books he was instrumental in publishing. VD17 23:253505F (5 copies). Duveen p. 382. Ferguson II, p. 65. Manly P. Hall catalogue 110. Neville has the second edition of 1651. Wellcome I, 3984.

88. MALPIGHI, Marcello. De Viscerum Structurâ Exercitatio Anatomica... Accedit dissertatio ejusdem de polypo cordis. Londini: Typis T[homas] R[oycroft] Impensis Jo. Martyn... 1669. 12mo, pp. (xii), 180. Contemporary calf (joints cracked but perfectly strong, top of spine missing, tips of corners a little worn), unlettered, red edges, a nice, fresh copy. Signature of Walter Pagel (1896–1983) on front endpaper. £1400 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION (the second chronologically) of Malpighi’s classic essay on the kidney, ‘De renibus’, describing the Malpighian bodies. This collection of five anatomical treatises also includes his chief haematological treatise containing his discovery of the red blood corpuscles, ‘De polypo cordis’, and his essay ‘De liene’ which includes the first description of Hodgkin’s disease. The other two essays are ‘De hepate’ and ‘De cerebri cortici’. Wing M348; this was the first of Malpighi’s works to be printed in England. See G&M 535 and 1230 (the rare first edition published in Bologna in 1666, which is the first book on histology listed by G&M). Frati, Bibliografia Malpighiana, 17. The text of this edition is identical to the first.

89. MARTIN, Benjamin. Logarithmologia: or the whole Doctrine of Logarithms, common and logistical, in theory and practice. In three parts. Part I. The theory of logarithms... Part II. The praxis of logarithms... Part III. A three-fold canon of logarithms... London: Printed for J. Hodges... 1740. 8vo, pp. xii, 246, (2) adverts, *62, (2), large folding engraved plate (bound as a frontispiece). Separate title-page to the third part dated 1739. Contemporary unlettered calf, sides and spine compartments with double gilt fillet. Tear in the plate professionally repaired. A nice copy. £600 SOLE EDITION. One of the earlier works of Benjamin Martin (1705–1782), prolific author and maker of scientific instruments, written while he was still at Chichester and before his move to Reading in 1742.

90. MAURY, [J.C.]F. Traité Complet de l’Art du Dentiste d’après l’état actuel des connaissances. Paris: Gabon,... 1828. 2 volumes (text and plates), 8vo, pp. xii, 520 (misprinted 20); 2 leaves + 40 lithographed plates. Including the first leaf of the text volume, a blank, here pasted to the front wrapper; half-title in continued... 38


both volumes. Original printed wrappers (the plate volume identical but in boards), uncut. Minor foxing in the plate volume, small piece of paper missing from both spines, otherwise a nice, fresh set, preserved in a cloth box. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by Maury on the half-title of the text volume: “A Monsieur Le Docteur Pehoz, hommage de reconnaissance.” £950 FIRST EDITION. G&M 3679.6. Described by Neuburger-Pagel (III, 384) as “the first handbook of dentistry”, this finely illustrated book is particularly important for dental prosthesis. Maury gives a detailed history of false teeth, and a long description of the manufacture of new teeth. He probably invented the dental probe, and he illustrates many instruments in the plates, including one of the earliest illustrations of a dental mouth mirror. Crowley 938. Poletti 134.

91. MAWE, John. Travels in the Interior of Brazil, particularly the gold and diamond districts of that country, by authority of the Prince Regent of Portugal... London: Printed for Longman... 1812. 4to, pp. vii, 366, (2), engraved frontispiece and 8 engraved plates (including one hand-coloured of minerals). Foxing on the plates to a varying degree as in most copies, title slightly browned (offset from the frontispiece), otherwise a nice copy. Nineteenth century half calf by James H. Jackson of Perth, with his ticket. £1500 FIRST EDITION. “A work much valued by historians and geographers as one of the earliest reliable accounts of Brazil under Portuguese colonization, and the first on the diamond & gold washings and the manner in which they were conducted. The account is replete in details on the geography, the people and their customs, habitations, plants and animals, trade, and many others made by a shrewd and intelligent observer... Not all copies contain hand-colored plates. In general, most copies are moderately to severely foxed” (Sinkankas 4270, from a long and interesting note on this book). Mawe’s observations on every aspect on diamond mining are in two chapters, while a third contains his account (probably the first to be printed) of the topaz mines near Villa Rica.

92. MEAD, Richard. A Mechanical Account of Poisons in several essays. London: Printed by J.R. for Ralph South... 1702. 8vo, pp. (xvi), 175, (1), 1 folding engraved plate. Contemporary speckled calf (short insect track in surface of leather on upper cover). Paper a little browned, but a nice copy. Signature of H. Randolph, 1766, on front endpaper; also stamp of Walter J. Dilling (1886–1950), pharmacologist. £325 FIRST EDITION of Mead's first book, and one of his most important. Its publication excited so much attention that an abstract of it was printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1703, and in the same year Mead was elected F.R.S. Mead dissected vipers, and gives an exact account of the mechanism which provides for the erection of the fang when the snake opens its mouth. He swallowed the poison, and thus confirmed Galen’s experiment on fowls, in proof of the fact that puncture is necessary to produce the effect. Mead also considers other poisonous animals, plants including opium, and toxic natural gases.

93. MELETIUS. De Natura Structuraque Hominis Opus, Polemonis Atheniensis... interpretationis: Hippocratis De Hominis Structura. Dioclis Ad Antigonum Regem de tuenda valetudine epistola. Melampi De Nevis Corporis Tratactatus. Omnia haec non prius edita. Nicolao Petreio Corcyraeo interprete. Venetiis [Venice]: [Colophon: exofficina Gryphii, sumptibus vero Francisci Camotii & sociorum], 1552. 4to, 4 leaves 191 pages, 16 leaves (indexes and errata). Woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials, italic letter with Roman headings. Title-page slightly soiled and ink-spotted, single tiny continued... 39


Item 91, Mawe wormhole almost throughout, otherwise a fine copy. Contemporary limp vellum (lacking ties, no rear free endpaper, a few small holes in the vellum and a small stain on the lower cover), lettered in manuscript on the lower edges of the leaves. Early signature of Vincentii Ayrm(?) on title. ÂŁ2200 FIRST EDITION. One of the earliest works on anatomy, written probably in the eighth century by Meletius, a Christian monk and physician from Phrygia (now part of Turkey). This appears to continued... 40


be the only edition until the publication of the original Greek text in 1836. Choulant (Handbuch, p. 145), describing the work as very rare, compares it to that of Nemesius (4th century), whom Meletius cites in the chapter on the head, and it was possibly through Meletius that cerebral localisation, propounded by Nemesius but then forgotten for several centuries, came to be accepted and described as early as the tenth century by Rhazes, an important figure in the diffusion of the idea. The chapter on the eye has been the subject of recent study by Robert Renehan (1984) and J. Lascaratos & M. Tsirou (1990). Other chapters are on the ear, the nose, the heart, the kidney, etc. One of the longest chapters is the last one, on food and taste. Meletius’s work stands out as being written during a period of almost no original medical writings, occurring as it does between those of Aetius, Alexander of Tralles and Paulus of Aegineta in the sixth century, and the Arabic School in the ninth. Meletius’ work is followed by several smaller works, the principal one being the Naturae signorum interpretatio, a Latin translation of the Byzantine Greek forgery of Antonio Polemo’s Physiognomica (Durling). See R. Renehan, “Meletius’ chapter on the eyes: an unidentified source”, in Symposium on Byzantine Medicine, Washington, D.C. 1984; J. Lascaratos & M. Tsiro, Ophthalmological ideas of the Byzantine author Meletius, 1990.

All That was Known About the Subject 94. MILLER, Philip. The Gardeners Dictionary: containing the methods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit and flower garden. As also, the physick garden, wilderness, conservatory, and vineyard... Interspersed with the history of the plants, the character of each genus, and the names of all the particular species... Together with accounts of the nature and use of barometers, thermometers, and hygrometers proper for gardeners... London: Printed for the author; and sold by C. Rivington... 1731. Folio, pp. xvi, (iv), (840), engraved frontispiece and 4 engraved plates. Fine engraved headpiece to the dedication to Sir Hans Sloane, woodcut ornaments and initials, 1 engraving in the text on f. ff1v, a few woodcuts in the text. Contemporary panelled calf (very neat restoration to spine and tips of lower corners), red morocco label. A fine, fresh copy. Signature of J. King, 1731, on front free endpaper (evidently the first owner); stamp of a Scottish library on pastedown (probably the second owner). £1200 FIRST EDITION of the first comprehensive dictionary of gardening. Miller was the greatest horticultural authority in Europe whose literary contribution was to gather together all that was known about the subject, so that for the first time everything anyone needed to know about every plant likely to be encountered in an English garden was in one place. All the names given to the same plant were listed together, eliminating confusion. His Dictionary brought order and focus to all the knowledge available at that time; it listed everything, clearly and in alphabetical order, and it developed into the standard work and principal reference book for gardeners around the world. It became an international best seller, and turned Miller into a superstar. “As regards the common opinion of Miller’s Gardeners dictionary, I have asked several of the greatest and best horticulturalists both in England and America, what author and what book they had found and believed to be the best in horticulture... They have all answered with one mouth, Miller’s Gardeners dictionary, either in folio, or the abstract in 8vo. was the best of all, and that when one has it, no other book is afterwards required” (Henrey 1101, quoting Pehr Kalm’s En resa til Norra America (1753). Fussell, The Old English Farming Books, pp. 123–125.

95. MUDGE, Thomas. A Description, with plates, of the Time-Keeper invented by the late Thomas Mudge. To which is prefixed a narrative, by Thomas Mudge, his son, on measures taken to give effect to the invention since the reward bestowed upon it by the House of Commons in the year 1793; a republication of a tract by the late Mr. Mudge on the improvement of time-keepers; a series of letters... London: Printed for the author; sold by Mess. Payne, Cadell and Davies, Rivington, Dilly, and Richardson. 1799. continued... 41


4to, pp. (xii), cli, 176, stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait and 9 extremely detailed engraved plates of clockwork by Paas & Co. from drawings by Robert Pennington. Fine modern half calf antique, flat spine gilt and with red morocco label. £3800 FIRST EDITION. A technical narrative of the construction of some of the earliest marine chronometers. “This important book...is a full, though edited, account of the manufacture and trials of his father’s three timekeepers and of his own attempt at setting up a manufactory to produce them commercially in the 1790s... For all those clockmakers who attempted a solution to the longitude problem, the requirements of the [Longitude] Act demanded a mechanical genius combined with the highest skills of eye and hand. In this respect, Mudge truly did excel” (David Penney in The quest for longitude, edited by W.J.H. Andrewes). Mudge was the first to follow Harrison in designing marine timekeepers. He was also the inventor of the lever escapement (illustrated in plate 9), used in every watch that is made today. Baillie, Clocks and watches, 1799. Bromley, The Clockmakers’ library, 600.

96. MÜLLER, Johannes. Ueber die phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen. Eine physiologische Untersuchung mit einer physiologischen Urkunde des Aristoteles über den Traum. Coblenz: bei Jacob Hölscher. 1826. 8vo, pp. x, 117. Some foxing and light browning. Twentieth century half calf, uncut, original green upper wrapper bearing the book label of Edgar Goldschmid (1881–1957), bibliographer of pathology, bound in. £1200 FIRST EDITION. This book contains further studies on specific nerve energies, following on from his Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der Thiere published earlier in the same year. In it Müller showed that the sensory system of the eye not only reacts to external optical stimuli but also can be excited by interior stimuli arising from organic malfunction, lingering mental images, or the play of the imagination. When the stimulus is mistakenly assumed to have originated outside the body, the result — depending on the situation — is the reporting of religious or magical visions, or the seeing of ghosts. The observations on hallucinations, clairvoyance, and dreams, which form the second and third parts of this work, are of importance for the history of psychiatry. G&M 1456. Grolier, 100 Books Famous in Science, 76. See Fulton, Selected Readings in the History of Physiology, pp. 289–291 (according to Fulton, Müller’s law was first stated in the present book). Rothschuh, Geschichte der Physiologie, p. 115. Norman catalogue 1567.

The Law of Specific Nerve Energies 97. MÜLLER, Johannes. Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der Thiere nebst einem Versuch über die Bewegung der Augen und über den menschlichen Blick. Leipzig: bei C. Cnobloch, 1826. 8vo, pp. xxxii, 462, (2) errata and imprint, 1 folding letterpress table and 8 folding and stilted engraved plates (some partly hand-coloured). Contemporary green boards (ends of spine and joints rather rubbed), label lettered in manuscript on spine. Small MS book label of B.E.T. Pagel. £900 FIRST EDITION. The foundations of experimental sense-physiology.
 Johannes Müller (1801–1858) was only 25 years old when this substantial work was published. It records his discovery that each sensory system responds to various stimuli only in a fixed, characteristic way—or, as Müller stated, with the energy specific to itself: the eye always with a sensation of light, the ear always with a sensation of sound, and so forth. This “law of specific nerve energies” led to the insight that man does not perceive the processes of the external world but only the alterations they produce in his sensory systems. The book contains a wealth of new findings on human and animal vision, brilliant investigations into the compound eyes of continued... 42


insects and crabs, and truly perceptive analyses of human sight, including, on p. 73, the famous explanation of the colour sensations produced by pressure on the retina. G&M 1257 and 1495. Nodenskiöld, History of biology, pp. 383–384. McHenry, Garrison’s history of neurology, p. 201. See DSB.

With the Rare Second Part 98. [NAXAGORAS, Ehrd de]. Alchymia denudata revisa et aucta, oder: das biss anhero nie recht geglaubte, durch die Experienz nunmehro aber würcklich beglaubte und aus allen Zweiffel gesetzte neu übersehene und vermehrte oder in vielen besser erklärte Wünder der Natur, nebst angehängter ausführlichen Beschreibung der unweit Zwickau in Weissen zu Nieder-Hohendorff und anderer umliegenden Orten gefundenen goldischen Sande, vorstellend...eine Universal-Medicin...zu bereiten. Wie auch das ausser dem Fonte universali aller Philosophorum Schrifften ungeachtet...an Tag gegeben, von J.N. v. E.I. Leipzig und Stralsund: Verlegts Samuel Gottlieb Lochmann, 1728. [Bound with:] Der im guten Ruff und Auffnehmen stehenden, auch zu vielen mahlen schon frisch wieder aufgelegten Alchymiae Denudatae, oder... Wunders der Natur anderer Theil... Leipzig: verlegts Joh. Sigmund Strauss... 1727. 2 parts in 1 volume, Small 8vo, pp. (xxx), 202; (xx), 348. First title in red and black, separate titlepage to the “Goldische Sande” and to the second part. Contemporary sheep, spine richly gilt in compartments, decorative pastedown endpapers. Bookplates of the Safstaholms Library and Gustaf Berndtsson. Margins of endpapers and first title browned from the binding, fore-edge of second title cut close but with no loss, small hole in foot of spine and bottom of lower joint. A fresh copy. £2800 Fourth edition of the first part, first edition of the second part, of this alchemical work of Naxagoras, a fictitious name, the author’s real name probably being Johann Neithold. None of the usual catalogues lists the first edition of 1708. The next three editions all have the same collation. The second part, found only with the present fourth edition, is rare. Duveen p. 425 (second edition of 1716). Ferguson II, p. 127 (two parts, as here). Neville II, p. 213 (1723 edition).

99. [NEANDER, Johann Christoph (?)]. Beschreibung einer Maschine, worauf man sich von Höhen sicher und bequem herunter lassen kann. Leipzig: bey Gerhard Fleischer dem Jüngern. 1802. [Bound with:]
 NEANDER, Johann Christoph. Beschreibung eines Fuhrwerks zur bequemen und leichteren Fortschaffung der Wasser-Tonnen beim Feuerlöschen imgleichen zu BriefPostwagen, in Fabriken, beim Garten- und Chausseebau, auf Leinwandbleichen, zur Straßenreinigung, und besonders zum Transport des Wassers auf und von Anhöhen vorzüglich brauchbar. Berlin: Bei Oehmigke dem Jüngern. 1800. 2 works in 1 volume, 4to, 16 pages, 1 stilted engraved plate; 2 leaves, pp. (5)–13, (3), 1 folding engraved plate. Half-title to the second work, old library stamp on title of first work. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, small red morocco label in upper corner of upper cover. £650 FIRST EDITIONS. The first work is on a fire escape, by which a person may lower himself down the outside of a building, and the second is a description of a water barrel mounted on wheels for use against fires or for transporting water to wherever it might be needed. The first work is anonymous, and has no preliminary matter other than the title-page. Both are rare, particularly the first.

100. NICHOLSON, William. A Dictionary of Chemistry, exhibiting the present state of the theory and practice of that science, its application to natural philosophy, the processes of manufactures, metallurgy, and numerous other arts dependent on the properties and habitudes of bodies, in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, 1795. continued... 43


2 volumes, 4to, pp. viii, 576; (ii), 577–1132, 4 engraved plates (2 of them double-page tables). Part of vol. 2 printed on different paper and slightly browned, otherwise a very clean set. Contemporary speckled calf, joints and ends of spines neatly repaired. Armorial bookplate of William Rashleigh (1777–1855), nephew of Philip Rashleigh (1729–1811), the mineralogist and antiquary, whose estates passed to his nephew on his death; hence this was probably also Philip Rashleigh’s copy. £1600 FIRST EDITION of Nicholson’s large dictionary of chemistry, “the first dictionary of chemistry by an Englishman, superseding the English translation of Macquer’s dictionary (London, 1771) by the Scot James Keir. Although preferring the antiphlogistic theory of Lavoisier, Nicholson also presents the phlogistic alternative. This work is important for containing one of the earliest English versions of the table of the new chemical nomenclature from the Méthode de nomenclature chimique (Paris, 1787) by Lavoisier et al” (Neville). Cole 974. Neville II, p. 227. Duveen & Klickstein 137.

101. PACINOTTI, Antonio. Macchina Magnetica ad Elettro-Calamita Trasversale di Antonio Pacinotti nel 1860 [so titled on upper wrapper]. Pisa: Tip. Pieraccini dir. da P. Salvioni, [1865]. 8vo, 7 pages, 1 lithographed plate. Original yellow printed wrappers. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed on the upper wrapper “Al Sig. G. Ferraris, Antonio Pacinotti”. Galileo Ferraris (1847– 1897) was Pacinotti’s colleague and an electrical engineer, notable for his transmission of electric energy over long distances, his invention of the AC induction motor, etc. £1500 FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Pacinotti’s dynamo, considered to be the first practical electric motor and generator from which all modern machines emanate, was the first machine that could produce an even current of electricity, and despite continuous refinement, his basic concept remains at the heart of all modern generators and electric motors. Pacinotti’s “reputation was due largely to his invention of a new form of armature used in electric motors and generators. The armature design that Pacinotti first described in a paper published in Nuovo cimento (June 1864) became a key element in the evolution from the magnetoelectric generator to the commercial self-excited dynamo during the next decade. The Pacinotti armature consisted of an iron ring with projecting teeth interspersed with coils which formed a closed series circuit with connections to a commutator. In his paper Pacinotti pointed out that his new machine could be used as either a direct-current motor or a generator” (DSB). “It is the principle of convertability which makes the electric transmission of power possible... The application of this law to magneto-electric machines also was first recognised by Pacinotti and was considered by the late James Clerk Maxwell the most important discovery of the age” (A. von Urbanitsky, Electricity in the service of man, p. 616). This pamphlet, with the drophead title “Descrizione di una maccinetta elettro-magnetica. (Estratto dal Nuovo Cimento Fascicolo per Giugno 1864, pubblicato il 3 Maggio 1865)” differs from the periodical publication (vol. 19, pp. 378–384), but both are clearly from the same setting of type. No other copy of this extremely rare separate issue has been traced. Ekelöf catalogue 1277 (1912 edition). Wheeler Gift 1601 (journal issue).

102. PARACELSUS. Etliche Tractaten zum ander mal in Truck außgangen. Vom Podagra und seinen speciebus. Vom Schlag. Von der Fallender Sucht. Von der Daubsucht oder unsinnigkeit. Vom Kaltenwehe. Von der Colica. Von dem Bauchreissen. Von der Wassersucht. Vom Schwinen oder Aridura. Vom Schwinen oder Schwindtsucht, Hectica. Von Farbsuchten. Von Würmen. Vom Stullauff. Item newlich hinzu getruckt: Von den Podagrischen Kranckheiten, und auch was in anhengig ein Fragmentum. Gedruckt zu Cöln, durch die Erben Arnoldi Birckmanni [Colophon: Zu Cöln truckts Gerhart Vierenduntk, in verlegung Arnoldi Birckmans Erben]. 1567 [Bound with:] Astronomica et astrologia... Getruckt zu Cöln, bey Arnoldi Byrckmans Erben [Colophon: Zu Cöln truckts Gerhart Vierendunck, in verlägung Arnoldi Birckmans Erben.] 1567. continued... 44


Item 102, Paracelsus 2 works in 1 volume, 4to. [1:] pp. (viii), 270 [i.e. 281, numerous errors in pagination], 1 leaf (epitaph, with author’s woodcut coat of arms). Gothic letter. Full page woodcut portrait of Paracelsus aged 47 on verso of title. Short tear in upper margin of title, tear in M4 repaired without loss. [2:] pp. (xx), 235 [i.e. 236], (3). Title within typographical border, Gothic letter, full-page woodcut portrait on p. (xvii) (the same as in [1]), astrological diagram on p. 197, author’s woodcut coat of arms on Hh3v, full-page woodcut portrait of Paracelsus aged 45 on last leaf (verso blank). Short tear in upper margin of title, old repairs to upper upper margins of first two leaves. Paper of both works lightly browned and with some foxing, but good and fresh copies. Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, upper cover lettered “Des hochgelerten Theophrasti”, brass clasps, spine lettered in MS and with three raised bands (rubbed, upper joint cracked at ends, extremities a little worn, head of spine chipped), a lovely example of a contemporary binding. Provenance: 1: Dawsons of Pall Mall, their Repository of Medicine 33, c. 1960, £75. 2: Walter Pagel. 3: Roger Gaskell, his Catalogue 41, item 86, 2008, £6500. £3800 continued... 45


[1]. Second edition of a collection of 14 medical tracts, with a second tract on gout published here for the first time. Paracelsus was the first to suggest that gout was due to a defect in metabolism. The other subjects treated include epilepsy, hernia, dropsy, tuberculosis, etc.
 [2]. FIRST EDITION. A work dealing with astrology and prognostication and including a chapter explaining solar eclipses, edited by Balthassar Flöter. “Paracelsus believed that the microcosmic sate of man permitted the study of the universe, so that science and knowledge are possible. He called the study of nature and medicine “astronomy”, and urged that every physician be an astronomer — that is, that he study the astra. Paracelsus’ term astra denoted not so much the stars themselves and their influences on sublunary objects (so important in traditional astrology) as their essential virtues and functions of individual objects and their correspondences within all realms of nature, including the stars” (Walter Pagel in DSB).

A Classic of English Mining 103. PETTUS, Sir John. Fodinae Regales. Or the History, Laws and Places of the Chief Mines and Mineral Works in England, Wales, and the English Pale in Ireland. As also of the Mint and Mony. With a Clavis explaining some difficult words relating to mines, &c. London: Printed by H.L. and R.B. for Thomas Basset... 1670. Small folio, 7 leaves, pp. 108, (6), 1 leaf (errata), fine engraved frontispiece portrait by William Sherwin and 2 engraved plates. Title within ruled border, woodcut headpieces and initials, 2 engraved illustrations in the text. Contemporary blind-ruled calf, spine ruled in gilt, red morocco label, neat repairs to ends of spine. Dampstain in latter part, mostly quite faint, otherwise a fine and large copy. £2800 FIRST EDITION of the standard seventeenth century English work on mining. This book is very valuable for giving an account of the state of mining in England during the seventeenth century. The glossary at the end is the first attempt in English at a dictionary of mining terms (in his Fleta Minor of 1683 Pettus appended the first dictionary of metallurgy and minerals in English). Pettus (1613–1690), was the deputy governor of the royal mines in England and Wales. The fine portrait, here in the second state (signed “W. Sherwin sculpsit”), shows Pettus aged 57. Wing P1908. Duveen, p. 468. Hoover 634. Kress 1270.

104. POUTEAU, [Claude]. Oeuvres posthumes. Paris: de l’Imprimerie de Ph.-D. Pierres... 1783. 3 volumes, 8vo, pp. (ii)half-title, x, 633, engraved frontispiece portrait; 2 leaves, pp. 536; 2 leaves, pp. 428. Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments, marbled edges and endpapers. Heads of spines chipped, a few scuffs in the leather, otherwise a fine set. £450 FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Pouteau studied surgery in Paris under Petit and Le Dran, but returned to his native Lyon to practise. He became famous for his improvements in the operation of lithotomy — his record with perineal lithotomy was probably never excelled, achieving only 2.5 percent mortality in 120 consecutive cases. He made several other notable contributions to surgery: he was acutely aware of the need for cleanliness in hospitals, and “a discussion of pourriture d’hopital [vol. 3, pp. 239–269] showing remarkable discernment of the sources of infection was published in 1783... He stated that the best therapy for pourriture was destruction of the infected part by ‘fire’ ” (Wangensteen & Wangensteen 26). He also pointed out in a chapter on dressings [vol. 3, pp. 227–239] the intimate connection between erysipelas and puerperal fever, and numerous instances of infection conveyed by soiled dressings. “His method of disposal of infected dressings is distinctly modern” (Cutter & Viets p. 112). He also described [vol. 2, p. 251] a fracture of the distal end of the radius similar to Colles’ fracture, and stated before Pott that there is an intimate connection between curved spine and tuberculosis (Valentin, Geschichte der Orthopädie).

105. REGNAULT, [Henri Victor]. [Collected papers in physics.] In: Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences de l’Institut de France, tome XXI [–XXVI–XXVII]. Paris: De l’Imprimerie de Firmin Didot Frères... 1847 [–1862–1868]. continued... 46


3 volumes, large 4to, 2 leaves, pp. xxiv, 767, folding letterpress table at p. 227 and 8 folding engraved plates (one a very large graph); 2 leaves, pp. xlviii, x, (3)–928, 5 folding plates; pp. 968, and 5 folding plates. Spotting on the endpapers and title-pages, a little dust-soiling on the edges of some plates, otherwise a very clean set. Contemporary half calf (a little rubbed, head of spine of volume 1 a little worn, crack at foot of one joint), red and green morocco labels on spines, marbled sides. Signature of A. Scott in volume 1, bookplates of A.C. Egerton, i.e. Sir Alfred Charles Egerton (1886–1959), chemist. £750 FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of Regnault’s papers on physics. Volumes 1 and 2 contain his “Relation des expériences pour déterminer les principales lois et les données numériques qui entrent dans le calcul des machines à vapeur”, and volume 3 his “Mémoire sur la vitesse de propogation des ondes dans les milieux gazeux” and “Mémoire sur la détente des gaz.” “Regnault’s early work in physics began with a systematic experimental study of the specific heats of a wide range of solids and liquids. In the course of this work...he conclusively demonstrated the approximate nature of Dulong & Petit’s law and confirmed the validity...of F.E. Neumann’s extension of the law from elements to compounds. In 1842...Regnault was appointed by the minister of public works to redetermine all the physical constants involved in the design and operation of steam engines; it was then that he began the research on the thermal properties of gases for which he is best known. “In fact Regnault did far more than was asked of him; and in nearly thirty years of painstaking experiments...he not only provided the standard data that practising engineers were to use for several decades but also subjected the laws governing the physical properties of gases to a thorough and long-overdue reexamination... “Regnault’s accounts of his experiments in physics were collected in three vols. of the Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences,...which were also published, simultaneously and with identical pagination, as Relation des expériences...” (DSB).

106. REID, Lieut.-Colonel William. An Attempt to develop The Law of Storms by means of facts, arranged acording to place and time; and hence to point out a cause for the variable winds, with the view to practical use in navigation. London: Published by John Weale... 1838. 8vo, pp. (iv), 436, and 10 folding plates (9 charts and 1 graph). Woodcut illustrations in the text. Original blue cloth (a little faded), printed paper label (a bit chipped) on spine. Tear without loss in the fold of two plates, upper inner hinge a little loose, but a very good copy. Stamp on the title-page of a private Swedish library. £260 FIRST EDITION of the first of Reid’s two substantial books on the laws of storms. William C. Redfield of New York had studied the great storm in Connecticut of September 1821, and concluded that it was actually a very large whirlwind. Reid was convinced that Redfield was correct in this conclusion, and by correspondence with other scientists, established a large body of supporting data from ships’ logs and coastal stations. There was also a practical application of this book since it offered advice to shipping caught in storms; British warships were later required to carry a copy and merchant mariners were examined in its contents. Following its publication, people on land or sea were for the first time armed with predictive knowledge of an imminent hurricane, and could take appropriate action. Reid was created a CB in the same year, and FRS the following year.

107. ROTARI, Giuseppe. Geanaforo Economico per trasportar terra per aria a qualunque altezza... In Verona: Presso La Tipografia Ramanzini, 1822. 4to, 23 pages, and 5 folding engraved plates. Contemporary marbled boards and sheep spine, gilt, red morocco label, marbled pastedown endpapers. Slight dampstaining not affecting the printed area, otherwise a nice copy. Discreet blind library stamp on upper cover. £750 continued... 47


Item 107, Rotari FIRST EDITION. In this beautifully illustrated treatise, Rotari describes an aerial ropeway system of his own invention for transporting soil from the bottom of a slope up the hill to form terraces on steep and barren hillsides, on which to plant vines and olives. This “Geanaforo” (composed of three Greek words meaning earth, height, and carry) was originally designed in 1819 and used for the first time at Grezzano and at Quinto, both near Verona. A combination of two or more machines could be used where the site was particularly high, and it was both economic, needing few men to run it, and much faster than moving soil by hand.

108. SANTORIO, Santorio (Sanctorius). De Statica Medicina Aphorismorum sectiones septem: cum commentario Martini Lister. Londini: Impensis Sam. Smith & Ben. Walford... 1701. 12mo, pp. (xxii), XII, 213, engraved frontispiece showing Santorio in his weighing chair. Title within double ruled border. Good modern calf antique. £650 First edition to be edited with a commentary by Dr. Martin Lister. With this book Santorio founded the physiology of metabolism, and introduced quantitative experimentation into biological science. He introduced exact methods of measurement, with himself as the subject. Using the balance as an instrument of weight control, the pulse-clock and the thermometer, he measured pulse-rate, respiration, body temperature and daily variations in weight relative to ingestion and excretion. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Santorio was regarded, with Harvey, as one of the greatest figures in the history of physiology. See G&M 573 (first edition of 1614); also Foster, Lectures on the history of physiology, pp. 145–147.

The Foundations of Phytochemistry & Ecology 109. SAUSSURE, Nicolas Théodore. Recherches Chimiques sur la Végétation. Paris: Nyon, 1804. 8vo, pp. viii, 327, (8), 1 folding engraved plate and 16 folding printed tables. Contemporary green calf-backed marbled boards (rather well rebacked with the original spine laid down), flat spine gilt. A very good copy. Book label of M. Midan-Deschastillon. £900 continued... 48


FIRST EDITION of the work which “laid the foundations of a new science, phytochemistry. Saussure examined the chief active components of plants, their synthesis, and their decomposition. He specified the relationships between vegetation and the environment and here, too, did pioneering work in what became the fields of pedology and ecology” (DSB, XII, p. 124). In this work, Saussure systematically applied for the first time the quantitative method of chemical research, as founded by Lavoisier, to living subjects. He was able to establish the quantity of oxygen absorbed by a plant at night and also the quantity of water consumed in association with the absorption of carbonic acid that is required for the growth of the plant. He also determined the indispensability of mineral constituents drawn from the soil by the plant. This is the first important scientific work to use the metric system which was introduced in 1801. Duveen, p. 531. Partington, III, pp. 283–284.

110. SCHEFFLER, Carl Lebrecht. Abhandlung von der Gesundheit der Bergleute. Chemnitz: bey Joh. Dav. Stössels Erben und Putscher. 1770. Small 8vo, pp. (xxiv), 243, (5). Woodcut headpieces and initials. Contemporary boards, a bit soiled and slightly worn. Armorial bookplate of Dr. Karl Gerster; old stamp on front pastedown of Dr. Carl Dittmann. £1200 SOLE EDITION of a rare book on the health of miners by a mine physician. “In the sixth section of this work he discusses the diseases of miners. He divides these morbid conditions into two classes: first such as are necessarily connected with the work of the miner, and secondly those that occur accidentally...” Scheffler includes in the latter category asthma caused by arsenical dust, and diseases known as “Bergsucht”, his summary of which is sufficiently good for Rosen to reproduce it in full in translation. “Scheffler also recognized that the type of work performed in the mine was significant in the production of occupational diseases among the mine workers. He attempts to relate the type of work to the character of the pathologic process...” (Rosen). See Rosen, The history of miners’ diseases, pp. 123–127.

111. SIGAUD DE LA FOND, [Joseph Aignan]. Élémens de Physique théorique et expérimentale, pour servir de suite à la Description & Usage d’un Cabinet de Physique expérimentale, 2 vol. in-8o. avec figures. A Paris: Chez P. Fr. Gueffier... 1777. 4 volumes, 8vo, pp. xii, 7 folding and stilted engraved plates; 2 leaves, pp. 565, 10 plates; 2 leaves, pp. 550, 29, 4 plates; 2 leaves, pp. 632, 4 plates (a total of 25 folding and stilted engraved plates). Half-titles. Contemporary mottled sheep, spines gilt in compartments with red and brown morocco labels (foot of two spines chipped, tips of a few corners worn), marbled endpapers and edges. £750 FIRST EDITION of one of the most esteemed introductions to physics of the time, and very rare. There are large sections on the laws of motion, elasticity, gravity, the theory of machines, hydrostatics, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology, acoustics, heat, optics, colour theory, electricity, etc. Sigaud (1730–1810), a pupil of Nollet, succeeded him in the chair of experimental physics at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in 1760. “Experimental science was a fashionable pursuit among the leisured classes in eighteenth-century France, and Sigaud was one of several illustrious popularizers who satisfied the intellectual appetites and curiosities of an ever-increasing number of amateurs of science... As a follower of the Abbé Nollet, Sigaud was apparently quite successful in appealing to this group of virtuosi, and most of his publications were written for the enlightened layman rather than the professional researcher... His positive contributions to science were in the area of experimental technique” (DSB).

112. SIMON, Sir John. English Sanitary Institutions, reviewed in their course of development, and in some of their political and social relations. London: Cassell & Company, 1890. continued... 49


8vo, pp. xv, 496, (16) adverts. Newspaper cutting pasted to rear free endpaper and pencilled notes on pastedown. Original brown cloth, ends of spine neatly repaired. £150 FIRST EDITION. G&M 1650: “One of the best accounts of the development of public health in Great Britain in the 19th century. It is a mine of information and greatly influenced modern developments and legislation on public health.” “...the book discusses and reviews the history of public health and, in particular, of central administration, from the earliest times to the late 1880s, concentrating naturally on the nineteenth century. So accurate is its scholarship, so shrewd its judgment and so enduring its wisdom that it still nowadays, seventy years after its appearance, remains the authoritative work on its theme in general” (Lambert, Sir John Simon 1816–1904 and English social administration, pp .583–584). See also Frazer, History of English public health 1834–1939, pp. 42–44.

Introduction of Chloroform as an Anaesthetic 113. SIMPSON, James Y. Account of a New Anaesthetic Agent, as a Substitute for Sulphuric Ether in Surgery and Midwifery. Communicated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, at their meeting on 10th November 1847. Third Thousand. Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox... London: Samuel Highley... 1847. 8vo, 23 pages. Stitched as issued, uncut (title and final blank page slightly soiled, and with an ink blot in the inner margin of the title). Presentation copy, inscribed by Simpson in the upper corner of the title: “Dr. Lyall [corrected to Lyell] with the author’s Compts”. £7500 Second edition (second issue), published three days after the first (see below). This paper announced the discovery of chloroform as an anaesthetic. While seeking a less harsh substitute for ether, Simpson discovered the effectiveness of chloroform as an anaesthetic on 4th November 1847 (see Fulton & Stanton pp. 72–73 for the hilarious account of how he and two colleagues made the discovery in the dining room of his house). Four days later Simpson first used chloroform in an obstetric case with complete success, which he reported to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh at their meeting on 10th November. The first printed announcement of the discovery bears a postscript dated 12th November, and has the title Notice of a New Anæsthetic Agent; it has 22 pages, and only the Edinburgh publisher Sutherland & Knox in the imprint. It is extremely rare. The present second edition, sometimes called a second issue but the text was actually reset, has a postscript dated three days later (15th November); it has 23 pages and the London publisher Samuel Highley included in the imprint. It has textual changes, including an additional paragraph at the end stating that Simpson had successfully used chloroform in fifty cases to date. The title was changed to Account..., giving a less ephemeral air to the publication. This copy is the second issue, with “Third thousand” on the title-page. David Lyell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in the years 1826–1829, at the same time as Simpson. After graduation Lyell took up a post in Berkshire, returning to Scotland in 1834 to open a medical practice in Dundee. Lilly, Notable medical books, 201. Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1847. Thoms, Classical contributions to obstetrics and gynecology, pp. 29–34. G&M 5657 refers to the 3-page article by Simpson in the London Medical Gazette which appeared about a week after this paper. Fulton & Stanton VI.1 (first issue). Norman Catalogue 1945 (first issue). Osler 1480 and 1481 (first and third issues). Neither Fulton & Stanton nor the Norman Catalogue list the Notice (but Osler 1479 does).

114. SIMPSON, James Y. Answer to the Religious Objections advanced against the Employment of Anaesthetic Agents in Midwifery and Surgery. Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox... 1847. 8vo, 23 pages. Title and last page bit creased and soiled. Stitched as issued, uncut. Presentation copy, inscribed by Simpson in the upper corner of the title: “Dr. Lyall [corrected to Lyell] with the authors Compts”. £550 continued... 50


FIRST EDITION, issued no more than six weeks after Simpson’s first paper on chloroform.
 “As the leading advocate of obstetric anaesthesia Simpson met with much opposition and prejudice. Whereas the incorporation of anaesthesia within operative obstetrical procedures was relatively uncontroversial, Simpson's extension of its use to alleviate the pains of normal labour excited considerable criticism. A number of medical, clerical, and lay commentators took the view that parturition pains were either salutary or divinely sanctioned or both. But Simpson's advocacy prevailed and anaesthesia, generally with chloroform, quickly became standard obstetric practice” (ODNB).
 Fulton & Stanton VI.7: “This, the original edition, is very rare, the second edition of 1848 being more common...”

115. SIMPSON, James Y. Remarks on the Superinduction of Anaesthesia in Natural and Morbid Parturition: with cases illustrative of the use and effects of chloroform in obstetric practice. Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox... 1847. 8vo, 24 pages. Stitched as issued, uncut. Presentation copy, inscribed by Simpson in the upper corner of the title: “Dr. Lyall [corrected to Lyell] with the authors Compts”. £1800 FIRST EDITION, issue with “The End” at the foot of page 24 (the second of three, according to Fulton & Stanton). This paper was printed on December 1st 1847, seventeen days after his first paper on chloroform. David Lyell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the years 1826–1829, at the same time as Simpson. After graduation Lyell took up a post in Berkshire, returning to Scotland in 1834 to open a medical practice in Dundee. Fulton & Stanton VI.5.

“I was at Last Successful in Securing a Copy” 116. SMITH, William. Observations on the Utility, Form and Management of Water Meadows, and the draining and irrigating of peat bogs, with an account of Prisley Bog, and other extraordinary improvements, conducted for His Grace the Duke of Bedford, Thomas William Coke, Esq. M.P. and others. Norwich: Printed by R.M. Bacon...and sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme... 1806. 8vo, 2 leaves, 121 pages, and 2 folding engraved plates from drawings by Smith (the first bound as a frontispiece). Ruled border of the first plate cropped at the top, slight foxing on the plates and offsetting on the title-page, otherwise a fine copy. Modern quarter calf antique. £900 FIRST EDITION of William Smith’s first book, in which he is described on the title-page as “Engineer and Mineralogist.” “Smith had first undertaken land drainage work for the Canal Company chairman James Stephens (c.1748–1816). By late 1799 he was much in demand as land drainer around Bath, a demand augmented by the wet autumn of that year. In 1800, in Wiltshire, he drained the Tytherton estates of Thomas Crook, in the process discovering another new stratum (the Kellaways Rock) to add to his order. Smith's work here was inspected by the landowner Thomas William Coke (1752–1842) [the dedicatee of this book], who subsequently invited Smith to Holkham, Norfolk. In summer 1801 Coke introduced Smith to Francis, duke of Bedford (1765–1802), then trying to drain some of his Woburn estates with the assistance of his land steward John Farey (1766–1826). Smith and Farey met in October 1801 and Smith's results greatly impressed Farey with their novelty and economic importance” (ODNB). There are two issues of this book; this copy is of the first issue with the printer’s name on the title-page and Longman’s in the imprint. The first plate has the words “Containing 9 Acres.” Eyles, William Smith (1769–1839): a bibliography, 4. Skempton 1361. Sheppard, William Smith, pp. 112–117, with a detailed description of the book and the delightful note: “After repeated advertising in the second-hand book trade journals and searching in innumerable channels, I was at last successful in securing a copy.”

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Classic Description of Epidemiological Investigation Famous Story of the Broad Street Pump 117. SNOW, John. On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. London: John Churchill... 1855. 8vo, pp. vii, (i), 162, 2 folding lithographed maps (one printed in colours) of Soho and south London. Plus Churchill’s 32-page catalogue dated November 1854 inserted at the end. Original mauve blind-stamped cloth (spine faded to brown) by Edmonds & Remnants with their ticket, a fine copy. Armorial bookplate of a marquis on the upper cover. £18,000 Second edition, but greatly enlarged and containing important new material. In 1849 Snow had published an 18-page journal article and the first edition of this work, which had only 32 pages and “received little acclaim from the medical world when it was published” (ODNB). The present edition includes the account of his most important work and conclusions following the 1854 outbreak of cholera. “The second edition of Snow’s monograph on cholera, incorporating the fruits of five more years of research, contained so much additional material that it was essentially a new work. Snow set forth his views on the etiology and spread of cholera, which he believed to be caused by a living organism (a belief confirmed by Koch’s discovery of the cholera vibrio in 1883), and included statistical surveys made during the great cholera epidemic of 1854, demonstrating that the number of cholera deaths in each area of southern London corresponded to the degree of contamination of the local drinking water. This edition was the first to tell the dramatic story of the Broad Street pump, which, after contamination with sewage from a nearby pipe, caused 500 cholera deaths within the space of ten days. Once the epidemic had peaked, Snow persuaded the parish councillors to remove the pump handle, and the number of cholera attacks decreased rapidly. Snow’s report of the Broad Street epidemic included a spot-map of the district showing the location of each pump and fatal cholera cases — the first use of a spot-map in epidemiology” (Norman). See GM 5106 (the journal paper). Norman catalogue 1969. Frazer, A history of English public health, pp. 63–67: “...a classic description of epidemiological investigation.”

118. SPACH, Israel. Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus, tum gravidarum, parientium, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis... Argentinae [Strassburg]: Sumptibus Lazari Zetzneri, 1597. Folio, pp. (xxxvi), 28, 1080, (34). Title in red and black with printer’s woodcut device, and numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Signature Ff bound before Dd, paper heavily browned throughout (as usual). Seventeenth century morocco, brown morocco label on spine (fore-edge a little rubbed, a few surface strips torn from the cover). Manuscript ex libris of H.J. Baron of Corsica, 1659, on front free endpaper. £3000 FIRST EDITION under Spach’s editorship, and the most complete edition of this celebrated collection of gynaecological writings, incorporating the best that had been written on the subject. “Spach’s compilation of gynecological and obstetrical texts was the largest such collection of its day, reprinting most of the works collected in Caspar Wolff ’s Volumen gynaeciorum and Gaspard Bauhin’s Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum affectibus (1586–1588), and adding several other treatises. The collection includes works by Plater (whose anatomy of the female genitalia heads the collection), Moschion, Le Boë, Montanus, Paré and many others. Some of the anatomical woodcuts are taken from Vesalius’s Fabrica, in particular his ‘masculinized’ representation of the female reproductive organs; also illustrated are various surgical and gynecological instruments, including a speculum” (Norman). The valuable index appears in this edition for the first time, together with the works of Bauhin (on Caesarean section), Corda, Akakia, and Mercati. This book was printed on poor quality paper, and most copies (but not all, the Norman copy being one exception) are usually badly browned. The binding of this copy is of red morocco, but in a very plain style, possibly a Corsican “country” binding. G&M 6013. Norman catalogue 1977.

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119. SPRAT, Thomas. The History of the Royal-Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. London: Printed by T.R. for J. Martyn...and J. Allestry... 1667. 4to, pp. (xvi), 438, (1) errata, and 2 folding engraved plates. Engraved arms of the society on the verso of A1 (the imprimatur). Contemporary calf, unlettered, sides panelled in blind (spine very neatly repaired). Early signature of Robert Bowes on A1v; armorial bookplate of the Earl of Lonsdale on the inside front board. £800 FIRST EDITION, second state of p. 85 (‘of ’ is not repeated in lines 6 and 7). Much more than simply a history of the Royal Society, Sprat’s History places the founding of the society in its historical setting, includes edited versions of fourteen original papers by Hooke, Petty, and others, and embodies the experimental principles of Francis Bacon on which the society was based. “The History is divided into three parts. The first part offers an extended critique of various approaches to natural philosophy from ancient times to the current day... The second part of the History provides an explanation of the origins of the Royal Society, its experimental method, and its purposes... Part three responds to particular social, cultural, and religious objections to experimental philosophy, and predicts future political and economic leadership for England based on the society's contributions” (ODNB). Wing S5032. Keynes, Evelyn, 178; Hooke, 28; Petty, 15. Norman catalogue 1989. This copy does not have the engraved frontispiece that is found in a very small minority of copies.

120. SQUIRE, Jane. A Proposal to determine our Longitude. The second edition, in English only. London: Printed for the author, and sold by S. Cope... 1743. 8vo, 3 leaves, pp. 5–160, (3) contents, folding engraved table of “Lodgitude”. The contents leaves (signed L1 and L2) bound after p. 152, p. 153 is unnumbered and blank. Half-title with small piece missing from lower corner. Contemporary calf, green morocco label on spine, circular green morocco label in the centre of both covers with symbols in gilt within a gilt border (as in other copies in original bindings), a very nice copy. £1600 Second edition. Jane Squire’s was one of the more unusual methods of determining longitude. “And finally, to complete our roster of nutty longitude theorists, we have Jane Squire (fl. 1731– 1743)... Squire recognizes that every point on Earth corresponds to a point on the celestial sphere that is zenithal to it. She divides the globe and sky into a million lozenges, or ‘cloves’ as she calls them. Since only 3,000 stars are known, she states, there will be only one chance in 300 to find a star in one of the fields, but more stars can be discovered, and eventually there will also be glasses so that stars can be seen in the daytime. She next proposes that the zero of terrestrial longitude be drawn through Bethlehem, and that ‘astral time’ be reckoned from there, and she requires accurate tables of sunrise there in order to compare the astral time with local solar time at sea...[and] an accurate clock will be needed!” (Owen Gingerich, “Cranks and Opportunists” in Andrewes (ed.), The Quest for Longitude, pp. 146–148).
 The first edition appeared the year before and has the text in French and English in parallel columns. The present edition is much rarer (by the holdings in COPAC). The Proposal itself was first published in 1731 and is extremely rare (only the BL copy in ESTC). It occupies the first 16 pages here, and is followed by correspondence sent and received in the intervening years, and then (p. 61) by “The Explanation of a Proposal...”).

121. SYLVESTER, Charles. The Philosophy of Domestic Economy; as exemplified in the mode of warming, ventilating, washing, drying, & cooking,.. adopted in the Derbyshire General Infirmary... Nottingham: Printed by H. Barnett, and sold by Longman,... 1819. 4to, 1 leaf (title), pp. ix [i.e. xi], 11, 62, engraved frontispiece of the Derbyshire General Infirmary and 10 detailed plates, erratum slip. Some foxing on the frontispiece and plates and offsetting on the title and last page. Bound with two other works (see below) in near-contemporary purple calf, continued... 53


sides panelled in blind and gilt, spine gilt (surface slightly rubbed), marbled edges and endpapers, a lovely copy. Armorial Belper bookplate (see below). £950 FIRST EDITION. The first successful attempt to provide rationally planned domestic services on a large scale. The Derbyshire Infirmary, completed c.1810, was famed for the advanced and effective nature of its technical services. These were designed by Sylvester himself, but the heating and ventilating system, later copied by others, was designed by Sylvester’s close friend William Strutt, who had installed hot air heating in his epoch-making Derby Mill of 1792/3, the first iron-framed building in the world. “In this book Sylvester gives an account of the project, fully describing the layout of the building from basement to attic together with the appliances employed. Chief amongst these is the air warming stove, for the Infirmary had a hot-air heating system similar to that in the Derby Mill. It was also renowned for its water closets with self-ventilating devices activated by the opening and closing of the door. The laundry and washing machines were both adapted from designs by Strutt for use in the processing of textiles...” (Elton Engineering Books, Catalogue 2). The Infirmary was unfortunately rebuilt in the 1890s and none of Sylvester's work survives. His book is thus the only record of this pioneer building. The book is dedicated to William Strutt, whose son Edward became Lord Belper. This is probably therefore the dedicatee’s own copy. This copy is bound with Rev. Samuel Pegge’s Sketch of the history of Bolsover and Peak Castles, in the county of Derby (1785), and White Watson’s Delineation of the strata of Derbyshire (1811).

Railway Incunabula 122. SYLVESTER, Charles. Report on Rail-Roads and Locomotive Engines, addressed to the chairman of the committee of the Liverpool and Manchester projected rail-road. Liverpool: Printed by Thos. Kaye... 1825. [Bound with:]
 SANDARS, Joseph. A letter on the subject of the projected Rail Road, between Liverpool and Manchester, pointing out the necessity for its adoption and the manifest advantages it offers to the public, with an exposure of the exorbitant & unjust charges of the water carriers. Second edition. Liverpool. Printed by W. Wales and Co... [1824]. 2 works in 1 volume, 8vo. [1:] 39 pages, errata slip; [2:] 32 pages. Title-page of [1] slightly soiled, last page a little foxed; title and last leaf of [2] rather foxed. Signature of W. Strutt (William Strutt, 1765–1830, architect and engineer) at top of title-page of [2]. Nineteenth century half roan (rubbed), marbled sides and endpapers. Armorial bookplate of Belper. £900 Two of the earliest books on railways, and in particular on the Liverpool to Manchester railway, the world’s first mechanised public railway. These copies have an interesting provenance: Charles Sylvester was a friend and collaborator of William Strutt, whose son Edward was chief commissioner of railways from 1846 to 1848, and was created Baron Belper, an early instance of a family being elevated to the peerage whose wealth had been made in industry. [1] FIRST EDITION. Sylvester’s Report was commissioned by the committee of the Liverpool & Manchester company, and pays close attention to the physical benefits of conveyance by rails rather than by canals. [2] Second edition in the same month as the first. In this book the Liverpool-born merchant Joseph Sandars, who was one of the earliest backers of the project, explores the commercial opportunities of the projected railway, similarly focusing on rail’s competitiveness with canal boats or ‘Water Carriers'. “As all men know 1825 was a mania year. ‘To that mania,’ says Francis in his History of Railways (p. 136), ‘England owes her railway system’... And it was during that year that the Quarterly Review published the famous and oft-quoted article on railways,... [which] was primarily a review of three of the earliest railways publications (1) Cumming’s Origin of Railways (2) Sylvester on Railroads and (3) Sanders on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway” (Cotterell, Bibliography...of Early Railway Books, p.2). Skempton 1484 and 1275.

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123. TOMAI, Tommaso. Hortulus Mundi, Das ist, Ein sehr schönes und nutzliches WeltGärtlein, in welchem, beneben vielen Secreten unnd Geheymnussen der Natur, ein ziemliche Anzahl außerlesener Frücht und Gewächs...sampt den vier Elementen... Und endtlich auch die Umbkreyß deß Firmaments oder Himmels/ und aller Planeten Stell und Lauff verzeichnet sind. Erstlichen...in Italianischer Sprach beschrieben. Nun mehr aber...in unsere Hochteutsche Sprach versetzt. Franckfurt am Mayn: [bey Harmanno Palthenio,] In Verlegung Lucae Iennis, 1621. [Bound with:] [2] ANTHONY, Francis. Medicinae Chymicae, et veri potabilis auri assertio... Cantabrigiae [Cambridge]: Ex officina Cantrelli Legge... 1610. Small 8vo, 8 leaves, 158 pages, 1 leaf (imprint); 3 leaves, 58 pages. Paper of [1] a little browned, and fore-edge of [2] cut close with slight loss to two printed marginal notes. Eighteenth century quarter calf and marbled boards, spine richly gilt. Bookplates of the Safstaholms Library and Gustaf Berndtsson. £5500 [1] FIRST EDITION IN GERMAN, second issue, of Tommaso Tomai’s Idea del giardino del mondo, a description of the natural world and of man, or the macrocosm and the microcosm, which continued to be published long after his death in 1593. It treats of the power of minerals, metals, plants, fish and other animals, of conception, pregnancy and childbirth, of the various parts of the body, and of the elements, air, and comets, and the effects of all these on the human body. VD17 23:271536F (1 copy only). This second issue appeared one year after the first (also only 1 copy in VD17). All editions appear to be extremely rare: Wellcome has the 1620 issue and a later Italian edition, BL has six Italian editions from 1586 to 1782, and NLM three Italian editions and a French translation.
 [2] FIRST EDITION. Francis Anthony took up medicine, but was rejected by the College of Physicians as inadequate. “As early as 1600 the college had noted that Anthony used a medicine made from gold and mercury. He had since become increasingly famous for this preparation, for which he claimed unlimited curative powers. He called it aurum potabile (drinkable gold). The college, unsympathetic to chemical medicine, arranged a trial of this secret recipe before an impartial and expert judge... Both sides claimed victory. Anthony then published a book, Medicinae chymicae et veri potabilis auri assertio (1610), dedicated to King James... Anthony continued to use his medicine in defiance of the college” (see ODNB for a full account of the events surrounding this book). STC 668. Duveen p. 25 and Ferguson I, p. 36 (1618 edition). Not in Neville.
 At the end is bound an imperfect copy of Nicolas Guibert’s Alchymiae Ratione et Experientia (Strasburg, 1603), lacking pp. 89 to the end, although the final part De Balsamo, eiusque Lachrymae, quod Opobalsamum dicitur..., with its own title-page and signatures, is present and complete.

124. TROTTER, Thomas. Medicina Nautica: an essay on the diseases of seamen: comprehending the history of health in his Majesty’s fleet, under the command of Richard Earl Howe, admiral. London: printed for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies [vols. II and III: for Longman and Rees], 1797 [vol. II 1799; vol. III 1803]. 3 volumes, 8vo, pp. viii, 487; 1 leaf, pp. (v)–xii, 475, 2 leaves (adverts); vi, (ii), 507, 1 engraved plate of medals. With an additional stipple-engraved portrait dated 1796 inserted as a frontispiece in volume 1. Occasional spotting and light browning. Contemporary straight-grained dark blue morocco, spines ruled in gilt, single gilt filet on sides, double gilt fillet on turn-ins, red leather inner hinges, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Provenance: 1. Inscribed ‘Middlesex Hospital Library’ on dedication pages, with their stamp on the title-page of vol. 2 and occasionally elsewhere. 2. Bookplate of H.F. Norman M.D. in vol. 1. 3. Franklin Brooke-Hitching, with his pencilled initials in vol. 1. £9500 FIRST EDITION of all three volumes. Thomas Trotter’s excellent Medicina nautica provides one of the best accounts we have of the health and condition of seamen in the Napoleonic period. Among much other matter Trotter deals with the general health of the fleet, contagion, typhus, yellow continued... 55


fever, dysentery, scurvy, venereal disease, fractures, lockjaw, vaccination, phthisis and seasickness. He worked hard to improve conditions on board ship, urging the growing of fresh vegetables and devoting much effort to investigating the best method of ventilating ships. He introduced important changes in naval regulations in connection with the welfare of seamen, and campaigned for the proper recognition of merit among navy surgeons. Trotter held the important post of Physician to His Majesty’s Fleet for several years. While in private practice he published his notes on scurvy as Observations on the scurvy, 1786 (G&M 3716). He “can be credited with being the third man, alongside James Lind and Gilbert Blane, responsible for introducing universal distribution of lemon juice throughout the navy in 1795, an action which effectively abolished the problem of scurvy” (ODNB). This is an unusually nice set in a particularly fine binding.
 G&M 2159. Norman Catalogue 2097 (this copy). See Lefanu, A bibliography of Edward Jenner (Trotter introduced vaccination into the Royal Navy, and included a chapter on it in volume III).

125. VALLE, Giambattista delle. Vallo Libro continente appertinente à capitanii, ritenere & fortificare una città con bastioni, con novi artificii de fuoco aggionti, come nella tavola appare, & de diverse sorte polvere, & de espugnare una città con ponti, scale, argani, trombe, trenciere, artegliarie, cave, dare avisamenti senza messo allo amico, fare ordinanze, battaglioni, & ponti de disfida con lo pingere. Opera molto utile con la esperientia de l’arte militare. [Colophon:] Stampata in Vineggia [Venice]: per gli heredi di Piero Ravano, & compagni. 1550. Small 8vo, ff. (viii), 71, (1) printer’s device. Title within woodcut border, woodcut initials, italic type, with 21 woodcuts in the text (10 full-page) and 25 typographical diagrams of troop formations. Later mottled sheep. A few small marks, but a nice copy. £3800 The first book on fortification. This edition, the seventh overall, is the last of six almost identical editions printed by Ravano. The first edition, printed in Naples by Antonio de Frizis, is extremely rare such that its very existence was at one time in doubt. “Vallo’s manual is a practical work for the lower ranks, written in the vernacular by a soldier of wide experience. It is divided into four books: Book I deals with fortification and defence, especially artillery and fireworks; Book II with attack, illustrating ladders and bridges; Book III shows battle orders; Book IV is mostly about ‘ethics’. Of greatest importance in the present context are the chapters on earthwork fortification, illustrating methods of making bastions out of wood-reinforced stamped earth...

Item 125, Valle (reduced)

continued... 56


These chapters are the first writings about fortification to appear in print anywhere... The Venice editions, with their three (new ?) illustrated chapters on fireworks, became very popular, judging by the frequency with which they were reprinted: obviously Vallo filled a gap in the market, and it is astonishing that no other author filled it until 1554...” (Breman). The woodcuts illustrate many aspects of the book including siege engines, fireworks, earthworks, and even diving equipment. Breman, Books on Military Architecture printed in Venice, 328.

126. VESALIUS. [BAUMAN, Jacob]. Anatomia Deudsch, ein kurzer Auszug der beschreibung aller glider menschlichs Leybs... Gedruckt zu Nürnberg: beim Jul. Paulo Fabricio. 1551 Mense Augusto. Folio, (2) + lxxviii leaves, and 40 copper-engraved plates. Large woodcut arms of the city of Nuremberg on title. Paper a little browned, more so of first and last few leaves and fore-edges a little chipped, also a few single wormholes (one wormhole goes throughout), a few small tears in first two leaves, last leaf, and blank margin of the plate at f. 54 repaired. Modern panelled calf. Bookplate of Piergiorgio Borio. £24,000 FIRST EDITION of the rare German digest of Vesalius’s Fabrica and Epitome, marking the third appearance in any vernacular language of this landmark work in the history of medicine, and the second to be illustrated with engravings. Although Vesalius is mentioned in the introduction, this is essentially a pirated edition — the first of dozens to appear across Europe — put out by the Swiss surgeon Jacob Bauman (1521–1586). It is illustrated with 40 copper engravings, which are copies of the engraved anatomical plates from Thomas Geminus’s Compendiosa totius anatomiae delineatio (London, 1545). Bauman’s name does not appear on the title-page but at the foot of the dedication to the burgomasters of Nuremberg. “From a bibliographical standpoint, this book is something of a curiosity since it is printed on single, unfolded sheets with adjacent pages of the gatherings pasted together so as to facilitate assemblage. The chain lines...are horizontal, but this does not indicate...that the book is a quarto. It is made up of single sheets gathered in 6’s” (Cushing). Vesalius discovered the science of anatomy. The publication of his book De humani corporis fabrica in 1543 was the greatest event in medical history since the work of Galen. Vastly superior and incomparable to any earlier anatomical treatise, it revolutionised the approach to anatomy, and hence the whole approach to medicine, by independent observation. It is the most splendid and comprehensive of a large number of anatomical treatises of the sixteenth century, and gave rise to a host of anatomical works based on it. The Epitome, an abridged version designed as a teaching aid, also appeared in 1543. A German translation of the Epitome was prepared by Albanus Torinus and published at Basel in 1543. Cushing VI.D.—4. Cockx-Idestege, Andreas Vesalius, a Belgian census, 57.

127. VICARY, Thomas. The English-Mans Treasure. With the true anatomie of mans body: compiled by that excellent chyrurgion Mr. Thomas Vicary... Whereunto are annexed many secrets appertaining to chirurgerie, with divers excellent approved remedies for all captaines and souldiers, that travell either by water or land... Also the rare treasure of the English bathes: written by William Turner... Gathered and set forth...by William Bremer... And now ninthly much augmented, corrected and enlarged... Printed at London by B. Alsop, and Tho: Fawcet... 1641. 4to, pp. (xii), 292, (14), 1 leaf (imprint). Leaf A1r blank but for signature A within woodcut ornaments, full-page woodcut of the superficial veins on A1v, title within single ruled border (partly cropped at lower edge), full-page woodcut of a skeleton on B3v, woodcut ornaments. Blank corner of H2 missing, small portion of final leaf missing at lower edge and restored, some small marks but generally in very good condition. Nineteenth century red half morocco (extremities rubbed), marbled sides and endpapers, red edges. £2500 continued... 57


Ninth and last edition of the first textbook of anatomy in English, which had grown from 59 leaves in the 1577 edition (no copy is known of the 1548 edition), to almost 300 pages in this, its final form. It is a paraphrase by Vicary of a manuscript in English (now Wellcome MS. 564) compiled by an unknown surgeon in 1392 from works by Henri de Mondeville and Lanfranc of Milan. Despite being out of date, it was a much used text, and not just in the various editions of the present work. When John Caius, who lectured on anatomy and surgery at the Barber Surgeons’ Hall, persuaded Thomas Geminus to publish an English version of Vesalius’ Epitome (1553), the text chosen was not a translation from Vesalius but this text compiled by Vicary, lifted from the now lost edition of 1548 (Cushing, Vesalius, pp. 124–125). When the Barbers’ and Surgeons’ Companies were united in 1540, Vicary was the first master. He was surgeon to Henry VIII and had overall charge of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which was granted its second charter in 1546. He continued as a royal surgeon under Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, and died in 1561. Wing W334. Russell 845. J.F. Payne, ‘On an unpublished English Anatomical Treatise of the Fourteenth Century; and its relation to the “Anatomy” of Thomas Vicary’, British Medical Journal, I (1896) 200–203. All the early editions are rare in good condition.

128. WALLERIUS, Johann Gottschalk. Mineralogie, ou ddscription [sic] générale des substances du regne mineral. Ouvrage traduit de l’Allemand. A Paris: Chez Durand... [&] Pissot... 1753. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xlvii, 569 [i.e. 589], (2); (vi), 284, 256, and 4 folding engraved plates. Faint dampstain on first and last two leaves of volume 1, stains on pp. 508–509, R7–8 in vol. 2 misbound after R3. Eighteenth century green morocco, spines gilt with two red morocco labels, triple gilt fillets on sides, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, a very attractive copy. Bookplates of Albert France Lanord and J.A. Freilich in volume 1. £1400 FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH. The first rational classification of minerals. This was the author’s “first great work, which was received as an outstanding handbook of contemporary knowledge; never before had such a wealth of minerals been presented so systematically. Wallerius’ clear and precise descriptions, which gave more weight to essential chemical properties than to exterior appearance, opened a new epoch in mineralogy. The book became widely known in Europe through translations into German, French, Russian, and (later) Latin, and served as a model for later works” (DSB). The first edition, in Swedish, appeared in 1747. This French edition was translated by Baron d’Holbach (himself a keen collector of minerals), from the German edition of 1750, which Holbach considered preferable to the Swedish original. This edition also contains the first edition in French of Wallerius’ Hydrologia (1748), which extended Wallerius’ classification to fluids. Hoover 862. Sinkankas 6986.

129. [WARE, Samuel]. Tracts on Vaults and Bridges. Containing observations on the various forms of vaults; on the taking down and rebuilding London Bridge; and on the principles of arches: illustrated by extensive tables of bridges. Also containing the principles of pendent bridges, with reference to the properties of the catenary, applied to the Menai Bridge. And a theoretical investigation of the catenary. London: Printed for Thomas and William Boone... sold by Longman... 1822. 3 parts in 1 volume, 8vo, pp. xx, 3 leaves (errata, list of plates, and sub-title), pp. 73, and 14 folding or double-page plates; 1 leaf, pp. 71, 2 folding plates; 1 leaf, pp. 177, 4 folding plates. Pp. 43 in the second part and 35a, 145 and 177 in the third part are folding tables (versos blank). Original cloth-backed boards (neat repairs to spine). Endpapers and fore-edge margin of one plate lightly stained, otherwise a clean copy. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed on the front endpaper “To James Rennie Esqr From the Author”, but this is surely a mistake for George Rennie as James the elder died in 1799 and James the younger would have been aged only fourteen; also pencilled inscription to G.B.(?) Rennie. £800 continued... 58


FIRST EDITION, comprising three essays by the London architect Samuel Ware (1781–1860). The first considers the behaviour of vaults and domes, and was intended to supplement Ware’s book of 1809 on the same subject. The second, responding to John Rennie’s projected design for a new London Bridge, provides technical analysis of the load bearing capacity of arches and other elements in bridge construction. The third and longest tract concerns Ware’s design for a suspension bridge over the Menai Straits and the theory of suspension bridge construction, with particular reference to Thomas Telford’s Menai Bridge (Ware believed that Telford’s design had insufficient strength and that his own design was superior and less costly). This is a nice presentation copy to a member of the most distinguished family of engineers. Skempton 1756.

130. WATSON, Richard. Chemical Essays. Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon...For T. & J. Merrill, and J. Deighton... 1781 (vol. 3: Fourth edition. London: Printed for T. Evans... 1787; vol. 4: Third edition. London: Printed for T. and J. Evans...1788). [With:] Chemical Essays. Volume V. London: Printed for T. Evans,... 1787. 5 volumes, small 8vo, pp. (xii), 349, 1 folding table; 2 leaves, pp. 368; pp. (viii), 376; 2 leaves, pp. xviii, 1 leaf, pp. 354, (50); (viii), 375. Contemporary speckled half calf, green morocco labels on spines. A little dust-soiling, head of spine of vol. 5 chipped, but a nice set. £550 First editions of volumes 1 and 2, fourth edition of volume 3, third edition of volume 4. An attractive set of Watson’s Chemical Essays (4 volumes), together with the first edition of the fifth volume which was published with the London editions. “These five volumes collect all of the printed works by Watson on chemical subjects. Vols. I–IV contain a total of 36 essays not published in journals, while vol. V includes four papers previously published in the Philosophical Transactions and his three separate works...” (Cole). “Watson is best known for his Chemical Essays, some of which are still valued for their lucidity, in particular his account of the phlogiston theory,...which has frequently been cited. He also described the classic experiment in which hot water in a tightly stoppered flask can be made to boil by pouring cold water over the air space” (DSB). The fifth volume contains his important investigation of the phenomena of solution and his anticipation of Blagden’s Law. See Cole 1342. Duveen p. 610 (one volume in second edition). No edition in the Neville catalogue, but the online catalogue has a set also with one volume in second edition. Most sets are mixed editions, as complete sets of first editions are really quite rare.

131. WERNER, Abraham Gottlob. Neue Theorie von der Entstehung der Gänge, mit Anwendung auf den Bergbau besonders den freibergischen. Freiberg: gedruckt und verlegt in der Gerlachischen Buchdrukkerei, 1791. 8vo, pp. xxxx, 256. Contemporary (original?) blue boards, faintly stained and worn at ends of spine, old paper label on spine, red edges, a plain but very nice copy. £1100 FIRST EDITION. This work by Werner, who is known as the father of historical geology, describes his “theory of the origin of ore deposits which would be consistent with his general theory of the origin of the earth’s crust... Many of its elements were of lasting value. Werner formulated basic questions about the origin and history of veins and their contents, established criteria for determining the relative age of veins and vein materials, and presented a comparative study of the structure of veins and rock masses... Perhaps the most important contribution of Von der Entstehung der Gänge, however, was that it made the study of vein formation an integral part of historical geology” (DSB, XIV, pp. 262–263). “...Werner's work proved of the highest value in mineralogical science, since it contained a large store of accurate information about mineral veins, and suggested new methods of determining the relative age of vein-deposits” (Zittel, History of geology, p. 60, etc.). See also Geikie, The founders of geology, pp. 127–128, etc. Hoover, De Re Metallica, 878.

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First Work of Importance on Diabetes 132. WILLIS, Thomas. Pharmaceutice rationalis: or, an exercitation of the operations of medicines in humane bodies... As also a treatise of the scurvy... London: printed for T. Dring, C. Harper, and J. Leigh,... 1679. 3 parts in 1 volume, folio, pp. (xxiv), 155; (viii), 179; 56, (2) index, and 14 engraved plates. Separate title-page to the second part, both titles within double ruled border. Title-page soiled and with four small library stamps, otherwise a very good and clean copy. Early nineteenth century half calf, nicely rebacked and recornered. £2800 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. The earliest printed book cited by Garrison & Morton on the subject of diabetes. In this book on the action of medicines, Willis made the first important contribution of modern times to the knowledge of diabetes by noting the sweetness of the urine in diabetes mellitus. He differentiated between that condition and diabetes insipidus. He also gave a description of whooping cough. This is one of the earliest English books on the uses, properties, and modus operandi of medicines, including the medicinal use of coffee. He also summarised the anatomy and physiology of the thoracic and abdominal organs, and hypothesised mechanisms of their pathology. He discovered the superficial lymphatics of the lungs, distinguished acute tuberculosis from the chronic fibroid type, and gave the first clinical and pathological account of emphysema. He described extrasystoles of the heart, aortic stenosis, heart failure in chronic bronchitis, and emboli lodging in the pulmonary artery. The treatise on scurvy occupies the last 56 pages.
 See G&M 3926 (diabetes) and 5086 (whooping cough) for the first edition, in Latin, of 1674–75. Wing W2848A (the rarer issue with Clavell’s name omitted from the imprint).

Digitalis 133. WITHERING, William. An Account of the Foxglove, and some of its medical uses: with practical remarks on dropsy, and other diseases. Birmingham: Printed by M. Swinney,... 1785. 8vo, pp. (ii), xx, (i), 207, (1), large folding coloured engraved plate of the foxglove by J. Sowerby. With the half-title, but without the first leaf (blank but for signature 'a'). Some spotting especially in gathering D, 2 leaves with small pieces torn from the blank fore-edge margin, tear in one fold of plate repaired from behind. Good modern half calf. Early signature of B. Williamson on title-page. £6500 FIRST EDITION. Before Withering’s time, digitalis, obtained from the leaves of the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), had been used widely in popular medicine, but Withering conducted a series of clinical trials over a period of ten years to define its correct dosage and effective use in dropsy and heart disease, carefully stating that it was ineffective for certain other conditions. It was to become the most valuable cardiac drug ever discovered, and its introduction was one of the landmarks in the history of cardiac disease. “It is one of the classics of medical literature, and greatly prized by collectors” (Major). G&M 1836 (pharmacology) and 2734.31 (cardiology). Lilly, Notable medical books, 139. Willius & Keys, Cardiac Classics, pp. 225–252. Major, Classic descriptions of disease, pp. 437–443. Norman Catalogue 2255.

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Item 126: Vesalius


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