The Philosophy of Medicine: Or, Medical Extracts on the Nature of Health and Disease, including the Laws of the Animal Economy and the Doctrine of Pneumatic Medicine, Volume IV

Fourth edition.  Volume IV only.  xvi, 518pp, with one coloured plate illustration, two engraved plates and one folding chart.  Full calf’s leather binding with gilt lettering and decoration on spine.  Marbled endpapers.  Upper text block edge gilded. 8vo.  Covers are heavily worn, chipped, rubbed and scuffed at edges and over spine, front joint cracked.  Upper text block edge heavily dulled.  Internally there’s a little spotting on the first and last few leaves else internally neat, clean, bright and tight.

Published in the 1790s in four volumes, The Philosophy of Medicine is a large medical-philosophical work exploring health, disease and bodily regulation through pneumatic theories.  Volume IV focusses on the structure and functions of the nervous and fibrous systems.  Although published anonymously, attributed to A Friend of Improvements, it was the work of English physician Robert John Thornton (1768-1837).  It an 18th century view of neuromuscular physiology and medical philosophy, combining early ideas about nervous stimulation with pneuma-based theories and emerging modern physiology.  The case studies included reveal Thornton’s application of his ideas in real medical contexts.