Medical

1721. RUYSCH, Frederik. OPERA OMNIA ANATOMICO-MEDICO-CHIRURGICA. Huc usque edita. Quorum Elenchus pagina sequenti exhibetur. Cum figuris aeneis. Amstelodami, apud Janssonio-Waesbergios, 1721 [i.e. c. 1733]. 4 quarto volumes. Engraved title-page and portrait, 9 text illustrations, + 135 sheets of engraved illustrations. (The illustrations of jars and tableaux of skeletons in the Thesaurus anatomicus by Cornelius Huyberts are worthy of special note for their surreal combination of flowers, fishes, reptiles, seashells and delicate body parts.) This is a four-volume collection of separately published works by Ruysch or of works addressed to him by others; it also includes a life of Ruysch by J. F. Schreiber, a four-page table of contents (which lists only a portion of the works that comprise this set), and an index, dated 1725. The forty-four component works, in varying editions, were all printed by Jansson & Waesberge at Amsterdam from 1720-1733; each has a separate title-page and pagination. It… Read More

1682 Handwritten. Very Good. Soft cover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Persian manuscript on medicine mainly written in Samarkand in 933 AH.,- 1527 AD. and dedicated to the Sultan Mansur Kutchukunji (?) Khan. Very fine Shikaste-Ta'liq Persian black script with significant words in red. Colophon with date 1093 AH,- 1682 AD., scribe: Abd al Ghafur b. Muhammed Amin... and ownership: Hussein b. Yaqub. 374 p. in contemporary full leather binding. 24x18 cm. Scarce..

Venice: [Boneto Locatello], 1504. Vellum. Very good. Third printed edition after those of Bologna (1489) and Venice (1498). 141 leaves with double columns of 66 lines each in 3 sizes of gothic letters. 32 cm. 18th-century vellum binding with leather spine label and yapp edges. Five words added in ink on title page "de Florentia, Cartusiensis" and at the bottom "Venetiis 1504". Turisanus (ca. 1275 - ca. 1350) studied medicine first in Bologna, where he was considered to be Taddeo Alderotti's best pupil, and then in Paris, before returning to Bologna to teach and finally become a monk. His most famous work is this "more than commentary" on Galen of Pergamum's Art of Medicine, which incorporates much philosophical learning but also displays a measure of scientific originality. The method is scholastic, but this did not prevent the text from playing a central role in medical education for over 200 years, appearing in print until 1557. Latin text.

Venice: Officina Erasmiana, Apud Vincentium Valgrisium, 1558. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio. Bound with: Apologia Adversus Amathum Lusitanum cum Censura in Eiusdem Enarrationes. Venice: Ex Officina Erasmiana, Vindentii Valgrisii, 1558. Contemporary pigskin binding, with title lettered on spine. With custom slipcase. Book I (Commentario Secundo Aucti): [cxx], 776 p.p. Handsomely illustrated with 703 woodcut illustrations of plants and animal figures. Includes 133 extra woodcuts than were previously issued in the first Venice edition in 1554.; Book II (Apologia): [8] 9-50 p.p. Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli [1501-1577] was an Italian physician and botanist, who was doctor to Archduke Ferdinand I and Emperor Maximilian II. He helped advanced understanding of medical botany and contributed to knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants. In his Commentaries, Mattioli expanded on and identified plants not mentioned in Dioscorides Materia Medica. This second edition was the first to include… Read More

Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co, 1891. First Ediition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. Folio (large). 4 Volumes. Bound in buckram in blue and green boards (not uniform). University markings stamped in gilt. Vol. I: [11] 12-88 p.p. with [7] plates; Vol. II: [9] 90-1112 p.p., [13] plates; Vol. III: [11] 113-150 p.p., [9] plates; Vol. IV: [9] 152-220 p.p. with [10] plates. A total of 39 plates photographic reproductions of physiological malformations, plus 111 woodcut illustrations in-text. The bookplates of the John Crerar and University of Chicago Libraries, with deaccession stamps. Embossed stamp of Crerar Library on title pages and some leaves. Crerar stamps to verso of some plates. Rubbing to edges and scuffs to boards. Bruising to spine ends with slight bumping at corners. Sporadic smudges to pages and chipping at edges, with old closed tear repairs. Front fly-leaf and title page in Vol. III detached. Otherwise in very good condition of this complete set. A treatise on teratology, the work was… Read More

Three 21 x 28 1/8 inch (534 x 715 mm) untrimmed folio atlas volumes in four in original wraps. With frontis, 4 engraved titles & 461 plates, including 197 duplicates in outline. "Vol. 1: ossa et ligmenta, tabula I-LI.; Vol. 2: musculi et bursae mucosae, organa sensuum et viscera, tabula LII-CXXXIV.; Vol. 3, pt. 1, uterus gravadus, embriones humani, cor arteriae venae, tabula CXXXV-CCIV.; Vol. 3, pt. 2 vasa lymphatica, cerebrum nervi, tabula CCV-CCLXIV. Engraved portraits of authors on title page of v. 1 of plates./ V. 1 of plates published in 1801, v. 2 in 1804, v. 3, pt. 1 in 1810, and v. 3, pt. 2 in 1813; text v. published in 1802, 1804, 1805, 1808, 1814./ Many plates accompanied by an additional plate in outline./ Text vols. titled 'Iconum anatomicorum explicatio'" (OCLC: 58395230; 2018). Additional images and further information provided upon request.

London: Burgess and Hill, 1819. Hardcover. Very good +. 126 p. 22 cm. Bound in full leather with blank and gold impressing and burgundy spine label. Marbled endpapers. Binder's label on rear pastedown. Checkmark in top corner of title page. last page has slightly chipped top corner with a few ink marks in upper margin. The first medical book about Upper Canada and one of only two medical works relating to the War of 1812. Douglas's Medical Topography is an extremely important and scarce work, for which we can find no British or American auction records for 50 years. The author, Dr. John Douglas (1788-1861), was an Assistant Surgeon with the 8th Regiment on the Niagara Frontier, present at the battles of Chipawa, Fort Erie, and Lundy's Lane, as well as spending considerable time at the military hospital at Fort York. On p. 3 the author gives the contents of the work: "I. Of the topography of the country. II. Of the soil and climate. III. Of the services of the troops. IV. Of the diseases which… Read More

Toulouse, J. F. Desclassan, 1779. *** Seule édition de ce splendide ouvrage illustré de deux frontispices, un portrait, 82 planches à pleine page et 11 vignettes dans le texte. EXEMPLAIRE COMPLET de toutes ses planches et du très rare PROSPECTUS. Jacques Gamelin (1738-1803), natif de Carcassonne s'était installé à Toulouse où il avait organisé un atelier de dissection en vue de l'oeuvre qu'il voulait réaliser : un monument consacré à l'ostéologie et à la myologie. Dans cet atelier, entouré de préparateurs pour la dissection, il dessinait et gravait lui-même ses compositions les plus difficiles, particulièrement les tableaux historiques et les scènes de genre, aidé par deux de ses meilleurs élèves Martin et Lavallée. " L'ostéologie montre une série de très belles compositions à l'eau-forte qui donnent à l'ouvrage toute son originalité et dont certaines représentant des scènes animées, font penser à Rembrandt et à Goya. C'est Rembrandt qui est évoqué dans le… Read More

1919. (Paris), 1919. Folio. With a nice, later paper backstrip. Entire issue 27, 1919 of La Presse Médicale present (pp. 353- 360). Passot's article: 7 columns on pp. 258-261. With one illustration, depicting the ways to reduce wrinkles on a face. Well preserved. The very rare first printing of this pioneering work of plastic surgery - one of the very first - most likely THE first - publication on face lifting, consisting mainly in the elevating and redraping of the facial skin. The first facelift was reportedly done in either 1901 or 1907, but "[n]ot all writers of rhytidectomy spread their innovations through publication; some were teachers instead of writers. Sooner or later, however, those they taught began to write. Giving credit to his masters, Pozzi and Morestin, as well as Mlle. Pertat, Raymond Passot in 1919 described the following technique for eliminating cheek wrinkles and the buccolabial sulcus: First, he began the operation by "withdrawing miniscule amounts of tegument in the… Read More

Lyon: Jean Gregoire, 1664. 12th Edition . Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. LES OEUVRES DE AMBROISE PARE, CONSEILLER ER PREMIER CHIRURGIEN DU ROY by Ambroise Paré. Folio. 852 text pages + index. Contemporaneous full leather over boards. Spine is gilt stamped with raised bands and seven compartments. Hinges are sound. Pages browned, occasional small stains. Corners bumped. Top and bottom corners of spine and front edges of boards are rubbed. Page 653 damaged & taped, and laid over full blank page. No bookplate. Several "ex libris...." in antique hand. All pages from 1-852 are present, as are all introductory pages, as well as the index. Thirty books in one volume with profusely illustrated with woodcuts. Covers diverse topics including anatomy, muscles, the skeleton, tumors, wounds of war, arthritis, gangrene, leprosy & plague, childbirth, bandages, fractures, distillations, surgical instruments, prostheses, and bizarre creatures. Ambroise… Read More

Paris: hez Pierre-Jean Mariette... et Chez l'Auteur, 1746. Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou Traite Des Dents. Ou l'on enseigne les moyens de les entretenir propres & saines, de les embellir, d'en reparer la perte & de remedier a leurs maladies, a celles des Gencives & aux accidens qui peuvent survenir aux autres parties voisines des Dents. Avec des Observations & des Reflexions sur plufieurs cas singuliers. Ouvrage enrichi de quarante-deux Planches en taille douce... Deuxieme Edition revue, corrigee & considerablement augmentee. Paris: Chez Pierre-Jean Mariette... et Chez l'Auteur, 1746. Second and best edition. This edition is considerably enlarged. "In the second edition, 1746, he gave the first description of 'pyorrhoea alveolaris', a common affliction of the gums" (PMM). It also has two additional plates which are not in the first edition. With frontispiece portrait and forty-two plates. Two twelvemo volumes (6 5/8 x 3 5/8 inches; 168 x 91 mm). xxiv, [8, table], 494, [4, blank]; [12], 425, [17] pp.… Read More

Founding Royal ordinance for the Corps of Invalids of New Spain
Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua (1717-1779, Viceroy of New Spain).
Reglamento formado para el cuerpo de invalidos de Nueva España por el Excmo. Sr. Bailio Fr. D. Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua Virrey Governador y Capitan General de ella, aprobado por S. M. en Real Orden de trece de Junio de 1773.
Mexico City, Joseph Antonio de Hogal, 1774.
Folio. [2], 19, [1 blank] pp. Collates: π, A-D2, π.
With the woodcut Royal coat of arms on the title. Signature of Viceroy Bucareli in ink on the final page.
Modern stiff marbled paper covers, leaves remargined in order to match the size of the volume. In linen made-to-measure case with title on front.
Very rare first and only edition of the founding document for the establishment of the Corps of Invalids in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This Royal ordinance marks a crucial step in the military organisation of the Spanish Americas and greatly expanded the colonial military presence there.The Cuerpo de… Read More

In the 9th century, the Persian scholar Al-Farghani wrote his Elements of Astronomy on the Celestian Motions (or, Astronomia differentia, also titled Alfragani Elementa Astronomica, because of the lack of authority titles in the pre-Modern period). In part a summary of Ptolomy's Greek Almagest, and in part a scientific tour de force in its own right, the Elements of Astronomy presented a (correct) calculation of the circumference of the earth and the tilt of the Earth's axis. In the 12th century, this Arabic text was translated into Latin, first by John of Seville, then by Gerard of Cremona. The Latin text puts to bed the tired fallacy that particularly Medieval peoples believed the Earth was flat. On this leaf the last line reads: Dicamusque cum puncto sphere terre esset punctus sphere celi necesse fuit ut superficies circuli equinoctii diei divideret superam terre… [And let us say that when the point of the sphere of the earth be the point of the sphere of the sky, it is necessary that the surface… Read More

First edition of perhaps the greatest contribution to our knowledge of the physiology of digestion' (Garrison-Morton), containing the first demonstration of what Pavlov later named the "conditioned reflex". Pavlov was the first to successfully devise a method of studying the physiology of digestion in healthy animals. In 1852, Friedrich Bidder and Carl Schmidt had observed that the sight of food produced a flow of gastric juices in a dog, but Pavlov was the first researcher to observe the process in its entirety and to do so without injury to the animal subject.
For his work in the physiology of digestion Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1904.
Octavo (186 x 136 mm). 16 wood-engraved diagrams. Contemporary half roan (bumped, rubbed, with loses). Number of bookworm holes up to page 4. Provenance: S.R. (superexlibris).

London:: Privately printed, 1944., 1944. Reprinted from The British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 1929. Vol. X, p. 226. Sm. 4to (250 x 186 mm). 12 pp. 4figures, 4 tables. Caption title. Stapled as issued; small chip to upper margin of first leaf, toning to edges, creased. Laid into blind-stamped red calf, black gilt-stamped leather spine label, forming a drop-back folding case. BOOK SIGNED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING. Very good. LIMITED REISSUE OF 250 COPIES OF FLEMING'S LANDMARK ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DISCOVERY OF PENICILLIN. "In 1929, while working at St. Mary's Hospital in London, Fleming discovered the antibacterial properties of Penicillium mould. He published his findings in this present essay and suggested that the brown liquid substance produced by the mould would be an "efficient antiseptic for application to, or injection into, areas infected with penicillin-sensitive microbes." However, the substance proved to be unstable and chemically complex, and attempts to create a pure and stable drug by… Read More