TENON, [Jacques René].

A Paris: De l’imprimerie de Ph.-D. Pierres…1788

4to, pp. (viii), lxxiv, 472, 15 folding engraved plates (including 1 very large) of hospital plans, 2 folding tables. Faint trace of a small library stamp erased from the title and dedication. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt in compartments (head of spine and tips of corners nicely restored), green morocco label, marbled endpapers. A few unobtrusive scuff marks on the lower cover, but a nice, clean copy.

FIRST EDITION. G&M 1600. Tenon’s major monograph on the hospitals of Paris, in which he described the appalling conditions prevailing there, resulted in rapid reforms being made. He had wanted to achieve this for forty years, and when the King commissioned him to report on the hospitals of Paris, he did so in great detail. Contemporary with Howard in England, Tenon was the most important of the early French hospital reformers, and was instrumental in founding a special hospital for children. See Garrison p. 400. Norman catalogue 2061.

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