CHESELDEN, William.

London: Printed for John Osborn… .1723

8vo, pp. (iv), xi, (i), 180 [i.e. 188], 17 fine engraved plates. Later half calf. A few plate numbers shaved, but a fine copy.

FIRST EDITION. G&M 4282. This book includes translations of extracts of the books of Le Mercier, Fabricius Hildanus, Tolet, and Dionis, and the first edition in English of Rousset on suprapubic lithotomy, translated from his Caesarei partus assertio historiologica (1590). Cheselden was the leading lithotomist of his time, and a surgeon and anatomist of the first rank. His classic book on cutting for the stone describes his method of performing suprapubic lithotomy, a method which he abandoned in 1727 for the lateral operation, ultimately reviving and refining the techniques of Jacques de Beaulieu, Frère Jacques (1651–1714), into the classic lateral operation for stone which became the standard method during the entire 18th century, and, indeed, well into the 19th. See Murphy, History of Urology, pp. 107–109.

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