Theorie Positive de l'Ovulation Spontanee et de la Fecondation des Mammiferes et de l'Espece Humaine

Paris: J.B.Bailliere, 1847. First edition.

SCARCE MONOGRAPH ON OVULATION AND FERTILIZATION IN ANIMALS AND HUMANS ILLUSTRATED BY LARGE COLORED ENGRAVINGS.

14x22 cm text volume, publisher's printed paper covers, ink inscription on half title, "a mon collegue Monsieur Land. Caneaux comme un bien sincere hommage et la haute commendation de l'auteur, Pouchet". xxxi, 476 pp, folding table, 477-479 (table of contents), 48 pp (publisher's catalogue). Scattered light foxing, browning to catalogue pages, very good in custom archival mylar cover. TOGETHER WITH Folio 23x30 cm hardcover atlas volume, printed paper covered boards, [iv], 30 pp text descriptions of plates, followed by 20 hand-colored fine engraved plates with tissue guards. The plates depict sperm, eggs, and early embryonic development of vertebrates including rabbits, pigs, hens, and frogs. Also shown are human sperm and ovulation, along with a folding plate of a stillborn fetus with placenta delivered after the birth of a healthy infant. Covers and corners worn, residue of bookplate removed from front paste-down, light scattered foxing, institutional library handstamp to title page recto and verso, faint perforated library seal to title page and top of first text page. The plates are bright and unmarked. Very good in mylar cover.

FELIX-ARCHIMEDE POUCHET (1800 –1872) was a French naturalist and a leading proponent of spontaneous generation of life from non-living materials, and as such an opponent of Louis Pasteur's germ theory. From 1828 he was director of the Rouen Jardin des Plantes. Later, in 1838, he became professor at the School of Medicine at Rouen. In 1847, Pouchet effectively launched the study of the physiology of cytology. In 1848, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. Pouchet's Spontaneous Ovulation (offered here) reveals that despite his belief in spontaneous generation of life, he also believed that in the animal kingdom, generation happened through eggs that existed before fertilization. He clearly recognized that human ovulation occurs at a precise time in the menstrual cycle and his illustrations for the plates are finely detailed and reflect a mastery of early microscopy. This work was awarded the prize for experimental physiology by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris in 1845.