Item 45 is a 1721 medical polemic from Francisco Suarez de Ribera. This book refers to syphilis, and is a defense of the "cure" of that day - mercury - against an anonymous attack published a year earlier. Suarez was a doctor who believed mercury was effective against the dreaded disease that was believed to have been a "gift" from natives of the New World (fair enough, considering what natives of the Old World brought them). Mercury causes pronounced salivation, which at the time was believed to remove whatever was causing the disease from the body. As we know now, Suarez was wrong, and it only served to poison the patient and lead to other dreaded symptoms and death. Unfortunately, penicillin was still a couple of centuries away at this time. Suarez's book is entitled Arcanismo Anti-Galico, o Margarita Mercurial... £295 (US $378).

Here is an interesting prevention for a bad practice that is no longer a problem: Observations on the Present Condition of the Current Coin of the Kingdom. With some Account of the several Ways of Diminishing the Coin...and the Methods made use of to prevent those Evils... The method of "diminishing" those coins was a process known as "clipping," whereby some of the metal was shaved from the edges. When coins are made of gold, rather than some cheap metal as most are today, even small amounts shaved from the edges can add up to real money. Peter Vallavine's 1742 work provides advice to the Royal Mint on how to prevent this practice. £275 (US $353).

You may reach Leo Cadogan Rare Books at +44 (0) 20 7607 3190 or leo@leocadogan.com. The website is found at www.leocadogan.com.