Boerhaave, Hermann (1668-1738). A method of studying physick . . . translated into English by Mr. [Robert] Samber. 8vo. [48], 331, [1], [28, index]pp. Text diagrams. London: H. P. for C. Rivington [etc.], 1719. 194 x 119 mm. Gilt-ruled calf ca. 1719, minor repair to spine extremities, hinges a bit tender. One or two corners creased, otherwise fine. First "Official" Edition in English of Boerhaave's Institutiones medicae, originally published in Latin in 1708. Samber's translation is not the first appearance of this work in English, as it was preceded by Joseph Browne's Institutions in Physick (1714; 2nd ed. 1715), a plagiarism of the Institutiones that does not acknowledge Boerhaave as the author. Boerhaave, a member of the faculty of medicine at the University of Leiden, exerted an enormous influence upon the teaching and practice of medicine in Europe. He is credited with systematizing medical knowledge, synthesizing the older Greek medical heritage with the discoveries of the seventeenth century to build a comprehensive contemporary medical doctrine. He also introduced the modern method of clinical instruction, which has remained the basis of medical education to the present day. He was an excellent teacher, attracting many illustrious students, including Albrecht von Haller and Alexander Monro, who helped to spread Boerhaave's methods throughout Great Britain and Europe. Institutiones medicae, Boerhaave's first book, was soon being used in every medical school in Europe, going though numerous authorized and unauthorized editions and translations. It was one of the earliest modern textbooks of physiology, and was responsible, more than any other work, for establishing the study of physiology as an academic discipline. Boerhaave wrote the work to serve as the textbook for his course in the institutes of medicine, a discipline including pathology, symptoms, hygiene and therapeutics as well as physiology, but he apparently felt that physiology was a neglected subject in the curriculum, as his chapter on it was larger than the other four chapters combined, and the only one to contain footnotes. The Institutiones is also significant as a work of medical bibliography, introducing its readers to the medical literature of the past and present through Boerhaave's numerous detailed bibliographical citations, which in this English edition are collected in an "Index" at the end of the book. Morton / Historyofmedicine.com 581 (1708 ed.). Bookseller Inventory # 43446
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