Lot 645A email save

MEDICINE - Harvard Medical School. Autograph manu

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Boston: 1824-25. Approx. 600 pp. total, 2 volumes, 4to (195 x 160 mm). Written in a neat hand in ink. Contemporary quarter calf. Condition: minor toning; extremities and board edges slightly rubbed. "opium ... so that the heart doesn't suffer in sympathy with other pains...." A primary account of early 19th century medical diagnostics and treatments as taught at the Harvard Medical School by some of the most prominent physicians of the era. Topics covered in the extensive texts range from fevers and common ailments to heart conditions and neuroses. "Recipes" for treatments for a vast variety of conditions are recorded and Metcalf lists uses for camphor, liqour, quinine and digitalis among other medicines. Opium is frequently mentioned of course and bloodletting seems to remain a viable treatment. He includes direct observations of patients in Boston hospital with notes on their progress and chances for recovery. The three instructors Metcalf transcribed lectures from were each key figures in early American medicine and founding faculty of the Harvard Medical School. James Jackson was its first faculty member and later Dean of the school. John Collins Warren was also a dean. His lectures on anatomy and surgery were renowned and he was one of the most respected physicians of the era, seving as the Presidential Physician to Andrew Jackson. Jacob Bigelow graduated from Harvard in 1806 and returned to lecture in materia medica from 1815-25. He practiced for many years at Massachusetts General Hospital where a wing is named in his honor. Both Bigelow and Warren were pioneers in the use of ether during surgery. A unique and fascinating record of American and particularly New England medical history. Two other volumes of Metcalf's notebooks are in the Harvard Collections where they are described as "some of the earliest descriptions of the life and trials of the medical student."

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