Opera medica, hoc est, disputationum medicarum decas. . .

Venice: Ex Typographia Hertziana, 1736. Title in red and black. With woodcut initials and ornamental head- and tailpieces. Vellum-backed marbled boards; leaves slightly browned due to paper stock. An excellent copy. Later edition of the author's collected works, first printed in 1679. This Opera contains his complete writings, including transcripts of his lectures. Le Boe, or Sylvius was a follower of the iatrochemical school, a system based on the elements of chemistry and the new knowledge of circulation. He was one of the earliest advocates of Harvey's theory, and one of the most influential of the iatrochemists who treated all disease chemically; the first to distinguish between conglomerate and conglobate glands, to regard digestion as a chemical fermentation and to recognize the importance of the saliva and pancreatic juice. He was instrumental in the early recognition of tuberculosis which, up to his time, was known only in its advanced form.

Sylvius (1614-72), physician, physiologist, anatomist, and chemist was an outstanding teacher. He established the first university chemical laboratory in Europe at Leyden. He is credited by Haller as giving the first description of the lateral cerebral fissure, which bears his name. Although the aqueduct from the third to the fourth ventricle had been previously noted, we owe to Sylvius the name of the aqueduct.