Physical education and the preservation of health

Boston: William D. Ticknor & Company, 1846. FIRST EDITION. Preceding the title page is a 4-page publisher’s catalogue. Original flexible cloth, author and title in gilt on front cover. An excellent copy with the presentation signature of the author to M.B. Parkman. First edition; a second edition was published the same year. Originally a lecture given in 1830, he stresses the value and importance of exercise, a sound diet, and healthful habits for individuals of all ages. Of particular interest is his advice for physicians: “. . . a bad constitution in a professor of the healing art, keeps him at variance with all his duties. How can he heal others, in whom the springs of health act feebly and imperfectly?” His observations on the use of tobacco are surprisingly modern especially when he states that “no one, I suppose, will understand, that I intend to say, that tobacco is a specific for the production of cancer.”

Cordasco, 40-1305; Eimas, Heirs of Hippocrates, 1343.