1885. Small 12mo, pp. 32; with small portrait of Dr Williams on title page with a number of small woodcut illustrations; together with printed envelope, folding order form, and stamped addressed envelope to a customer; slightly foxed; The medicated pads were apparently discovered in Brazil by Professor V. G Williams of New York, the formulas for which passed into the hands of his son Percy G Williams in 1879. ‘Our pads are not only a cushion of medicine, each one made expressly to act upon the different organs, over which they are worn, but they contain in addition to this a simple but effective miniature electro-galvanic battery. This is acted upon by the drugs in the pad, and thus for the first time in the history of medicine a constant mild flow of electricity is constantly kept up without friction or the application of acids’ (p. 6). Illustrated are appliances for the chest, the liver and stomach, the kidney’s, a ladies pad or uterine appliance, and a ‘suspensory appliance ... a positive and unfailing cure for seminal weakness’.

1879. 8vo, pp [4] pamphlet printed in red, black and gilt, 255 x 168mm, together with accompanying, seemingly hand-written though possibly facsimile, two-sided letter on headed paper 285 x 216mm, and with original stamped envelope 90 x 155mm; pamphlet and letter with evidence of previous horizontal and vertical folds, envelope a little soiled and stained. A most striking pamphlet, partially printed in gilt, promoting one of a number of electro-galvanic appliances offered by this noted firm. First patented in the US in 1853 by the Viennese Doctor, Isaac Lewis Pulvermacher, (though previously demonstrated in both London and Edinburgh), the "electric belt" was a battery-powered flexible series of linked cells worn wrapped around parts of the body as a form of the new medical treatment called "electrotherapy". It became particularly popular with quack practitioners, though received considerable criticism from the medical establishment, though some respectable physicians (whose names were sometimes used in Company ads without permission) had to admit that the Belt had some scientific usefulness. The Chain battery here advertised was yet another device, which could be used in conjunction with the belt and a suspensory appliance for the specific treatment of ‘impotence’. The various bands, belts and battery sets were advertised for cases of nervous debility, lost energy, spermatorrhoea, female complaints, epilepsy, paralysis, kidney disease and ‘other chronic disorders’.
We believe the accompanying letter to be hand-written - though there is a hint of a facsimile about it and it does feel rather like a form letter - supported by the stamped note on the rear that ‘Owing to the vast extent of our business and the necessity for a routine of departments, all Letters of Advice are dictated by our Examining Electrician to his associates, and then referred to our mailing department, there to be addressed and dispatched by our Corresponding Secretary’. See Atwater 2899-2902.

1900. Collection of some 200 tightly rolled documents of varying sizes, many on draft linen, and also including blue-prints, and drawings on translucent draft paper, a number partially coloured; all exhibiting signs of use and wear, with some considerable dust-soiling to some edges, the majority creased and many with quite considerable wear to extremities - with some loss in a few places; nevertheless a striking and unusual collection. A fascinating collection, comprising technical drawings, plans and blueprints issued by a number of leading engineering firms, and relating to both recent constructions, and presumably to the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of various buildings and lock systems along the Manchester Ship Canal. Spanning a period between 1914 and 1949, the collection focuses in particular upon Eastham Locks and Gates, Ellesmere Port, Stanlow Oil Docks, Barton Lock and Salford Docks, and provides an unusual and visual insight into the workings of this iconic feat of Victorian engineering.
The moves which led to the formation of the Manchester Ship Canal Company and to the construction of the canal itself began to take practical shape in 1882, at a time when the commercial supremacy of Manchester appeared to be declining. It was thought that this decline was due in large part to the heavy cost of transit within the region, which led to the agitation for the building of a ship canal. The proposal encountered opposition from the railways and from powerful corporate interests in Liverpool and it was 1887 before work could begin. The task occupied six years and might never have been completed had not the city fathers come to the financial rescue of the promoters, lending them £3 millions in 1891 and a further £2 millions in 1893. The canal was opened to traffic in 1894, and was the largest river navigation canal in the world, and enabled the newly created Port of Manchester to become Britain’s third busiest port despite the city being 40 miles inland, and was to play a vital role in the economic success of the city during the twentieth century.
Of particular interest, the collection includes a number of drawings and plans done by the noted engineering firm of Henry Simon Ltd of Cheadle Heath. The entrepreneur and philanthropist Henry Simon was born in Germany, before moving to Manchester in 1860. A noted engineer, his fame rests in having pioneered an innovative flour milling process, and by 1892 his company had built 400 mills in various countries. Though he died in 1899 by that time the firm was the largest flour mill engineering business in the world. The various plans found here refer to the firms construction in 1915 of the famous large Grain Elevator Number 2, and which upon completion was capable of storing 40,000 tons of grain. Bordered on one side by an offshoot of the Manchester Ship Canal - the Bridgewater Canal, and an extensive railway system on the other, the huge 168ft high grain elevator became a notable landmark. Thus we have plans for ‘Sweep Ups and Dust Exhaust B & C on elevators’, ‘Arrangement of Dust Exhaust, Motor Ventilating plants and basement, South End (and North End)’, to name but a couple. Related to the grain elevator, another plan shows the ‘Arrangement of Fan Drives for Exhaust & Weigher Hoppers’ at Ellesmere Port (by Henry Simon, 1928) - the weigher being a method of automatically controlling the filling and emptying of produce in silos and hoppers.
Focused almost entirely upon mechanical engineering, the collection highlights the internal design and workings of buildings at various key locations along the route. The Stanlow Oil Dock was opened in 1922, and various plans included in the collection relate to this - including one showing the ‘Arrangement of Pipes and Shafts at South Shaft’, with another highlighting a proposed sub-station there. Plans for the fenders for the lower gates, and giving details of the gate platforms and brackets are found referring to Barton Lock. Another illustrates a coal converter at Ellesmere Port.
Whilst inevitable that local engineering firms would have a close connection with the canal, the collection also reveals that firms from further afield provided vital technical assistance, including Hackbridge Electric Construction Co. Ltd of Walton-on-Thames, and Clarke, Chapman & Co. Ltd, Electrical Engineers from Gateshead-on-Tyne. Other firms of note include the British Oil Storage Company, the Vaughan Crane Co. Ltd (providing plans and blueprints for a 3/4 Ton Spur Geared Trans Block), and Sir W. H. Bailey & Co., Ltd. A number also have the stamp of the Engineering Office. Whether this refers to a Ship Canal Head Office we are unsure, and indeed we are uncertain as to where this collection originally hails from, other than that we believed it was sold at Tennants Auctioneers several years ago, and subsequently purchased in Haydock. Though obviously including plans for as yet constructed buildings, our assumption is that these technical drawings have been amassed to assist with the general maintenance and upkeep of the many industrialized and mechanized buildings that played such an integral role in the life and success of the canal. A striking and highly visual insight into the building, improvement and maintenance of this iconic feat of Victorian engineering.

[November 1793]. Small folio, 320 x 210mm, ff. [4]; written in neat calligraphy in brown ink; paper a little dust-soiled with some light spotting and browning, with evidence of previous horizontal folds; loosely ‘stitched’ together with two blue silk ties at head and tail, with evidence of previous stab marks, spine of outer cover split but holding; A beautifully handwritten ‘Arrêté’ issued by the Health Council of Military Hospitals, in the early days of the ‘Reign of Terror’, and bearing the signatures of a number of leading French surgeons and physicians of the day, notably Antoine Parmentier (1737-1813), Antoine Dubois (1756-1837), Guillaume Daignan (1732-1812) and Nicolas Herteloup (1750-1812).
The table, divided into seventeen categories, stipulates a number of infirmities and conditions which would prevent admission to military service, and provides a glimpse at the mindset of the tough and uncompromising new civil regime . "Le service militaire exige le libre exercice de tous les organes. Le soldat qui en a quelqu'un de vicié peine, la peine produit la douleur, la douleur les maladies, les maladies affligent l'humanité, affaiblissent les Armées, ruinent le Trésor public. Une administration civique doit obvier à ces inconvénients." A fascinating document of great historical interest.

1879. Small folio, pp. 12, [2]; with two chromolithograph plates, comprising seven figures; text and plates a little foxed and spotted; First edition of this uncommon and attractively illustrated treatise on deformations of the pelvis by the obstetrician and gynaecologist Heinrich Fritsch, at the time of writing Extraordinary Professor at Halle University (1844-1915). Some of his early training had been spent at the obstetrical clinic of Robert Michel von Olshausen (1835-1915), to whom he dedicates the present work. He subsequently became a full professor and director of the obstetrical clinic in Breslau in 1883, later taking up a position in Bonn. Fritsch was an excellent physician and operator whose work concerns all fields of obstetrics and gynaecology. As a highly regarded clinical teacher he is credited with having educated a generation of acclaimed obstetricians and gynaecologists, including Hermann Johannes Pfannenstiel (1862-1909), Erwin Kehrer (born 1874), and Walter Stoeckel (1871-1961). In 1894 he provided an early description of "Asherman's syndrome", and his name is associated with "Fritsch's manipulation", an obstetric compression technique used for controlling bleeding. In 1877, with Hermann Fehling (1847-1925), he founded the gynaecological journal Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie.
In the present treatise, Fritsch makes frequent reference to the work of Carl Litzmann, who also wrote a number of works on the female pelvis and its anomalies, notably Die formen des beckens in 1861. OCLC locates one copy at Chicago only.

(1801). 12mo, pp. [viii] including first blank, 192, [2] errata and blank; errata leaf laid down with repair at lower gutter (no loss of text), title-page a little browned with minor abrasion causing loss of a couple of letters, text lightly browned; First edition of this thoughtful essay on tombs and the influence of funeral institutions over manners and morals, providing a comparative study of funeral rites and ceremonies, including discussion of China, Canada, Tahiti and Guyana.
Girard’s work was one of a number compositions entered for a competition set by the L’Institut National. As with so many areas of public life in the aftermath of the Revolution, there was a growing widespread concern over a lack of respect for the dead and their burial, the preceding decade having borne witness to a prevalence of what were considered by many to be indecent and at times almost inhumane modes of interment. Girard therefore presents his ideas and plan for ‘d’Institutions funèbres simple et moral, et j'y mêlai toutes les idées consolantes qui peuvent adoucir la dernière et douloureuse séparation’ (p. 4), in which he looks at such issues as ‘proclamation des décès, l’inscription sur les tables funéraires et l’eloge des morts’. OCLC locates copies at UCLA, Princeton, Harvard, Louisiana State and NYPL.

1955. 8vo, pp. xiv, 269, [5] blank; clean and crisp; First edition of this classic text on nuclear shell structure and which explained the stability of specific atomic nuclei. ‘The authors of this monograph shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for the nuclear shell model of atomic nuclei. In addition to theoretical work, the book includes a large body of experimental data interpreted with the aid of the shell model. As the second author admitted in a letter, Mayer wrote most of the book’ (Grolier). Mayer was only the second woman, after Marie Curie, to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics. Her co-author J. Hans D Jenson was a Professor of Physics at the University of Heidelberg.
‘The nuclear shell model was a key discovery for the development of nuclear physics. It explained facts, such as the abundance of specific isotopes of elements that were beyond the predictive capability of the liquid drop model of nuclei, which treated the particles - protons and neutrons - of atomic nuclei as one ensemble and had been adequate for a basic explanation of fundamental nuclear processes such as fission’ (Grolier).
Maria Gertrud Käte Goeppert (1906-1972) grew up in Göttingen, where her father had an academic appointment. ‘For a woman at that time, it is noteworthy that she gained entry to Göttingen University; her original plan had been to study mathematics, but she quickly switched to physics. Her talent was quickly recognized and she became associated with some of Göttingen’s most famous research physicists. Her doctoral thesis of 1930 presented a theory of a phenomenon only observed later. In 1927 the Goeppert household was upset by the death of Maria’s father, and her mother took in students as lodgers. One of those students was an American, Joseph Mayer, and in 1930 Maria and Joseph were married and moved to the United States. An academic appointment for her in Germany would have been very difficult to obtain, but as she discovered, an academic position in the United States was not much easier to obtain, as nepotism rules were common. As well ... no academic institution in the United States had yet shown an interest in her speciality, the application of quantum mechancs to problems in physics and chemistry’ (ibid). ‘Though Goeppert-Mayer had an outstanding background in quantum mechanics and was to become a Nobel laureate in physics, upon her arrival in the United States … she was treated not as a brilliant academic, but as “an academic wife, whose husband has a fairly secure position”’ (Rayner-Carter). Grolier, Extraordinary Women, pp. 65-68; Rayner-Carter p. 233.

1971. 8vo, pp. 256; First edition of this important and early work by the noted primatologist and conservationist, Jane Goodall. ‘…of all living creatures today only man, with his superior brain, superior intellect, overshadows the chimpanzee. Only man casts his shadow of doom over the freedom of the chimpanzee in the forests with his guns and his spreading settlements and cultivation.’ (p.3) A unique blend of formal science and informal psychology, Goodall writes with great personality and humour, as she explores the sociological and philosophical relationship between man and chimps. Both an extremely important piece of scientific research and a fascinating tale, Goodall relates her time in Gombe from 1960 to 1970. Filled with stunning photography, the book provides significant scientific observation, including the revolutionary discovery of chimpanzee tool use.
In 1977, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which supports projects ranging from agroforestry to micro-lending to primate research. Roots and Shoots, a program the institute started in 1991, focuses on environmental education, encouraging young people around the world to make sustainable choices. Today, as she has for decades, Goodall travels some 300 days a year, speaking as an advocate for the environment and as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Her message, though one of warning that humanity and the planet on which we depend are at a crossroads, is also flecked with hope that all is not lost.

1933. 8vo, pp. xx, 332; with 22 inserted plates, of which 20 are half-tone or x-ray illustrations, with two further diagrammatic plates (one in red and black), further copious half-tone illustrations and diagrams set within the text, totalling 118 illustrations; some occasional light soiling and marking, half-title and verso of final leaf a little browned; gutters slightly exposed in a couple of places; six pages of loosely inserted pencil notes with illustrations in a contemporary hand; evidence of previous book-label on front free endpaper with signs of abrasion; Fifth, enlarged edition, of a seemingly less well-known but important and popular contribution to the corpus of literature devoted to medical gymnastics and massage, and first published in 1917. As Goodall-Copestake notes in her preface ‘this book was first compiled during the Great War. The writer’s object then was to place a simple text-book in the hands of those qualifying themselves in the science and art of massage, in order that they might take their part in the relief of suffering at that time. Since then the progress of physical medicine in all its branches has gone forward every year, and it is necessary for the student to quality himself and herself more fully, the requirements of examiners being much greater than they were formerly’ (p. vii).
The work contains extensive chapters on the history of massage; tips for beginners wishing to be a ‘medical gymnast’ (i.e. massage therapist); details of massage manipulations and their physiological effects on the skin, muscles, circulation, lymph flow, nervous system, and metabolism; practical massage on all parts of the body from head to toe and heart to colon; and the use of massage for the re-education of muscles. The chapters on kinesiology, gymnastics, movement and exercises are generally based up on Pehr Henrik Ling’s famous Swedish system of gymnastics. Also included is a chapter on curvatures of the spine which are matched with dedicated exercise programmes which, with their emphasis on breathing and movement, are reminiscent of therapies used today, as well as the contemporaneous developments in schools of exercise such as yoga and Pilates.
The second part deals with ‘surgical conditions treated by massage and movements’ such as inflammation and wound healing, fractures, dislocations and deformities of the musculo-skeletal structures. The third part is dedicated to ‘medical conditions’ and their treatment with massage, from alimentary problems, diabetes and obesity, respiratory, neurological and circulatory diseases, to headaches, insomnia, and pregnancy. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, X-rays, half-tone illustrations and diagrams. Many of the pathological conditions shown in the images, such as rickets and scoliosis, are interesting from both a historical and medical point of view.
The first edition of The Theory and Practice of Massage and Medical Gymnastics was well reviewed in the Glasgow Medical Journal (No 89, 1918, p. 310) and the British Medical Journal (No 1, 1918, p. 430): ‘a sound and comprehensive handbook’, which ‘– as far as it is possible to do so in a book – also introduces the nurse and massage-pupil to the rudimentary knowledge of those conditions in the treatment of which she may be required to help the physician or surgeon’. A series of further editions followed (1919, 1920, 1926, and this in 1933), each with more illustrations and additions: the second edition added a chapter on the ‘after-treatment of war injuries’ (1919, p. vii), while the preface to this fifth edition notes that it has been ‘enlarged by the addition of notes on Kinesiology and also a fuller description of Remedial Exercises’ as taught by Dr Johan Arvedson, with additional illustrations for these exercises as well as depiction's’ of deformities. It is interesting to note that the chapter on rheumatic conditions was also rewritten for this edition, as Goodall-Copestake is known for one of the earliest detailed accounts of physical therapy in the treatment of rheumatism. A sixth edition was published in 1942, when the focus of attention for practitioners was once again those wounded in battle, and it contains a new chapter on war injuries including a section on the treatment of amputation stumps.
Beatrice Mary Goodall-Copestake (1877 - ?) was the other of ‘Massage as a Career for Women’ (1919) and was named an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in 1949.

1840. 8vo, pp. ii, 343, [i], errata; with 32 lithographs on 31 leaves, two folding; faint dampstain affecting the upper margins of each of the plates, though predominantly unobtrusive and never touching image; text clean and crisp; with library stamps on recto and verso of title-page, and library label on front paste down; First edition of this attractively illustrated travel account of the journey made by Dr. Joseph Guislain in 1838 through Italy and Switzerland, effectively a medical fact-finding tour. Written as a series of letters addressed to his fellow members of the Society of Medicine of Gand, the work is divided into two parts, the first parts dealing with ‘la constitution morbide de l'Italie’, ‘les conditions morales de l'Italie’ as well as ‘les travaux médicaux en Italie’. In the second part, Guislain describes in more detail ‘les hôpitaux, établissements de charité et institutions scientifiques de l'Italie’ which he had visited in Turin, Genoua, Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Naples, Rome, Venice, Milano, Lausanne, Berne and Zurich. The work is attractively illustrated with a number of lithographs, which depict a number of hospital façades, plans, architectural details, instruments, and even methods of treatment, including a striking image of a mentally ill patient horizontally restrained and strapped to a mattress. Waller 3866; OCLC locates copies at Iowa, Chicago, UCSF, Harvard, NLM, Washington, and the College of Physicians.

1907. Together two sheets, larger 4to typed form letter on headed paper including two half tone illustrations 280 x 215mm, with 8vo sheet 218 x 140mm, printed on both sides with small woodcut illustrations; both documents with evidence of previous folds, two small nicks at head of form letter with slight loss, with a small dampstain, with two small tears at outer margins along one fold of the ‘Rules’; paper a little browned. A forceful advertising letter, together with an accompanying measurement and order form, from the Brooks Rupture Appliance Co., Addressed to one Mr. Glidden, the letter begins: ‘We have written you several times trying to persuade you to buy one of our celebrated rupture appliances, and are unable to understand why you have not ordered; you certainly were not satisfied with what you were wearing, or you would not have written us .... Our appliance is the best thing in the world for rupture, and is making more cures and producing more solid comfort than all the common trusses in existence’. Atwater S. 177.2 for a small 24 pp promotional pamphlet.

1855. Single sheet, 200 x 130mm; printed on recto only, some evidence of previous folds, verso a little browned and soiled; a good example. An appealing leaflet promoting the recently established Saratoga Springs Hygienic Institute, ‘now commencing its third year of successful operations’. Norman Bedortha had previously worked with the Joel Shaw at his Lebanon Springs, and in 1849 became one of fifteen hydropathic physicians who founded the American Hydropathic Society. After a brief spell in Troy, New York, Bedortha established his own water cure in Saratoga Springs in 1852, opposite the famous Congress Spring. ‘The Saratoga Water Cure burned to the ground on 4 July 1864, when a carelessly thrown firecracker ignited a curtain. It was rebuilt in 1871 by Bedortha with B. T. Bedortha ... probably his son’ (Atwater 272). The water cure provided separate baths for ladies and gentlemen, and also boasted a large gymnastic hall. ‘These arrangements, with the natural advantages of the place, make this one of the most delightful places in the world for such an Institution’. The leaflet also notes that Dr. Robert Hamilton is now in residence to treat female diseases. See Atwater 272 and 273 for copies of his published work ‘Practical Medication’ of 1860 and 1866, printed in Albany; OCLC locates that Rochester also hold another printed leaf, ‘Dr. N. Bedortha's bath directions’ ca. 1857 and filled out with the name of a patient.

1830. Lithograph trade card, 95 x 121mm, with attractive lithograph vignette of the pump room, with verses below; slightly soiled and spotted, with some minor edgewear and slight abrasions on verso, with evidence of previous label; a most appealing example. A most attractive lithograph promotional souvenir, giving a view of the Montpellier Pump Room at Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire. In the early 18th century, salt water springs had accidentally been discovered at Cheltenham and the spring was developed into a well by the entrepreneurial owner Henry Skillicorne. At the time, the benefits of salt water bathing as a new cure for ill health was being recognised and recommended by Georgian physicians, and it soon became a noted tourist destination for the great and the good, including such visitors as Handel, Johnson, and of course George III and his family, whose visit in 1788 really made Cheltenham fashionable.
To meet the growing demand, new wells were opened and rival spas established. In 1801 Henry Thompson, a London financier, bought a large estate and in 1809 opened the Montpellier Spa, originally a wooden structure, but later replaced by a far grander building, designed by the architect, artist and founding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847), whose classically designed building included a copper domed rotunda inspired by the Pantheon, and which can be seen in the present image. This was opened in around 1825, Papworth also redesigning the grounds for the Montpelier estate.
It seems probable that the card is the work of the British printmaker Christian Harttwieg, the Fitzwilliam Museum Collections recording a small valentine card of a similar style and which also includes verses within small oval medallions. That example includes the imprint ‘Harttwieg scr. & lith. 108 Hatton Garden’. The Yale Centre for British Art also notes a lithograph panorama of Gravesend from Windmill Hill, and which is signed by S. Schonberg, engraver, and which they date to 1830.

1930. Single folded sheet, large 4to, pp. [4]; music score on pp. 2-3, with vertical column of advertisement down central fold; paper somewhat browned and soiled; advertisement on p. [4]; with photographic depiction of the aviator with her plane on upper cover, front lower corner folded over and with a tiny nick, small tear at the top edge without loss, very faint retailer’s stamp on the front cover. An appealing ephemeral item: an arrangement ‘for “Banjulele” Banjo and Ukele’ of a song written by Gilbert and Nicholls commemorating the ‘daring deeds’ of Amy Johnson (1903-1941).
Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in Economics, before moving to London where she trained at the London Aeroplane Club and obtained her pilot’s licence in 1929. The following year she undertook the first woman’s solo flight from England to Australia in the second-hand de Havilland ‘Gypsy Moth’ that she bought with funds from her father and Lord Wakefield. She named it ‘Jason’ after the trademark of her father’s business, and the celebrated plane is featured prominently on the front cover of this song sheet. She flew from Croydon Airport on May 5th., and arrived at Darwin, Northern Territory on May 24th. The aeroplane is now in the Science Museum.
Whilst celebrating her considerable achievements, the song can by no means be considered to be a classic of lyricism and musicality, and the verses jar somewhat with modern sensibilities. ‘You deserve a lot of credit for your daring deeds ... You are just the kind of person that the country needs ... Yesterday you were a non-entity, Now your name will go down to posterity, Amy, wonderful Amy, how can you blame me for loving you?’
In 1940 Amy Johnson joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and in January 1941, in poor weather conditions, had to bail out whilst on a ferrying mission, over the Thames. Her parachute was spotted by the ferry HMS Haslemere, whose commander, Walter Fletcher, dived in to rescue her but both died and Amy Johnson’s body was never recovered. In 1999, a member of an anti-aircraft crew claimed that they had shot down the plane as Johnson had failed to give the correct identification code. To further compound the enigma, there have been claims that a third, unidentified, person died in the accident. He had been a passenger on the plane but as the reason for the flight is still covered by the secrecy laws, this remains unverified.

1873. Large partially coloured wood engraved wall chart with letterpress, 137 x 93 cms, dissected into 32 sections and laid on linen as issued, folding down to 18 x 23.5cms; quite heavily browned and soiled, with evidence of previous pin marks at each corner (with resulting rust marks most notably at upper right corner), several of the linen folds with neat repairs to verso, linen rather foxed with a couple of areas of ink staining towards the tail, one area displaying some minor worming, though neither fault affecting the wall chart itself. A large and most striking educational wall chart introducing the student to the wonders of the universe. A large circular depiction of the solar system with star map and comets, printed in blue, black and white dominates, the upper half of the chart. Descriptive text, printed in eight columns, is found below and which describes each of the planets with one section devoted to a discussion of comets. Sixteen striking illustrations form a border around the chart and which include depiction’s of icebergs at the poles, the Cotopaxi Volcano, eclipses, a cross section of the earth, orbits of the comets, the phases of the moon, and faces of the moon and jupiter, a large telescope, and the Aurore Boreales. Four smaller circular illustrations surround the main solar system illustration, with the title located centrally and contained within an image of a globe.
The British Library date their copy to 1875, with the BnF suggesting a date of 1877. We can find no date on the present example, although a contemporary hand has pencilled in a date of 1873 just below the main solar system image.

1883. Three vols (of four), two small and one large folio; pp. [ii] part title, [ii] preface, 155, [1], with stub remains of plates visible, which have been excised, then linen backed and loosely inserted into the larger folio for ease of use; all eighteen chromolithograph plates for Part I on poisonings present; pp. [ii] [iii]-vi index of all eighteen plates, [111]-213, [1] blank, and containing the detailed descriptions of plates 10-18, and which are bound at the rear of the volume, thus only 9 of the 18 double-page chromolithograph plates present (a number retaining the original tissue guards) and missing the first part of this second part on general forensics; text volumes a little browned, the loosely inserted poisoning plates somewhat browned in places, and slightly dog-eared through handling (plate I most noticeably affected), the general forensic plates also a little browned and soiled; with small library stamps on title-pages; Rare first edition, though sadly without the first volume of part two, of this noted atlas of forensic medicine and medical jurisprudence by the noted forensic scientist Adolphe Lesser (1851-1926).
Whilst not wishing to downplay that fact that the present copy is incomplete, it nevertheless provides an insight into the publication of such works, and how copies where then put to use and indeed bound, by their respective owners. Lesser originally published this striking work in fascicles, beginning in 1883, and with the first part on poisoning completed in 1884. In the copy offered here, the Pathological Institute of Leipzig had included in the binding the first part title, noting only ‘sechs colorirte tafeln’, but have bound all of the text on poisonings into one volume. No further part titles have been included. As revealed by the stubs at the rear of the volume, the vivid double-page chromolithograph plates, for which the work is renowned, have been excised, and have all been linen-backed and housed within a larger folio portfolio, to allow for easier use by the students.
The second companion work was itself also divided into two sections, and published between 1890-1892, and was devoted to more general forensics and traumatic injuries. It too was illustrated with a further 18 fine chromolithographs depicting such injuries as skull and bone fractures, the impact of gunshot wounds, burns, injuries caused by stabbings', and cases of infanticide. Sadly the first section is not present in the set offered here, having somehow become separated, though. The Pathological institute have retained the plates in the text volume, reflecting possibly either a change in teaching policy, or perhaps that it was the section on poisoning which was considered to be of particular educational merit to warrant an larger and more portable dissemination.
Designed primarily for forensic physicians, the text provides detailed explanations of the double-page chromolithograph plates. Some twenty types of poisonings are described and illustrated. According to Paul Brouardel (1837-1906), who wrote the preface to the French edition of the poisoning section published in 1890, the importance of the book lay in the fact that Lesser was a professor and expert close to the courts of Breslau, and "has endeavoured to provide multiple reproductions of the same intoxication". Virchow, in his preface to this first edition, praises the work for its accuracy, saying that few works of anatomical and pathological illustration could rival the work.
Adolf Lesser (1851-), graduated from Berlin University in 1875. Between 1877 and 1884 he was assistant at the Berlin Pharmacological Institute, and worked at Klinnsmann’s lunatic asylum between 1879-1886. In 1881 he became privat-docent in pharmacology at the university. In 1886 he was appointed physician-in-chief to the board of health of Breslau, subsequently appointed assistant professor at Breslau University in 1887. In addition to the present notable work, Lesser contributed essays to numerous medical journals, and also contributed to Neisser’s ‘Stereoskopischer Medizinischer Atlas’.
All editions are uncommon. Rare: Goldschmid, 213 for the German edition; OCLC locates complete copies of this work at Berkeley, UCLA and the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, and at the Wellcome, Cambridge, BL, Oxford, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

1747. 4to, pp. xii, 252, [10]; with attractive woodcut vignettes, head and tail pieces; some occasional light spotting and marginal browning, otherwise clean and fresh; with contemporary ownership inscriptions at head of both front and rear paste downs (though rather illegible), and on front free end paper ‘(Greek) Severini Cioccui (?) Vivo Clavis.mo, Gregorio Barbettio’; First edition, and a most attractive copy, of this early and detailed study on malaria as observed in the Neretva delta in Dalmatia by the noted Paduan physician, Giuseppe Pujati (1701-1760). Now a popular Croatian tourist destination, recognised as an area of great natural beauty, diversity of landscape, and ecological importance, at the time of publication the region was an inhospitable marshy valley, beset by a fever that was particularly prevalent during the autumn. In this detailed treatise on the ‘Neretva disease’, Pujati first presents a brief history of the fever, before examining its’ nature and progress, and concluding with an account of a number of historical outbreaks. In this erudite work Pujati makes frequent reference to both contemporary and historical sources, citing authors such as Lancisi, Ramazzini, Boerhaave, Morgani, Winslow, Haller, Heister, Hoffman, Hippocrates and Celsus. Pujati concludes that he believes the disease to be some kind of plague, from which there is little chance of survival, and believed too that the pestiferous stagnant water in certain places could also kill fish, and that marsh birds were also poisoned by the lethal evaporations.
Pujati’s work was later referred to by Alberto Fortis in his account of his early voyages to Dalmatia in 1774. Indeed Pujati’s dire warnings ‘were enough to frighten anyone who had a mind to go there’ according to Fortis. By taking some sensible precautions however, Fortis and his reluctant crew survived a fifteen day stay in the region in October, and his observations note the possibility of it being a mosquito-transmitted disease.
Pujati first studied in Venice and then at the University of Padua, where he was a student of Morgagni and Vallisneri. After graduation he practised in Venice, Dalmatia, Polcenigo and Pordenone, before obtaining in 1737 the post of Senior physician in Feltre, where he spent 12 years. In 1754 the Venetian Senate called him to the Chair of Ordinary Practice Medicine in Padua University, a post he held until his death. Blake p. 366; Wellcome IV, p. 447; OCLC locates a number of additional copies including Yale and Michigan in the US, and Berlin, Göttingen, and Edinburgh.