SIMS, J[ames] Marion.

London: Robert Hardwicke,... .1866

8vo, pp. (ii) half-title, viii, (ii) sub-title, 436, + Hardwicke’s adverts inserted at the end. Original maroon cloth, uncut, bookplate on front pastedown. Spine faded to brown (as usual), small tear at head and foot of spine, one corner creased, but a fine copy.

FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. G&M 6057. Sims’ most important work, and his only book. It includes a description of the speculum named after him, and his pioneering work on the treatment of infertility, including analysis of the conditions essential to conception, and his investigations into artificial insemination. He discusses techniques of uterine surgery and pathological conditions requiring surgical intervention. Grolier One Hundred (Medicine), 66B. See Lilly, Notable medical books, p. 225 (New York edition). Speert, Milestones, pp. 442–454. Thoms, Classical Contributions, pp. 235–239. Zimmerman & Veith pp. 436–457. The work was originally serialised in The Lancet in 1864–1865, and this first book-form edition appeared in London while Sims was in Europe during the American Civil War. This London edition is considerably rarer than the New York edition published later in the same year.

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