De anima brutorum, quae hominis vitalis ac sensitiva est, exercitationes duae by WILLIS, Thomas - 1672

Oxford: Richard Davis at the Sheldonian Theatre, 1672. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Two parts in one volume. 4to (197 x 149 mm). [56], 16, 33-565 (i.e. 563), 11 pp., 8 engraved plates of brain anatomy (5 folding); imprimatur leaf bound opposite title, longitudinal half-title g2 bound before the divisional title g1 for part one; page 563 misnumbered 565; general index at the end. Signatures: [pi]2 A4 b-f4 g2 2A-Z4 Aa-Zz4 Aaa-Yyy4 Zzz4(Zzz1 + "Zzzz Aaaa"4, Bbbb2). Bound in full contemporary speckled English calf, rebacked with new morocco spine label lettered in gilt, corners mended, endleaves renewed, dark sprinkled edges (rebacking rubbed, joints cracking). Text with light even browning, occasional spotting mostly to outer margins; instances of very faint blue vertical bands on some leaves, perhaps offsetting from bookmarks that are no longer in place; book block mostly split before p. 87; leaf Zzz4 with small patch of paper torn at fore-margin not affecting text. Provenance: Dr. Michael Stone's Psychiatry Collection. Complete except for the 4 publisher's advertisement leaves found in some copies. ----

FIRST EDITION, Oxford imprint, published shortly before the first octavo edition the same year, and thus the true first. In this earliest English work of medical psychology, Willis describes the phenomenon now known as paracusis Willisii, based on his observation of deaf woman who could hear only when a drum was beating. Willis recognized the difference between the symptoms of gross brain disease and those of mental illness. Because he postulated a disturbance of the brain and nerves in terms of disordered "animal spirits" in the absence of pathological findings, he is often considered the first to have equated mind disease with brain disease. Also includes probably the earliest description of general paralysis. References & Bibliography: Norman 2244. Garrison-Morton-Norman 1544; Hunter & Macalpine, pp. 187-92. - Visit our website to see more images!