A Treatise on Diseases of the Skin with Special Reference to Their Diagnosis and Treatment, Including an Analysis of 11,000 Consecutive Cases
London: Charles Griffin and Company, Exeter Street, Strand, 1887.
A Treatise on Diseases of the Skin is a first edition 1887 dermatological treatise by T. M'Call Anderson, Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Glasgow, and represents one of the major British contributions to dermatology of the later Victorian period. As its subtitle indicates, the work is grounded in an analysis of 11,000 consecutive clinical cases, giving it substantial statistical and empirical weight, and it opens with a systematic account of the "Forms of Cutaneous Eruption" — the foundational classification of primary lesions (maculae, papulae, tubercula, phymata, pomphi, vesiculae, bullae, pustulae) that Anderson describes, following Erasmus Wilson's formulation, as "the alphabet of dermatology." The book is illustrated with both fine chromolithographed plates by Thos. Kell & Son (including a striking plate of "Psoriasis Rupioides," credited as an original case from the author's own practice) and numerous wood-engraved diagrams throughout the text, including detailed microscopic studies such as "Sycosis Parasitica" shown at high magnification — reflecting the increasing use of microscopy in dermatological diagnosis by the 1880s.
The book's extensive List of Illustrations (running to at least 69 numbered figures, covering parasitic organisms, surgical instruments for treating lupus, and clinical case studies) reflects the comprehensive, richly illustrated nature of this treatise, positioning it as both a major reference work and a visually significant document in the history of dermatological illustration. This particular copy carries genuinely excellent and well-documented provenance: the title page bears the ink ownership stamp of "Dr. E. Lesser, Leipzig" — very likely Edmund Lesser, the eminent German dermatologist and co-author (with Albert Neisser) of influential dermatological textbooks of the period — and the book subsequently entered the library of the Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Charité (Universitätskliniken), Hautklinik und Poliklinik (the Charité Hospital's Dermatology Clinic and Outpatient Department), as confirmed by the institutional library stamp on the same page. A pencil annotation on the facing leaf (evidently added by a later librarian or cataloguer) records Anderson's own dates ("1836–1908, Prof. d. klin. Med. in Glasgow"), further underscoring the book's passage through serious academic and clinical hands in both Britain and Germany.
Condition & Binding: The book is bound in the publisher's original deep red/maroon cloth boards with a blind-stamped decorative monogram device ("C.G." for Charles Griffin & Co.) to the front board and gilt-lettered spine reading "A Treatise on Diseases of the Skin / Prof. M'Call Anderson, M.D. / Charles Griffin & Co." The binding is tight and sound, with light wear at the spine ends and corners and a small area of surface scuffing/mark visible on the upper right of the front board, but no detachment. Internally, the title page and preliminary leaves show light, even age-toning along with the ink ownership stamp and institutional library stamps noted above; the plates are present and in good, legible condition, with tissue guards protecting the color plates, showing only minor offset/ghosting onto the facing tissue (typical and expected for chromolithographic plates of this age) rather than any damage to the plates themselves. The text block is complete throughout. Overall- very good. Item #964
Price: $150.00