BLAKEY, [William].

OBSERVATIONS TRES IMPORTANTES POUR LES PERES ET MERES, et pour les personnes qu'on des familles a soigner. Divisees en trois parties. A Lausanne, chez Jean Mourer.

      1782.. et pour les personnes qu'on des familles a soigner. Divisees en trois parties. A Lausanne, chez Jean Mourer. 8vo, pp. 120; some light marginal staining (more prominent in the latter part of the work), with some minor foxing and soiling, small worm trail affecting upper margins of last couple of leaves (not touching text); some neat contemporary marginal annotations in ink; uncut in modern wrappers with facsimile of title-page on upper cover. Not in Grulee; see Blake p. 49; not on OCLC; KVK locates a copy at the Royal Library of Denmark and Switzerland, with a 1781 Liege imprint on ABES.. Apparently the fifth edition (though we have been unable to trace the first) of this scarce French edition based upon the principle works of the physician William Blakey (b. 1712). Divided into three parts, the first discusses the care and hygiene of new-born infants, focusing upon diet and clothing. Section two provides 'Instructions pour connoitre les descentes ou ruptures, & leurs effets dangereux, ainsi que pour s'en defendre, les traiter & les guerir', with the final part highlighting the treatment of some the common conditions affecting later life, notably gout and digestive afflictions due to the excesses of too much food and drink.Presumably English, though described here as being a member of the 'College Royal de Chirurgie a Paris', Blakey first published his short treatise 'Instructions pour prevenir et guerir les descentes ou hernies' in 1760, with the English edition 'Observations concerning ruptures' appearing in 1764. KVK cites a 1781 Liege edition of the present work. Of his paediatric work, the first cited edition on both OCLC and ESTC is the 1792 fifth edition of 'Essay on the manner of preserving children and grown persons from ruptures. In four parts. I. on the manner of bringing up children. II. How to know ruptures. III. Examples of divers cures, among others that of the gout, by no means than those of pleasant and easy regimen. IV. Reflexions and remarks on our knowledge of the animal structure'. A note on OCLC states that earlier editions of this were published under the title 'Method for bringing up children ... and necessary observations for fathers and mothers', but we have been unable to trace any.