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Medicine
Scroll down this page to see three selections from our collection. Researchers interested in our collections should consult Research the page in this website.
Rene DESCARTES (1596-1650) De Homine. Figuris et Latinitate Donatus a Florentio Schuyl. Luduni Batavorum [Leyden] Apud Petrum Leffen & Franciscum Moyardum, 1662.
Published shortly after his death, De Homine established the philosophy of modern physiology based on the suggestion that man be viewed as a machine and part of the natural world.Our copy has the "phoenix rising" title page and the beautiful flap illustration of the heart. It is the first edition.
Leopold AUENBRUGGER (1722-1809) Inventum Novum ex Percussione Thoracis Humani ut Signo Abstrusos Interni Pectoris Morbos Detegendi. Vindobonae [Vienna] J.T. Trattner, 1761.
This seminal work on immediate percussion as a diagnostic tool remained little known until J.N.Corvisart, physician to Napoleon, published a French translation in 1808. Our library owns two copies of the first edition, first issue, one, a tall copy once owned by the H. K. Cushing family and the other from the library of the medical historian, Henry Handerson. In addition to the original work and Corvisart's translation, our collections hold the first (largely ignored) French translation of Rosiere de la Chassagne (1770) and the publication of Maximilian Stoll (1786) of Vienna whose favorable comments on Auenbrugger's research caught the attention of Corvisart.
René Théophile Hyacinthe LAËNNEC (1781-1826) De L'Auscultation Mediate ou Traité du Diagnostic des Maladies des Poumons et du Coeur. Two volumes, Paris, J.A.Brosson & J.S. Claude, 1819.
Laennec invented the stethoscope and made it available through his publisher. With this new tool, the physical diagnosis of diseases was revolutionized. Our mauve paperbound copy is the first edition, first state (without the cancel).
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