EARLE, Henry.

London: Printed for Thomas and George Underwood… .1823

8vo, pp. x, 2 leaves, pp. 229, (1), 3 engraved plates (2 folding). Large but quite faint library stamp on title and several other pages, some small marks and pencil marks, short wormtrack in the lower margin of the last plate and endpaper and inside of back cover, paper slightly browned. Contemporary half calf, joints neatly repaired.

FIRST EDITION. One of the six essays which make up this volume is a description of the hospital bed invented by Earle for cases of fracture of the leg, and which became the modern hospital bed. It is illustrated in one of the plates, and Earle was awarded the gold medal of the Society of Arts for it. Of the other papers, “two are reprints of his papers in the Philosophical Transactions on an injury to the urethra and on the mechanism of the spine; the others are on injuries near the shoulder, on fracture of the funny-bone, and on certain fractures of the thigh-bone” (DNB). Earle was Percivall Pott’s grandson. Norman catalogue 675.

Unsure of some of these terms? Click here to download a copy of Carter & Barker, ABC for Book Collectors (2006), which has full explanations.