[Rarebooks] fa: XAVIER BICHAT: TRAITE D'ANATOMIE + TREATISE ON THE MEMBRANES - 6 vols. 1813-1819

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, February 24. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/adcbh8k

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Marie-François Xavier Bichat: Traite d'Anatomie Descriptive. Nouvelle Edition. Paris: chez J.A. Brosson [and] Gabon, 1819. Five volumes, 8vo, in period half calf and marbled boards. [WITH:] A Treatise on the Membranes in General, and of Different Membranes in Particular. A New Edition, enlarged by an Historical Notice of the Life and Writings of the Author; by M. Husson. Paris, 1802. Translated by John G. Coffin, M.D. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1813. Period calf, 8vo.

The Traite d'Anatomie: vol. I with ink stamps of the Chicago Medical Library on the title-page and edges of the text block, minimal library marks to the other vols.; boards worn and detached; spines worn and chipped with loss, one spine rebacked with brown library tape; contents lightly toned with scattered foxing, but complete and generally clean and sound. Colored engraving loosely laid in. The Treatise on Membranes: binding worn and rubbed, front board and endpaper detached, tape repair to spine; ex-libris and ownership stamps; browning and scattered foxing to the leaves, occasionally quite heavy; a few marginal notes in ink and pencil. Affixed to the front paste-down is a presentation letter from Dr. Henry Fournier, Chicago Medical Center, attesting that this book is "from the library of the father of the Abdominal Surgery, Dr. Eph[raim] McDowell."

Xavier Bichat (1771-1802), French anatomist and physiologist, is considered the father of modern histology and pathology. He was the first to grasp the concept of tissues as distinct entities from organs and (in vol. III of his Traité d'Anatomie ) introduced the terms "animal" and "vegetative" systems. Appointed physician to the Hôtel Dieu in Paris, he was reputed to have conducted more than six hundred autopsies in less than six months. After his untimely death at age 30, the last 3 volumes of his Traité were completed by his pupils, Francois Buisson and Philibert-Joseph Roux. "[Bichat's] five-volume Anatomie descriptive (1801-3)… opened out an entirely new field for anatomists, that of a detailed description of the parts and tissues of the body in health and disease. . . . Bichat was a forerunner of Henle and the histologists, dividing the tissues into 21 (non-microscopic) varieties, which he treated as indivisible parts, like the elements in chemistry..." (Garrison).