Macartney William N Md (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 1st ed. Roy 8vo. 462pp. VG. Much of the book deals with the diseases the author encountered in his work, some of which have virtually disappeared but many of which are still common today.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. First Edition Assumed. Inscribed in pencil on flyleaf by author to a friend, with a typed letter from the author to the same person about the book. Also signed in ink by the author on title page. Good sound copy with some wrinkling in red cloth binding. Inscribed by Author(s). …

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good -. No Jacket. First Edition. Medical memoirs by Dr. Macartney, written for the general practitioner, which was largely confined to the author's own personal observations and medical deductions based upon his general medical practice. Very minor edgewear; spine label is lightly rubbed. Book.…

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. An appealing association copy of William N. Macartney's memoir of a lifetime in medical practice, preserving both an account of rural American medicine and the social history of the communities served by the country physician. Macartney graduated from medical school in 1888 and ultimately devoted decades to medical practice in Fort Covington, New York. Contemporary medical commentary described the book as the story of a physician who returned to the small community where he had grown up and devoted roughly forty years to practice there. The volume provides a firsthand physician's perspective on the extraordinary transformation of medicine from the late nineteenth century into the modern medical era. Macartney discusses the changing role of the general practitioner, the growth of medical specialization, diagnosis and treatment, infectious disease, public-health controversies, vaccination, hospital medicine, and the practical realities of caring for patients in communities distant from major medical centers. The photographed section concerning smallpox and compulsory vaccination is particularly notable. Macartney discusses vaccination legislation, opposition to vaccination, outbreaks of smallpox, and his experiences surrounding vaccination during the First World War. The book has subsequently been cited in historical scholarship dealing with the history of smallpox and vaccination. Chapter XX, "Specialism," examines another major transformation Macartney witnessed firsthand: the movement away from the physician expected to handle virtually every medical problem toward increasingly specialized medical practice. His observations provide an unusually personal contemporary view of this transition. The book also contains numerous details of everyday medical and social history: physicians working without immediate laboratory or hospital resources, house calls, communication systems for summoning doctors, community epidemics, difficult diagnoses, preventive medicine, and the relationship between doctors and the families they served. The importance of the work as a contemporary account was recognized almost immediately. The New Yorker described it in March 1938 as a collection of reminiscences, rural characters, and Macartney's observations concerning disease, while the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed the book in June 1938. The publishing history itself suggests substantial initial demand. This copy is the Sixth Printing of May 1938, although the first printing had appeared only in March—six printings being recorded on the copyright page within approximately three months. Association / Provenance This copy is distinguished by the handwritten inscription: "To my friend, Dr. C. H. Young" Dr. C. H. Young was the husband of Anne Young, and the volume comes from their family library. This provenance connects the book with other volumes surviving from the Young family collection. Because the inscription is not followed by a signature, this copy is not offered as author-signed. Its significance lies instead in its identifiable medical and family association and its survival within the Young library. An evocative Depression-era medical memoir with particular interest for collectors and researchers of American medical history, rural physicians, general practice, family medicine, vaccination and public-health history, medical specialization, New York history, and physician memoirs. Seller's Notes A genuine 1938 E. P. Dutton printing, not a modern facsimile or print-on-demand reproduction. The copyright page clearly identifies this copy as the Sixth Printing, May 1938. The association inscription to Dr. C. H. Young is unsigned; no claim of an author signature is made.…