
MEDICINE
A-E F-I J-O P-Z
Everything
You Need to Know
about the
Healthy
Joys of Country Life
(A
Literary Lawyer's Perspective)! Jacob,
Giles. The country gentleman's vade mecum. London: William
Taylor, 1717. 12mo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). Frontis., [10], 132 pp.
$1750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole
edition of this useful and eminently portable overview
of practical topics such as animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, gardening (including
care of fruit and other types of trees), and the cost of timber and stone as
well as labor for carpenters, masons, or glaziers — along with rules for
management of a large family, and
a
seasonal calendar which includes monthly good health practices.
The volume opens with a copper-engraved frontispiece depicting a well-laid-out
country estate with formal garden, frolicking deer in the woods, and laborers
at work in the fields; towards the back of the volume are a compilation of thoughts
on natural philosophy, “A General Description of England, and particularly
of London; with an Account of the Taxes, Revenues, Government, Great Offices,
and Courts of Judicature of England, &c.,” and a poem “In Praise
of a Country Life.”
Jacob (1686–1744) was a legal writer known for his Every Man His
Own Lawyer. He also dabbled in poetry, drama, and literary criticism;
in the same year as the present work's appearance, he published a parody called
The Rape of the Smock, and was subsequently immortalized by Pope's
unkind remarks regarding both his grammar and his status as “the Blunderbuss
of Law.”
ESTC T90927; Goldsmiths’ 5344. On Jacob, see: Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary mottled sheep,
framed and panelled in blind, rebacked with very complementary mottled sheep,
spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date; minor scuffing now nicely
refurbished and front hinge (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Pages mildly
age-toned and cockled, with a few instances of light staining towards back
of volume; one early pencilled correction. Last few leaves with upper outer
corners torn away, touching a few page numbers and in one case one letter.
Overall a solid and pleasing copy. (30232)
This entry is repeated in the
“JO” section of this
catalogue . . .



Medical Highlights, Secrets, & Tricks of the Trade
Anonymous. Professional anecdotes, or ana of medical literature, in three volumes. London: John Knight & Henry Lacey, 1825. 12mo (16.3 cm, 6.4"). 3 vols. I: Engr. t.-p., x, 296 pp.; 1 facs., 4 plts. II: Engr. t.-p., 288 pp.; 1 facs., 4 plts. III: Engr. t.-p., ix, [1], 288 pp.; 1 facs., 4 plts.
$295.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition: Opening with a history of British medicine and brief commentary on other global medical traditions, this anonymously compiled work features accounts of physical and medical anomalies, notable cures or failures thereof, lives of famous medical practitioners, and descriptions of medicine's most dramatic (or most curious) moments. The assembled anecdotes are intended to communicate to medical students “that knowledge of the history and biography of their profession, which would inspire them with that enthusiastic feeling, in regard to all that has been great and glorious in its connection and progress” (I, v).
The set is illustrated with a total of
twelve steel-engraved portraits and three oversized, folding facsimiles of prominent physicians' letters and signatures. The binder has disregarded the printer's directions for the arrangement of the plates, and grouped them all at the fronts of the volumes.
NSTC 2A12623. Contemporary speckled calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings mildly rubbed overall and moreso in spines' top compartments where old labels were removed(?), spines darkened and showing small cracks in leather with some joints just starting, small square of old tape at corner of back cover on vol. I. Ex–social club library: each volume with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Vol. I with hinges (inside) starting. Occasional mild spotting or smudging, short edge tears (not extending into text) and occasional corners or lower margins partially torn away throughout. Vol. III: lower inner margins of frontispiece and engraved title-page reinforced with strip of cloth tape. An uncommon and fascinating set. (29411)

Monsters, Babies, Naked People
(“Things We Proper People Don't Talk About”)
Aristotle, pseudo. The works of Aristotle, the famous philosopher containing, his complete masterpiece, displaying the secrets of nature in the generation of man: to which is added, the family physician ... also his experienced midwife ... and his last legacy. London: Printed for Miller, Law, & Carter, 1830. 12mo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). Frontis., 214 pp., [1] f., 5 plts.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
“A new and improved edition.” In fact, a later edition of this popular and at times “under-the-counter” book on sex education and midwifery. The illustrations in all editions are crude and depict “monsters” (including conjoined twins), a fetus in utero, and Adam and Eve au naturel. (The illustrations vary hugely, making this an interesting title of which to collect multiple copies/editions.)
NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, and COPAC combine to locate only one copy of this edition in the U.S. and none in the U.K.
Contemporary textured sheep, modest gilt rules and gilt “Aristotle” to spine; very light abrasion to binding and very light waterstaining in first 40 pages of text.
A good, solid, decent copy. (28542)

Bacon on
NATURE
Bacon, Francis. Sylva sylvarum, sive historia naturalis, in decem centurias distributa. Lug. Batavor.: Apud Franciscum Hackium, 1648. 12mo (12.9 cm, 5.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., [34], 612, [48], 87, [1] pp.
$700.00
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Compendium of scientific (and also quaintly “traditional”) knowledge: This wide-ranging gathering of interesting observations in natural history was first published posthumously by the author's chaplain and secretary, Dr. Rawley, in 1626, and appears here translated into Latin by Jacob Gruterus. The present edition was, as Willems puts it, “exécutée” at Leyden by Hackius for Elzevier; some examples bear Elzevier's imprint and some Hackius's. The Novus Atlas accompanies the title work, with both having prefaces by Rawley.
Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.
Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy. (30360)

The Andrade Set in
Quarter Red Morocco
Barcía, Andrés González de. Ensayo cronologico, para la historia general de la Florida. Madrid: Imprenta de los Hijos de Doña Catalina Piñuela, 1829. 12mo. 2 vols. I: [2] ff., 508 pp., fold. table. II: [2] ff., 512 pp.
$1675.00
Click the page-images for enlargements.
Written under his nom de plume of Gabriel de Cardenas Z
Cano, the Ensayo cronologico, para la historia general de la Florida
of Andrés González de Barcía has enjoyed constant readership
since its initial publication in the early 18th century, when it was composed
as a companion to González de Barcía's magisterial edition of
Inca Garcilasso de la Vega's La Florida. The Ensayo is a history
of not just Florida but virtually all of America north of Mexico from 1512 to
1722 and details the activities of the Spanish, French, and English, covering
not just wars but offering much on the indigenous populations,
New
World diseases, and so on.
The present edition forms volumes 8 and 9 of the series Historia de la
conquista del Nuevo Mundo.
Provenance: Bookplate of
the great 19th-century Mexican collector J. M. Andrade on the front pastedown
of each volume.
This edition not in Sabin. 19th-century quarter red morocco
with red textured cloth sides. Spine with raised bands and very good gilt
tooling including center devices in spine compartments. Interiors clean. A
very good set. (25271)

On
Getting Old &
Liking It
Bernard, Thomas. Spurinna or the comforts of old age. With notes and biographical illustrations. London: Pr. by W. Bulmer & Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1816. 8vo (20.8 cm, 8.2"). xi, [1], 248 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Sir Thomas Bernard, baronet, describes and defends the merits of maturity, experience, and wisdom — as well as their responsibilities. Inspired by Cicero, the work is framed as an imaginary dialogue among John Hough, Bishop of Worcester; Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London; and Lord Lyttelton. The author provides, at the back of the volume, biographical notes on the eminent names mentioned throughout the text.
This is the first publicly circulated edition and an
expanded
version of the original text,
of which a now scarce, very limited edition was printed in 1813 for the benefit
of the author's friends. (WorldCat fails to locate any holdings of the 1813
printing.)
Provenance: Front pastedown
with bookplate of the Rev. William Burrough Cosens, rector of Monkton Farleigh;
title-page with inked ownership inscription of D.L. Browne, dated 1816.
NSTC 2B19927. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, gilt-stamped raised bands, and blind-stamped compartment decorations; sides moderately rubbed, leather moreso. Half-title lacking. Occasional light pencilled bracketing; occasional foxing, most noticeable to first and last leaves. Much appreciated in its day as a comfort against the encroachments of age and infirmity. (29558)
Boerhaave, Herman. Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis, in usum doctrinae domesticae digesti ... editio sexta. Edinburgi: R. Drummond & Soc. for G. Hamilton & J. Balfour, 1744. 12mo (15.5 cm, 6.1"). [8], 330, [24 (index)] pp.
$650.00
First Scottish printing of an important work by the celebrated Dutch physician and humanist whose teachings drew students from all over Europe to the University of Leiden. Originally printed in 1709, the volume was translated into English in 1715 as Aphorisms Concerning the Knowledge and Cure of Diseases; Garrison-Morton lauds the volume as “one of Boerhaave’s best works.”
ESTC N5425; Garrison-Morton 2199 (for first ed.). Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; leather cracked and chipped on spine and joints, with minor rubbing to sides and edges. Front free endpaper with private collector’s rubber-stamp and inked name, front pastedown with small inked numeral. One front and one back fly-leaf excised. One leaf with short tear from outer margin just touching one letter; one leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters without loss of legibility. Pages clean save for some age-toning and scattered iinstances of light staining to outer margins.

The Author Was a
Strange (Mental) Case
Browne, Simon. A defence of the religion of nature, and the Christian revelation; against the defective account of the one, and the exceptions against the other, in a book, entitled, Christianity as old as the creation. London: Richard Ford, 1732. 8vo (20.6 cm, 8.1"). vi, [2], 267, 272–512 pp.
$575.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition, with errata slip present. Browne was a dissenting minister who, according to Allibone, spent the last ten years of his life under the delusion that God had “annihilated in him the thinking substance, and utterly divested him of consciousness: that though he retained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking, in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had all the while no more notion of what he said than a parrot” — and yet while in that state, he compiled Greek and Latin dictionaries, answered Woolston's Discourse on the Miracles of Our Saviour, and wrote this rebuttal of Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation.
ESTC T86771; Allibone 263. Period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed in blind on lower rear turn-in by Grace Bindings). Pagination jumps from 267 to 272, text complete. Title-page with early inked annotation on the authorship of Christianity as Old as the Creation, and with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; closed lower edges rubber-stamped. First and last few leaves lightly spotted. (23782)

From the Library of the Capuchin Nuns of Mexico City
Capuchin Nuns. Regla de la gloriosa santa Clara, con las constituciones de las monjas Capuchinas del santissimo crucifixo de Roma, reconocidas, y reformadas por el Padre General de los Capuchinos y con las adiciones a los estatutos de dicha regla.... Mexico: Reimpressa en la Imprenta del Lic. Don Joseph de Jauregui, n.d. [ca. 1760–75]. 16mo (15 cm; 6'). [4] ff., 234 pp.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A later Mexican printing of the Rule and Constitution of the Poor
Clares (a.k.a, Capuchin Nuns) in Mexico, earlier New World editions having appeared
in 1646 and 1720 (with others to follow this undated one in 1773 and 1817).
The Poor Clares, officially “The Order of Saint Clare,” are a contemplative
branch of the Franciscan order that St. Clare of Assisi founded in 1212. The
order's mission is to pray for the needs of the church, the world, and all people
who are in need. As part of the last, they pray for intervention in
medical
and mental matters for those suffering from maladies.
This
edition is graced with four charming historiated woodcut initials: “I,”
“C,” “R,” and “L.”
Provenance:
On verso of the front free endpaper in an 18th-century hand is a note that
the the book belonged to the Capuchin Convent of Mexico City in 1787.
Medina, Mexico, 9208. Publisher's limp vellum
with ties, fore-edge of rear cover rodent-gnawed with a corner lost and both
covers with part of lower edge likewise gnawed but in limited way; the hungry
rodent also nibbled along the fore-edges of pp. 213 to 234, minimally and
with remarkable neatness. Ownership notation as indicated. A good, clean volume.
(29589)

Capturing an Age
One Biography at a Time
[Clarke]. The Georgian era: Memoirs of the most eminent persons, who have flourished in Great Britain, from the accession of George the First to the demise of George the Fourth. London: Vizetelly, Branston, & Co., 1832–34. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.65"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., 582 pp.; 12 plts. II: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. III: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. IV: Frontis., 588 pp.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition: Concise
yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments
and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles,
churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists,
physicians,
voyagers and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects, artists
and musicians, etc. All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses
are present, along with a handful of women represented in other categories —
the preponderance falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors”
headings.
The first volume is illustrated with
12
plates each offering four rows
of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an
engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.
NSTC 2C23867. Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with
gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally
pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining,
pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped.
A
hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times. (30012)

The Syphilis Question
Clavigero, Francesco Saverio [a.k.a. Francisco Javier Clavigero, or Clavijero], & Antonio Sanchez Valverde. La America vindicada de la calumnia de haber sido madre del mal venereo. Madrid: en la Impenta. de Don Pedro Marin, 1785. Small 4to (20.5 cm.; 8.25"). [4] ff., 79, [1 (blank) pp.
$1750.00
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A most curious work seeking to lay to rest the “calumny” that syphilis originated in the New World. To do this Sanchez Valverde translates the portion of Jesuit-writer Clavigero's Storia antica del Messico that deals with the question of syphilis and whether the Spaniards transmitted it to the Indians or vice versa and adds his own commentary and bibliographical citations. Clavigero thought the Spaniards were the transmitters, which was in contrast to what Oviedo had posited in his Historia general de las Indias.
Sánchez Valverde was the first writer born in Santo Domingo to publish a book and he was a staunch defender of America and his native island against all prejudices and “calumnies” he perceived as directed against both.
Curiously, several sources (Palau, Sabin, WorldCat) give the terminal page of this work as 80 (or LXXX) and certainly the copy at the John Carter Brown Library conforms to that. This copy, however, clearly stops at page LXXIX with the word “Fin” and with what would be LXXX being blank: Ours is in line with Medina.
Palau 55495; Sabin 76308; Medina, BHA, 5155. On Clavigero, see: DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1209–12. Loosely attached at one sewing point to a crude and ill-fitting vellum binding; binding soiled and pastedowns stained. Title-page with small splashy stains (dirty water?) in outer margin. Text clean with minimal light foxing here and there. (29848)
Defoe
on the Plague — In
Funereally(?) Flowered Dress
Defoe,
Daniel. The
history of the great plague in London in the year 1665;
containing observations and memorials of the most remarkable occurrences,
both public and private, during that dreadful period. By a citizen, who lived
the whole time in London. London: Benshaw & Rush and James Gilbert, 1832.
12mo (13.5 cm, 5.4"). Frontis., 304 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
This full account of the Great Plague of London was purportedly
based on the diary of one H. F., a well-to-do saddler who remained in the city
during its depredations. Published in 1722, one month after Defoe's handbook
“Due Preparations for the Plague,” the work is a convincing —
and chilling — intertwining of fact and fiction. It appears here with
an introduction by the Rev. H. Stebbing, describing major pestilences of earlier
history.
Provenance:
Front fly-leaf with inked inscription: “J.D. Coleridge, Eton College,
July 1836.” The Coleridge family was closely connected with Eton; this
particular Coleridge may very possibly have been John Duke Coleridge, later
Lord Chief Justice of England and first Baron Coleridge.
Binding: In an unusual and
highly striking
contemporary
maroon calf binding “sun printed” with the bleached
imprints of flowers and leaves, including on the spine. Covers framed in gilt
double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels, board
edges with gilt roll. Handsome marbled endpapers; top edge gilt.
NSTC 2D7458; NCBEL, II, 902. Binding as above,
mildly rubbed, spine slightly darkened. Front fly-leaf with inscription as
above; light offsetting from frontispiece onto title-page. A few leaves with
faint stain to upper edge and a few with similar faint touch at outer edge,
pages otherwise very clean.
A
work of significance for both literature and medical history, here in a most
atypical binding and in excellent, quite charming condition.
(29505)
For
more DEFOE,
click here.

Liberal Arts of All Stripes
Dennie, Joseph, ed. The port folio. Volumes V & VI. Philadelphia: Smith & Maxwell, 1808. 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). [4], 416, 416 pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Port Folio, an important early American literary and
political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This volume comprises Vols.
V and VI of the “New Series,” collecting the weekly issues from
2 Jan. through 24 Dec. 1808, including a discussion of the merits of classical
studies, a treatise on “Oriental poetry,” jokes, theatrical reviews
and commentary, the latest (British) legal intelligences, original poems and
translations of French and Italian poems, Francis Kinloch's “Letters from
Geneva and France,” an account of
the
health benefits of manufactured mineral waters, etc.
Provenance & Evidence of Readership:
Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions
of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription
of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot
along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations
and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks
of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller
noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.
Sabin 64182. Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled
paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some
early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and
starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph
excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30
of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away
with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in
occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered
copy, but still — like all Port
Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff.
(29347)
A
Big Year for Oliver
Oldschool
Dennie,
Joseph, ed. The
port folio. Volume V. Philadelphia: Bradford & Inskeep, 1805. Large 4to
(32.2 cm, 12.7"). 408 (lacking 89–96, never bound in) pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The Port Folio, an important early American literary and
political periodical, ran from 1801 through 1827. This is Volume V and it is
in the large quarto format of its era, not the octavo format of the “New
Series”; it collects the weekly issues from 12 January through 28 December
of 1805, being
the
year in which Dennie was put on trial for seditious libel. Dennie's
own account of the trial begins in the last issue here, with the volume as a
whole also including critical commentary on Sotheby's translation of Virgil's
Georgics, bits of interesting British “law intelligence,” a satire
on
patent
medicines, the immortal “Ode to a Market Street Gutter,”
a sketch on the history and present state of Philadelphia, original poetry in
English and French, and the papers of Samuel Saunter, a.k.a. the “American
Lounger,” a.k.a. Dennie himself.
Provenance:
Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem
Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts
lawyer who established the New England Museum.
Sabin 64182. Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue
paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and
gilt-stamped date; worn and stained, front cover with (child's?) pencilled
name, spine head with remnants of paper shelving label, spine leather cracked.
Volume refurbished, with leather consolidated, joints repaired, edges reinforced
with repair tissue. Lacking one issue, no. 12, apparently never bound in;
one stanza of one poem excised. Some leaves creased, with occasional tears
into text; varying degrees of age-toning and foxing; scattered small holes.
Lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of several lines. A few
pencilled marks of emphasis; a later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations
and commentary on various pieces herein. Dried plant matter laid in. Price
reduced recognizing absent No. 12; but a volume of interest both simply as
a substantial Port Folio and as the one produced in such a significant
year for the proprietor. (29238)

Descartes
Illustrated
Descartes, René. Renati Des Cartes opera philosophica. Francofurti ad Moenum: Sumptibus Friderici Knochii, 1692. 4to. 5 parts in 1 vol. Frontis., [47] ff.; [4] ff., 384 pp.; [16] ff., 168 pp.; [8] ff., 220 pp.; [12] ff., 74 pp., [3] ff.; [18] ff., 188 pp., 7 plts.
$2250.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
The Opera philosophica brings together disparate writings by Descartes and prints each with its own title-page and pagination. The parts are: 1. Meditationes de prima philosophica; seven illustrative plates for this are bound at the end of the volume — one lacking). 2. Principia Philosophiae. 3. Specimina philosophiae seu Dissertatio de methodo Recte regentae rationes, & veritatis in scientiis investigandae Dioptrice et Meteora; illustrative plate inserted at end of volume. 4. Passiones Animae. 5. Tractatus de Homine et de Formatione Foetus Quorum prior Notis perpetuis Ludovici de La Forge, M.D. illustratur.
One of two issues of this edition, this being the issue illustrated with seven folding plates, in addition to the many, many in-text woodcut illustrations, some nearly full-page.
VD17 1:620459Z. Contemporary stiff vellum. Ex-library with call number on spine and bookplate, but no other markings. A very good copy. (14709)

Materia
Medica — Ancient
Knowledge
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. Dioscoridis libri octo Graece et Latine. Castigationes in eosdem libros. Parisiis: Apud Petrum Haultinum (colophon: Excudebat Benedictus Prevost), 1549. 8vo (16.7 cm, 6.5"). [20], 392 ff.
$1000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Important classical work on herbalism and pharmacology, listing the medicinal effects of hundreds of different plants known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The present example is one of two variants of the 1549 edition, with this Haultinum imprint being notably
more uncommon than the Birkmann imprint.
The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.
Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant,” possibly the scholar who was older cousin and college tutor of Thomas Fuller, author of the History of the Worthies of England.
Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295. 18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)

Cholera in Mexico after the
Mexican-American War
Duck, William Ward. Método curativo racional para el cholera morbus asiático, por Guillermo Ward Duck. México : Tipo. de R. Rafael, 1850. 8vo. 16 pp.
$525.00
The author of this very scarce pamphlet identifies himself as a retired medical doctor who at the time of its writing was about to leave for England. He tells how to diagnose cholera, explains his “rational” method for curing it (based on methods used successfully in England, the United States, and parts of Europe), and gives suggestions for easing recuperation. At the end of the work he gives the composition of the various medicines and tonics he prescribes, because “detest[o] por mi parte el monopolio que algunos han hecho de sus medicamentos á fin de lucrar á costa de la humanidad doliente.”
Cholera became a serious problem in Mexico City and in several other places in the country in the wake of the Mexican–American War. Dr. Duck says of his reasons for writing this opusculum of medical advice, “solo me ha impulsado el deseo que tengo de auxiliar á una Nacion que me es querida.” Very rare.
Sutro 858; not in Palau. Author not in: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica; or Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México (5a ed.). Fine condition; sewn in original cream-colored printed wrappers with elaborate, ornamental borders on both covers. Wrappers very lightly soiled; a clean, untattered copy. (26603)
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