MORGAGNI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA [BENJAMIN ALEXANDER, trans.]

The Seats and Causes of Diseases investigated by Anatomy; in five books, containing a great variety of dissections, with remarks. London: A. Millar, T. Cadell, Johnson and Payne, 1769. First edition in English. Old brown calf neatly and elegantly rebacked in the 19th century. 10 3/8 x 8 1/8 inches (26.5 x 20.75 cm); xxxii, 868 pp.; vi, 770 pp.; vi, 604 pp., [152] pp. indices. a Few scraped and some wear to boards; internally some minor toning, generally a clean set, although a few leaves are creased or dogeared; together with [idem]. De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis. Leiden: Cornelius Haak, 1767. Four volumes in two, period brown calf. [iv], cxliv, 222 pp., [iv], 310 pp; [iv], 442, [iv], 351, [1] pp. Some binding wear, minor foxing. Gift inscription by Joannes Unthank (the Scottish physician John Unthank); later gift inscription of [Sir] Richard Franklin to the City Limerick Infirmary.

This first English edition is rarer than the original Latin edition, De sedibus et causis morborum, Venice, 1761. "By this great work, one of the most important in the history of medicine, Morgagni was the founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work was completed in Morgagni's 79th year and consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could, he correlated the clinical record with the post mortem findings." (Garrison-Morton 2276). "The book includes a number of brilliant descriptions of new diseases, some of which have remained classics until our own day, particularly those of the heart, blood vessels, lungs and throat. He described syphilitic tumours (guminata) in the brain, recorded a case of heart-block (Stokes Adams disease), identified the clinical features of pneumonia with consolidation of the lungs, described lesions in angina pectoris, acute yellow atrophy of the liver, tuberculosis of the kidney etc." (PMM). For the first edition see Garrison-Morton 2276, 2734 and 2885; PMM 206; Dibner 125; Osler 80; not in Cushing or Waller.