Iconographie ophthalmologique : ou description, avec figures coloriées, des maladies de l'organe de la vue, comprenant l'anatomie pathologique, la pathologie et la thérapeutique médico-chirurgicales

Paris: J.-B. Baillière et Fils, 1852. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 1852-1859. Two volumes. 4to (302 x 230 mm). Text volume: xix [1], 823 [1] pp., including half title; atlas volume: [4], 80 pp. including half-title, 80 engraved plates (of which 70 in fine hand-colouring), numbered I-LXXX. Provenance: Academie Royale de Medecine de Belgique (old stamps on titles). Contemporary uniform plum half roan, marbled endpapers (joints repaired, extremities rubbed, some dust-soiling). Scattered light foxing of text. A few tissue-guards browned but plates generally clean and bright with very minor marginal spotting in places. Fine set. ----
br>FIRST EDITION. "Probably the most massive and detailed nineteenth-century work on ophthalmology, this is Sichel's magnum opus and is said to have taken twenty-five years to complete. The eighty delicately executed colorplates illustrate virtually every eye malady known at the time and they remain accurate in nearly every detail. The accompanying text includes thorough discussions of the various diseases based on the case histories of Sichel's patients." (Heirs of Hippocrates). Originally issued in 20 installments between August 1852 and July 1859. Jules Sichel, born in Frankfurt am Main, was a French physician and entomologist. After his initial studies he went to live in Paris in 1829 where he opened the first ophthalmic clinic in 1832 and is credited with bringing modern ophthalmology to France from Austria and Germany. He obtained his doctorate in Frankfurt in 1833 with a thesis entitled Propositions générales sur l'ophthalmologie, suivies de l'histoire de l'ophthalmie rhumatismale. Afterwards Sichel trained several famous ophthalmologists (Louis-Auguste Desmarres, Charles Deval, Charles de Hübsch and Wiktor Szokalski) at his Paris clinic. He was interested in oriental languages and archaeology writing extensively on the seals of Roman doctors. In entomology he specialized in Hymenoptera. He gave his name to Sichel's Disease, a form of pseudoptosis in which folds of skin hang from the upper lid margin. "This work and that of Ammon remain the greatest preophthalmoscopic atlases of ophthalmology" (Garrison-Morton). References: Garrison-Morton 5868; Hirsch V-254; Heirs of Hippocrates 1641; Waller 8910 - Visit our website to see more images!