1859 - Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia - First American Edition
A superb copy, in the original publisher’s sheep binding and endpapers, the black spine label complete, binding without restoration or rebind, text and illustrations clean, no attempts to colour the illustrations, no handwriting. Rare as such.

Gray’s Anatomy, the book that brought the beauty of the human form to the masses, has remained a landmark text in medical study since its first appearance in print. The first edition, published in England in 1858, was found to have a good many errors, most of which were corrected in this, the first American edition. The corrections, improvements and new index are outlined in the publisher’s note at the beginning of the work.

Illustrated with 363 wood-engraved illustrations by Gray’s colleague and assistant, Henry Vandyke Carter.

‘The success of the book was not due to an absence of rivals. There were already several texts on anatomy... Gray's
Anatomy, however, eclipsed all others, partly for its meticulous detail, partly for its emphasis on surgical anatomy, but most of all perhaps for the excellence of the illustrations, based on drawings by H. V. Carter [1831-97], who assisted Gray with the dissections, and engraved by Messrs Butterworth and Heath with remarkable skill. The design of the book, and the skill with which the illustrations were interpolated in the text, could hardly have been improved. For a man in his early thirties it was a remarkable achievement’ [ODNB]. 
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Price HK$ 65,000



Healths Improvement: or, Rules Comprising and Discovering The Mature, Method, and Manner of Preparing all sorts of Food Used in this Nation. - Thomas Muffett (Moffett), Christopher Bennet

1655 - Printed by Tho: Newcomb for Samuel Thornton, at the sign of the white Horse in Pauls Churchyard - First Edition
Written by that ever Famous Thomas Muffett, Doctor in Physick: Corrected and Enlarged by Christopher Bennet, Doctor in Physick, and Fellow of the Colledg of Physitians in London.

Scarce first edition of this posthumous work, which André Simon said was “probably compiled about 1595. Some chapter headings will give an idea of the scope of this work, which is composed throughout in a gossipy and very readable style. ‘
What Diet is’. ‘How it is to be chosen’. ‘Of Meats’. ‘Of the flesh of tame beasts’. ‘Of the flesh of wild fowl’ . . .”

From the collection of noted bibliophile and perfectionist, Brent Gration-Maxfield, with his neat pencil annotation to the front.

See page 154, where Muffett describes the flying fish he was shown by his friend Sir Francis Drake.

The work includes the important observation, made for the first time, that eating liver is beneficial to certain eye diseases. It also contains the first list of British wildfowl, and recognition of their migratory habits.
 
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Price HK$ 40,000



Notes on Nursing: What it is, and What it is Not - Florence Nightingale

Circa 1860-64 - Harrison, London - Early Edition
‘Every woman, or at least almost every woman, in England has, at one time or another in her life, charge of the personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid, – in other words, every woman is a nurse.’

One of the earliest editions of Florence Nightingale’s seminal work on nursing – the first of its kind ever to be published – which sets out her principles of care for the sick and injured, with advice and practices under chapters entitled ‘Observations of the Sick’, ‘Personal Cleanliness’, ‘Bed and Bedding’, ‘Cleanliness of Rooms’, ‘Taking Food’, ‘Ventilation and Warming’, and ‘Health in Houses’.

‘The book was the first of its kind ever to be written. It appeared at a time when the simple rules of health were only beginning to be known, when its topics were of vital importance not only for the well-being and recovery of patients, when hospitals were riddled with infection, when nurses were still mainly regarded as ignorant, uneducated persons. The book has, inevitably, its place in the history of nursing, for it was written by the founder of modern nursing’ – Joan Quixley, head of the
Nightingale School of Nursing, 1974. 
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Price HK$ 11,500