ca. 1862. Three parts in one volume, continuously paginated, 12mo; pp. 32, with 16 small wood-engraved illustrations; pp. [ii] part title, 33 - 62, with 12 small wood engravings numbered 17 - 32; pp. [ii] part title, 63 - 90, with 10 wood engravings numbered 33 - 42; lightly foxed throughout, with very small dink affecting upper margins at gutter; rebound in modern green boards. Uncommon later edition of this appealing educational work on human biology and physiology for children. According to COPAC, the date of the first edition appears uncertain, though we believe that it was first originally published anonymously in 1850 under the variant title Every-day wonders; or, facts in physiology which all should know, one of a number of works written anonymously by Anne Bullar (1813-1856) and published by John van Voorst. An 1858 publisher’s advertisement for Voorst ascribes this to be from her pen, together with Domestic Scenes in Greenland and Iceland (1844), England before the Norman Conquest (1851), and Sunday Book for the Young (1855) - none of which are ascribed to her by COPAC.
This presumed later edition, is now fully ascribed to her. It is our understanding that it was originally issued in three separate parts, each in their own printed wrappers, and issued under the banner of the ‘Ladies Sanitary Association’ as part of their series of popular tracts on health. At some point it appears to have been bound together by a previous owner, and then more recently bound in modern boards. The three parts deal in turn with: 1. Breathing, blood, digestion, food, and nerves; 2. Bones, the muscles, and skin; and 3. The teeth, the eye, the ear, feeling, tasting, smelling.