[FRANKLIN, Benjamin, (1706-1790) and William HEBERDEN (1710-1801)]. Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Small-Pox in England and America. Together With Plain Instructions by which any Person may perform the Operation, and conduct the Patient through the Distemper. London: W Strahan, 1759.
[FRANKLIN, Benjamin, (1706-1790) and William HEBERDEN (1710-1801)]. Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Small-Pox in England and America. Together With Plain Instructions by which any Person may perform the Operation, and conduct the Patient through the Distemper. London: W Strahan, 1759.

Details
[FRANKLIN, Benjamin, (1706-1790) and William HEBERDEN (1710-1801)]. Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Small-Pox in England and America. Together With Plain Instructions by which any Person may perform the Operation, and conduct the Patient through the Distemper. London: W Strahan, 1759.

4o (255 x 211mm). General title as above, separate title for the appended Plain Instructions by Heberden, which adds in the imprint "Printed at the Expence of the Author, to be given away in America" (first title spotted and with clean tear to fore-margin, very minor small stain to extreme gutter margins). Modern light blue paper wrappers; quarter maroon morocco folding case. Provenance: Library Company of Philadelphia (bookplate marked "Duplicate E.W." [Edwin Wolf]).

FIRST EDITION of Franklin's account of the new procedure of inoculation as observed by him at first hand during the 1753-1754 Boston epidemic, supplemented by a brief but thorough explanation of the inoculation process and course of infection contributed by the eminent English physician Heberden, who was the first to distinguish varicella (chicken-pox) from the potentially deadly smallpox and the first to describe the symptoms of angina pectoris. "Believing that its influence would be greater if its eminent author's name was revealed, Franklin sent 1,500 copies of the eight-page pamphlet to David Hall in Philadelphia with instructions that it be given away gratis; he accompanied it with a four-page tract...disclosing Heberden's name" (E. Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, p.127). VERY RARE. Garrison-Morton 5419; Sabin 25589; Norman 833 ("...Franklin had been actively opposed to smallpox inoculation...but the tragic loss of his young son to the disease in 1736 transformed him into one of its strongest advocates").