Details
RIDLEY, Humphrey (1653-1708). The Anatomy of the Brain. London: for Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, 1695.
8o (185 x 105 mm). 5 folding engraved plates by Michael Vander Gucht after drawings by William Cowper (some pale spotting, a few short tears, plate IV clipped along margin). (Minor soiling and pale spotting, closely trimmed with loss of some page numbers and shoulder notes, first line of dedication leaf and a few headlines clipped.) Contemporary English blind-panelled calf (rebacked, a bit worn).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST SEPARATE ENGLISH MONOGRAPH ON THE BRAIN. "His is the first English description of a sarcoma or new growth of the pineal gland. He attacks the use of imagination in scientific writings, and gives anatomical reasons for doubting whether the soul is more seated in the brain than in the body at large" (DNB). It also includes the first account of the circular venous sinus which Ridley names. Ridley added to the accounts of Willis and Vieussens, "giving one of the first descriptions of the restiform body, the intracavernous venous sinuses and the venous drainage of the corpus striatum" (Norman). Garrison-Morton 1379.1; NLM/Krivatsy 9624; Norman 1833; Russell 699; Wellcome IV, p. 526; Wing R-1449.
8o (185 x 105 mm). 5 folding engraved plates by Michael Vander Gucht after drawings by William Cowper (some pale spotting, a few short tears, plate IV clipped along margin). (Minor soiling and pale spotting, closely trimmed with loss of some page numbers and shoulder notes, first line of dedication leaf and a few headlines clipped.) Contemporary English blind-panelled calf (rebacked, a bit worn).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST SEPARATE ENGLISH MONOGRAPH ON THE BRAIN. "His is the first English description of a sarcoma or new growth of the pineal gland. He attacks the use of imagination in scientific writings, and gives anatomical reasons for doubting whether the soul is more seated in the brain than in the body at large" (DNB). It also includes the first account of the circular venous sinus which Ridley names. Ridley added to the accounts of Willis and Vieussens, "giving one of the first descriptions of the restiform body, the intracavernous venous sinuses and the venous drainage of the corpus striatum" (Norman). Garrison-Morton 1379.1; NLM/Krivatsy 9624; Norman 1833; Russell 699; Wellcome IV, p. 526; Wing R-1449.