SAUNDERS, John Cunnigham.

The Anatomy of the Human Ear, illustrated by a series of engravings, of the natural size; with a treatise on the diseases of that organ, the causes of deafness, and their proper treatment.

London: Printed for Richard Phillips…1806

Large folio, 2 leaves, 60 pages, and 4 engraved plates (three by Heath after Kirtland). First leaf and last leaf slightly browned and dust-soiled, foxing on the plates as usual and dampstain in the inner margins, first plate bound as a frontispiece creased in the corners and a little chipped in the fore-edge margin (fore-edge reinforced on the back at an early date). Modern green cloth. Early signature of J. Leighton M.D. on back of frontispiece; stamp of Bath Medical Library on back of frontispiece and a few text pages; bookplate of Richard J. Bennett.

FIRST EDITION. “This publication represents an achievement that should not be underestimated. It concentrates on the less well-known forms of infection, closely follows their course, and describes the stages of processes in greater detail than had been done previously” (Politzer, p. 274, from a long discussion of this book). Saunders was the first to advise a puncture of the eardrum — paracentesis of the tympanic membrane, or myringotomy — for infections of the middle ear. The year before the publication of this book Saunders had been instrumental in founding Moorfields Hospital, originally an eye and ear hospital. G&M 3362. Politzer, History of otology, pp. 272–274. Robert J. Ruben, Hear! Hear! Six centuries of otology (2002), 28. Stevenson & Guthrie, History of Oto-Laryngology, p. 47: “…illustrated by some beautiful engravings.”

£1,100.00

In stock

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