Ian Ehling
Head of Department
Lot 55
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. 1809-1894. Puerperal Fever, as a Private Pestilence. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1855.
10 December 2020, 11:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$6,375 inc. premium
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HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. 1809-1894.
Puerperal Fever, as a Private Pestilence. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1855.
8vo (220 x 135 mm). Contemporary purple cloth, modern quarter calf clamshell box. Spine heavily chipped, faded, library stamp on lower right corner of title.
Provenance: G.I. Fisher, A.M., M.D. (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. Only 500 copies were printed, but 159 were destroyed by the publisher in 1865. Holmes's series of articles originally published in 1843, made observations that at the time were "the most important contribution made in America to the advancement of medicine" (Currier & Tilton). "Oliver Wendell Holmes was the first to establish the contagious nature of puerperal fever. His essay on the subject took a strong line against the opinions then prevailing, stirring up violent opposition among the obstetricians of Philadelphia." (Garrison-Morton-Norman). Of this 1855 reprint in book form, the Grolier catalog notes: "No American publication in the nineteenth century saved more lives than this unassuming pamphlet, founded solely on the evidence of observed cases." BAL 8768 (this edition); Garrison-Morton-Norman 6274; Grolier American 50 (both 1843 and 1855 printings); PMM 316 (1843 edition).
8vo (220 x 135 mm). Contemporary purple cloth, modern quarter calf clamshell box. Spine heavily chipped, faded, library stamp on lower right corner of title.
Provenance: G.I. Fisher, A.M., M.D. (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. Only 500 copies were printed, but 159 were destroyed by the publisher in 1865. Holmes's series of articles originally published in 1843, made observations that at the time were "the most important contribution made in America to the advancement of medicine" (Currier & Tilton). "Oliver Wendell Holmes was the first to establish the contagious nature of puerperal fever. His essay on the subject took a strong line against the opinions then prevailing, stirring up violent opposition among the obstetricians of Philadelphia." (Garrison-Morton-Norman). Of this 1855 reprint in book form, the Grolier catalog notes: "No American publication in the nineteenth century saved more lives than this unassuming pamphlet, founded solely on the evidence of observed cases." BAL 8768 (this edition); Garrison-Morton-Norman 6274; Grolier American 50 (both 1843 and 1855 printings); PMM 316 (1843 edition).