HUNTER, JOHN. 1728-1793.


A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-Shot Wounds. London: John Richardson for George Nicol, 1794. 4to (265 x 209 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of the author and 9 plates. Contemporary mottled calf, expertly rebacked and corners repaired in calf antique. Contents toned with varying foxing on text leaves and plates. FIRST EDITION. "Hunter's last work, published the year after his death, contained his studies of inflammation and of the management of gunshot wounds, both of which subjects had been imperfectly understood before his time. He recognized the process of inflammation as one of the most widespread phenomena in pathology, and classified it into three types: adhesive, in which adherence of contiguous parts caused localization of disease; suppurative, in which pus was formed; and ulcerative, in which tissue loss occurred through the action of the lymphatics. Hunter was ahead of his time in recognizing and describing the three basic factors of wound pathology ... Hunter's treatise was the last work to be issued from his private press at Castle Street; 992 copies of the first edition were printed. Hunter was in poor health when the work went to press, and died after correcting only a third of the proofs. The remainder of the work's publication was supervised by Matthew Baillie and Evard Home" (Norman). This treatise is of great significance in the history of cardiology and includes an important sections devoted to the vascular system as well. Garrison-Morton 2283; Norman 1122.