SENAC, JEAN BAPTISTE. 1693-1770.


Traité de la structure du coeur, de son action, et de ses maladies. Paris: Jacques Vincent, 1749. 2 volumes. 4to (248 x 119 mm). 17 folding engraved plates, lacking portrait frontispiece (as often). Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in 6 compartments, marbled endpapers. Rubbed, inked corrections to plate numbering errors, rear endpaper and final blank partially loose.Provenance: Logan Clendening (bookplates). FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. "Senac's valuable treatise on the heart added much to the knowledge of the anatomy and diseases of that organ; he mentioned leucocytes, which he considered to belong to the chyle, and he described pericarditis. Senac was the first to use quinine for palpitation" (Garrison-Morton). He also discussed the transfusion of blood, noted the relationship between advancing age and the increase in incidence of cardiac disease, and observed that dilation was the most common cardiac condition. Garrison-Morton 2733; Heirs of Hippocrates 823; Norman; 1929; Osler 3960