Statistics of Cholera

Madras: Pharoah and Co., 1849. First Edition.. Original publisher's limp cloth with a paper label on the front cover.. Very good; modest circular blind stamp of a 19th century collection on a blank portion of the title and front pastedown.. 8vo, viii, [1] - 70, [1 - blank] pp. + 2 folding plates in the pagination as pp. 19 and 23 (verso blank in each instance). Page 30 is folded along the lower margin to accomodate a chart.

The author was Assistant Surgeon of the Madras Army. Balfour used statistical measures to study the state of health of the troops. In a study of health issues that was read by his uncle Joseph Hume to the Statistical Society of London, he dismissed the belief that humans adjusted to new climates and suggested that different races had varying tolerances to climate and disease. The work offered here was the first of several treatises on fevers and statistical analysis of epidemics that he published in the 1850s. He took a special interest in languages and spent a good deal of time learning local languages. He was also enmeshed in establishing several museums, a zoo, and publishing on ecological concerns. OCLC cites five copies - none in America.