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Details
GRAAF, Regnier de. De mulierum organis generationi inservientibus tractatus novus. Leiden: Hack, 1672.
8o (168 x 103 mm). Engraved title, portrait and 27 engraved plates (9 folding). 18th-century floral boards, uncut (some wear and chipping). Provenance: Mazelet (signature on front flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION. While the female reproductive system had long been explained from the standpoint of conception, gestation, and birth, it remained scientifically undefined and shrouded in mystery until the seventeenth century. Basing his work upon dissections of ovaries from several different species, and including a critical discussion of previous writings on the subject, Graaf provided probably the first scientifically accurate representations of the mammalian female reproductive anatomy and physiology. He stated that generation takes place from ova pre-existent in the ovary and not, as Aristotelian doctrine dictated, from eggs formed in the uterus by the action of male semen upon menstrual blood. Graaf was the first to note the ovary's morphological changes after ovulation, providing the first descriptions of ovarian ("Graafian") follicles and of the corpus luteum, which he correctly depicted as being of a glandular nature. However, because Graaf did not observe the rupture of the ovarian follicle, he confused it with the mammalian ovum. This error persisted for 150 years until 1827 when von Baer discovered the nearly microscopic true mammalian egg. Cushing G344; Garrison-Morton 1209; Heirs of Hippocrates 638; NLM/Krivatsy 4908; Norman 926; Waller 3669; Wellcome III, p. 142.
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FIRST EDITION. While the female reproductive system had long been explained from the standpoint of conception, gestation, and birth, it remained scientifically undefined and shrouded in mystery until the seventeenth century. Basing his work upon dissections of ovaries from several different species, and including a critical discussion of previous writings on the subject, Graaf provided probably the first scientifically accurate representations of the mammalian female reproductive anatomy and physiology. He stated that generation takes place from ova pre-existent in the ovary and not, as Aristotelian doctrine dictated, from eggs formed in the uterus by the action of male semen upon menstrual blood. Graaf was the first to note the ovary's morphological changes after ovulation, providing the first descriptions of ovarian ("Graafian") follicles and of the corpus luteum, which he correctly depicted as being of a glandular nature. However, because Graaf did not observe the rupture of the ovarian follicle, he confused it with the mammalian ovum. This error persisted for 150 years until 1827 when von Baer discovered the nearly microscopic true mammalian egg. Cushing G344; Garrison-Morton 1209; Heirs of Hippocrates 638; NLM/Krivatsy 4908; Norman 926; Waller 3669; Wellcome III, p. 142.