Wardrop, Abstraction of Blood, 1837, first American Edition

“Leeches are by far the most eligible mode of local blood-letting....” 
 
On the Curative Effects of The Abstraction of Blood: With Rules for Employing Both Local and General Blood-Letting in the Treatment of Diseases. By James Wardrop, M. D. Surgeon to the Late King, &c. &c. Philadelphia: Published by A. Waldie, 46 Carpenter Street. 1837. American Medical Library. 
 
“...I believe that blood-letting has frequently been carried to a very unwarrantable, and even fatal, extent.” 
 
Octavo in half brown leather with marbled paper of boards. Respined a bit crudely. Shelf wear. Leather and boards a bit scuffed. New end papers. 19th century owner’s inscription on first original blank (J. Jacob Lesher ?). Foxing throughout. Damp stain affecting top edge to page 57 and affecting bottom corner throughout, but neither involving text. Binding tight. Contents bound at rear. 
 
New ffep, two blanks, title, advertisement leaf, 73, contents leaf, new rfep 
 
See G-M 11723: “Wardrop ‘promoted blood-letting in an era when a few physicians, notably Pierre Louis of Paris, were discouraging the therapeutic approach’ (W. Bruce Fye, "James Wardrop," Profiles in cardiology, 91.)” 
 
James Wardrop 1782-1869, was the first to classify inflammatory disease of the eye by the structures affected and was also the first to use the word “keratitis” (see G-M 5840). He also successfully employed distal ligation to treat carotid artery aneurysm (see G-M 2949). 
James Wardrop and Thomas Wakely cofounded The Lancet in 1823.