System of Surgical Anatomy. Part First [all published]: on the Structure of the Groin, Pelvis, and Perineum. As Connected with Inguinal and Femoral Hernia; Tyeing the Iliac Arteries; and the Operation of Lithotomy. Illustrated by Nine Copper-plate Engravings

Quarto (28cm) signed in twos. Original paper-covered boards, with printed spine label; 199,12pp; 9 leaves of plates bound in at rear. Early ink ownership signature to title page (John Wheeler). A complete but worn copy. Covers are somewhat rubbed and worn, with some flaking of paper at spine and portions of printed spine label rubbed away; text conspicuously foxed throughout; half-title lacking; front endpaper partially excised, one plate partially detached at gutter. Text is uncut, and despite the prominent foxing to text, the plate leaves are mostly unblemished. Complete and Good. An infrequently encountered American surgical text. Anderson, who trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, emigrated to America in 1820 and, after delivering a series of anatomical lectures in New York under the patronage of Valentine Mott (the current work was published to supplement these lectures), became affiliated with the Vermont Academy of Medicine (see Kelly, American Medical Biographies. NY: 1920). This work is notable for the nine anatomical plates, all engraved by A.B. [Asher Brown] Durand, including four engraved from his original illustrations. These are quite early works by Durand, who would achieve his first prominence as the engraver of John Trumbull's edition of the Declaration of Independence (1823) and later great renown as a landscape painter of the Hudson River School, from about 1840 on. Not cited in any of the standard medical bibliographies, and infrequent in commerce with only a single copy traced at auction in the past 50 years (Swann, 1979).…