[Rarebooks] fa: FRANCIS HOME - CLINICAL EXPERIMENTS, HISTORIES AND DISSECTIONS 1782 (Case histories, etc.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, June 4. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7lfjjmf

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Francis Home: Clinical Experiments, Histories, and Dissections. London: Printed for J. Murray, No 32, Fleet Street, and William Creech, Edinburgh, MDCLXXXII [1682, i.e. 1782]. Second edition, corrected. Tall 8vo (24 cm), untrimmed in modern quarter calf and cloth, titles in gilt; xii + 499 + [1] pp (pagination somewhat erratic, as issued, but text and register are continuous and complete). ESTC N3186.

A fascinating collection of detailed case studies, providing a vivid look at the ailments and treatments of late-Georgian Britain. Francis Home (1719-1813) was an Edinburgh physician and a leading medical figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. A founding member of the Royal Medical Society, he was also president of the Physical section of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and succeeded William Cullen as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1758 he was the first physician to attempt to vaccinate against measles. A strong advocate of the importance of clinical observation, Home promoted the methodology for history-taking and physical examination formulated by the medical faculty at Edinburgh University.

This copy with the engraved armorial bookplate of the English physician Edward Johnstone (trimmed and laid down onto the title-page verso) and with occasional early ink marginalia and markings, presumably in his hand.  Johnstone (1757-1851) was the first President of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association and one of the original physicians at the Birmingham General Hospital (estab. 1779).

Deaccessioned from the Birmingham Medical Institute (UK), with its gilt-stamp near the foot of the spine and ink stamps (of Birmingham General Hospital Library) on the bottom margin of 6 or 7 pages, no other library marks; some toning and dust-soiling to the untrimmed fore-edges of the leaves, otherwise contents are quite clean and fresh, firmly bound