Details
DEMOURS, Antoine (1762-1836); [Samuel Thomas SMMERRING (1755-1830)]. Trait des maladies des yeux... suivi de la Description de l'oeil humain, traduite du Latin de S. T. Soemmering. Paris: Firmin Didot for the author and Crochard, 1818.
4 volumes of which 3 volumes, 8o (204 x 128 mm), and plate volume, 4o (257 x 195 mm). Half-titles in all volumes, errata leaf at end of vol. 3. Plate volume with engraved frontispiece portrait by N. F. J. Masquelier after a painting by Latour, 80 engraved plates numbered 1-65, comprising 15 uncolored engraved plates, 12 duplicate outline plates, and 53 plates of color-printed stipple engravings, by various engravers, color plates 16-65 after Laguiche. (Occasional foxing.) Contemporary tree calf gilt, arms of the dedicatee Louis XVIII on sides, spines gilt with red morocco lettering pieces, gilt edges (joints and extremities rubbed, most upper inner hinges cracked).
FIRST EDITION. Demours, a prominent opthalmologist who succeeded his father Pierre as Royal Opthalmologist, spent years patiently noting his observations in preparation for this major treatise on the diseases of the eye. In it Demours surveys all known pathologies and presents numerous case histories of eye injuries and conditions. His description of glaucoma, provided by his father, "was the first to recognize heightened intraocular pressure". A skillful surgeon, Demours was among the first to use belladonna in cataract operations, and the first to open artificial pupils to remedy certain forms of blindness. He spent a considerable sum on his carefully produced Trait, whose fine illustrations made it the most splendid work of opthalmology ever printed, and which created a sensation in the medical world.
The plate volume (vol. 4) contains the first French translation of Smmerring's Abbildungen des menschlichen Auges (Frankfurt, 1801, the translation based on the Latin edition, Frankfurt, 1804), a work that with Johann Gottfried Zinn's 1755 monograph on the eye became "the foundation for all modern researches on the structure of this organ" (Choulant-Frank, p. 308). Plates 1-13 are anatomical illustrations copied from previous editions of Smmering; plates 14 and 15 illustrate surgical instruments, and the color-printed plates, numbers 16-65, illustrate various pathological conditions of the eye and are based on enamel models that Demours had had made. Becker 96; Waller 2353; Wellcome II, p. 448; Norman 618. (4)
4 volumes of which 3 volumes, 8
FIRST EDITION. Demours, a prominent opthalmologist who succeeded his father Pierre as Royal Opthalmologist, spent years patiently noting his observations in preparation for this major treatise on the diseases of the eye. In it Demours surveys all known pathologies and presents numerous case histories of eye injuries and conditions. His description of glaucoma, provided by his father, "was the first to recognize heightened intraocular pressure". A skillful surgeon, Demours was among the first to use belladonna in cataract operations, and the first to open artificial pupils to remedy certain forms of blindness. He spent a considerable sum on his carefully produced Trait, whose fine illustrations made it the most splendid work of opthalmology ever printed, and which created a sensation in the medical world.
The plate volume (vol. 4) contains the first French translation of Smmerring's Abbildungen des menschlichen Auges (Frankfurt, 1801, the translation based on the Latin edition, Frankfurt, 1804), a work that with Johann Gottfried Zinn's 1755 monograph on the eye became "the foundation for all modern researches on the structure of this organ" (Choulant-Frank, p. 308). Plates 1-13 are anatomical illustrations copied from previous editions of Smmering; plates 14 and 15 illustrate surgical instruments, and the color-printed plates, numbers 16-65, illustrate various pathological conditions of the eye and are based on enamel models that Demours had had made. Becker 96; Waller 2353; Wellcome II, p. 448; Norman 618. (4)