[Rarebooks] fa: FRANCIS HOME Clinical Experiments & Dissections 1780 - INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th, & 19th-century medical titles, auctions ending Sunday, Sept. 16. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/8tv8bfj

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Francis Home: Clinical Experiments, Histories, and Dissections. Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech, and J. Murray, MDCCLXXX [1780]. FIRST EDITION. Bound in recent grey half cloth and boards with gilt-lettered leather spine label and new endpapers; 8vo; xvi + 458 + [2] pp.; with the final errata leaf. ESTC T112609.

Presentation copy, inscribed on the verso of the dedication leaf: "To Dr. Black From The Author." It seems quite likely that the recipient was Home's contemporary and colleague, Dr. Joseph Black (1728-1799), discoverer of carbon dioxide ("fixed air") and of latent heat. Black was closely involved with both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, of which Home was the president, and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, to which the present work is dedicated. Adam Smith wrote of Black: "I never knew a man with less nonsense in him."

Faint library stamp to the title-page (no other library markings); mild age-toning to the leaves with some darkening to the top edges; occasional light spotting, most noticeably on the preliminaries; otherwise clean and sound in a fresh, sharp rebind.

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. He was a strong advocate of the importance of clinical observation, and promoted the methodology for history-taking and physical examination formulated by the medical faculty at Edinburgh University. In 1758 Home was the first physician to  attempt to vaccinate against measles.