26 woodcut illus. Seven vols. in one. Oblong 8vo, orig. wrappers (a bit rubbed), printed title labels on upper cover, new stitching. Osaka: 1760.

Second edition (1st ed.: Osaka, 1686) of this uncommon and early surgical work (“surgical” is used here in its widest sense); WorldCat locates only one copy of our edition (NLM). Jinbo (active 1688), has provided a number of case histories, divided by the sections of the body (chest and abdomen, extremities, and the head). There are substantial sections on burns, skin diseases, syphilitic symptoms, emergency medicine (frozen bodies, resuscitation from drowning), antidotes for food poisoning, treatment for occupational... More

A richly illustrated manuscript, important and influential in the history of medicine and surgery in Japan, revealing the introduction of European medical knowledge in Japan, through Ambroise Paré’s Chirurgie, Scultetus’s Armamentarium Chirurgicum, and Spigelius’s Opera. This is a luxury copy (only one similar set survives, at Nagasaki), in oblong folio format, and written and finely illustrated on fine thick mulberry paper. Our manuscript contains 134 exquisitely drawn and richly hand-colored illustrations.

Chinzan (or Eikyu) Narabayashi (1648-1711), belonged to a family of professional interpreters in Nagasaki and became proficient in the Dutch language. He had contact with several Dutch... 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, all finely hand-colored, depict ophthalmological instruments and a series of surgical procedures. 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. More

Seven full-page woodcuts & a few smaller text illus. 49 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. title label on upper cover with title in manuscript, modern stitching. Wakayama: Kasedaya Hiemon et al., 1818.

First edition of Takebe’s translation and commentary of Lorenz Heister’s 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 of his own... More