Propositions sur la doctrine d'Hippocrate, relativement a la médecine-pratique

Laennec, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe (1781-1826). Propositions sur la doctrine d'Hippocrate, relativement à la médecine-pratique . . . 4to. 39pp. Paris: Didot jeune, An XII (1804). 247 x 195 mm. Later half calf gilt, paste paper boards, slight edgewear. Fine. From the library of Meyer Friedman (1910-2001), with his bookplate.

First Edition, and very rare, of Laennec's thesis. Laennec, best known as the inventor of the stethoscope, obtained his medical degree from the Ecole de Médecine de Paris with in 1804 with his thesis, titled "Propositions on Hippocratic doctrine relative to practical medicine." He had originally planned to write his medical thesis on the "new science" of clinical pathology that had arisen in Paris in the late eighteenth century, but decided instead to interpret Hippocratic medical writings in the light of these recent developments in medicine. "Laennec's unorthodox thesis claimed that Hippocrates, who, as far as anyone can tell had never performed a human autopsy in his hypothetical life, could be read as a positivistic advocate of pathological anatomy, a venerable critic of Pinel's nosology, and a hoary partisan of the twin thesis of Bayle and Buisson . . . Laennec's thesis has attracted the attention of historians of philologists alike, not only because it offered the enchanting example of one ‘great man' looking at another, but because it contained an unusual interpretation of Hippocratic texts that has been described as an ‘uneasy reconciliation' of ancient wisdom with the new Paris medicine" (Duffin, To See with a Better Eye: A Life of R. T. H. Laennec, pp. 49-50).

This copy is from the library of cardiologist and book collector Meyer Friedman, best known for his book, Type A Behavior and Your Heart (1984).