Beschreibung
3rd Edition in French of the famed physician of the Island of Ischia Jacques Etienne Chevalley (1801-1863), INSCRIBED by the author. Two Folding Maps as issued one of Ischia and one of Procida - a few have sold over the past 75 years but NONE with an inscription by the Author. 8 copies on OCLC mostly in France. The volume is an articulate description of mineral and thermal waters and the island of Ischia sources preceded by topographical signs, historical and archaeological. "Since Ischia has become the destination of so many Swiss holiday-makers in recent years, it might well be appropriate to rescue from oblivion a Swiss doctor for whom this island became an adopted home, and who was the spa-physician of international repute there for several decades. Indeed, one might reasonably claim that he closed that series of outstanding physicians with whose names the history of the thermal baths on the island is associated. If mention be made of Giovanni Elisio, to whom we owe the first description of the health-spas, which today are on everybody's lips, or of Giulio Jasolino, the Neapolitan doctor of the sixteenth century who helped to revive their reputation, or of Andrea D'Aloisio, whose "L'infermo istruito" represents the Ischian health-spa guide of the eighteenth century, then one can hardly fail to mention J.E. Chevalley de Rivaz, who was the representative physician on the island around the middle of the previous century. He was born in Vevey, in the canton Vaud, in 1801. As a son of well-off parents, he went to Paris in his teens in order to study medicine there. Involved, as he became, in the domestic political conflicts which at that time excited the populace under Louis xviii, he was compelled - the exact circumstances have not come down to us, unfortunately - to disappear for some time into a Trappist monastery, whose abbot not only gave him shelter but also took care of his further education. A qualified physician already in his twenty-first year, he was assigned to the French Legation in Naples, a circumstance which was decisive for his entire further career. Though he did return to Paris once, in 1827, so as to defend his thesis, which had meanwhile been completed, Naples and the gulf established a final hold over him, as over so many others who had come from the north. The young doctor at the Legation established a practice in Naples, and in Casamicciola near the Gurgitello spring, which had been praised by physicians in ancient days as "manus Dei, liquor celeste, ancora della salute" soon set up a sanatorium, which combined excellent medical care with a measure of comfort not to be found in any other place on the island. The gardens surrounding the "Maison de sante with their pergolas and orange trees - the latter a special treat to northern guests - bespoke the landlord's fondness of plants. From the benches in the garden you had an excellent view of the steep slopes of the Epomeo, the dark green veil of chestnut woods and the sea, the other islands and the coast of the mainland. The sanatorium not only offered the necessary equipment for diverse balneotherapeutic and other medical treatments - well-off guests used to have the spa waters taken to the house in those times - but also boasted elegantly furnished lounges and reading rooms. The book still survives today which bears the entries of the guests of the sanatorium from the year 1844 up to Chevalley's death, that is to say for nearly twenty years. Its yellowed pages reveal to us the Swiss doctor's illustrious and distinguished clientele, hailing from all parts of the globe, who usually stayed in the sanatorium for some time; often for two, three or even four months. Most numerous are the English, Americans and French and there is quite a sprinkling of Russians and Poles, but Rumanians, Belgians, Scandinavians, Swiss and Germans are also represented. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 025605
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