Commentaries on some of the most Important Diseases of Children

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815. First edition.

1815 LANDMARK ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS ON DISEASES OF CHILDREN.

9 1/2 inches tall hardcover, recent leather spine, gilt title to red leather label, marbled paper covers, new endpapers, i-x, 198 pp, [2]. Very good in custom archival mylar cover.

JOHN CLARKE (1761 - 1815) began practice in Chancery Lane, and at the same time lectured on midwifery in the private medical school founded by William Hunter. Clarke received a license in midwifery from the College of Physicians in 1787, and took a Scotch degree. He was the chief midwifery practitioner of London for several years, but later in life gave up midwifery, and, moving to the west end of the town, was consulted on the diseases of women and children. He was also lecturer on midwifery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This book is dedicated to the author's medical students. FROM THE ADVERTISEMENT (PREFACE): "In conclusion it is right to add, that the observations contained in these papers, have been principally made in London, and its immediate vicinity. Diseases are liable to be greatly modified by diversities of local situations and circumstances. Children therefore living in pure air, in villages and in healthy situations in the country, will be subject to fewer diseases than those who are born in a great metropolis, or in large manufacturing towns.

GARRISON-MORTON No. 6328. First account of infantile tetany is given on pp. 86-97. Clarke died before this work was published. In it he also gave a clear description of laryngismus stridulus. This disease, which consists in a sudden onset of difficult breathing, obviously originating in the windpipe, was confused by Boerhaave with asthma, and by later writers with true croup. Its anatomical cause is not yet known; but Clarke's exact clinical description (Commentaries, chap. iv.) was the first step to a precise study of the affliction.