Adenochoiradelogia: Or, an Anatomick-Chirurgical Treatise of Glandules & Strumaes
Thomas Newcomb for Sam. Lowndes, London, 1684. 1st Edition. Hardcover. FIRST EDITION of the best contemporary account of the practice of "touching for the King's evil" (scrofula) under the Stuarts, by Charles II's surgeon. Browne had given the first account of cirrhosis of the liver in 1685 and had been appointed by the King as surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital in June 1683. Scrofula, also known as tuberculous lymphadenitis, is a form of tuberculosis that affects the lymph nodes in the neck. It is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It was once much more common than today and was described by Shakespeare in Macbeth. Until the 18th century, many doctors thought the only way to cure the disease was to be touched by a member of a royal family. In both France and England, the kings, who were thought to have inherited a miraculous power to cure the illness, touched crowds of infected people. The 'touchings' began in France during the reign of King Philip I (1060 - 1108) and in England during the reign of King Henry I (1100 - 1135). This act of public healing by powerful kings and royal family members encouraged the nickname "King's Evil".
BOOK DETAILS: 3 parts in 1 volume. 8vo (176 x 98 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece and engraved plate ("The Royal Gift of Healing") are present. Contemporary calf, marbled edges. Spine heavily chipped, especially at top, joints cracking, browning. Overall condition: VG-.
PROVENANCE: From James Tait Goodrich Medical Book Library. Purchased at Bonham's in 2024 out of an offering of books from the Bridgewater Library (bookplate). The Bridgewater Library once contained 8,300 printed books of outstanding quality including three Caxtons, all four Shakespeare folios and many of the quartos and famous rarities of 16th- and 17th-century drama and verse. Added to this were roughly 13,000 manuscripts. This is considered "the oldest large family collection in England to survive intact into modern times" (Tabor, Stephen (1999), "The Bridgewater Library", in Baker, William; Womack, Kenneth (eds.), Pre-Nineteenth-Century British Book Collectors and Bibliographers, Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 213, Gale Group, pp. 40 50).
REFERENCES: Krivatsy 1817; Wellcome II, p.251; Wing B5122. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #EBS100553
Price: $3,800.00