Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2018 Issue

Historic Medical Books and Instruments from James Tait Goodrich

Primarily medical works.

Primarily medical works.

James Tait Goodrich Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts has issued their Catalogue Y-79, featuring the History of Medicine and Science, Pre-Columbian Artifacts, Medical Instruments and Antiques. Offered are just over 500 items, and the great majority are books describing medicine and medical advances over the past several centuries. Since this is a site about collectible books and paper, you will need to get a copy of the catalogue itself to find out more about the Congo baboon skull in a weaved basket, or the walrus penis bone that was used as a club. Instead, we will present a few examples of the printed material to be found in this catalogue.

 

Speaking of skulls, Armand de Quatrefages and Ernest Hamy conducted an extensive study of them, publishing their theories and numerous illustrations on 100 lithograph plates in 1882 in Crania Ethnica Les Cranes Des Races Humaines. Hamy was a doctor, but joined his mentor, Quatrefages, in a career devoted to anthropology, with a focus on comparative cranial anatomy. They studied ancient and recent skulls, and helped identify Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal men. However, some of their racial theories based on skull shape proved controversial and have since been discarded. Item 436. Priced at $795.

 

Sometimes science requires us to go to great lengths, even into rather ghoulish behavior. It's all for science. Item 26 is Essai Theorique et Experimental sur Le Galvanisme... by Jean (Giovanni) Aldini, published in 1804. Aldini was the nephew of the noted scientist, Luigi Galvani. Galvani made important discoveries concerning the effect of electricity on the muscles of animals. It is known as "Galvanism." Galvani didn't get everything right, but he devised the experiment you probably undertook in high school biology where an electric current is applied to the legs of a dead frog and it makes the frog's legs kick. Well, Aldini did some of the same sorts of experiments, except he did them on dead humans. Aldani visited England where he performed his demonstrations on the executed body of a criminal. Goodrich informs us he also used to hang around French guillotines to collect decapitated heads for his experiments. He succeeded in getting the body parts to twitch as if they were still alive. Aldini also experimented with running electric currents from ear to ear, through the brain, of mentally ill patients. It was the first attempts at electroshock treatment, though it does not appear it produced much more than pain. $2,500.

 

Goodrich notes that this article introduced "perhaps the greatest single medical innovation of the 20th century" to the world. I think that may be an understatement as it is hard to think of anything ever of more significance than this one in terms of curing illness. It announces the discovery of the first antibiotic and I can't even imagine how many millions of people have been saved by these since then. Item 197 is On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium with Special Reference to Their Use in the Isolation of B. Influenza, by Alexander Fleming. It appears in a 1929 issue of the British Journal of Experimental Biology. Fleming actually stumbled onto his monumental discovery. He was looking for a more powerful antiseptic, which he was testing on a culture of staphylococci. However, his environment was not sterile, and some mold came through the window and settled on his culture. Fleming noted that the bacteria was destroyed by the mold. He had discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic. Fleming did not know how to produce the substance in sufficient quantities to be of much practical value, but the urgent need for such a substance in the war a decade later led to intense research that made large scale production possible. $6,750.

 

Next we have "an American surgical classic." Joseph Pancoast's name was practically synonymous with surgery in 19th century America, particularly in the field of plastic surgery. A physician himself, Pancoast spent most of his career as a department chairman at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This is his most notable work, A Treatise on Operative Surgery... published in 1844. It went through three editions (this is the first), and is noted for not only its writing but the 486 clear illustrations it provides. They were so good that in some copies, religious purists removed the two plates depicting female genitalia. The book is divided into four sections, covering elementary and minor operations, general operations, special operations, and plastic and subcutaneous operations. Item 410. $1,675.

 

Kenelm Digby was a man who dabbled in all sorts of fields. At one time he was a privateer, but then became a diplomat, part of the court, philosopher, Catholic apologist (not always the best career in 17th century England). He had no medical training, but that did not stop him from publishing this work – A Late Discourse Made in a Solemne Assembly of Nobles and Learned Men at Montpellier in France, by Sir Kenelme Digby, &c. Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy, a second edition from 1658. The powder of sympathy was vitriol (copper sulfate) that had been dissolved in water and recrystalized in the sun. He applied this to the bloody bandage of his secretary who suffered from gangrene. The wound was miraculously healed. This healing was truly miraculous since your assumption, that the the bandage to which the substance was applied was then placed on the wound, is incorrect. In sympathetic medicine, the cure is placed on some related object or cause of the illness, in this case the bandage, but not to the wound itself. Digby was no scientist, but then again, medical science was still quite primitive at the time. Item 168. $795.

 

James Tait Goodrich Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts may be reached at 845-359-0242 or James.Goodrich@Einstein.yu.edu.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Francesca Woodman's Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981. Untrimmed publisher's proof sheets. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Taschen Collector's Edition. Annie Leibovitz, limited edition, 2014. £1,000-1,500
  • Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.

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