LISTER, Joseph (1827-1912). Contributions to Physiology and Pathology. Offprint from the Philosophical Transactions 148 (1858), Part 2. London: Taylor and Francis, 1859.

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LISTER, Joseph (1827-1912). Contributions to Physiology and Pathology. Offprint from the Philosophical Transactions 148 (1858), Part 2. London: Taylor and Francis, 1859.

4o (280 x 222 mm). Line block text diagrams, 2 lithographic plates of which one chromolithograph, by Tuffen West after Lister. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with three mounted oval portrait photographs of the author (the first two salt prints, the last an albumen print), the third signed by him. (Light foxing to title, small marginal stain to pp. 622 and 623). Contemporary brown morocco gilt, brass relief monogram of R. H. Ramsay mounted at center of upper cover, matching abstract brass device on lower cover, marbled edges (rebacked, rubbed); folding cloth case. Provenance: Robert Hamilton Ramsay, surgeon and close friend of the author (presentation inscription on title, supra-libros as above); anonymous owner (Sotheby's London, 24 June 1988, lot 153).

FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of three closely related papers on inflammation: "An inquiry regarding the parts of the nervous sytem which regulate the contractions of the arteries," "On the cutaneous pigmentary system of the frog," and "On the early stages of inflammation," the fruit of a year's intensive research into the process of inflammation, which Lister read to the Royal Society on June 18, 1857. Of these the last is the most important: it "records the earliest vascular and tissue changes induced in the frog's web by such irritants as hot water and mustard" (DSB). Lister correctly concluded from these experiments that inflammation was an active rather than a passive principle, a special response of living tissue to irritation, consisting of a "suspension of function or temporary abolition of vital energy" (p. 698). "Lister always believed... that these three papers on inflammation were his most important work, eclipsing even his introduction of antiseptic techniques into surgical practice" (Norman). Garrison-Morton 2298 (last paper only); Norman 1363.

[Bound with:]

On the Minute Structure of Involuntary Muscle Fibre. Offprint [or extract] from Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 21 (1857). [Edinburgh, 1857].

4o. Caption title; one folding lithographic plate by Tuffen West after Lister. (First leaf browned, plate foxed). FIRST EDITION, "a confirmation of Klliker's description of involuntary muscle cells, based on Lister's own observations of such cells in the arterioles of the frog's web... Lister also showed that these cells occur in mammals as well as amphibians" (Norman). Norman 1364.

VERY FINE PRESENTATION COPY, given by Lister to his close friend Robert H. Ramsay, who had made Lister's acquaintance while attending some of his lectures and had later served for a time as his house surgeon. The rare inserted photographs, which were apparently taken circa 1865, when Lister was in his late thirties, were presumably a gift to Ramsay as well, who had them bound up with the two articles.