MAYOW, JOHN. 1641-1679.


Tractatus Quinque Medico-Physici, quorum Primus agit da Sal-Nitroet Spiritu Nitro-Aereo.... Oxford: Sheldonian, 1674. 8vo (179 x 112 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece, 6 engraved folding plates at back. Rebacked retaining contemporary paneled calf gilt, original spine laid down, custom brown cloth box. Marginal repair to last page of text, very minor spotting.Provenance: Haskell F. Norman (bookplate; his sale Christie's New York, 15 June 1998, lot 658). FIRST EDITION. "Mayow was the first to locate the seat of animal heat in the muscles ... He was the first to make the definite suggestion that it is only a special fraction of the air that is of use in respiration. His Tractatus, embodying all his brilliant conclusions, is one of the best English medical classics. " (Garrison-Morton). Mayow believed that the muscles of the body were sustained by particles in the air, and that respiration served to transport these particles through the blood. He devised a set of experiments demonstrating that air in an enclosed space was reduced by breathing or by combustion. This confirmed his assertions, and Hooke's ideas, that only part of the air breathed into the lungs was used by the body, and that the process that took place in the body was a form of combustion. This work was a key influence on Lavoisier, who had a copy in his library, and surely provided an insight that led to his discovery of oxygen in 1778. Garrison-Morton 578; Krivatsy 7653; Norman 1474 (this copy); Russell 566; Waller 6392.