Details
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894). Puerperal fever, as a private pestilence. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855.
12o (236 x 146 mm). Publisher's blind-stamped vertically ribbed dark gray cloth, gilt lettered title on upper cover (corners slightly rubbed, tiny nicks to head and tail of spine); slipcase. Provenance: Astor Library [New York Public Library] (author's presentation inscription on front free endpaper); Charles E. Abbott (erased pencil inscription on front free endpaper); Henry Bacon Collamore (bookplate).
FINE PRESENTATION COPY IN THE RARE CLOTH BINDING of the expanded second edition, the first edition in book form. "In 1855, recognizing that his essay had never received the wide circulation enjoyed by the views of his opponents, Holmes had it reprinted in pamphlet form, under a different title. He added a twenty-page introduction answering his opposition... and at the end he included a two-page list of 'Additional References and Cases'" (Grolier Medicine). Holmes's pointed introduction was directed in particular to two leading Philadelphia obstetricians, Hugh Lenox Hodge and Charles D. Meigs, who had each published articles, in 1852 and 1854 respectively, rejecting his interpretation of childbed fever. He does not mention Semmelweis's work in this edition, as erroneously stated by Garrison-Morton and others, and was apparently still unaware of it -- not surprisingly, since Semmelweis did not publish his Aetiologie until 1861 (see lot 1293).
The publishers' archives record a press-run of only 500 copies, of which 159 were still unsold in 1865 and were put in storage. Most copies of this edition seem to have been issued in printed paper wrappers; copies in the publisher's cloth binding are very rare. "The records of the Astor Library (now the New York Public) do not list this title among the many books Holmes donated to the library, and it is possible that Holmes changed his mind and presented this copy to a friend" (Norman), possibly to the Charles Abbott whose erased signature is still dimly legible below the author's inscription. BAL 8768; Garrison-Morton 6276; Grolier Medicine 72c (this copy illustrated in figure 135); Osler 2989A; Waller 4852; Norman 1089.
12o (236 x 146 mm). Publisher's blind-stamped vertically ribbed dark gray cloth, gilt lettered title on upper cover (corners slightly rubbed, tiny nicks to head and tail of spine); slipcase. Provenance: Astor Library [New York Public Library] (author's presentation inscription on front free endpaper); Charles E. Abbott (erased pencil inscription on front free endpaper); Henry Bacon Collamore (bookplate).
FINE PRESENTATION COPY IN THE RARE CLOTH BINDING of the expanded second edition, the first edition in book form. "In 1855, recognizing that his essay had never received the wide circulation enjoyed by the views of his opponents, Holmes had it reprinted in pamphlet form, under a different title. He added a twenty-page introduction answering his opposition... and at the end he included a two-page list of 'Additional References and Cases'" (Grolier Medicine). Holmes's pointed introduction was directed in particular to two leading Philadelphia obstetricians, Hugh Lenox Hodge and Charles D. Meigs, who had each published articles, in 1852 and 1854 respectively, rejecting his interpretation of childbed fever. He does not mention Semmelweis's work in this edition, as erroneously stated by Garrison-Morton and others, and was apparently still unaware of it -- not surprisingly, since Semmelweis did not publish his Aetiologie until 1861 (see lot 1293).
The publishers' archives record a press-run of only 500 copies, of which 159 were still unsold in 1865 and were put in storage. Most copies of this edition seem to have been issued in printed paper wrappers; copies in the publisher's cloth binding are very rare. "The records of the Astor Library (now the New York Public) do not list this title among the many books Holmes donated to the library, and it is possible that Holmes changed his mind and presented this copy to a friend" (Norman), possibly to the Charles Abbott whose erased signature is still dimly legible below the author's inscription. BAL 8768; Garrison-Morton 6276; Grolier Medicine 72c (this copy illustrated in figure 135); Osler 2989A; Waller 4852; Norman 1089.