Dr Willis's Practice of Physick, Being the Whole Works of that Renowned and Famous Physician
H, Clarke etc, London, 1684. First English Collected edition of Thomas Willis's work. A good copy in later full calf. Lacking the general title page at the start and the second section of Two Discourses Concerning The Soul of Brutes. 32 engravings, the works all appear complete with five divisional title pages. FIRST AND ONLY COMPLETE EDITION of Willis's works in English, including the first edition in English of his De anima brutorum, and translations of all his works except Affectionum quae dicuntur hystericae (1671). "In addition to his invaluable work in the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, Willis was the first to distinguish true diabetes mellitus, and showed that the polyuria was not due to any disease of the kidneys. He anticipated the recognition of hormones in the circulation of his suggestion that the phenomena of puberty were due to a ferment distributed through the body from the genitals. He discovered the superficial lymphatics of the lungs, distinguished acute tuberculosis from the chronic fibroid type and gave the first clinical and pathological account of emphysema. The modern treatment of asthma really begins with Willis, who considered it to be of nervous origin. ("Of the convulsive cough and asthma," Treatise VIII, pp. 92-96; GMN 3165). Willis was probably the first to report an epidemic of cerebrospinal fever ("A description of an epidemical feaver, Treatise VIII, pp. 46-54; GMN 4673)" (Garrison-Morton-Norman 1311, 3165, 4673, 8104). [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]
Bookseller: Temple Bar Bookshop