Introductory Address on Independence of Intellect - BOUND WITH - Medical and Physical Memoirs - BOUND WITH - Elements of Phrenology - BOUND WITH - Analysis of Fever

Lexington, [KY], 1824 - 1826. First (only) Editions.. Contemporary three-quarter calf.. Very good; some toning and spotting throughout; binding rubbed.. 8vo, I - Printed at the Office of the Kentucky Whig, 1825, [4], [5] - 49 pp.; II - [Same], 1826, [4], [1] - 224 pp.; III - Printed for the Author by Thomas T Skillman, 1824, viii, [1] - 100 pp. + plate (Note: The plate is sometimes inserted as a folding frontispiece. In this copy, it is trimmed to the size of the text leaves, with no loss of the image, and it is appropriately placed adjacent to the number key in the text); IV - [Same], 1825, [8 - erratic numbering], [1] - 97 pp. This volume also bears the signatures of several members of the Gunn family.

A superb "sammelband" of Kentucky imprints by the eminent Philadelphia physician Charles Caldwell (1752-1853) who had emigrated from the city to accept a founding chair at the medical school at Transylvania University in Lexington. Shortly after the appointment he was sent to Europe to acquire medical equipment and a library for the university. While in Paris in 1821 he attended the lectures of Franz Joseph Gall, founder of phrenology, and his co-worker Spurzheim. He was an immediate convert. Caldwell felt that the new "science" was, "The most memorable and essential improvement in intellectual philosophy that the world has witnessed .... Whatever errors may be detected in its details, its fundamental principles are true." Shortly after return to the United States he wrote and had printed the first American contribution to the literature of phrenology (item #3). The second item in this volume should not be confused with Caldwell's 1801 book with the same primary title, but with a different subtitle and with entirely different contents. That book was concerned principally with yellow fever. The present work contains the following three essays: "Memoir I. An Introductory Address, intended as a defence [sic] of the Medical Profession against the charge of Irreligion and Infidelity, with thoughts on the truth and importance of Natural Religion. Delivered, November 2, 1824. Memoir II. A Dissertation in answer to certain prize questions, proposed by His Grace, the Duke of Holstein Oldenburg, respecting the `Origin, contagion, and general philosophy of Yellow Fever, and the practicability of that disease prevailing in high northern latitudes,' with thoughts on its prevention and treatment. Memoir III. Thoughts on the Analogies of disease." Another volume of Caldwell’s “Memoirs,” containing numbers IV-VI, was published separately the following year. DAB III, 406; S&S #19924, 23988, 15625, 19922; McMurtrie, Early Kentucky Medical Imprints; Horine, Biographical Sketch and Guide to the Writings of Charles Caldwell.