2081 - 2468 NATURAL HISTORY, MEDICINE, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, TRANSPORT etc.
- All vols. partly (sl.) waterstained in blank margin, occas. touching plates, mostly in vol. III. Covers sl. rubbed; sl. worn along extremities; vol. II and III letterpiece loose(ning).
= BMN I, p.65; Lindeboom, p.1704; Wellcome IV, p.597 Cf. Garisson/ Morton 389 and Hagelin, Med. Books p.97-101; Norman Libr. II, 1875: "Ruysch perfected the method of anatomical injection, which he used to illustrate the detailed structure of the vascular system and to prepare wonderfully lifelike and durable anatomical specimens. He was the first to demonstrate the occurence of blood vessels in almost all tissues of the human body, thereby destroying the Galenic belief that certain areas of the body had no vascular supply, and the first to show that blood vessels display diverse organ-specific patterns. He also investigated the valves in the lymphatic system, the bronchial arteries and the vascular plexuses of the heart, and was the first to point out the nourishment of the fetus through the umbilical cord. Ruysch's discoveries led him to claim erroneously that tissues consisted solely of vascular networks, and to deny the existence of glandular tissue. Ruysch's skill in preparing anatomical specimens remains unsurpassed even today. He made hundreds of preparations, both of individual organs and entire corpses, and exhibited them in several houses in Amsterdam; this "anatomic cabinet" became a major attraction for foreign visitors. The ten-volume Thesaurus anatomicus catalogues Ruysch's collection, which he sold to Peter the Great in 1717; the story that the collection was destroyed by Russian sailors drinking the embalming fluid is apparently apocryphal."
"However bizarre Ruysch's arrangements may have been and no matter how much they were set up with an eye to the public, he never failed to indicate the scientific importance of his preparations. The skeletons of the allegorical representations are accurately described in detail. His capacity for keen observation and his fabulous skill in injection made him the founder of eighteenth century anatomy. The illustrations are of a very high artistic merit and could almost be regarded as being precursors of surrealist art. Most of the excellent plates were engraved by Cornelis Huyberts, and a few by J. Mulder. Some of the plates are reproduced in M. Bryon, Art Fantastique (Paris, 1961)." (Hagelin). SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XCIX.
- Two owner's entries on htitle; contemp. manuscript "Woordenlijst" on last 5 blanks. Spine sunned.
= Fasbender p.357; not in Bibl. Walleriana and Garrison/ Morton.
Geijl, A. De geschiedenis van het Roonhuysiaansch geheim. Rott., M. Boogaerdt Jun., 1905, XII,238p., woodcut title-vignette, 2 fold. plates, orig. cl.
- Sl. foxed. = Bibl. Walleriana 13387; not in Fasbender.
AND 2 others on obstetrics and gynaecology, i.a. H. TREUB, Leerboek der gynaecologie (Leyden, 1892, 3 vols., 30 plates, orig. unif. gilt cl., orig. slipcase).
- Owner's entry on title in pen and ink; erroneous pagination but complete. Lacks upper part of backstrip (w. title).
= Waller 8959; Norman 1946; Osler 1366.
- Binding worn w. some dam. spots along edges; joints starting.
= First edition of this very rare work in which Stephenson considers that the law of "Attraction of Matter" governs human or animal systems, just as it explains the physical world. Stephenson writes that good health comes from nature's basics of "Aliment, Water, Air, Elementary Fire, Motion and the Passions" and he designed a number of machines to duplicate the efficacious effects of these natural elements on the human body. With two initial leaves containing advertisements for other apparatuses designed by Stephenson and an imprimatur. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XCIX.
- Some foxing. Binding sl. rubbed.
Putzeys, F. and E. l'Hygiène dans la construction des habitations privées. Paris/ Liège, J. Michelet/ E. Decq & M. Nierstrasz, 1885, 2nd ed., XI,(1),412p., 6 fold. lithogr. plates, woodengr. ills., contemp. gilt hmor.
- Plates trifle foxed.
AND 2 others, i.a. F. and E. PUTZEYS, Les installations sanitaires des habitations privées et collectives (Brussels, n.d. (±1900), ills., orig. giltlettered cl. Upper hinge weak).
- Left margin of portrait trimmed to the borderline; occas. sl. foxed and yellowed; old annots. in pen and ink on endpapers.
= Krivatsy 11612; cf. Garrison/ Morton 63: "Sydenham is one of the greatest figures in internal medicine, and has been called the "Father of English Medicine"".
- First five hundred p. (sl.) water/ dampstained in lower inner margin; contemp. owner's annots. on verso of final free endpaper and lower pastedown. Vellum w. sm. stains; remnants of ticket on frontcover.
= Norman Libr. 2081 (on the orig. French ed. (Lausanne, 1761)): "Tissot's treatise on popular medicine is a typical product of the health education movement that grew out of the didactic, humanitarian and selfimproving impulses of the Enlightenment. (...) [it] went through ten French editions in less than six years, was translated into every European language, and won for its author a medal and a pension"; Garrison/ Morton 1597; BMN I, p.389.
- Endpapers yellowed. Spine sl. soiled; upper corners bumped.
= Cf. Garrison/ Morton 1546: "Valsalva (...) is best remembered for his work upon the ear (...) his method of inflating the middle ear (Valsalva's manoeuvre) is still practised"; Wellcome V, p.329; Norman 2126: "The collection is prefaced with Morgagni's "De vita et scriptis Antonii Mariae Valsalvae commentariolum", the first and most important biography of Valsalva".
- Two vols. spine-ends sl. bumped.
- Bookblock sl. frayed; rebacked w. paper; backstrip worn/ sl. dam. = Cf. Goldsmiths 15913.
- Four tiny holes in left blank margin; small brown spot in lower right corner.
= Goldsmiths' 14594; cf. PMM 260: "We owe the introduction of an international metric system to the French Revolution. In 1790 the Académie des Sciences, at the request of Talleyrand, set up a commission to consider the question (...) In 1791 they reported that the fundamental unit of length should be derived from a dimension of the earth: it should be the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the earth's meridian extending between Dunkirk and Barcelona." SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XCIX.
Proclamation du Roi, Concernant les observations & expériences à faire par les Commissaires de l'Académie des Sciences, pour l'exécution de la Loi du 22 août 1790, qui a ordonné l'uniformité des Poids & Mesures. Du 10 Juin 1792, l'an 4.e de la Liberté. Bourges, B. Christo, 1792, 3p., woodcut vignette.
- Contemp. annotation in pen and ink above woodcut vignette in blank margin.
- A few scattered libr. stamps on first free endpaper and title. Paper over covers partly worn off; top of spine chipped.
= Poggendorff I, p.91; Bierens de Haan 2162; Nissen ZBI, 202; DSB I, p.410ff: "(...) he is especially noted for his popularization of the use of the microscope and for his contribution to the study of chrystals. (...) The first edition of The microscope made easy appeared in 1742; it ran to five editions in Baker's lifetime and was translated into several foreign languages. (...) Henry Baker was in many respects a typical natural philosopher of the eighteenth century. His interest ranged widely, and his skills were equally various: he was by no means dedicated to one branch of study, nor did he do research in modern sense. Yet he deserved the title "a philosopher in little things"; and he had the rare gift of communicating his knowledge of, and above all his enthusiasm for, the microscope to others. (...) He regarded the microscope with reverence, as a means to the deeper appreciation of the wonders of God's world."
- Partly waterstained. Dam. at top of spine; paper over boards chafed.
= Poggendorff I, p.91; Bierens de Haan 2163; DSB I, p.410ff: "(...) he is especially noted for his popularization of the use of the microscope and for his contribution to the study of chrystals. (...) The first edition of The microscope made easy appeared in 1742; it ran to five editions in Baker's lifetime and was translated into several foreign languages. (...) Henry Baker was in many respects a typical natural philosopher of the eighteenth century. His interest ranged widely, and his skills were equally various: he was by no means dedicated to one branch of study, nor did he do research in modern sense. Yet he deserved the title "a philosopher in little things"; and he had the rare gift of communicating his knowledge of, and above all his enthusiasm for, the microscope to others. (...) He regarded the microscope with reverence, as a means to the deeper appreciation of the wonders of God's world."
- Occas. (sl.) foxed (plates overall fine); most lvs. waterstained in lower outer blank corner. Joints splitting; frontcover loosening; covers sl. worn.
= Bierens de Haan 2163; cf. Poggendorff I, p.91 (ed. London 1764); DSB I, p.410ff: "(...) he is especially noted for his popularization of the use of the microscope and for his contribution to the study of crystals. (...) The first edition of The microscope made easy appeared in 1742; it ran to five editions in Baker's lifetime and was translated into several foreign languages. (...) Henry Baker was in many respects a typical natural philosopher of the eighteenth century. His interest ranged widely, and his skills were equally various: he was by no means dedicated to one branch of study, nor did he do research in modern sense. Yet he deserved the title "a philosopher in little things"; and he had the rare gift of communicating his knowledge of, and above all his enthusiasm for, the microscope to others. (...) He regarded the microscope with reverence, as a means to the deeper appreciation of the wonders of God's world."
- Bookplate on upper pastedown; early 20th cent. owner's entry on first free endpaper; sm. blank section cut from title-p.; plates sl. fingersoiled in lower outer corner and occas. sl. frayed in outer margin; all plates (except frontisp. and portrait) professionally reattached w. new stubs. Binding sl. rubbed along extremities.
= Nissen, BBI 1156. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE C.
- Number written in felt-tip pen on first free endpaper. Sm. library ticket at foot of spine.
= First edition of Milne's controversial work " in which he introduced a new deductive system of theoretical physics which came to be called kinematic relativity. He introduced the useful term "cosmological principle" to signify that observers associated with galaxies in his model and in many others, including those based on general relativity, would see similar "world pictures". Milne went on to derive from his model many properties analogous to the laws of dynamics, gravitation, and electromagnetic theory. These developments of his theory were not generally accepted, and it is now thought that the most important effect of his work was that it led to fresh attempts to analyze the concepts of time and space-time." (DSB). DSB IX, p.404-406. The International Series in Monographs on Physics.
- Text lvs. foxed. Lacks backstrip; covers loose and rubbed/ worn along edges. = Roller-G. II, 59.