Beschreibung
xi, [9]-124 pp; 4 plates; ads. Original cloth. Foxed. IMPORTANT NOTE: The words "Polypi of the Larynx" on the half-title leaf were cut out long ago. A fine facsimile of those words has been patched in (see photo). First Edition. SIGNED BY HORACE GREEN TO DR. G. J. FISHER: "Dr. G. J. Fisher/ with Dr. Green's respects/ 1856" (see photo). Garrison-Morton 3262. "Green was one of the few to remove a laryngeal tumor before the invention of the laryngoscope: when the patient opened his mouth widely and coughed, a round white fibrous-looking tumor, about the size of a cherry, could be seen arising from the larynx. Green succeeded in seizing the tumor with a tonsil forceps and dividing it with a long slender knife. This important work describes this surgical procedure" (Rutkow, The History of Surgery in the United States, Vol. I, OT4, pp. 200-01, and fig. 68). The recipient of this copy "Dr. G. J. Fisher" was George Jackson Fisher, M.D. "It takes men of all kinds to make a complete medical portraiture of the country, and the bibliophile has his place in the collection. George Jackson Fisher . . . had a strong liking for natural history but was withal a decided booklover, a taste which his medical profession gave him ample excuse for indulging. He . . . graduated in 1849 and began to practise with his former teacher. In 18S1 he removed to Sing Sing and lived there until he died, successful as a surgeon in all the major operations, including Cesarean section, ligation of the carotid artery, etc., and writing a good deal on tetratology. A paper on "Diploteratology" appeared in the "Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York," from 1863-8, and an article on "Tetratology" in Johnson's "Universal Cyclopedia," vol. iv. Thoroughly imbued besides in medical history, he wrote "The Old Masters of Anatomy, Surgery and Medicine," "The Medical Men of Westchester County," and popularized S. D. Gross' "Autobiography" by adding over four hundred illustrations and forty autograph letters. He began to illustrate also "The Gold Headed Cane." His collection of some four thousand books, his fine engravings of old doctors, his cabinet of over four hundred medical medals made his library a delight to his confreres and his friends. . . . He had many honors, among them the A. M. of Madison University; president of the Medical Society of the State of New York; physician to the state prisons at Sing Sing, and twenty years brigade surgeon, New York National Guard. He was also editor of The Physician and Pharmaceutist, 1868-9. In "A Memorial Sketch of the Life and Character of the late John Foster Jenkins," (Trans. Med. Soc, State of New York, Syracuse, 1884, 369-387, G. J. Fisher), Fisher, in speaking of his friend's "bibliomania," reveals his own love of books. It was, he says, "an innocent species of mania. It brought an ample compensation in the way of pleasant diversion for spare hours, and an elegant culture otherwise unattainable. Though my books were burned as a funeral fire, they have served a purpose to me quite equal to their commercial value. By researches into the period and condition of the times of medical men; "prevailing medical opinions of their era, their contributions to theory and fact. . .; the nature and extent of their labors and even the particulars relating to their personalities . . ., we learned the story of our profession and traced the gradual evolution of the science and art of healing" (Kelly & Burrage, American Medical Biographies, 1920 edition, pp. 385-86). Fisher is profiled in Genevieve Miller, "In Praise of Amateurs: Medical History in America before Garrison", Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 597-98. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 14017
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