David Mason Fine and Rare Books

SMITH, Nathan. Medical and Surgical Memoirs. Edited With Addenda By...

Baltimore: Printed by William A. Francis, 1831. First edition. Tall 8vo., recently rebound in brown cloth, leather spine label, (viii), (9)-374, (1)p. errata. With a frontispiece and six plates. Some foxing and browning as is common with American books of this period but o/w a very nice copy. Heirs of Hippocrates 1181.

 ‘When Dartmouth opened a medical department in 1768, Nathan Smith was appointed professor of anatomy, surgery, chemistry, and physics, and was, indeed, its entire faculty. A skilled surgeon, teacher, writer, and practitioner, Smith played a major role in the establishment of the medical schools at Yale and the University of Vermont, and the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. His most important written contribution is this treatise on typhus fever, in which he gives the first clear description of the disease.' ‘Smith was the author of additional works on necrosis, fractures, lithotomy, and dislocations, and pioneered with a number of amputation techniques. His memoirs, edited by his son, contain nearly all of his notable works'. (Heirs of Hippocrates, 1180, 1181).