Trans. by Shimamura Teiho 島村鼎甫. Four full-page illus. of surgical instruments. 38.5; 67.5 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, orig. printed title-slips on upper covers, new stitching. Edo: Suharaya Ihachi 須原屋伊八, 1866.

First edition in Japanese of this translation of the tenth chapter, on wounds and contusions, from Gross’s highly important A System of Surgery (1st ed.: Philadelphia: 1859). Our edition was translated from the 1863 edition in Dutch. This was the first translation of any of Gross’s writings into Japanese; many of his books were fully translated later, in the 1870s.

Fine set and... More

One finely hand-colored port. of the author & many full-page woodcuts (mostly hand-colored, one extending to three pages). 14 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title slips, new stitching. [Mito]: Jijuntei zo 自準亭藏, 1864 (verso of title); (from colophon in final vol.): Edo, Kyoto, & Osaka, Postscript in 14th vol. dated 1867.

First edition. Honma (1804-72), a member of a distinguished family of physicians, studied under Phillip Franz von Siebold, who had brought many printed Western works on medicine and surgery to Japan. Honma also learned anesthesia from Seishu Hanaoka, the first Japanese physician to master this specialty. In Nagasaki... More

22 finely hand-colored full-page woodcuts. 35; 39, 30 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (some marginal worming in Vol. III), orig. block printed title label on each upper cover, new stitching. Tokyo: 1872.

First edition in Japanese of this collection of translations from a variety of Western ophthalmological texts. NLM suggests the author was Paul Silex (1858-1929), but this is clearly impossible. The present work is the earliest work published in Japan on Western techniques in ophthalmology, preceding the Ika zensho ganka-hen of 1879 (see Mestler, A Galaxy of Old Japanese Medical Books, IV, p. 336.

The attractive plates... More

48 pages. 8vo, later brown half morocco, orig. upper printed wrapper bound-in. Boston: W.B. Little, 1848.

First American edition. The important appendix, first printed in this edition, starts with a long letter by J.C. Warren on the chemical nature and synthesis of chloroform, and is followed by several letters by C.T. Jackson and other Boston surgeons contrasting chloroform with ether. Their reception of chloroform was at first enthusiastic.

Presentation copy from the publisher, with a (cropped) inscription at the top of the wrapper.

❧ Fulton & Stanton VI More

Seven full-page woodcuts & a few smaller text illus. 49 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title label on upper cover, modern stitching. Wakayama 若山: Kasedaya Hiemon 綛田屋丕右衞門 et al., 1818.

First edition of Takebe’s translation of and commentary on Lorenz Heister’s important writings on infections and their treatment. Heister (1683-1758), wrote one of the best and most complete works on surgery of the 18th century. Translated into Japanese, it was enormously successful, introducing Western methods to many Japanese surgeons.

Takebe (1782-1842), a samurai, has included here all of Heister’s writings on infections and has provided a number... More

Three folding engraved plates & one folding printed table. x, [11]-240 pp. 8vo, cont. vellum over boards (binding a little soiled & stained). Paris: F.A. Didot, 1775.

First edition. Troja (1747-1827), studied medicine at Naples and in 1774 he went to Paris where he began the research on the formation of bone tissue and bone generation which made him famous. Although Réaumur and Trembley had earlier demonstrated the regrowth of limbs in crustacea and polyps, no one before had considered the possibility of regrowth of bones.

“Troja demonstrated that if a foreign body is introduced into the marrow cavity of... More