ONE OF THE GREATESAT TRIUMPHS IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE.

JENNER, (EDWARD) EDOUARD -

An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, &c. Recherches sur l'origine & les effets d'une maladie connue dans quelques Comtés de l'Angleterre, & particulierement dans Gloucestershire, sous le nom de Petite vérole des vaches, par Eduard jenner... Premier- (Second) Extrait.

A Geneve, Biblioth. Britannique, 1798.

8vo. Contemp. marbled boards. Paperlabel with handwritten volume- title on spine. Boards rubbed. In: "Bibliotheque Britannique", Tome nieuvieme. Sciences et Arts. Lower right corner of title-page torn away, only loss of paper, no loss of letters. Entire volume offered. 400 pp., 4 folded tables. A brownspot on foot of p. 3, and a wormtract in margins of some of the first leaves, otherwise internally clean and fine, printed on good paper. Jenner's paper: pp. 258-284 and pp. 367-399.

First French version, and the first translation at all of this important work in the history of medicine, being the foundation of all subsequent work in immunology and virology. Published the same year as the English original.

"On the basis of an old country tradition that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox were not susceptible to smallpox, Jenner, an English country physician, decided to experiment by injecting cowpox-infected lymph into a local boy. After inoculation the boy was found to be immune to smallpox and Jenner continued his experiments. In 1798 he published the present epochal work, the results of a long and successful series of case histories. By 1803 his work had been translated into numerous languages and his method of immunization was taken up with amazing speed, becoming almost universally adopted. Garrison has called Jenner's work "one of the greatest triumphs in the history of medicine" (Fielding H. Garrison, An introduction to the history of medicine).

Heirs of Hippocrates: 1086. - Garrison & Morton 5423; Osler 1251; Waller 5136; Wellcome III, p. 351 - PMM, 250. - Dibner, 127. - Milestones of Science, 112. - Hiorblit, 56. (all for the first edition in English)

Order-nr.: 50605