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Details
WILLIAM WITHERING (1741-1799)
An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of its Medical Uses. London: M. Swinney for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1785. 8° (227 x 142mm). Hand-coloured folding engraved plate [?later state, by and after James Sowerby]. Half-title and preliminary blank a1. (Plate and half-title detached, plate with 3 short tears not affecting the image, a trifle browned and spotted). Original paper-backed blue boards, title in manuscript on the spine, uncut (spine worn with paper missing from top 2 compartments, boards spotted and rubbed and bumped at extremities), modern morocco-backed slipcase. Provenance: Atkinson (early bookplate).
FIRST EDITION IN THE ORIGINAL BOARDS OF WITHERING'S MAGNUM OPUS: 'one of the classics in pharmacology' (Eimas Heirs). In 1775 Withering began to study the therapeutic properties popularly ascribed to the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), and ten years later published the results of his studies in this work, which describes the case histories of 158 patients treated with foxglove, of whom 101 who suffered congestive heart failure experienced relief. It is interesting to note that the current use and dosage of digitalis has hardly changed since Withering published his recommendations -- 'One could learn to use digitalis effectively and safely if one had no other text than Withering's Account of the Foxglove' (Estes and White, quoted by Norman). The folding plate is a reversed copy of that in Curtis' Flora Londinensis; although Hunt gives priority to this state, Norman suggests that uncoloured, reversed copies of the plate represent the first state. With a copy of the 1949 facsimile edition limited to 250 copies. Eimas Heirs 1039; Garrison-Morton 1836; Hunt 676; Norman 2255; Waller 10378. (2)
An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of its Medical Uses. London: M. Swinney for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1785. 8° (227 x 142mm). Hand-coloured folding engraved plate [?later state, by and after James Sowerby]. Half-title and preliminary blank a1. (Plate and half-title detached, plate with 3 short tears not affecting the image, a trifle browned and spotted). Original paper-backed blue boards, title in manuscript on the spine, uncut (spine worn with paper missing from top 2 compartments, boards spotted and rubbed and bumped at extremities), modern morocco-backed slipcase. Provenance: Atkinson (early bookplate).
FIRST EDITION IN THE ORIGINAL BOARDS OF WITHERING'S MAGNUM OPUS: 'one of the classics in pharmacology' (Eimas Heirs). In 1775 Withering began to study the therapeutic properties popularly ascribed to the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), and ten years later published the results of his studies in this work, which describes the case histories of 158 patients treated with foxglove, of whom 101 who suffered congestive heart failure experienced relief. It is interesting to note that the current use and dosage of digitalis has hardly changed since Withering published his recommendations -- 'One could learn to use digitalis effectively and safely if one had no other text than Withering's Account of the Foxglove' (Estes and White, quoted by Norman). The folding plate is a reversed copy of that in Curtis' Flora Londinensis; although Hunt gives priority to this state, Norman suggests that uncoloured, reversed copies of the plate represent the first state. With a copy of the 1949 facsimile edition limited to 250 copies. Eimas Heirs 1039; Garrison-Morton 1836; Hunt 676; Norman 2255; Waller 10378. (2)
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