A Treatise on the Theory and Management of Ulcers: With a Dissertation of White Swellings of the Joints. To Which is Prefixed, an Essay on the Chirurgical Treament of Inflammation and its Consequences

Boston: I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews, 1791. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Engraved frontispiece of a joint abscess and surgical tools to deal with it. Contemporary tree calf, rebacked; some browning and spotting due to paper stock. Bookplate of Alfred M. Hellman, signature and stamp of Amory Gale (1800-1873), an allopathic physician from the Northeast who ultimately turned to homeopathy, with manuscript dates of 1794 and 1827. First American edition, originally published in 1778. Considered one of the classics of eighteenth-century physiology, Bell here treats inflammation, ulcers and swelling of the joints. Of particular interest is his description of cancerous ulcers with recommendation of medical treatment, including the use of “flores martiales” and other homeopathic remedies.

Bell (1749-1806) was one of the most famous Edinburgh surgeons of the eighteenth century. He improved the methods of amputation and emphasized the importance of seeking some means of preventing or diminishing pain in surgical operations.

Cushing, B254; Garrison & Morton, 5578 (“Important classification of ulcers”); Heirs of Hippocrates, 1078; Norman, 165; Waller, 846.