Advertisements on the last page, notably forpatent medicines.

•  Drake 13678.   Uncut copy; later stitching; corners cut. Slight dog-earing, title-page a little tattered. Early inked ownership signature at top of title-page and some marginalia or interlineations.  (9959)

microscope

Publishers' advertisements at back offer other useful volumes, and tout this one as, “not by any means a clap-trap book, though it exposes many clap-traps.”

•  Publisher's black pebbled cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with blind-stamped title; limited fading and rubbing, sewing starting to loosen. Front pastedown with inked inscription, front free endpaper with intriguing “Fraters Florere” rubber-stamp. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26631)

Provenance: With pencilled dealer's code of Sessler's on the verso; in the collection of Philadelphia collector Robert R. Dearden, Jr.

•  Very good condition. Written in a very clear hand. With pencilled dealer's code on the verso.  (29105)

"Porta's system . . . leads him constantly to conclusions of analogies between plants, animals and men. Similar humours are found in various apparently unrelated organisms. Plants and animals that correspond in shape are interrelated. A leaf formed like a stag horn shares the character of the deer. The horse is a noble animal, therefore it is a sign of nobility to walk erect with the head held high. Men who resemble a donkey are like that animal: timid, stupid, nervous. He who looks like an ostrich is akin to it in character: he is timid, elegant, vicious, stolid. A man who reminds us of a swine is a swine, eating greedily and having all the other characteristics, such as rudeness, irascibility, lack of discipline, sordidness, lack of intelligence [and] modesty. In a similar way, men who look like ravens are impudent; those who resemble oxen are stubborn, lazy, irascible; men who have lips shaped like those of a lion are hearty, magnanimous, courageous; others who make us think of a ram are timid, malicious and humble. When practising medicine, Porta had many occasions to observe his patients, and to study their character and complexion; the results of this studious inquiry are laid down in his book." (Seligmann)

Appended to Della fisionomia humana are the Fisionomia naturale of Giovanni Ingegneri († 1600), the Physionomia of Polemon (ca. a.d. 88 – a.d. 145) in an Italian translation, Porta’s Della celeste fisionomia (a repudiation of astrology), and two short related treatises by Livius Agrippa and Luigi Settala (1552–1633). Della celeste fisionomia has a number of interesting woodcuts showing pagan gods and constellations.

•  Seligmann, The History of Magic, 319. On physiognomy, see: Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, VII, 448 & following. On Porta, see: Webster’s New Biographical Dictionary 811. Vellum over paste boards, soiled and cockled with a little chipping; vellum along front joint cracked but joint strongly holding. Ex-library: paper labels on spine and rubber-stamps, including one on title-page. Edges bumped and pages severely cockled (though with no waterstaining); some soiling especially to top edges and margins, with a few edge chips. Plates in very clear, strong impressions. Price reduced for faults, but a volume offering much despite them. (4654)

No copies found via WorldCat or COPAC.

•  Removed from a bound volume; now in modern wrappers. Old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; clean, with wide margins.  (28222)

No copy traced via WorldCat or COPAC.

•  Removed from a volume and laid into modern wrappers. Light stain in outer margin of last leaf with a trace of same showing on a few more inward; old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; generally clean, with good margins. One inked, contemporary marginal note.  (28234)

In addition to the dedication page, and prefaces to the first, third, and fourth editions, these volumes also include “additional notes and essays, a collection of new tables, a history of the sinking fund, a state of the public debts in January 1783, and a postscript on the population of the kingdom.” First published in 1771.

•  ESTC T12986; Goldsmiths-Kress 12495.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, edges of boards tooled in gilt. Joints cracked and weakly holding. Covers darkened along top and outer edges; leather lost on corners. Light foxing to a few early and later leaves, including title-pages; offsetting from leather affecting only first three and final three leaves, at edges. Each volume pressure-stamped on the title-page and one other page. Title-page rectos marked with small inked initials in upper right corner, versos rubber-stamped with a five-digit number. Penciled notation at bottom margin of p. xxx (vol. I). Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box with gilt-stamped leather labels.  (24415)

Provenance: The first work's title-page has “Ex dono Autoris” inscribed in the upper margin in an early hand.

•  Pycroft: ESTC T144698; Allibone 1712. Addenbrooke: ESTC T88427.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pycroft half-title lacking; title-page with annotation as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with light spotting to final leaves of Enquiry and throughout Essay. (20760)

Single-click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 8461 (for first ed.); not in Garrison & Morton. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit scuffed, joints just starting at front foot and back head. Front fly-leaf with student’s inked ownership inscription dated 1768. Some instances of light spotting and age-toning, pages mostly clean. All edges marbled.

Garrison and Morton say of the first edition in English: “Sir Frederick Still considered this work 'the most progressive which had yet been written;' it gave an impetus to research which influenced the future course of paediatrics.”

Translator Murray (1740–91) was a Swedish student of Linnaeus and later a professor of botany and medicine at Göttingen.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Adamus Elias Schmidt, dated 1784.  Early 19th-century signature of a Philadelphia doctor (erased) at top of title-page.

•  G&M 6323.   Contemporary half calf, well worn: leather dry and gone to red with joint leather lost, cords holding, paper of covers worn through to boards in some places. Text with age-toning. Not a pretty copy but complete, and solid for now. Housed in a red cloth clamshell case.  (22256)

•  Sewn; wrappers chipped, front separating near spine; author's name pencilled on front. Ex-historical society copy with stamp on title-page. Some page edges irregular and with short tears.  (650)

physician

Provenance:  Ink signatures of “Mesange de St. Andre,” dated 1784, appear on front free endpaper and at top margin of title-page; gift inscription on front fly-leaf reads “Henri de Mesange St. Andre offr. au regt. de Barrois.” Later from the library of Helen de Guerry Simpson.

•  Pichon 2075; Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft, S3.1.   Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra and with gilt-stamped label; spine chipped at head and foot, joints open. Marbled endpapers. Ribbon placemarker. Edges stained red. Faint waterstain at lower margin of some leaves. Chip at lower outer corner of pp. 145/146. Slight loss of paper at lower edge of pp. 289/290. Ownership markings include a bookplate on the front pastedown and early ink inscriptions on the front free endpaper, front fly-leaf, and in the blank area of the top margin of the title-page.  (24562)

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 1955 (for 1927 ed.).   Publisher's orange buckram-covered boards inoriginal pictorial dust jacket showing a clearly very fortunate family at table; spine very slightly sunned, front upper edge faintly dust-soiled, jacket with spine sunned and back panel moderately soiled, tear (with some resulting creasing) to upper portion of front panel and small nicks to spine extremities. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean.  (30179)

A famous work of medical Western Americana.

Provenance:  Bookplate (late 19th-, early 20th-century) of “H.P. Engle, M.D.”, probably the Iowan of that name.

•  Sabin 76909; Cushing S73; Heirs of Hippocrates 1321; Cordasco 40-1154.   Publisher's sheep: worn, joints open and boards soon to detach. Foxing as usual. Now with a paper dust wrapper, image of the title-page gracing its front, and housed in a red cloth clamshell case with two neat leather spine labels.  (25101)

illustrated with eight steel-engraved plates

Written by a New Hampshire-born poet and educator and published by subscription, this work was originally printed in 1883 as Our Home; Or the Key to a Nobler Life; it appears here in significantly expanded form with contributions from several ministers and one physician. The wide-ranging volume includes the advice to always send your little child to bed happy (“give the dear child a warm good-night kiss as it goes to its pillow,” p. 67), and to spare the rod and develop the child's conscience and sense of honor instead. It also covers the necessity of education and equality of professional opportunity for girls and women, and offers recommendations to smile often in the home, permit only good reading materials, pursue music, provide guidance in maintaining correspondences and friendships, model Christian values and religious observance, encourage fresh air and exercise, avoid alcohol and tobacco, etc.

Binding: Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover with “silver”-stamped decorative frame and red- and “silver”-stamped “Our Home” heart design in center; spine with decorative red and “silver” title. All edges bright red.

•  “Silver” stamping and extremities showing slight rubbing, front cover with a few small, unobtrusive spots of staining. Front hinge (inside) tender from the weight of this hefty work, but holding. Pages clean; a few leaves with small nick to upper edge. A pleasing example of a tenderly appealing portrayal of domestic joys.  (30304)

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1680.   Contemporary stiff vellum, with “MANUAL” in old lettering on spine; binding stained and darkened, lacking ties, and a little sprung. Title-page soiled with square dark area of staining in lower outer corner extending into the text of the title. Waterstaining to early and late sections, and odd spottings variously; paper yet strong. Withal, a good+ copy of a scarce and important early Mexican medical-related item.  (29862)

“Negro Poison” (p. 45), a.k.a. tuberculosis

The final portion of the volume is dedicated to American materia medica, an extensive listing of native plants and how to use them to cure various ailments that offers a good number of entries that may well have had legitimate medicinal value, e.g., bowman's root (“Indian physic”), plantain juice, mountain birch bark, Seneca snakeroot, etc.

Dr. Selman, who seems to have operated on the fringes of the Thomsonian movement, was the son-in-law of Kentucky physician Richard Carter (“commonly called the 'indian doctor,'” p. iv); his background and education are otherwise unclear. Here, he occasionally breaks into verse (!).

•  American Imprints 40126; Byrd & Peckham, Indiana Imprints, 658.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rebacked with compatible leather preserving original spine label, corners rubbed. Front pastedown and free endpaper with early pencilled inscriptions. Pages age-toned, with mild foxing and cockling. A nice copy of an uncommon item.  (30147)

Click the images for enlargements.

Original edition, not a modern reprint.

•  Publisher's oxblood cloth, covers decoratively stamped in black, spine black- and gilt-stamped; corners and spine extremities rubbed, sides with small areas of minor discoloration, spine sunned with paper shelving label at head, a little cocked. Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page and four others. Final blank leaf excised. Clean, sound for use.  (27367)

The volume is illustrated with an additional engraved title-page and eight other steel-engraved plates, as well as several in-text engravings of dramatic moments in soldiers' lives.

•  Sabin 82457.   Publisher's dark red/plum cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, corners and spine extremities moderately rubbed. Ex–social club library; front fly-leaf with inked numerals covered over with paper, rubber-stamps on frontispiece recto, title-page, and several other pages. Paper slightly embrittled; occasional short edge tears. Title-page and five plates with very faintest waterstaining in lower margins, other pages seemingly untouched.  (26273)

how the application of raw cotton helped

No copy located via NUC Pre-1956 and WoldCat locates only the copy at Yale.

•  Medina, Puebla, 1842.   Folded as issued; never bound. Light foxing.  (29988)

•  Richmond, Shaker Literature, I, 236; Western Reserve Historical Society Shaker Collection no. 200.   Original fold visible but pamphlet now housed opened flat, in a mylar sleeve; one corner faintly discolored, one page with a small faint spot.  (27509)

plague’s symptoms are poetically described in all their horrific agony

•  ESTC N11495; Foxon S663; NCBEL, II, 485. On Sprat, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, LIII, 419–23. Uncut copy. Removed from a nonce volume, with sewing mostly gone, now in a Mylar folder. Some age-toning and spotting ranging from mild to moderate.

•  Not in Bitting, not in Cagle.   Publisher's moiré plum-colored cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine and edges worn with hinges (inside) starting. Pages age-toned with occasional smudges; some corners dog-eared and one leaf with ragged edges. Recipe index with several instances of “cider” lined through in pencil and rubber-stamped “ciderette” instead. Lots and lots and lots of information and, in the format, some sense of how it was worked with.  (28522)

•  NSTC 2S40115. On Stewart, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 1169–73.   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and extremely elegant gilt-stamped decorations; joints and hinges with excellent repairs, spine leather with small cracks, top spine compartment showing old shelving notations. Ex–social club library: Front pastedown with old inked numeral and 19th-century bookplate affixed over an older one; front free endpaper with inked call number offsetting to bookplate. No other markings; pages gently age-toned.  (26443)

Click the images for enlargements.

The second edition's “Postscript” promises “additional facts connected with this interesting subject, equally wonderful,” or even “more so.”

William Leete Stone (1792–1844) was a journalist, editor of the “Commercial Advertiser,” advocate of slave emancipation and Greek independence, historian of colonial New York and New England, and first superintendent of public schools in New York City.

Very scarce.

•  NSTC 2S41964; Sabin 92135. See: Dicitonary of American Biography for much on Stone.   Removed from a nonce volume; mildest foxing to first and final leaves with crescent of lost paper to foremargin (only) of one leaf not nearing text. A very good copy.  (11023)

•  Not in Garrison & Morton.   Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; joints and edges mildly rubbed, a few small scuffs to spines. Provenance markings as above; vol. I with a few leaves having small portion of outer margin chewed. Pages age-toned, otherwise almost entirely clean, a few with light spots of foxing. Once virtually required for physicians' working libraries, this is still desirable for significance, illustrations, and general interest.  (29932)

Click the images for enlargements.

Among the public health crises Thomson discusses in this guidebook is an increase inchildbirth mortality rates; he notes that many doctors' techniques and prescriptions endangered the lives of women and infants, and strongly recommends that pregnant women rely on experienced midwives instead of greedy, “ignorant pretenders” (p. 179).

•  American Imprints 14994. Not in Garrison & Morton.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with later paper, hand-inked label; binding moderately rubbed overall, spine head chipped, front joint cracked and back joint starting from foot. One leaf with small hole, not touching text; one leaf with tear from lower margin, extending into text without loss. Foxing, staining, used and fit for more use.  (28458)

•  Sabin 48484.   Contemporary Mexican mottled sheep with gilt spine extra; leather lightly worn at edges and with some scuffing. First and last few leaves with soiling/staining, and a few leaves browned due to the nature of their paper; else, clean with only the odd spot or smudge.  (27521)

There is also some Americana interest when the author discusses in several places the drinking of chocolate.

•  Bitting 117 (second ed.); Cagle 1132 (first ed. of Davini only); Hünersdorff, Coffee, I, 395; Osler, Biblotheca Osleriana, 2428 (first ed.); Vicaire 250 (second ed.); Alden & Landis, European Americana, 727/231.  Contemporary vellum, darkened, with a few pinholes of insect damage and some minor spots of staining. Title-page with inked ownership inscription in Latin, dated 1728. Pages a bit cockled, with edges darkened; most mildly to moderately foxed.

•  Removed from a volume of pamphlets and in later wrappers.

After staying in Cadiz for several months (a sojourn left undetailed here, with a teasingly blank gap of three pages), Walton departed for London aboard the Cross Isle, under Capt. Robert Leake. That passage was more dramatic than the first, involving sightings of Spanish and French ships of war and a collision between the brigantine Betsy of Hull and the Crescent.

Many entries in this journal are dedicated to the weather (including the types and directions of wind encountered) and to record of Walton's dining companions at various points along the way (“Capt. Silvester, onboard the General Washington,” among others). Others mention the commemoration of the birthday of “the late unfortunate Queen of France . . . celebrated with all the Splendor of Cadiz,” the cargo rescued from the unfortunate Betsy (“very valuable, being of Silks & choice Goods of Leghorn”), and a stop at Cork.

Walton's serviceable script is generally decipherable throughout. The paper bears a Britannia watermark, sans motto or initials, resembling but not identical to Britannia examples in Churchill's Watermarks in Paper.

•  Sewn, with pencilled annotation on front wrapper; front wrapper tattered and with an ink-spill along outer edge of front wrapper and on first text page partially obscuring a few words of text. Folded, with short tears starting along some folds; light waterstaining to upper outer corners and on a couple of leaves elsewhere; lower corners bumped. An evocative “read”!  (25689)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Publisher's maroon cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and vignette of an invalid, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to edges and extremities, spine with small area of discoloration at head. Ex–social club library with one of its most attractive bookplates on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, small inked numeral on dedication page, no other library markings. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (27183)

•  NSTC 2W25743.   Removed from a volume. Very good condition. (8451)

The Rev. Alfred Wright (1788–1853) was a missionary andphysician who spent over 30 years among the Choctaw people in Mississippi and Oklahoma. He founded the Wheelock Mission (named for Wright's friend Eleazer Wheelock, Dartmouth College's first president) in 1832, where he was directly involved in developing the Choctaw written language, along with Cyrus Byington and Joseph Dukes; indeed his Choctaw translations were among the first books printed in that language.

•  Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3890; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Choctaw-59; Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 285; W. B. Morrison, “The Choctaw Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 4 (June 1926).   Original cloth-backed light marbled boards, the inner covers and endpapers foxed (an effect of the glue used in the binding) and all leaves a bit puckered (an effect of the sewing); lower corners lightly bumped and small tear to outer margin of B1. A very good, clean copy.  (29478)