1890. Small 8vo, single folded sheet, pp. [4]; front and rear ‘covers’ printed in red, with music notation in black; some minor soiling and spotting, but otherwise very good. Another novelty advertising vehicle issued by the firm of Beecham’s, and promoting their famous pills for the cure of ‘bilious and nervous disorders’. Clearly a firm willing to embrace differing advertising opportunities, the ‘Beecham’s Music Portfolio’ eventually ran to some twenty volumes, each volume containing 30 popular songs for voice and piano. Originally published in St Helen’s, Lancashire, from where the firm was based, the complete volumes of songs could be purchased from the company, whilst individual songs sheets, as here, appear to have been sold, or indeed given away, by pharmacies.
The pills, originally sold as a laxative, first appeared on the market in 1842, and were invented by the chemist Thomas Beecham (1820-1907), grandfather of the famous conductor. The pills themselves were a combination of aloe, ginger, and soap, and unusually for patent medicines, they did actually have some positive effect on the digestive process.

1930. Single sheet on crepe paper, 184 x 120mm, printed on recto only along the outer margins, central box apparently blank - though impregnated with secret message to be revealed when heated; clean and fresh. An advertising novelty produced by the famous firm of Beecham’s. As the note along the left margin states: ‘When you suffer from colds, chills, influenza, headache, rheumatism, nerve pains, Beecham’s Powders Act like Magic’. The present curiosity is itself a magical trick to highlight the tag line. The application of a glowing piece of burned string to the central panel will reveal a secret message - which in this case appears to reveal a tortoise! A previous example, showed a chicken, with another, which though difficult to discern, incorporated the phrase ‘Beecham’s Pills’.

1906. Large single sheet broadside, 340 x 250mm; printed on both sides in red and black, with engraved vignettes; central horizontal fold evident; paper lightly browned with some occasional foxing, paper quite prominently creased; a couple of minor marginal tears, but otherwise good. A 20th century medical broadside - in fact the bottle wrapper according to the text - promoting the benefits of Genuine Haarlem Oil (real Dutch drops) and attesting to its authenticity. Originally prepared by Claas Tilly in his laboratory ‘the formula for this remedy has been handed down from generation to generation’ and soon gained a reputation as a cure for kidney and bladder complaints. According to the present day Haarlem Oil web site he was assisted by Hermann Boerhave in the production of the remedy, who though sharing the profits of the medicine and recommending its use, was prevented from associating his name with a commercial proprietary product through the ethics of his profession. ‘The ingredients follow a process that take several days, in which the particular chemical preparation and difficult analysis has permitted the Tilly Family to preserve the secret of the production during 200 years’ (present day web site).
It proved so popular, that it was inevitable that a number of imitations were produced, with many claiming to be the genuine Tilly Haarlem Oil. At some point in the early 20th century the company gained an American backer, and in around 1906 the Dutch government granted a charter to the company which was given the right to use the word "genuine" and the words "Oudste Fabriek" (oldest factory) on its product, a privilege which was not been granted to any other concern or individual making or handling Haarlem Oil. The American connection meant that the remedy had to conform with the requirements of the United States Food and Drugs Act of 1906. The present broadside attests to this, and notes that from hereon their bottles will have blown on to them the words ‘G. de Konig Tilly’. Indeed in 1911 the Federal Government prosecuted the The Holland Medicine Co, of Scranton, Pennsylvania for falsely selling Gold Medal Genuine Tilly Haarlem Oil Capsules, For kidney, liver and bladder. Other issues located at the Library Company of Philadelphia (more than one issue), Harvard, Princeton, possibly at the Wellcome and the National Library of Scotland

1800. Single sheet broadside 200 x 135mm; with woodcut armorial device at head, text in double columns; paper browned, a little spotted, and quite creased, with a number of small holes just touching text but without significant loss; one or two small marginal nicks and tears, one at central fold, with two very small and discreet repairs along lower edge. A seemingly later example of this medical broadside promoting the myriad benefits of ‘medicamentum Gratia Probatum’ - a therapeutic remedy made and sold by Nicolas de Koning of Haarlem, and subsequently by his Widow and near kinsmen. Truly a miraculous medicine, the broadside claims that it can strengthen the stomach, cures scurvy, hysterical pains, anxiety, soothing open wounds and sores as well as burns, of reviving the weak and feeble, and even of dissolving kidney stones.
The sulphur based Haarlem oil was discovered by Claas Tilly in 1696 and soon gained a reputation as a cure for kidney and bladder complaints. According to the Haarlem Oil website he was assisted by Hermann Boerhave in the production of the remedy, who though sharing the profits of the medicine and recommending its use, was prevented from associating his name with a commercial proprietary product through the ethics of his profession. ‘The ingredients follow a process that take several days, in which the particular chemical preparation and difficult analysis has permitted the Tilly Family to preserve the secret of the production during 200 years’ (present day website).
Various issues are cited on OCLC and in a number of languages. Whilst the text remained unchanged for several years, variations are found in the final paragraph listing the kinsmen selling the product. Some printing errors also exist in the imprint. The current issue states: ‘This Medicamentum is Made and Sold in the City of Haarlem, in the Province of Holland; at the house of Nicolaas de Konig Tilly, who is the Author of the same, since the year 1764, and so was his Grandfather Claas Tilly before him, that was the Chief Inventor of it, since the year 1696. After the Decease of Nicolaas de Konig Tilly this Medicament shall be made and sold by his near kinsmen; viz. Jan de Konig, Leendert de Konig, Abraham Tilly and Adolf de Konig’.
A modern version exists to this day in the form of Haarlem Oil - which is sold for the use of both humans and animals. Other issues located at the Library Company of Philadelphia (more than one issue), Harvard, Princeton, possibly at the Wellcome and the National Library of Scotland.

1873. 8vo, pp. 32; with a blank temperature chart loosely inserted; with printer’s device on title-page; somewhat browned and foxed throughout due to paper quality, gutters exposed in a couple of places, notably between pp. 4-5, lower gutter chipped with some loss, corners a little furled; An unusual and scarce insight into the attempted regulation of medical fees in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century. A suggested tariff for the services of physicians, surgeons, phlebotomists, midwives and veterinarians was first compiled by the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità in 1852. The preface notes, however, that in the intervening period the prices of most necessary things have more than doubled, in line with an increased general prosperity throughout all walks and classes of society. It is therefore deemed fair and necessary that professional medical fees should also increase, and thus the present guide has been issued. In no way a legal document, the tariff is merely a guideline, showing an average of what one might expect to pay. An extensive list of common medical consultations and procedures then follows.
Also of interest is the Obstetrical Calendar that is included from pp. 24 onwards. Compiled by Professor Domenico of the Turin Obstetrical Clinic, the year long calendar gives two columns for each month showing the date of last menstruation and corresponding expected date of delivery. Loosely inserted is also a blank temperature chart to be filled in. Not located on OCLC or KVK; ICCU locates a similar shorter title issued in Casale in 1866.

1835. Small folio, pp. [viii], 36, [2] duplicate leaf of pp. 35-6,[37]-44, [4] explanation to plates and vitae curriculum; with four engraved plates, one partially hand-coloured in blue and red, and signed ‘Franz Wagner del, C. Guinard sc’; title-page somewhat browned, with further browning and foxing throughout, plates quite prominently foxed and browned, corners a little furled, with a few small marginal nicks and tears, ink accession number at upper margin of title-page with very faint blindstamp at tail; A detailed dissertation on pathological anatomy, focusing upon human and animal abnormalities, and in particular the various types of bone fissures. For a doctoral thesis it is surprisingly well produced in the larger folio format, using appealing typography and including four finely engraved plates illustrating the head of a young lamb or calf.
Conrad Meyer-Ahrens (1813-1872) was a Swiss physician and medical historian. He studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin where he publicly defended the present dissertation. The dedication is to his teacher, Johannes Müller. Hirsch, p.223; OCLC locate copies at Chicago, Harvard, Michigan, Columbia, Cornell, New York Academy, Washington and Cambridge.

1900. 8vo, pp. 16; with one engraved illustration; with tri-folding small advertisement pamphlet from Victor V. May & Co, mounted on rear inside cover; some minor soiling and creasing; A scarce pamphlet issued by the Chicago Dr. Emil D Saint-Cyr (or St-Cyr), ‘Late Surgeon at the Railway Hospital and Physician Central Free Dispensary. Member of the Chicago Medical Society’.
The pamphlet describes his recent invention of a ‘curette and evacuator’, which can be used in a variety of obstetrical and gynaecological procedures, replacing the placental forceps, and ending the need for ‘the barbarous, undignified and painful methods of manual, or I might say, brachial, dilation and extraction’ (p. 1). He goes on to list a number of puerperal conditions, previously treated by hand, for which this instrument could be used instead, including abortion, miscarriage, premature delivery and delivery at term with retentions, rupture of cord, extra large placenta, puerperal septicaemia, and post partial haemorrhage.
Of additional interest is the small tri-folding advertising pamphlet adhered to the rear inside cover on behalf of Victor V. May & Co., ‘the sole manufacturers of the St-Cyr Curette and Evacuator’. OCLC locates two copies only at Harvard and Toronto.

1886. 8vo, pp. [2], 152; with frontispiece and one further leaf of illustrations; title-page in red and black; a little browned throughout due to paper quality, with some occasional light foxing and soiling; An interesting essay on the work of the 18th century Lyonnaise physician Jean-Baptiste Goiffon (1658-1730), and in particular his theories on the nature of contagion and plague, expressed in his work of 1722, ‘Relation et dissertation sur la peste du Gevaudan’, one of a number of works written in the wake of the devastating plague of Marseilles in 1720. Goiffon believed that the contagion was spread by small worms or insects invisible to microscopes of the day. Mollière, ‘Président de la Société des Sciences mèdicales de Lyon’ first presented his essay before a meeting of the ‘Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts’ on December 8th, 1885, and provides a historical discussion of the plague, citing a number of works, and including a depiction of a ‘plague-doctor’, wearing his beak-like mask. This image is taken from the work of another famous Lyonnaise physician, that of Jean Grillot’s 1629 vivid eyewitness account of the plague, ‘Lyon affligé de contagion’. The costume consisted of a leather cloak, a mask with eye slots made of crystal, and a long nose piece filled with perfume.
Goiffon studied at the University of Montpellier, and spent many years as a military physician. He became an Associate of the College of Physician of Lyon in 1693.

1930. 8vo, pp. xxiii, [i] blank, 130, 24 publisher’s advertisements; with 47 half-tone illustrations on 46 leaves, and 38 text illustrations; some minor marginal browning and occasional light soiling; with a number of neat marginal annotations in pencil throughout, in Swedish; with facsimile signature of John L. Baird; First edition of this important work, aimed at the general reader and amateur constructor, and one of the earliest works on television. Sydney Moseley was Baird's business manager and a tireless enthusiast for his work, and the present manual provides an detailed account of his work and system. His self-appointed champion and biographer, Moseley gives a strong defence of Baird and an extended account of the battle with the BBC Additional technical information is provided by H.J. Barton Chapple. ‘I started out to write a piquant history of television as I knew it at first hand, but the subject has grown out of hand. I found history was being made even as I wrote’ (p.xxii).

1924-1931. Large oblong album 36 x 51 cms; ff. 10 leaves of black card mounts, of which 7 have been used, and including 111 photographs of varying sizes, some in sepia, 11 of which are commercial images of Haarlem, and the two largest images loosely inserted at the end; one of two images with slight creasing and edge wear, though all crisp images, and each with a neat hand-written caption below in white pencil; A most striking album recording the experiences of a nurse working at the St. Elisabeth Hospital (‘Gasthuis’) for the poor in Haarlem between 1924-1931.
The hospital was officially founded in 1581 when the Protestant city council took over the running of a hospice previously run by the Franciscan monastery. Its purpose was to provide care for the sick poor of the city who did not required isolation, and it remained in operation until WWII, going through several major renovations over the centuries.
This meticulously and attractive album provides a wonderful insight into this famous hospital, which thanks to a number of commissions to local artists over the centuries, for many years owned an imposing art collection, including works by Frans Hals, Jan Cornelisz Verspronck and Frans Decker. In 2012 eleven works were formally signed over to the Frans Hals Museum, which already held a number of items on loan. Nearly 40 of the photographs included in the album depict the nurses either at work, or else relaxing in groups, with thirteen of the images recording some of the patients, a number of whom appear to be suffering from mental illness. All aspects of life in the hospital are depicted, the compiler including images of porters, the laundry staff, life in the kitchens as well as a group of ‘kuipers’ or ‘coopers’ who may well be patients who were well enough to work. A whole page is devoted to a series of commercial images of famous sights and buildings in Haarlem itself, with a number of shots showing the nurses enjoying the surrounding countryside. A most appealing item.

1942. Together two works, 8vo and 12mo; pp. [xii], 144; with frontispiece portrait of Dr Duncan Main, and 12 full-page photographs; a little browned throughout, with some prominent foxing in places; pp. 32; paper a little browned; with later newspaper clipping, and religious birthday card loosely inserted; Third edition (date of publication uncertain but post 1911) of this fascinating biography of Dr Duncan Main (1856-1934), the British physician renowned for his medical missionary work in Hangzhou in the south-eastern Chinese Province of Zheijiang, and in particular for his work at the Opium Refuge Hospital. As such it provides a valuable account of the opium epidemic and attempts at opium reform. Main, one of the most famous missionaries in China at the end of the 19th and early 20th century, went on to help found the Hospital of Universal Benevolence, the Hangzhou Medical Training College, as well as a leprosarium and tuberculosis sanatorium. He and his wife dedicated 45 years of his life to medical services in China and were credited with the establishment of at least thirty medical and welfare institutions in Hangzhou by the time they left China in 1926.

1895. 8vo, pp. 130; with two chromolithograph plates and numerous text illustrations; paper a little browned; first plate and title-page almost detached and gutter cracked and exposed, with slight rubbing to second chromolithograph, but with no significant loss; First German edition of this detailed introduction on the construction and application of a range of orthopaedic supports, braces and corsets, as designed by the noted ‘lay’ orthopaedic surgeon, Friedrich von Hessing (1838-1918). Though with no formal medical training, Hessing founded his Orthopaedic clinic in 1868 near Augsburg, and soon found acclaim for his invention of a number of therapeutic devices, used in particular to treat children with polio, in particular to a brace which bears his name.
The author of the present work, Victor (Gyözö) Fischer, was a physician in Hungary, and originally published the work in Budapest in 1893 (A Hessing-Keszulekek Szerkezete es Alkalmazasa’), having seen for himself, over a period of some five years, the many benefits derived through the use of Hessing’s apparatus. In his preface, he thanks in particular Dr. Ladislaus Verebély at the University of Budapest, and the head of the surgical division at the poor children’s hospital, for his assistance. The numerous pencil drawings are taken from ‘life’ of patients treated. Giving such a glowing testimony, based upon case histories, it seems natural that the work would be translated into Germany, to help further promote the Augsburg Institute, and the work of its founder, to whom the present work is dedicated.
‘As the proprietor of an orthopaedic hospital, he experienced many difficulties in the first few years of his career in particular. As a self-taught medical practitioner -Hessing never attended medical school - he faced harsh criticism from the world of orthodox medicine. He needed great drive and tenacity to overcome this antagonism, and eventually his success proved him right. The “orthopaedic brace” he developed and his inventions for treating war victims helped him achieve spectacular successes and carried the reputation of Hessing’s Medical Institution far beyond Germany’s borders. By 1903 more than 60,000 patients had been cared for in the Hessing Foundation, including members of the higher ranks of European nobility’ (The Hessing-Stiftung website, the Hessing Foundation remaining in operation to this day). OCLC locates a copy at the NLM, with a small number in Germany.

1788. 4to, pp. xii, 319, [1] blank; with appealing engraved title-page vignette, and four folding engraved plates; title-page a little soiled and browned, light foxing and browning throughout, small stain affecting fore edge of last couple of leaves, and of outer margin of plates; First edition of this detailed, rational and erudite dissertation on the applications of electricity to physics and medicine, written in response to a prize question posed by the Royal and Patriotic Society of Valence. A contemporary review in the Monthly Review of the same year provides a useful summation: ‘We are informed, in the preface, that this dissertation (originally written in Latin) was translated into French by the ingenious and learned Professor Van Swinden of Amsterdam, and that it is now published in this language at the desire of the Society for which it was written. The question, which gave occasion to it, was proposed in the following terms: Has artificial electricity, from its discovery to the present time, really contributed to the progress of physics? And has it, considered in a medical view, been of more service than prejudice to mankind? It can scarcely be supposed that such a question could admit of a negative; nor can we imagine that it was proposed as a matter of doubt. We must therefore conclude that this learned body wished to facilitate the study of electricity, by means of a general, historical, and critical, view of the several discoveries that have hitherto been made in this branch of physics, - of the meteorological theories to which they have given occasion, and of the various experiments in which electricity has been applied to the cure of diseases. If this was the intention of the Society, it is completely answered by the work before us; which contains a very ample amount of what has been done in these respects, by philosophical and medical electricians, interspersed with judicious observations on facts and opinions’ (Vol 80, p. 658).
The work is divided into two parts discussing the physical and the medical applications. The gradual progress of electrical knowledge from the earliest until 1787 is included, together with an examination of theories relating to the relationship of lightening and electricity, of a connection to phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis, and whether electricity influences the acceleration of vegetation. The second part investigates electricity in relation to the cure of disease and gives ‘a very large collection of cases, from various writers, in which it has been attended with success’ (ibid). The work of several contemporaries is discussed including that of Volta, Franklin, De Mairan and Sigaud de la Fond.
‘Although van Troostwijk worked in Amsterdam as a merchant most of his life (1770-1816), he became an important Dutch chemist who published thirty-five works on his experiments in chemistry and electricity between 1778 and 1818. Nothing is known of his education except that he was greatly influenced by M. van Marum, Director of Teyler’s Museum in Haarlem. A phlogonist until 1788, he was a founder of the Batavian Club, better known as the Society of Dutch Chemists (1791), which was instrumental in securing recognition in the Netherlands for Lavoisier’s discoveries’ (DSB). Cornelius Rudolphus Krayenhoff (1758-1840) was a fellow member, as were Jacob Rudolph Deiman (1743-1808), and in 1789 Deiman and Troostwijk became famous for their experiment by which they split water and hydrogen for the first time through electrolysis. Bierens de Haan, 3690; Mottelay, 385 (note); Kress, 6355; Wheeler gift 551; Ronalds 504.

1926. 8vo, pp. xii, 155, [1] blank, with an initial blank; title-page printed in red and orange, text printed on a pale yellow ground; with numerous photographic illustrations and diagrams in the text, and six tables on three folding card mounts with a total 107 small samples of developed film (some slight oxidation to a number of examples, but overall in good condition); small tear at tail of p. 100 & 105, with some soiling to outer margin of p. 60, and some light marginal browning throughout; First edition of this important primary source book in the history of early cinema and film production. Published by Pathé, this extensive technical manual on the development of Pathé film for motion pictures was one of a small number of such manuals published during the 1920s by the leading producers of film stock, and contains not only technical information on the colouring systems used at the time by the motion picture industry, but is notable for including sets of illustrations made of actual pieces of original nitrate film. ‘These books, together with a handful of other primary sources, constitute the basis of our knowledge of a relatively neglected topic in the study of early cinema: the effects achieved by colouring film stock’ (Paolo Chechi Usai, 'The Color of Nitrate' p. 22, in Richard Abel, ed., Silent Film, 1996).
Four basic methods of producing coloured films existed before the introduction of technicolour. These were: hand colouring (the earliest and most basic), stencil-colouring (pathécolor was a refined version), tinting (staining the film uniformly) and toning (redeveloping in a chemical bath to tint the darker, developed portions of the film only). All are illustrated here, as is the combined use of tinting and toning; 'only a relatively small section of the Pathé text deals with film coloring, but the three foldout cardboard tables of illustrations with 107 individual nitrate frames are the most complete ever published' (Paolo Chechi Usai, 'The Color of Nitrate' in Richard Abel, ed., Silent Film, 1996). Samples show the influence of under- and over-exposure; the effect of temperature on development; films with a coloured base and/or chemically toned; mordanting (for intensification); pathécolor, etc. Also included are samples of the 9.5mm home-cinema film introduced by Pathé in 1922 as Pathé-Baby. The text includes details on the use of Pathé machinery and the chemical recipes for development.