first edition Hardcover
1937 · Sydney
by Kenny, Elizabeth ["Sister Kenny"]
Sydney: Angus & Robertson Limited. Very Good+ in Good+ dj. 1937. First Edition. Hardcover. [cloth faded at a couple of spots along bottom edge, moderate foxing to page edges, vintage bookseller's label (H.K. Lewis & Co. Ltd., Medical & Scientific Booksellers, London) on front pastedown; jacket browned at spine and edges, small tears at several corners with minor paper loss, light staining along bottom edge]. (B&W photographic plates) Elizabeth Kenny's pioneering and then-controversial treatise on infantile paralysis -- later to be known more familiarly as polio (short for poliomyelitis) -- which flew in the face of conventional medical wisdom about the disease, emphasizing muscle rehabilitation through exercise. This approach to the disease essentially laid the groundwork for the practice of physical therapy, or physiotherapy. A tireless (some might have said tiresome) crusader and publicity-seeker, the author helped to set up many clinics in Australia and England; aided in no small measure by a stirring portrayal of her by Rosalind Russell in the 1946 Hollywood movie SISTER KENNY (based on her 1943 memoir "And They Shall Walk"), she also became something of a folk heroine. A very scarce book, especially in the original dust jacket. . (Inventory #: 18276)