Three standard works on medicine and human anatomy.
Ad 1: Classic on respiration and the earliest published medical work by Jan Swammerdam (Amsterdam 1637-1680), the most outstanding comparative anatomist of the 17th century. He was also the most important among the earliest scientists to study insect anatomy, and many of his observations were of great importance to modern biology. In the present treatise, which was first published at Leyden by D. & A. Gaasbeeck in 1667, Swammerdam records his discovery that the lungs of newborn infants will float on water if respiration has taken place, an important medico-legal point. At the end is included Albrecht Haller's (1708-1777) epoch making research on the structure of the human diaphragm.
Ad 2: One of the standard treatise on the ear by Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666-1723), lecturer and demonstrator in anatomy at Bologna. He was one of the most eminent scientist around the turn of the 17th to the 18th century. In this treatise he was the first to define the ear's three parts: outer, middle and inner, and to explain their relative functions. He also illustrates the 'Valsalva manoeuvre' for inflating the middle ear, still practised today. The first edition was published at Bologna by Constantini Pisati in 1704. (Second edition 1707, other 1717, 1735, 1738, 1742).
Ad 3: Anatomical work on the eye, operations on the eye and the operation instruments by P. Idema or Bernardus Idema (ca. 1690-1760). He was also known for his treatise on the floating of lungs of newborn infants.
Fine copies. Ad 1: Waller 9386; Garrison & Morton 1724 (1st ed. 1667); on Haller: DSB VI, 64; Heirs of Hippocrates 388 (first ed. 1667); ad 2: Politzer pp. 136-43; cf. Norman Library 2125; Garrison & Morton 1546 (first ed. 1704); DSB XIII, 566/7; Heirs of Hippocrates 470; ad 3: Molhuysen-Blok X, 399.