A System of Surgery Extracted from the Works of Benjamin Bell, of Edinburgh

Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1791. First Edition of Nicholas Water's Abridgment. Full leather with maroon title box to spine and gilt lettering and horizontal rulings. 8vo - 5 x 8”. viii, 570, xxix pp. Includes 12 engraved plates of surgical instruments. The plates, which appear in the Appendix along with a complete text explanation of each, were engraved by James Trenchard. Fair. The boards are rubbed and soiled with tears to the extremities and splitting along the front and rear spine-folds. Note in pencil and the previous owner’s name in ink, “Planey MD”, on the front free endpaper. Lengthy note in ink on the recto of the second rear free endpaper. Contains many instances of notes and marks in ink in the text. Soiling, foxing, and closed tears to some of the inside pages. The 12 plates appear to have been crudely detached at some point and incorrectly reattached in the appendix. The binding is shaken and split in areas, but it is still attached.