Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever and Other Diseases, Whether Applied to the Surface of the Body, or used Internally . . . from the Fourth London Edition, Corrected and Enlarged.

Philadelphia: Printed for James Humphreys, and for Benjamin and Thomas Kite, 1808. First American edition.. Front joint cracked but holding; rubbed; some foxing; a good, sound copy.. 8vo (8.5 x 5.13 inches), two volumes in one (as published, pagination continuous), original sheep, black morocco spine label, gilt lettering, 430 pages. Five gallons of salt water, of the temperature of 44 deg. were poured over her naked body, at five o'clock in the afternoon, and after being hastily dried with towels, she was replaced in bed: when the agitation and the sobbing had subsided, her pulse was found to beat at the rate of 96 strokes in the minute, and in half (truncated) an house afterwards it had fallen to 80. The heat was reduced to 98 deg. by the affusion, and half an hour afterwards it remained stationary. The sense of heat and head-ache were gone, and the thirst nearly gone." Austin 596; Norman, History of Medicine, 1988 (for the 1797 Liverpool edition): "Currie was among the first in Britain to use cold water packs in the treatment of fever. He made some original observations on the clinical use of the thermometer. It was Currie who first edited Robert Burnsís Collected Works." Front free endpaper (with early ink and pencil inscriptions) detached but present. (Inventory #: 20297)