Hunter, Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds, 1817

A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds. By the Late John Hunter. Illustrated with Plates. Philadelphia: Published by James Webster, No. 10, S. Eighth Street. W. Brown, Printer, Prune Street. 1817. 
 
Likely original full brown leather with red title label and gold bands on spine. Leather scuffed, cracked, and stained. Joints strong. Corners bumped. Yellow page edges. Early pencil and ink owner’s inscriptions on front paste down. Scattered damp stain and foxing throughout, but mostly bright. Appears to be a washed copy.
 
Ffep, blank, title, half title, (vii)/viii, (v)/vi, i-xii, i-viii, 1-508, 8 plates, 509-514, 2 blanks, rfep. 
 
See Heirs 972 for the first edition of 1794. John Hunter (1728-1793): “This remarkable, but typical, work of Hunter is based on his own observations during his military experience and is not in any way dependent on any other concepts. Its approach to physiology and pathology has a definitely modern ring. The book was finished but only about one-third through the press (in Hunter's own home) when Hunter died. It contains nine fine copperplates in the text as well as an engraved portrait and a biography of Hunter.” 
 
See G-M 2283: “It was while serving with the army at Belle Isle during the Seven Years’ War that Hunter collected the material for his epoch-making book on inflammation and gunshot wounds. His studies on inflammation in particular are fundamental for pathology. Hunter recognized the process of inflammation as one of the most widespread phenomena in pathology, and classified it into three types: adhesive, in which adherence of contiguous parts caused localization of disease; suppurative, in which pus was formed; and ulcerative, in which tissue loss occurred through the action of the lymphatics. This was Hunter's last published work; he was in poor health when the book went to press and died after correcting only one-third of the proofs. The remainder of the work's publication was supervised by Matthew Baillie and Everard Home.” 
 
See also Heirs 968: “John Hunter, even more remarkable than his remarkable brother, William (see No. 942 ff.), was an anatomist and surgeon, practicing in London. He lacked the education and culture of his brother, yet his tireless energy helped him to overcome whatever obstacles his educational and cultural lacks may have provided. "Hunter remains one of the great all-round biologists like Haller and Johannes Müller, and with Paré and Lister, one of the three greatest surgeons of all time. . . . Hunter found surgery a mechanical art and left it an experimental science" (Fielding H. Garrison, An introduction to the history of medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia, 1929. p. 137).”