Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Lower, Richard. Tractatus de corde item de motu, colore, et transfusione sanguinis, et de chyli in eum transitu: ut et de venae sectione. His accedit dissertatio de origine catarrhi ... Editio sexta.

Title printed in red and black. With 8 engr. folding plates at the end. 8 leaves incl. title, 267, (1) pp., 10 unn leaves index. Small 8vo. Contemp. boards. – Lugdunum Batavorum (Leiden), J. & H. Verbeek, 1728.

The most important book on cardiology since Harvey’s „De motu cordis“ (1682). Richard Lower (1631–1691) from Cornwall, an able physiologist and successful practitioner, provided the most accurate description of the structure of the heart at the time, and showed that the difference in color beween venous and arterial bood was caused by the blood’s absorption of air through the lungs. The work (first published 1669) also contains an interesting account of the earliest attempts at blood transfusion. With Schneider, Lower overthrew the idea that nasal mucus originated in the brain. His discovery localized nasal catarrh in the air passages and put an end to the use of many recipes for „purging the brain“. – Wellcome III, 552; Fulton 14; Waller 6052; Osler 3279; Garrison/Morton 761; Fishman & Richards, Circulation of the Blood (1964), 33f.; Lesky 406 (first ed.); Blake 278 (earlier eds.). – Recent name on title. Wormhole affecting title and the following 4 leaves, very slightly affecting a few letters. Some dampstain to lower right corner of the first 30 leaves. Else a good copy. – Best.-Nr. 24500