The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. Collected and Arranged by Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D
BR-2023.043
BARTON, Benjamin Smith. The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. Collected and Arranged by Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D.
Phila. 1805-1808. Four parts bound in three volumes. x, 184, (1]; vii, 192, vii; 208pp. plus three plates (including frontispiece and folding table), [2],xi, (1], 209, [1], (8]pp., one folding chart, viii, 190pp. All printed.
Includes a valedictory charge written by Benjamin Rush (Fox 1805-8) with handwritten comments from Someone who clearly was not a fan of Rush.
Extraordinarily rare. No auction records of the complete series ever recorded, with almost no records of the third and supplement volumes. The third volume, stated part one but actually complete, shows no OCLC holdings. The first to third supplements list only two holdings. All volumes of the journal were founded and edited by Benjamin Smith Barton the prominent American botanist and physician.
From Catalog I
America's first Philadelphia medical periodical, complete in a run that Fox records no institutional copies of. The annotated Rush valedictory is the collection's most remarkable reading document: Rush's final formal address to the next generation of physicians, met in the margins by a skeptic who talked back. No auction record for a complete series. The first volume is unopened -- perhaps never read. The annotated volume has been read with extraordinary attention.
Accession
BR-2023.043
Date
Philadelphia, 1805-1808
Author / maker
Barton, Benjamin Smith (editor); Rush, Benjamin (contributor)
Condition
Volume I: Original paper boards, paper label. Some chipping to tail and edges of spine. Ink inscription on front free endpaper. Very good, unopened and untrimmed.
Volume II: Contemporary marbled boards, skillfully rebacked. Very good.
Volume III: Original paper boards, contemporary red cloth spine. Some chipping to tail and edges of spine, previous owner's signature on front free endpapers, minor loss of the top 1/2 inch of titlepage not affecting words, else very good.
[WITH]: BARTON, Benjamin Smith. First Supplement to the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal. Collected and Arranged by Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D. Phila.: 1806.
[WITH]: Second Supplement Phila.: 1807.
[WITH]: Third Supplement Phila.: 1809. 312pp, paginated continuously. Partially unopened and fully untrimmed. Two unobtrusive ink stamps from previous owner on foot of title page of the first supplement, else very good or better.
References
Not in Austin or Miner, FOX lists no institutional copies
Notes
THE PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL AND PHYSICAL JOURNAL is a collection of articles on medicine and natural biographical sketches, reviews of recent publications , and various "miscellaneous" facts and observations.
Most of the articles are by Barton himself, but there is a notice of John Bartram's son, William.
The second volume includes a peculiar appendix in French, concerning the discovery and extraction of a parasitic twin first thought to be a tumor. Early advertisement laid in the second volume.
Of interest in the third volume, a section On treating rattlesnake bites along with a 10-page write up on the Pennsylvania Hospital. The last volume of supplements has many different journal entries on Yellow Fever and is arguably the most valuable collection of works due to the in-depth discussion of the epidemic.
Includes a valedictory charge written by Benjamin Rush (Fox 1805-8) with handwritten comments from
Someone who clearly was not a fan of Rush.
A rare and important early journal
