Of the Curing and Causing of Wounds

1. xxxJ Gideon Harvey (1640?-1700?.) Casus medico-chirurgicus 1685
2. 538J George Bate Pharmacopoeia Bateana in English 1694
3. xxxJ. Gideon Harvey  The vanities of philosophy & physick: 
4. 527J_B^A.   Walter Charleton The magnetick cure of wounds. 1650
5. 445J       Kenelm Digby  The Cure of Wounds By The Powder Of Sympathy 1658
6. 508J       William Gibson The farriers dispensatory  1721
7. 494J       Richard Mead  A mechanical account of poisons in several essays 1702
8. 493J      John Radcliffe (1650-1714) Pharmacopoeia Radcliffeana: or, Dr.    Radcliff’s prescriptions, faithfully 
9. 126J      Wilhelm Fabricius Hildanus 1560-1634. An accurate description of the stone in the bladder
10. xxxJ

________________________)(___________________________)(____________________________

1. 527J John Baptiste Von Helmont translated baby Walter Charleton

A ternary of paradoxes. The magnetick cure of wounds. Nativity of tartar in wine. Image of God in man. Written originally by Joh. Bapt. Van Helmont, and translated, illustrated, and ampliated by Walter Charleton, Doctor in physick, and physician to the late Kingn[The second impression, more reformed, and enlarged with some marginal additions]

Bound With 

Deliramenta catarrhi: or, The incongruities, impossibilities, and absurdities couched under the vulgar opinion of defluxions. The author, that great philosopher, by fire, Joh. Bapt. Van Helmont, &c. The translator and paraphrast Dr. Charleton, physician to the late King.

London : printed by James Flesher for William Lee, dwellingin [sic] Fleetstreet, at the sign of the Turks head, 1650.

&

London : printed by E.G. for William Lee at the signe of the Turks-head in Fleet-street, 1650. Price $2,200

Two Quarto volumes bound as one 18x 13.5 cm. ad.1]signatures A-Z⁴,Aa-Bb⁴. ad.2] Signatures A⁴,a²,B-K⁴,L² bound in early calf, crudely rebacked.

Van Helmont published very little until near the end of his life. This may be explained in part by the fact that his first known publication, “Of the Magnetic Curing of Wounds” (1621), led to trouble with the Spanish Inquisition. In addition to suggesting that saintly relics might display their curative effects through magnetic influence, he included very uncomplimentary comments regarding Jesuit scholastics. As a result, ecclesiastical court proceedings of one sort or another were pending against him for more than 20 years. Van Helmont was a man of his age and accepted the ideas of spontaneous generation, transmutation of metals, and the existence of a medical panacea. However, he insisted that knowledge of the natural world could be obtained only by experimentation. Many of his treatises deal with the refutation of commonly held views and the experimental evidence for his own views. He rejected the ideas of the four elements (earth, air, water, and fire) of Aristotle and the three principles (salt, mercury, and sulfur) of Paracelsus (as received from Arabic alchemists). For him, the only true elements were air and water, and he demonstrated that these were not interchangeable, as some thought.

The ‘Magnetic cure’ is good example of the typical adaptations to which the original atom- cum-void model was everywhere subjected is given by Walter Charleton, who, though defining himself as a “Gassendo-Epicurean,” nonetheless insisted that the following three postulates had to be rejected: “(1.) Quod mundus non sit a Deo constitutus, that the World was not constituted by God; (2.) Quod mundus a Deo non gubernetur, that the World was not governed by God; (3.) Quod animus noster non superfit a funere, that the soul of man doth not survive the funeral of his body.”

In what is perhaps his best-known experiment, van Helmont placed a 5-pound (about 2.2-kg) willow in an earthen pot containing 200 pounds (about 90 kg) of dried soil, and over a five-year period he added nothing to the pot but rainwater or distilled water. After five years, he found that the tree weighed 169 pounds (about 77 kg), while the soil had lost only 2 ounces (57 grams). He concluded that “164 pounds of wood, barks, and roots arose out of water only,” and he had not even included the weight of the leaves that fell off every autumn. Obviously, he knew nothing of photosynthesis, in which carbon from the air and minerals from the soil are used to generate new plant tissue, but his use of the balance is important; he believed that the mass of materials had to be accounted for in chemical processes.

Wing 1402 and H1398
cf. Booth, A Subtle and Mysterious Machine: The Medical World of Walter Charleton (1619-1707)

Men were very early fascinated by magnetism because of its manifest and particular working at distance, which looked different of gravity. It was tryed to be explained by mecanism, for exemple Descartes and Boyle. Paracelse valued the therapeutics with magnets and conceived medicines as working by a magnetic virtue. Gilbert limited the medicinal properties of magnet but helded it to be animated. Many authors praised remedies that work at distance of the evil as Bacon, Van Helmont, Croll, Porta, Goclenius, Digby. Such a belief related to magic ideas of this time. In the Bacon’s way Boyle collected facts of magnetic cures, and his actual testing of the divisibility of bodies led him to conceive imponderable corpuscles. Newton supposed a subtil and universel fluid going through every solid body. Mesmer misappropriated this idea by founding the animal magnetism of which physical working was only proceeding from the inside of the patient by an effect of suggestion (psychosomatic). Homeopathy took again the notion of remedies having an infinite or a magnetic virtue, which partly issued from Paracelse’s and Mesmer’s doctrines, which were extolled in Germany at the time of Hahnemann. The latter decided in favour of a spiritualist and not corpuscular interpretation of the working of his homeopathic medicines.

The Effect of Magnetic Fields on Wound Healing
Experimental Study and Review of the Literature
Steven L Henry, MD, Matthew J Concannon, MD, and Gloria J Yee, MD

Through many experiments in physiology, van Helmont demonstrated that acid was the digestive element in the stomach and was neutralized by alkali in the intestine and that blood combined with a “ferment from the air,” with venous blood removing a residue that escaped through the lungs. He studied extensively the formation and nature of kidney stones. His theory of “ferments” as the agents bringing about physiological processes is a crude precursor of the idea of enzymes.

Several other important studies occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Swiss physician, philosopher, and alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1542) investigated the medical properties of lodestones in the treatment of diseases such as epilepsy, diarrhea, and hemorrhage. William Gilbert (1544-1603), physician to Queen Elizabeth I, wrote his classic text De Magnete in 1600, describing hundreds of detailed experiments on electricity and terrestrial magnetism and debunking many quack medicinal uses of the magnet. Thomas Browne (1605- 1682) continued this attack on popular magnetic salves and remedies, suggesting that their putative healing power was due only to incorporated herbal and mineral compounds. The 17th century physician Kircher (1602-1680) developed a magnetic cure for strangulated hernias in which the patient was first fed iron filings and the imprisoned intestine was then freed from the surrounding muscular sheath through the external application of powerful magnets. In a similar manner, magnets were used by early oculists to retrieve iron splinters from the eyes of blacksmiths and other metalworkers.

376 © 1993 American College of Physicians
Downloaded From: http://annals.org/ by a Penn State University Hershey User on 06/19/2015

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The Cure of Wounds By The Powder Of Sympathy. 1658

2. 445J Digby, Kenelm, 1603-1665.

A late discourse made in a solemne assembly of nobles and learned men at Montpellier in France; by Sr. Kenelme Digby, Knight, &c. Touching the cure of wounds by the powder of sympathy; with instructions how to make the said powder; whereby many other secrets of nature ar unfolded. Rendred faithfully out of French into English by R. White. Gent  { Translation of “Discours fait en une célèbre assemblée, touchant la guérison des playes par la poudre de sympathie”.}

London : printed for R. Lownes, and T. Davies, and are to be sold at their shops in St. Pauls Church yard, at the sign of the White Lion, and at the Bible over against the little north door of St. Pauls Church, 1658.                 Price  $2,900

Duodecimo:  122.5 x 8.5 cm.  Signatures: A-G¹² H⁶./ Adverstisement: “Books printed for, and to be sold by, Thomas Davis”, p. [1] at end. The Second edition [same year as the first] corrected and augmented, with the addition of an index. This is boud in modern full calf in an appropriate style.

This remarkable book is one of the most imaginative attempts to add a mechanistic development to the pharmacopeia.  The Powder of Sympathy, is the substantive manifestation of Sympathetic magic which is based on the metaphysical belief that like affects like.   Not a far step from the eating the heart of a brave but defeated warrior foe, throwing spears at painted animals on cave walls, or wearing the reindeer’s antlers before the hunt. But with Digby’s ‘discovery’ of  The Powder of Sympathywhich facilitates an extra-perceptible connection between a wound and its cause; specifically rapier wounds. Expanding the concepts of healing, and for that matter weapons.

 Digby’s discovery is depicted in Umberto Eco’s novel The island of the day before.Where Dr. Byrd, the scientist on board a lost ship ,  can tell the time at the ship’s port of departure and can then calculate accurately how far they have traveled west. Byrd then uses The Powder of Sympathy, in the attempt to solve the problem of longitude. A dog’s wound is kept open on a ship in the South Pacific. At an agreed upon hour the knife that opened that wound is touched in London. The dog howls and whimpers. The seamen then know London time, and from that they can determine longitude.

In 1687 The Royal Navy tested the notion of sympathetic powder. A dog was wounded and sent off to sea while its bandage remained in London. At a predetermined time, the bandage was to be treated with the powder and the dog was to feel the effect. After this experiment the navy did not pursue the practice.

The Duke of Buckingham testified that Digby had healed his secretary of a gangrenous wound by simply soaking the bloody bandage in a solution of the powder (possibly due to the oligodynamic effect see the Recipe below). Digby claimed to have got the secret remedy from a Carmelite monk in Florence and attributed its potency to the fact that the sun’s rays extracted the spirits of the blood and the vitriol, while, at the same time, the heat of the wound caused the healing principle thus produced to be attracted to it by means of a current of air .

Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), D1435; ESTC; R27859; Zeis Index,; 40. While well represented in institutions it is not commonly on the market.

Here is an example of how to use this powder!

Recipe

1. Take good English Vitriol, dissolve it in warm water, using no more water than will dissolve it, leaving some of the imperfect part at the bottom undissolved.2. Pour it off and filter it, which you may do so by a Coffin of fine gray paper put into a Funnel, or by laying a sheet of gray paper in a sieve, and pouring your water or Dissolution of Vitriol into it by degrees, setting the sieve upon a large pan to receive the filtered Liquor.3. When all your Liquor is filtered, boil it in an earthen Vessel glazed, till you see a thin scum upon it. 4. Set the scum in a Cellar to cool, covering it loosely, so that nothing may fall in. 5. After two or three days standing, pour off the Liquor, and you will find at the bottom and on the sides large and fair green Christals like Emerauds. 6. Drain off all the water clean from them, and dry them. Then spread them abroad, in a large flat earthen dish, and expose them to the hot sun in the Dog-days, taking them in at Night, and setting them out in the Morning, securing them from the Rain. 7. When the Sun has calcined them to whiteness, beat them to Powder, and set this Powder again in the Sun, stirring it sometimes, and when you see it perfectly white, powder it, and sift it finely, and set it again in the Sun for a day. 8. You will have a pure white Powder, which is the Powder of Sympathy.

How to preserve

9. Put it up in a Glass, and stop it close [seal it]. The next year when the Dog days come, and if you still have any of this Powder left, you may expose it again in the Sun, spreading it abroad to renew its Virtue by the influence of the Sunbeams.

How to Use – the Way of Curing Wounds

10. Take some of the Blood upon a Rag, and put some of the Powder upon the Blood. 11. Then keep only the Wound clean, with a clean Linnen [sic] about it, and in a moderate Temper betwixt hot and cold, and wrap up the Rag with the Blood, and keep it either in your Pocket or in a Box, and the Would will be healed without any Ointment or Plaster, and without any pain.

*But if the would is somewhat old, and hot, and inflamed, you must put some of this Powder into a Porringer or Basin full of cold Water, and then put anything into it that has been upon the wound, and has some of the Blood or Matter upon it, and it will presently take away all Pain and Inflammation.** To staunch the Blood either of a Wound or Bleeding at the Nose, take only some of the Blood upon a Rag, and put some powder upon it, or take a Basin with fresh water, and put some of the Powder into it, and bathe the Nostrils with it.

 Robertson KR. Digby’s receipts. Ann Med Hist. 1925;7:216–9. [Google Scholar]

°°

‘Description of medicinal Simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses

3) 508J W Gibson. 1680?-1750.

The farriers dispensatory :  in three parts. Containing I. A description of the medicinal simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses, with their Virtues and Manner of Operation, distributed into proper Classes, &c. II. The preparations of simples, vegetable, animal and mineral ; with an Explanation of the most usual Terms, both in the Chymical and Galenical Pharmacy. III. A number of useful compositions and receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases, never before published ; as also those of greatest Account from Solleysell, Ruini, Blundevill, and other most celebrated Authors, digested under their proper Heads of Powders, Balls, Drinks, Ointments, Charges, &c. The proper Method of compounding and making them, with many other useful Observations and Improvements tending to their right Administration. To which is also added, A compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book, whether Simple or Compound, with a Table of Diseases pointing to the Remedies proper in each Malady. By W. Gibson.

London : Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship and Black-Swan, in Pater-Noster-Row, 1721. Price $1,400

Octavo  First edition, Bound in contemporary full calf, with the book plate of John Hepburn Surgeon 1735 and a manuscript additional cure for sprains. 

The Farriers Dispensatory was William Gibson’s (1680-1751) supplement to his Farriers Guide. The second of his four published texts, the Dispensatory was a welcome successor to the incredibly well-received Farriers New Guide. This treatise was dedicated to Sir William Hope of Balcomie (1660-1724), a prominent equestrian and a translator of Jacques Solleysel’s (1617-1680) The Compleat Horseman (London, 1696). Sir William Hope believed that Gibson’s work was monumental and enlightening, going so far as to say that, ‘But be that as it will I am mightily well pleased that I can truly say, Britain has now a Gibson, as France formerly a Solleysell.’[*]

Gibson firmly believed that, at least at the time, those ‘endeavouring to make their Books compleat Systems, have not only rendered them much more perplexed than otherwise they would have been, but so tedious in many Place, that they are enough to deter any unaccustomed Reader from the least Perusal of them.’[22] In an effort to keep The Farriers New Guide from being unnecessarily complicated, Gibson chose not to include a collection of medicines and ‘receipts’ in his first text, but rather to publish an entire separate text to address such treatments. The Farriers Dispensatory, composed in three parts, contains a ‘Description of medicinal Simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses….,; the Preparations of Simples, Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral….; a Number of useful Compositions and Receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases….;’ and ‘a compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book.’[*]

Gibson specifically chose to structure his book as a dispensatory because it was the most extensive style of text and because he believed that it would be best suited to those who did not have the leisure or ability to read many books.[24] He also argued that his particular version of dispensatory guards ‘against all such Errors and Defects as have been already hinted at, by explaining the Nature of every Medicine, whether simple or compound, so far as is needful to the right Administration thereof, having also laid down the necessary Cautions, with a particular Observation of all such symptoms as require a Change or Alteration….’[25] It was vital to Gibson that his dispensatory improved upon the medical knowledge published and practiced by other farriers and authors. He claimed that many similar books took their prescribed medicines from books of physic for humans, but that the authors had little acquaintance with the study and did not properly adjust the recipes for equine use. Gibson warned that other farriery treatises recommended useless and insignificant cures, did not give proper doses or warnings, and suggested cures that, when mixed with others, reduced the cure’s effectiveness.[*]

in 1671, new laws opening up previously restricted lands for the gentry to use for events such as hunts, expanded equine sports to those who had not had such opportunities due to their lack of land access.[5] The need and desire for athletically gifted horses sparked an expansion of breeding in England and the surrounding countries. Tudor and Stuart monarchs ‘took the lead in improving the quality of the stock’ by importing Barbs, Turkomans, Neapolitans and other foreign horses with the intentions of improving the royal stud and producing more magnificent equine athletes.[**]

English Short Title Catalog,; T94761LoC , BYU, U of Nebraska Med Ctr.

Peter Edwards, Horse and Man in Early Modern England (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007).

[*] Michael Hubbard MacKay, “The Rise of a Medical Specialty: The Medicalization of Elite Equine Care C. 1680 – C. 1800” (PhD Thesis, University of York, 2009).J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210. 

[**] J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210.

The first English language book dedicated to poisons snakes, animals and plants .

#4

4) 494J Mead, Richard, 1673-1754.

A mechanical account of poisons in several essays. By Richard Mead, M.D

London : printed by R.J. for Ralph Smith, at the Bible, under the Piazza’s of the Royal-Exchange, Cornhill, 1702. Price 1,300

Octavo 19 x 11 cm signatures: A-M8,N4 +Fold out plate. This edition is the pirated edition of the First edition. As with a lot of pirated books I’ve had this on is on inferior paper which is browned but sturdy, certainly this book has not led an easy life so far but it is sold and the paper is in good shape it is bound in modern buckram.

ContentsEssay I. Of the viper — An appendix containing anatomical observations on the viper and an account of some other venemous animals — Essay II. Of the tarantula and mad dog — Essay III. Of poisonous minerals and plants — Essay IV. Of opium — Essay V. Of venomous exhalations from the earth, poisonous airs, and waters.

Richard Mead or Richard Meade (August 11, 1673 – February 16, 1754) was an English physician. in late 17th and early 18th century London who was accredited with writing the first English language book dedicated to poisons snakes, animals and plants titled: A Mechanical Account of Poisons in Several Essays. He also wrote extensively about other afflictions including scabies and was recognized as the head of the medical field in England by 1714.

To give an exact and particular Account of the Nature and Manner of acting of Poisons, is no easie Matter; but to Discourse more intelligibly of Them than Authors have hitherto done, not very difficult. One may without much Pains shew their Effects to be owing to something more than the bare Qualities of Heat or Cold; and Discover the Footsteps of Mechanism in those surprizing Phænomena which are commonly ascribed to some Occult or Unknown Principle. But to Unravel the Springs of the several Motions upon which such Appearances do depend, and Trace up all the Symptoms to their First Causes, requires some Art as well as Labour; and that both upon the account of the Exquisite Fineness, and marvellous Composition, of the Animal Machine in which they are Transacted, and of the Minuteness of those Bodies which have the force to induce in it such Sudden and Violent Alterations.

ESTC Citation No.T55005 ; Cushing M244 (1745 edition); Osler 3362; Waller 6393. English Short Title Catalogue,; N61; National Library:

5) 493J John Radcliffe (1650-1714)

Pharmacopoeia Radcliffeana: or, Dr. Radcliff’s prescriptions, faithfully gather’d from his original recipe’s. To which are annex’d, useful observations upon each prescription. [By Edward Strother.]

London : printed for Charles Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, against the North Door of St. Paul’s Church, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1716.

Duodecimo: 14.8 x 9 cm. signatures: a⁶, B-H¹²   Second  edition. (same year as the first).

  The final leaf is a publisher’s advertisement. Text pages are age toned, some with light to moderate foxing. A popular work, a second edition with a portrait was issued the same year as the first (which was issued without a portrait). This copy is solidly bound in  

John Radcliffe was a successful, Oxford-educated, English physician. He established a large practice at London that was as much a result of his witty conversation as his clinical skill and accurate prognoses, though sometimes his wit seems to have verged on rudeness, especially to his social superiors, and his prognoses were blunt. He became chief physician to the Princess Anne in 1686, after which he was employed professionally by William III, whom he eventually offended.  

  Radcliffe, was a friend of Isaac Newton, enjoyed the patronage of James II, thanks to whose favour he was elected as one of the founding fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, and was also appointed principal physician to the King’s younger daughter Princess Anne. He amassed a great fortune and collected paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer; he purchased stocks and shares, and invested in property; he had a library that reflected his wide range of interests, and he owned a magnificently well-stocked wine cellar. 

When he died, his estate was estimated to be worth around £140,000. He never published a work during his lifetime, he bequeathed money in trust to Oxford University to build and maintain a library, 

He is commemorated by a number of landmark buildings in Oxford, including the Radcliffe Camera (in Radcliffe Square), the Radcliffe Infirmary, and the Radcliffe Observatory. (Wellcome IV, p. 462; D.N.B.).

The Universal Powder.

Take Crabs Claws prepard, CrabsEyes prepar’d, Pearl prepar’d, Pearl Sūgar, of each a Dram; mix, and make a Powder; divide it into 8 Papers, of which take one every Morning and Evening in a Spoonful of Asses Milk, drinking half a Pound upon it.

1

OBSERVATIONS:

Never were testaceous Powders more universally us’d, than by this great Man ; they were to him like Hudibras’s Sword, or the Knife of Delf, for they serv’d all Purposes; and therefore I have chose to call ’em, The Universal Powder. To speak Truth, in England, the most rebellious Distem pers we are infested with, are from stubborn mineral Salts; the Correction of which are not better compass’d  than by the absorbing Powders, Calces and Lacteats ; so that in Consumptions, where the Salts, by their Vicinity and Plenty, dilaniate the Fibres into an Ulcer, or occasion, by their irritating Particles, a brisker Oscillation of the Fibres, and consequently a quicker Circulation, and a Heatick ; nothing has been found more effe&tual than this Powder, and this Milk. Moreover, as the excessive Heat in the Blood is also communicated to the Stomach, the Milk, put to’ it, would coagulate, as is usual in Dairies that are over-hot, and thus would be robb’d of great Part of its Virtue.

This Prescription is also of admirable Use in any Eruptions that depend on Acrimonies of the volatile Species, and which are generally known by their great Itchings, and a great Effervescence in the Palms and and Soles. In Stranguries from acrimonious Salts, Milks, and these Powders, do well; fcorbutick Persons of the hotter Kind are reliev’d by this Method, having first premis’d some few Doses of Infusions of Sena or Rhubarb. When Women are much troubled with immoderate Fluxes of the Menfes, this Method is commendable in the Intervals. In fine, whenever you observe it said in these Sheets, that any Distemper is fuppos’d to proceed from acrimonious Salts, this Method will, mutatis mutandis, serve the Turn; only ’tis to be observ’d, that great Care muft be taken, whether the Salts in the Blood be not mineral ones; and confequently not only stubborn, but requiring also specifick Corrigents, which no Body, that is ignorant of the soil, and what Salts it contains, can judge of.

Hence it is convenient in Serous Catarrhs, in the malignant” Meastes, or Small-Pox, as well as in malignant Fevers; in a Gangrene, in the Plague, an Anasarca, a Palsy, Convulsions from cold. Humours; in the cold Scurvy, and in hysterical Persons. But whilst the Stomach is fill’d with a Saburra that is viscid and acid, ’tis bad ; as also in Atrophies, in Women with Child, in Diseases where there is a Defect of Serum, in bilious and bečtic al People, in Polypi of the Heart; because they cannot bear Diaphoreticks ; nor in pletborick Habits.

Diaphoreticks should be elective ; that is, agreeable’ to the present State; and – fome Lenients ought to be premis’d, before their Admini. ftration.

Some dispute, whether after Sweats the Shéets and Shirt ought to be chang’d: But surely when the Sweats are symptomatical, or turn such after they have been critical, what forbids it? For such, all know, are not to be encouragid, according to Pet. Salius diversus de Feb.. Beftilent. And therefore as no greater Comfort fort can be granted to the Sick, than dry, warm, and clean Linen, I fee nothing that can förbid such a necefsary Change.

Hauftus Anodynus.

B Aq. Lact. Alex. Z ii. Pæon. Compi

z ft. Syr. de Mecon. zi. Extract.

Op. Thebaic. gr.isl. m. f. Haustus ; horà fomni fumendus.

The Anodyne. Draught. Take Alexiterial Milk-Water two

Ounces, Compound Pæony-Water • half an Ounce, Syrup of white Poppies one Ounce, Extract of Theban Opium one Grain and half; mix, and make a Draught ; to be taken at Bed-time.

OBSERVATIONS.

Talling this Draught is aim’d at the easing violent Pains any where, or violent Fluxds, whether of Blood or Humours: But ’tis somewhat strong, and therefore leveli’d against such Diforders in strong Constitutions only; for what weak one can bear upwards of two Grains and half of Opium ? Take Care of inflammatory, Colicks; for they are more fix’d by such a procedure ; which are only remedy’d by repeated bleeding, smooth Medicines by the Mouth, and emollient Glyfters, and Fomentations : The lliack Passion is also to be treated cauti. oully; and Care must be taken not to administer Opiates, but upon absolute Necessity; for they fix the Humours too much, but also hinder the peristaltick Motion, so that the Feses will perhaps never pass; for if we consider how much they are impeded before in their….

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A description of the stone in the bladder & pathognomicall signes there of.

6. 126J Wilhelm Fabricius Hildanus 1560-1634.

Lithotomia vesicæ: that is, An accurate description of the stone in the bladder : shewing the causes and pathognomicall signes thereof, and chiefely of the method whereby it is to be artificially taken out both of men and women, by section. Wherein severall wayes of operation are described, and the chirurgicall instruments lively delineated. Written first in High Dutch by Gulielmus Fabritius Hildanus … Afterward augmented by the author, and first translated into Latin by his scholler and communer Henricus Schobingerus Sangalthensis ; and now done into English by N.C. … With better instruments than heretofore. 

London : Printed by John Norton, and are to be sold by William Harris in Coleman-street, at the signe of the White Hinde,1640                                             $2,800
Octavo6 X 4 inches (*)8, A-M8,N7 (N8 Lacking Blank) = one folding plate and four woodcuts within the text, complete minus the blank.(complete) First (and only) english edition .
This copy is bound in modern full calf .  The English  translation is attributed to N. Culpeper in a note in the JRULM (The University of Manchester Library) copy…

Wilhelm Fabry (also William Fabry, Guilelmus Fabricius Hildanus, or Fabricius von Hilden) (June 25, 1560   February 15, 1634), often called the “Father of German surgery”, was the first educated and scientific German surgeon.  He is one of the most prominent scholars in the iatromechanics school and author of 20 medical books. His Observationum et Curationum Chirurgicarum Centuriae, published posthumously in 1641, is the best collection of case records of the century and gives clear insight into the variety and methods of his surgical practice.Lithotomia Vesicae  was first published in in Basel in 1626 and it was quickly translated into Latin by his pupil, Henry Schobingerus who published this from Basel in 1628.  John Norton in London was so impressed by the “accurate account of the stone in the bladder, its causes, diagnostic signs and in particular the method of extraction both in men and women” that he translated the text into English in 1640  This Book contains 27chapters that deal  with all aspects of urinary calculi. In the first chapter Hildanus  references the great authors of antiquity about stones including: Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Celsus,Albucasis, Lanfranco, Guy de Chauliac, Vigo,Vesalius, Fallopius, Fabricius ab Aquapendente and Abroise Paré. He notes that stones were:

“a preternatural, gross, slimy, coagulated humour, broght into a stone of thick matter by a preternatural heat and hidden quality of the bladder .”

He spends some time discussing lithotomy instruments. He states

there “should be plenty of instruments made from the best iron ”Hildanus discusses five methods of lithotomy, the first was the method of Celsus. The second was that of Sanctus using what he called itenerarium, conductor and hamulus. The third was also described by Sanctus and Paré that was similar but used pincers for grasping and extracting the stone. The fourth method was the described by Franco where a suprapubic incision was made down to the ineneraium and a “tent” is left in the wound to suppurate and within a few days the stone will either pass or can be extracted with forceps. The fifth method was also from Franco, the most dangerous, where a suprapubic incision was made into “the inguen above the upper part of the ospubis” and he mentions the dangers of this approach . He also was a proponent of keeping the wounds open to drain with “tents” for
the urinary tract to heal, he would use silver cannulas to drain the urine .His wife, Marie Colinet (or Fabry), was a Swiss midwife-surgeon who improved the techniques of cesarean section delivery. She helped her husband in his surgical practice and was the first (in 1624) to use a magnet to extract metal from a patient’s eye (a technique still in use today). Fabry wrote a detailed description of the procedure in his Centuriae and, although he explicitly mentioned his wife as having invented it, was given credit for the discovery.

 BM; SGC; 1; STC 10658; Waller 2902; Wellcome 2133;LCCN: nuc 87-458853; Pollard & Redgrave; 10658.Copies – N.AmericaHarvard University Henry E. Huntington Library  New York Academy of Medicine  U.S. National Library of Medicine 

 Yale University, School of Medicine.