A Treatise on Gonorrhoea Virulenta and Lues Venerea

Albany: E. and E. Hosford for E.F. Backus, 1814. FIRST ALBANY EDITION. Contemporary brown calf (worn but sound), gilt red morocco title label. Internally somewhat browned. The illustrations show progressed levels of venereal disease in human genitals and medical instruments for treating them. First Albany edition of the “first [text] to differentiate between gonorrhea and syphilis” (Garrison-Morton 5200, 2378). Although first published in Edinburgh in 1793, an advertisement to the present edition indicates that this imprint leaves the original text untouched, but with numerous notes and case studies added in a smaller type “to render that work more valuable, by adding to it the improvements in practice as well as the investigations on the nature of the disease, which have been offered since the period at which the Author wrote.” Written by a surgeon with a special interest in pathology, this treatise covers symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and recurrence of venereal diseases in men and women. Bell pays particular attention to the spread of venereal disease between partners and from mothers to infants, stressing the importance of treatment to all those potentially exposed. The illustrations show progressed levels of venereal disease in human genitals and medical instruments for treating them, and the comprehensive index makes the work user-friendly.