"Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris containing a great Variety of Cases in the chief Branches of the Art. Many of them Very surprising and uncommon." Translated from the Original, anonym [George Neale, surgeon of the London-Hospital]; Dedicated to the French King. London: Printed by E. Cave, M.DCC.L. [1750]. Two volumes. First Edition.

Provenance:
"T.C. Lewis, M.D., Queen's Own" is ink written on the front endpaper of the first volume; library's 'withdrawn' stamp on the verso of the title page. Volume II: inked initials and 'Feb.19, 1867' inside front cover. Antique stamp of the Manchester Medical Society on the title page and verso of plates, 'withdrawn' stamp on the verso of the title page.

Hard boards, leather, spines with five raised bands [leather damages, repairs, wear: see photos]; 5" x 8"; good / very good condition.

Volume 1: the first three pages including the title page have a damaged blank margin [see photos]; xxvi + 256pages. One folding plate with views of the Levator instrument at page 166.

Volume II: pagination continues from the volume I (pages 257-606); 15 fold-out engraved plates, 2-page ad by the printer at the end.

The French Royal Academy of Surgery was generally thought to have been created in 1731. In reality, it was a group called "the Academy Society of Surgery" which met at this time. The connection between surgeons and barbers was officially terminated by the decree of Louis XV in 1748. This decree resulted in the establishing the surgery from empiric craft to scientific medical discipline. Therefore, the true date for the foundation of the Royal Academy of Surgery was July 1748.

French surgeons were prominent leaders of this revolution in medical sciences, and those practicing in Paris turned the capital into a surgical mecca attracting surgical students and mature professionals from all over Europe and even from America. They also created the Royal Academy of Surgery, soon the lodestar of the surgical world. During its sixty-two years' existence, the academy published five tomes of memoirs, which became the surgical vade mecum for most of Europe.

"In less than a century, French surgery changed completely by ceasing to be an uncertain technique practiced by routine practitioners and becoming a scientific discipline. This transformation involves the 4 following aspects: 1. The surgeon becomes an anatomist, a scientist, a clinician and a pathologist. 2. New structures and new teaching methods are adopted. 3. The separation between medicine and surgery progressively decreases; if not structurally at least in fact, surgery becomes associated to medicine. 4. Surgery takes a prominent place in the private life of the French. In the light of these facts, it could be said that surgery has developed medicine to a point where it raises new hopes for the scientific world and gains the support and esteem of the public at the end of the XVIIIth century." [abstract ["Surgeons and the spirit of surgery in France during the 18th century." Article in French by M. J. Imbault-Huart].

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