GALÉS, Jean Chrysanthe.
Mémoire et rapports sur les fumigations sulfureuses appliquées au traitement des affections cutanées et plusiers autres maladies.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, at the author, 1816. 8vo. With the wood-engraved arms of France on the title-page, 11 folding engraved plates (8 showing patients with skin diseases, coloured by a contemporary hand, and 3 with construction drawings of fumigation compartments and other equipment, uncoloured). Contemporary gold-tooled grained red morocco, blue-glazed endpapers; gilt edges. [4], 137, [1 blank], 4, [2 blank] pp.
€ 2,400
First edition of a well-illustrated account of the curative properties of sulphur fumes for the treatment of (primarily skin) diseases: not for the squeamish. An English edition appeared in 1818 under the title, Memoirs and Reports on the Efficacy of Sulphurous Fumigation in the treatment of diseases of the skin, joints and glandular system, chronic rheumatism, gout, paralytic affections, &c. , and a second French edition in 1824. After a general introduction, the author presents 119 case studies in five chapters (8 illustrated with coloured plates of the naked patients, all but one with both a front and a rear view).
The text pages are printed on wove paper; the plates on laid paper. A fascinating study of both the illnesses and the treatments, both well illustrated.
In very good condition, with only light foxing in a few leaves. The binding also very good, with only a small hole near the base of the spine. Waller 3398; Wellcome, p. 83; not in Garrison & Morton; Honeyman; Norman Library; Osler.
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