“The Best Edition of This Chemically Important Work”
A Medical Commentary on Fixed Air: particularly, I. On the Different Methods of Procuring and Administering Fixed Air. II. On its Sensible Effects in Health, taken internally. III. On its Effects in Diseases of the Putrid Class. IV. On the Putrefaction, the Putrid Effluvium, and the Means of Correcting the Putrid Effluvium. V. On the Effects of Fixed Air, on the Putrefactive Process… VI. On the Use of Fixed Air in Cachexies and Phagedenic Ulcers. VII. In some Diseases of the Stomach. VIII. In the Stone and Gravel. IX. On the Disposition to the Stone in the Cyder Counties, compared with some Other Parts of England. X. On the Noxious Effects of Fixed Air… Third Edition. With an Appendix on the Efficacy of the Solution of Fixed Alkaline Salts Saturated with Fixible Air, in the Stone and Gravel. With Large Additions and Several New Cases. By William Falconer.
1787. 4 p.l., 172; 126 pp. 8vo, cont. tree calf (upper joint cracked but strong), flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: T. Cadell, 1787.
“The best edition of this chemically important work (first, 1779; second, 1785), containing descriptions of many experiments. Falconer’s Appendix appears in its second edition: the first was published as a separate book and was reissued separately. There are numerous references to contemporary chemists (e.g., Brownrigg, Cavendish, Glass, Henry, Macbride, and Priestley)…
“Dobson (d. 1784), F.R.S., graduated at Edinburgh and assisted William Cullen in his experiments on the cold produced by evaporation. He successfully treated urinary concretions and abscess of the lungs with carbon dioxide and proved that the sweet taste of diabetic urine was due to glucose, and thus discovered hyperglycaemia [see Garrison-Morton 3928]…On page vii Falconer states that his Appendix has been ‘considerably enlarged’ in this edition.”–Neville, I, p. 373.
Very nice copy with Christie’s facsimile bookplate of Matthew Boulton (sold London, December 1986). Boulton (1728–1809), manufacturer and entrepreneur, was a partner of James Watt in the development of the steam engine.
❧Cole 375. Duveen, pp. 175-76 (describing the first edition)–”An interesting work.” Partington, III, p. 689.
Price: $1,250.00
Item ID: 10693
