William Cullen, Lectures on the Materia Medica

CULLEN, William. Lectures on the Materia Medica...Now Published by Permission of the Author, and with many Corrections from the Collation of Different Manuscripts by the Editors. Phila.: Robert Bell, 1775. viii,512pp. 4to. NAIP w013399. Evans 14000. Austin 577. Hildeburn 3188. Guerra A567. DNB V, pp. 279-82. First American printing of this popular and influential treatise on therapeutic treatments. Cullen's work is an encyclopedic examination of natural materials, their traits and qualities, and their potential curative properties for various diseases and infirmities. William Cullen, (1710-90), a physician, surgeon, and professor at the University of Edinburgh, was one of the most notable physicians of his time. "His careful preparation, his graphic descriptions of disease, and his candour, simplicity of thought, and comprehensiveness of view, soon made his clinical lectures renowned, especially as he delivered them in English instead of Latin. He lectured largely on diseases of the most common types as being most useful to students. His prescriptions were markedly simple, and he experimentally used and introduced many new drugs of great value, such as cream of tartar, henbane, James's powder, and tartar emetic" - DNB. An unauthorized edition of this work was first printed in London in 1771, followed by an authorized edition in 1773. The corrections included as an appendix in the London, 1773, edition have been incorporated into the text in this American edition. An important work, here in its scarce first American edition.

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