Nouvelles Observations microscopiques, avec des découvertes intéressantes sur la Composition & la Décomposition des Corps...
Eight folding engraved plates. xviii, 524, [4], 29 pp. Small 8vo, cont. polished calf, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: L.E. Ganeau, 1750.
First edition, a translation by Louis Anne Lavirotte, of Needham’s Account of some New Microscopical Discoveries (1745) and his Observations upon the General Composition and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances (1749). This edition contains substantial additions by Needham which appear here for the first time, including his “forward-looking theory of reproduction”–D.S.B., X, p. 9.
The first English Catholic priest to be elected to the Royal Society of London, Needham (1713-81), developed a theory... More