Harvey, Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, 1680

Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium. Quibus accedunt quaedam de partu de membranis ac humoribus uteri & de conceptione. Autore Guilielmo Harveo, Anglo in collegio medicorum Londinensium anatomes & chirurgiae professore. Editio novissima a mendis repurgata. Hagae comitis. Apud Arnoldum Leers. 1680. Full brown leather binding (probably 18th century) with red title plate and gold detailing on spine. Intact green ribbon. Red page edges. Some scuffing and chipping of leather. Hinges intact and boards secure. Text in Latin. Later Marbled end papers. Library features on spine and end papers. Previous dealer’s description pasted to rear pastedown. A clean, bright, and tight ex library copy in overall good to very good condition. Measures approximately 5 ½ x 3 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches. First published in 1651 (GM 467 6146), Harvey considered this book the culmination of his life’s work, even over and above his immortal treatise on the circulation of the blood (De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis...). He denied the concept of a preformed embryo contained within the ovum, but argued that the form of the fetus progressed with gestation. This work was the first book on parturition published by an Englishman.